Cooking ideas for 1 person

Here's how cooking as a bachelor works: You cook two big things per week and freeze half of what you make each time. That way, you get 8-10 meals (between the two) to eat this week. For the other 4-6, lunchmeat sandwiches, salads, or eat takeout/bar food.

Then, at a later date, when you don't feel like cooking, you defrost the frozen halves of those dishes you cooked previously and eat off of one of those for the week. Since I have to bring my lunches into work and heat them up in the microwave, the emphasis is generally on soups, stews, rice and gravy, meat & potatoes, and pasta dishes that can all be microwaved at once in the same bowl.

Slow cookers are great. Smokers that don't require too much babysitting are excellent as well.

The key is that cooking for one kinda sucks, so try to make it as effortless, tasty, and efficient (portions wise) as possible.

Thanks for the input. I guess time is not a factor in this at all.

All right. I think I should be ready to get started. I don't work so it's just me and the dog and getting high.

Get a pork butt and use this recipe for Chile Verde:

LINK

You can make tacos, burritos, put it over rice, put it in eggs, make breakfast burritos/tacos, etc

You should have been paying attention all this time

Frozen meals from Trader Joe’s will become your friends.

I’m single, a picky eater & suck at cooking
My go to is crock pot taco chicken
Divide it up & freeze
Thaw & make tacos, taco salad, quesadillas

I’m also fine with a ham sandwich & chips

If you like gumbo or red beans those both freeze well

Mississippi roast in a crock pot is decent after being frozen but there’s not enough gravy imo

Will follow thread for ideas

quote:

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Mississippi roast in a crock pot is decent after being frozen but there’s not enough gravy imo

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Add a cup or two of water, and 1 tsp of beef Better Than Bouillon for each cup of water.

We buy big packs of pork chops or pork steakes when on sale and freeze them in meal size portions in zip lock bags.

Then if we have some rice or pasta left over we make a meal out of that. To do so....Thaw the meat in the micro. Get out a medium skillet and put in a couple of table spoons of butter. Melt the butter and cook the pork on med. hi temp. season with some Tony's.

Mean while.... heat up the rice/pasta in the micro. When the meat is almost cooked add the rice or pasta and allow it to "brown" a little bit in the butter for a couple of minutes. Keep stirring during this time. Also, add a little bit of water to keep from sticking in skillet.

If you have any left over veggies... can also put that in the skillet.

This meal only takes about 10 minutes to cook... once you have done it a few times.

Circling back here to say that the supermarket rotisserie chicken is your new best friend. Easily, 4-6 meals off of one chicken for a single person.
—eat it fresh, as chicken. Make some mashed potatoes: buy Yukon gold potatoes and you don’t even have to peel them. Cut into chunks, boil until tender, mash with butter, cream or milk, and black pepper. Steam some broccoli as a side....you can buy the steamfresh in a bag that goes directly in the microwave.
—slice some off the bone the next day and eat it cold atop a Caesar salad (buy a salad kit if you canNot figure out how to make a salad)
—pull some off the bone and make chicken quesadillas. Buy flour tortillas, some MX cheese blend or pepper jack cheese, and salsa: easy to assemble in a skillet and you can load it up with sautéed peppers and onions if you like.
—pull off a leg/thigh section and add it to instant ramen while it cooks. Voila. Add garnishes to the bowl as you like: chopped green onions, etc.
—Pull all the remaining meat off of the bones, chop finely, mix with mayo, mustard, dill relish, Tony’s, etc for chicken salad, If there wasn’t much chicken left, add chopped hardboiled egg to stretch it.

One $5 chicken can get you through a week, with sides and a little effort. Or, if you like to grill, buy a fresh chicken and spatchcock it and use it as the basis for a week of meals. Cooked chicken is your culinary blank slate.