cooking for one

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

What a battle to keep food budget ok as one lives on one's own.:beer::money:

cbrown372

this thread is nearly 7 years old is there a good reason for bumping it?

sophistica

I have lived alone for 35 years approximately and I soon realised that I was going to have to "cook". I have various strategies:
1. I cook casseroles etc for 4 or halve the recipe and cook for 2. I then freeze the other portions or eat the same meal twice over the next couple of days.
2. I halve, or quarter, the ingredients in the recipe and then proceed as instructed.
As a single person I find it more useful to have food ready cooked in the fridge. As there is no need to cook for others you can get quite lazy and just have a sandwich or toast etc. Whereas if you have prepared some food in advance you can just reheat it in the microwave. Right now I am using an excellent cook book "Home at Seven. Dinner at 8" by Sophie Wright - it is on Bookpeople.co.uk. The food may look expensive but I just improvise with what I have to hand. Tonight I adapted a recipe and made Cannellini Bean and Tomato salad with panfried chorizo and chilli calamari and parmesan...very nice. I think that the original recipe was chick peas, squid and feta. Then I had apple pie and custard. Most of my ingredients were end of day bargains and I don't think that it cost more than £1. if you shop for bargains, split up the packs into single serving sizes before you freeze and acquire a good store cupboard of basics and herbs and spices.