Cooking for one

sixtiesgal_2

Lynplatinum wrote: »

I'm sorry - but this attitude makes me cross. I am hoping that your stance comes from a position of lack of knowledge/ being perhaps a bit stressed or something.
Nothing comes from nothing - to achieve anything you have to make an effort! You are not eating healthily (as, to be fair, you acknowledge).
Also, I can see what you mean about batch cooking - if you dont like cooking then you are just making work for yourself.
Also, you may have no cooking experience or good examples to follow (I dont know you so I dont know if this holds true - my apologies if I am wrong)
You are looking for fuss free food that is healthy.

Constructively I would suggest:
1) grilling something (takes 5 - 15 mins) - salmon; chops; chicken breast (flavour with pre bought sauces or herb/spice mixes); and having a salad (ready made) or frozen veg done in the microwave.
2) this will cook while you are doing something else in the kitchen - putting washing on/unloading shopping/boiling the kettle for a cuppa/drying up last nights dishes/wiping the sides down clean/checking messages on your phone.
3) minimise washing up by: lining the grill with foil and then throwing it away (marginally less damaging to the planet than all the plastic you must throwing away currently); using a small microwave lidded dish (available from L!keland and other stores); doing ti everyday - immediately after dinner (takes 5 mins)

Sorry if I sound harsh but that is how my life has been - its easy to feel sorry for one's self and slip into moaning and doing nothing about a situation (Yep - you guessed it - I ve done this myself!! :-) With the fantastic help and friendship on here I hope you can pull it together and that you find my suggestions helpful! Get back to us and let us know how it goes.

Actually I do suffer from depression which makes it hard for me to get motivated, I do want to eat better but find it hard when my mood is low. I was brought up on good home cooking so eating as I do now is not what I've been lead to believe is good for me.

However these days, I was born in the sixties by the way, there are ready meals everywhere as people don't have the time to cook from scratch as much.

Having said that I do realise that there are quicker ways of cooking more healthily and I don't want to ignore this completely. I also don't want to spend money on ready meals daily and try to limit them to once a week.

I don't have a big freezer for lots of batch cooking and I don't always want casseroles from the slow cooker. I've decided to try and make use of my George Foreman grill and a small microwave steamer I have. I'll have things like chicken breasts cooked quickly in the grill and fish in the steamer, veg steamed in the microwave, that way I'm having healthy meals that don't take an age to prepare and I'm not putting the big oven on just for once piece of fish or chicken.

Thanks all for your advice, I do want to turn things around really and its not that I can't be bothered.

Blue_Doggy

Sixtiesgal - just wishing you the best of luck with your new cooking regime .

FrugalWorker

Figure out which meals you like, and which ones are very quick - repeat these or make variations of them.

If you like you're George foreman grill, focus on having a protein and lots of veggies. I'm thinking that strips of pepper or courgette could be added to a chicken breast or something else on the grill. Or as someone else suggested, frozen veggies - take little or no time and essentially no washing up. You could supplement this with some pasta/rice/spuds that you cook up on a weekly basis and only re-heat daily, but to be honest I find I do better trying to get as many vitamins in to me as possible to skip the starch, or having double veggies like broccoli + butternut squash, etc...

In autumn I swear by home made soups as you don't have to make a vat of them, they take a tiny amount of space in the freezer in single portions and it means you always have a quick bite to eat. Adding in 50 gm of protein to a soup (be it vegetarian or not) elevates the humble soup to a more substantial meal.

I went through a year of stir fries using pre-chopped veggies when I was stuck for time. I used to serve them with couscous - I would put a single serving of couscous in the bowl I was going to eat from, add hot water and put a plate over it. Then heat up a wok, add in turkey strips, then veggies, I used to use a pre-made sauce (though I'd make my own now and would pass on the couscous). Very very quick - there was a routine - put kettle on as taking my jacket off, I think I was sitting at the table within 10 minutes - if doing a veggie version, a bit longer for the meat option.

Another year I focused on having lots of ratatouille made up. I would pair this with what ever protein I'd cooked. If I was feeling lazy - I just needed to add cooked chicken or chickpeas, heat and eat from a bowl. If I felt up to cooking, I'd serve it with some fish. But it was often the preparation of all the individual parts of the dinner that got me down - by having some of it pre-made, I was far more likely to cook it and eat it.

I used to portion up smoked salmon and put it in the freezer. A portion of smoked salmon, some scrambled eggs, toast and some spinach.

I only ever had a single freezer drawer - if you don't keep processed/packaged foods you can fit quite a lot in it.

Think about
1. What you like to eat
2. What puts you off cooking (is it the washing - then focus on 1 pot dishes, the shopping - then focus on the freezer, the preparation of veggies - the aim to have 1-2 main prep days a week, etc....

torbrex

I have cooked for myself for 35 years and never done 'batch' cooking.
I will cook a pound of mince then have it different ways for the next 4 days but I don't class this as batch cooking, just old fashioned use of the meat.
I do the same with a number of different meats, just adapt the leftovers to suit, I am just using the skills that mum taught me.
(I am slightly older than the OP)

Spendless

sixtiesgal wrote: »

and I don't always want casseroles from the slow cooker.

I think this is a thing many people think about a slow cooker, that they are 'only' for stews but they will do a lot more. Cook a gammon joint in them and have one night with new potatoes and veg, use the rest of the meat for sandwiches at lunch or some in an omelette for an evening meal.

I find the ready made sauces work well in them, probably because they contain a thickening agent and a sc can't reduce. If the jar of sauce is too big for one, use the rest as a base for a pasta bake. I like the spanish chicken tonight done in the slow cooker.

You could do a curry and just have it with a Naan bread, if you don't want to wait for rice to do when you get in.

Lynplatinum

Hey Sixties Gal!!!

Its not quite as bad as your first post made it sound then!!

Please accept my apologies - if you are only having ready meals once a week or so then hey - that's not bad at all!! :beer: (there are far worse things you could be doing to yourself once a week - think of the drinkers for example!!)

Chin up my friend! Stop beating yourself up!

I have had depression in the past - so I totally get where you are coming from (although our whys, triggers and situations may be different) - that's why I put provisos in the post. Talking therapies helped me a lot and gave me a 'tool kit' which when I feel the 'Blue Funk' commin on - I use. I know how debilitating it can be.

Best piece of advice? Be your own best friend.

(As in - if a best mate said - this is how I feel - then what would you advise them to do).

Your post has evoked some really interesting responses :A:A- hope some are useful to you
Take care.

emg

A tip for batch cooking when you have a small freezer is to use ziplock bags. I use the ikea ones and when I fill them I lay the bag down, seal it and make the filling form a thin layer across the whole bag and then lay them flat in the freezer. They are generally less than 1cm thick and so I can fit loads more than if I fill them the traditional way or use boxes. The second advantage is that they defrost really quickly. If I forget to get it out in the morning I just pop it in a dish of water for half an hour and it will defrost.

Kimberley

When you batch cook and freeze meals how long do you cook them for in the oven? X

sixtiesgal_2

Lynplatinum wrote: »

Hey Sixties Gal!!!

Its not quite as bad as your first post made it sound then!!

Please accept my apologies - if you are only having ready meals once a week or so then hey - that's not bad at all!! :beer: (there are far worse things you could be doing to yourself once a week - think of the drinkers for example!!)

Chin up my friend! Stop beating yourself up!

I have had depression in the past - so I totally get where you are coming from (although our whys, triggers and situations may be different) - that's why I put provisos in the post. Talking therapies helped me a lot and gave me a 'tool kit' which when I feel the 'Blue Funk' commin on - I use. I know how debilitating it can be.

Best piece of advice? Be your own best friend.

(As in - if a best mate said - this is how I feel - then what would you advise them to do).

Your post has evoked some really interesting responses :A:A- hope some are useful to you
Take care.

Apology accepted and no offence taken. I feel better now I have some kind of food plan for myself. I'll let you know how it goes.

sixtiesgal_2

Kimberley wrote: »

When you batch cook and freeze meals how long do you cook them for in the oven? X[/QUOT

I cook the meals in the slow cooker and reheat in the microwave until piping hot.