Cooking for one

sixtiesgal_2

I live on my own and am eating ready meals from M and S or jacket potatoes every night. I work full time and don't have the time or energy to cook from scratch. I would like to eat better but I feel in limbo. To me it's far easier and less wasteful for just me to put a ready meal in the microwave.

Any ideas on cooking for one without it being time consuming and causing lots of washing up?

maman

What about batch cooking and freezing your own ready meals at weekends or when you have a day off.


Or add to your list of quick and easy with some healthier things than ready meals like omelettes or stir fry?

[Deleted User]

I live alone, sadly after losing my OH, and for the first year I too lived on jacket spuds and omelettes.Then decided that it was daft as I needed to eat more healthily.
I batch cook,normally at weekends, as although I am retired, I do have a very busy life with lots of clubs and outside interests ,plus I look after three of my DGS after school and during the holidays.

My freezer is jam packed with portioned up lasagnes,chillis, sheps pies etc apart from pies and fish and goodness knows what else.

I prep the veg for the week on a Sunday morning, but then I always have done this in the past.

I have a long tuppaware box that holds a week's peeled spuds(change the water daily) also carrots. So when I come in from DDs in the evening when either her or her OH get home I have veg ready to cook.
What ever I am having for dinner that night I take out of the freezer in the morning, and put in the fridge.

I do make my own soup ,normally on a Saturday morning for the following weeks lunches. I like to make a large vat of it and portion it up.

If I see a nice large steak and kidney pie YS in M&S I buy it and slice into quarters and freeze. One quarter with veg, makes a nice dinner that only needed the veg steamed and pie reheated in my remoska.20 minutes tops for cooking in the evening.

Its so easy to get into a habit of not bothering.But I now have a routine ,plus I don't like ready meals as I find they are expensive, and I prefer my own cooking anyway.If I cook some braising steak in the slow cooker I make my own pasties for the freezer which are very nice cooked from frozen in the oven/remoska.

I menu plan on a Sunday morning, as I have done for the past 50 odd years, followed by the ironing while I listen to the Archers on the wireless.:):):)

Although I don't go out to work I probably do as many hours doing things outside my house, as a full-time worker, so Saturdays and Sundays are my catch-up days ,unless like last Sunday I go to the beach with my DD and grandchildren We never like to waste a sunny day indoors

PasturesNew

Start with what you are buying from M&S - you can replicate a lot of this at home. e.g. jacket potato - bake 5 in the oven and they will keep (covered) in the fridge for the rest of the week. Bake 10 and you can freeze 5 too.

A lot of ready meals can be made by tossing 4-6 ingredients into a slow cooker, walking away, then portioning up between the fridge and the freezer. You don't have to put the SC on while you're out in the daytime - when you're at home at the weekend is fine too.

Pasta/rice don't take any time at all to prepare fresh/fast. I use a small microwave vegetable steamer to make 2 portions of rice in about 15 minutes; for pasta, the "fast" stuff doesn't even need 'cooking' but can be prepared by tipping it into a bowl, covering with boiling water, covering, then popping back 10 minutes later to stir/refresh the water.

So, start with your top M&S meals you choose - list those here and discover how you can (easily/quickly) make those at home with the minimum of faff/effort/time/clearing up.

If you start with what you're already eating, then once you're doing that you'll realise further options and expand the repertoire. Trying new stuff, with new ingredients and new methods is likely to be off-putting.

suki1964

You posted this same question before a couple of years back, and the advice back then was the same as it is now - batch cook

You seemed fired up to try it back then, did you ever start? If you did, what's gone wrong? Lack of cooking skills or lack of inspiration?

I remember you posting before as I had just started the batch cooking, and I'm still doing it. I eat a lot more cheaply and healthily now - although I still reach for the cheese and biscuits when finishing work at 11pm so haven't achieved sainthood yet

What is it about cooking that you really don't like - other then the dishes needing washed?

PasturesNew

suki1964 wrote: »

What is it about cooking that you really don't like - other then the dishes needing washed?

I don't know about the OP, but I live alone and really don't like the act of cooking. And the clearing up is disheartening. All that time/effort for something that takes 2-3 minutes to demolish.

I also find that batch cooking isn't possible. I bought a fridge/freezer (often not had space for one as a single in what tend to be smaller homes, or rental/transition homes) - and the freezer's not big enough for batch cooking (I bought badly as the fridge is empty except for one tub of marg and one pack of cheese ... and the freezer's full once I've a selection of 1Kg frozen veg bags and 1Kg of oven chips and a couple of ready meals.

If you're not into cooking, there can be little joy in cooking for one, every day, endlessly, for 20-30 years.... the 'reward' at the end doesn't seem worth the drudge of the cooking. Sometimes I'll simply nuke half a packet of stuffing mix in a Pyrex jug for tea and eat it out of the jug too

I bought a SC earlier in the year so I can make my own (easy) ready meals - and will simply be using it to make up simple stuff rather than picking up an 80p ready meal of, say, chilli/rice, curry, meatballs or spag bol.

When you walk in the kitchen and ponder the options - and the loaf that always needs using up, it's easy to just have toast. e.g. I can walk into the kitchen and think: boil the kettle, open a pack of dried pasta, rehydrate, get milk/flour, grate cheese, make a cheese sauce. Combine to make macaroni cheese .... then wash up the cheese grater, the pasta bowl, the gooey cheese sauce..... or make toast. Mind you, I do make mac cheese in a Pyrex jug and then eat it out of that .... then fill the jug with boiling water so it's in soak. Still a faff though

It's a myriad of reasonings that bring one round to "easy options", not just the "cooking for one" umbrella headline.

For me, too, I can't use my oven or hob (fears and phobias) .... although not many people are weird like that. I also fear falling asleep and/or forgetting something's cooking.... and so, as it's in a different room, it means standing in the kitchen, hopping from foot to foot and humming while stuff cooks.

Piggywiggy

I buy big packs of chicken breasts then freeze them individually, that way I can get one out at a time, one day I can cooks one in the oven with a little cheese on and salad or chips, another I can make a single poison of curry, I also freeze mince in handful portions for spaghetti bolognaise, only takes 15 mins to cook, anything you can cook from frozen and just serve up with new potatoes and salad?

If you don't particularly enjoy cooking how about only cooking something a couple of days a week and sticking to the ready meals on the other 5.

JP08

When I was on my own I got quite adept at the one tray roast.

Put your chop / steak / chicken leg on the oven tray, cut up the veg - tatties, carrots, courgette, tomatoes (peeling in general is not required !) - to a size such that it cooks in the same time as the meat. Pour on some olive oil and shuffle it all around to coat. You can even get poncy and sprinkle on some herbs and things. Still only takes a few mins. Whack the lot in the oven and watch telly and unwind for half an hour or so / as required.

Washing up - one veg prep knife, one plate, one knife and fork, one oven tray. If you were pushing the boat out, one small pan for peas !

PasturesNew

JP08 wrote: »

Washing up - one veg prep knife, one plate, one knife and fork, one oven tray. If you were pushing the boat out, one small pan for peas !

People could also use roasting bags to save washing up the tray. As the OP buys M&S ready meals I'm guessing the 10p for a roasting bag won't break the budget.

Peas, frozen, don't need a pan. Tip them into a mug, cover with boiling water; drain/replace the water after 5 minutes. When ready for peas, drain the mug and nuke for 10-15 seconds.

Also - no need for a knife with a lot of food.

Spendless

When I lived alone, I ate a lot of stir frys and gammon steaks as they take minutes under the grill. I felt the same way as PasturesNew it was too much effort for me to eat in minutes. With a family it's more of an 'event'.

I also used to swap my main meal till lunchtime sometimes, something I still do as now I take the kids to after school activities, so on these days instead of taking my own packed lunch I have something hot from the local cafe and then a salad./sandwich/soup in the evening.

juliettet

I cook just for me Sun-Thurs. I got used to this by cooking properly every other night. Then in between I 'allowed ' myself jacket potato, beans on toast etc in between. I soon got to prefer the proper meal night and started doubling up. When I am late home I still love a jacket potato but I make sure I have a big salad and fruit with it. On Sunday I also make soup. My first efforts were awful but Scottish friends who make soup without thinking helped me. I feel better eating properly and therefore feel more like cooking. Can you just start with two nights? Like Jackie O my Remoska is great. Frittata, curry, chilli. Just start small.