Cooking just for Two dilemma- please help!

teawithmilk

I am having problems cooking just for two! I live with my DD who is very fussy with food. She's good with veg and simple stuff like sausage and mash, but wont eat anything spicy. Im trying to widen her choices of food bit-by-bit but its hard work.

I am trying to save money as much as I can but I dont have a huge freezer (and no space to put a chest freezer)

I like the idea of batch cooking but then end up eating the same stuff for days on end because I cant freeze it. Or DD wont eat it (like Chilli)

So I try and buy bargains (like reduced food) but then end up feeling incredibly guilty when I have to throw half of it away, even though it might have cost me not much -e,g Today I binned a pack of bagels which I got for 40p and only used 2 out of the pack and wasted 3 that went mouldy. So really its not a cost saving at all if I get something reduced but then dont use it all.

Does anyone else have this same problem? Is there a way round it??

I was getting so frustrated with worrying about wasting food and ingerdients that I even costed up buying just ready meals for myself! Sounds crazy but I can get 2 ready meals for £4 and this avoids cooking costs, washing up and wasteage. So even if I lived on ready meals and made simple meals for DD this would cost me £15-£20 for me to eat for a week plus whatever she costs to feed and I spend more than that on buying ingerdients and attempting to cook. And it would save me time.

I dont know, maybe I am just giving up way too easily on home cooked food. Its silly but I feel like I wish I had a larger family as it would almost be more easy and more satisfying to cook for more mouths rather than trying to please one fussy little girl and an adult.

lilian1977

Try the Economy Gastronomy model - for example, you cook a vat of basic tomato and mince sauce, then you can convert it throughout the week, so add beans and chilli (or just beans for your DD) to have as enchiladas, mexican lasagne, basic chilli and rice/jacket potato or fajitas; add italian herbs to have as standard lasagne, pasta sauce etc.

Basic vegetarian tomato and onion sauce can be converted to sausage casserole, served over chicken breasts, added to a basic risotto recipe etc.

Rubber chicken - roast a chicken for Sunday, use the meat in a risotto on the Monday, use for sandwiches or salad on the Tuesday and boil the carcass for a chicken soup on the Wednesday?

Make sure you keep reduced bread as cold as possible - we seem to keep bagels for ages just in our breadbin in the kitchen.

I'm sure others will be around soon to help out. Good luck xx

Seakay

only buy reduced stuff you want, not just because it's very reduced!

If ready meals and salads work out cheapest for you at the moment then why not have them for the two of you? Add green veg or salad (often reduced!) and it's perfectly healthy. Give yourself some breathing space

good_advice

I agree. Same here.
I use to cook for large family every day and now it is mostly just the 2 of us and sometimes 3.

A lot of meals feed 4 people and I make them do 4. A small joint or something with a cook in sauce.
We often eat a variation of the same meal for 2 days. I change the veg and type of spuds/rice.

I buy a family size deep filled pie. I cut into 3.
Day one, we both have it and day 2 I eat the last 1/3 and oh has cod in batter. (I do not eat fish).

bread and veg, I keep in the fridge.
Potatoes in a plastic box in a dark cupboard.

I buy mince, 3 for £10 in Tesco and split all packs in half and freeze.
The half pack still does 2 days. cottage pie, lasagne, spaghetti bol.

I HM pizza and quiche. Very easy with just a little time.
You could do the same and let your daughter chose the filling or topping.
These never last long in our fridge. Could also be used on packed lunches.

GrillMonkey

I have this issue with my wife and chilli as she wont eat spicy food. What I do is make up a chilli or curry without the chilli peppers then after I've dished up hers I'll add a few drops of chilli sauce to the chilli or curry, mix in and then dish up mine. That way we're eating the same thing but to both our tastes.

teawithmilk

Thanks everyone, they are great suggestions! Although I dont have a big freezer or even a large fridge. I wish I had space for a chest freezer but that might lead to me hoarding food if I''m not organised.

If I made a batch of the tomato base mix how long would it last for in the fridge?? e.g. I made a Shepherds pie on Thursday and had some for my lunch today but should I be keeping it that long without freezing it??


I am not very good at cooking. I was trying to do dauphinoise potatoes the other day and couldn't even cook them properly!! I hadn't par boiled them for long enough....This was to use up cheese and a massive sack of potatoes that I had got reduced- a big brown sack for £1.75!

So my intentions to save money are good, I love getting the bargains in the reduced section, I just hate the food wastage. Mainly bread- I dont eat bread much but DD does for sandwiches and toast so Im trying to work out if its better for me to buy a few reduced loaves per week and just get my head round wasting a few slices or buy a more expensive loaf within date and hope it lasts. She also moans if i just get one type of bread- she does like crumpets and bagels and toasted teacakes occasionally as her friends (allegedly) have much more exotic choices for breakfast...plus she likes pitta bread and wraps for sandwiches so I can often have 5/6 different types of bread on the go to give her some variety...but it always gets wasted as there are only 2 of us. I've got more savvy with this now and try and only buy the minimum. I wish had a friend who I could share with- that would be a wonderful solution!! Maybe i should start taking the excess into work and make toast for everyone!

My mum was not a good cook- I'm sure my Dad used to sneak off and get fish and chips on a regular basis just to get some nutrition! She never even taught me the basics of cooking and when I met my ex he took over cooking in the house (he was very protective of "his" kitchen) so for the best part of 20 years I have not cooked. How bad is that??!! I'm in my 40s and don't even feel confident in doing the basics of cookery. I must be OK because neither my DD or I are malnourished.

Unfortunately its a "time" issue for me. I work full time/long hours. DD is ravenous by the time she gets home - she gets in the house before me- and I often get home to find she has made herself a cheese sandwich or something which then makes her not hungry for the meal I might have planned/cooked. I have tried to ban her from eating snacks after school but its hard!! I'm going to have to think of a system to get round this, like leaving out some healthy nibbles that won't fill her up.

I bought a magnetic noticeboard at lunchtime to use as a shopping list. I might go back and get another one so I can do a menu planner and freezer contents list.Sorry for waffling on, I'm just thinking through some solutions.....

good_advice

No paid for board needed.
I cut up food boxes into strips.One for dinners we have and a 2nd for shopping list.

When I worked full time, I was still expected to come home and cook a dinner, then wash up.
I use to.... sunday. Make double for Monday.
The rest of the days went something like....
come in and put the oven on - run my bath - put steamer on for veg and something in the oven. Have a quick bath. Bath always needed to refresh and often into pj's.
Put washing machine on for family wash. Oh incharge of hanging outside in dry weather (next morning)or went on airer inside.

teawithmilk

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I am not complaining about having to work full time, I just need to get better at organising things around the time I have left once I get home.

The whiteboard is now stuck on the fridge. DD really liked the idea and disappeared off with it when I got home- later on she came back with a list. Her school lunches are broken down into 2 week cycles- blue week and red week and bless her, she had done the same with our meals so now I have 14 days of simple meals planned out. And she can't argue- because she has written the list!

richj

slow cooking batches may help you with the prep time too. nothing like coming home to a meal that is ready to serve.

trailingspouse

It's sounds to me like you aren't cooking for two - you're cooking for 2x1. Which is twice the work.

You don't say how old your daughter is, but if she's coming in to the house on her own and making her own sandwiches she must be reasonably old. How about getting her to start cooking the meal before you get in? She could peel potatoes, or slice carrots, or put a dish in the oven.

Maybe you could take turns - one night you both eat something that she likes, the next night you both eat something that you like. That way you're only cooking one meal each night.

My mum used to encourage me to broaden the things I would eat by talking about 'grown up tastes'. So if I said I didn't like something she would 'oh, you'll like it one day, when you've got your grown up tastes'. By age 10, desperate to be seen as grown up, I would eat practically anything.