Food prep for one

[spinbaby]

I find myself in a living situation where I’m often eating alone, which I’m finding tends to devolve into a situation where I’m perpetually snacking on easy-to-grab stuff like protein bars, bananas, peanut butter, cheese, etc. Thank goodness I don’t keep junk in the house, because I’d surely be eating that.

So, inspired by all the pretty pictures on Pinterest, I’ve decided to prep food ahead of time for a few days at a time so I’ll eat real meals again. Today is day one.

Individual beef enchilada casseroles are already assembled and in the freezer.
Individual green salads are underway—so far I have lettuce washed.
I’ll probably also make cucumber salad because I bought too many of them.
A cantaloupe will be cut up and put in single serve containers.
I’ve hard boiled six eggs already.
Beef stroganoff is started in the slow cooker for dinner with my grandson tonight and probably leftovers tomorrow.

[DetlefK]

1. Cook a massive pot of something.

There is an iranian lamb-stew I really like, with steamed rice as a side-dish. When I cook it, it's always enough to serve 4, so it lasts me about half a week.

Plus, I always have two "emergency-pizzas" in the freezer.

[Blue_true]

14. I have found that cooking a large amount of something causes taste fatigue for me.

What I have learned to do is take recipes and downsize them for one person. I just wish that markets would sell individual or two person allotments of things like bread, buns, ect. Veggies are easy, most places allow me to pick out how much I need.

[DetlefK]

15. That depends on the dish. I know two bean-dishes where I never experienced "taste-fatigue".

I think, beans are good for evading that, because they have a subtle taste. It doesn't explode all over your tongue.

One dish is a simple bean-pot from Ancient Rome, the other one is that stew from Iran.

[Major Nikon]

2. I use sous vide for much of this kind of thing

I buy vacuum bags in bulk in two different sizes. Cooking in the bag and leaving it sealed greatly diminishes the threat from spoilage bacteria. Prepared food can be stored in the refrigerator for weeks or in the freezer for months without the threat of diminishing quality.

It's similar to canning in that food cooked inside a sealed container is going to keep far longer.

[spinbaby]

4. That's interesting

I hadn’t thought of using sous vide for food preservation. Do you actually cook your food like that or fill the bags with precooked food and pasteurization? I have a sour vide setup, but just use it for meat.

[Major Nikon]

6. I use it for most things that need to be cooked

On the weekends I'm preparing most of the food I take to work during the week. Fortunately I have a full kitchen at work, so for meat I can precook single servings and then sear them quickly on the stove at work. I also do fibrous vegetables(asparagus, green beans, etc) sous vide and for the most part I've gotten used to eating them cold as I don't really like them microwaved. At home it's pretty easy to reheat in the water bath.

The best part for me is you don't really have to worry about consuming cooked meats within a day or two as you would with conventional methods. Meat is generally good for about a week in the refrigerator and vegetables a bit longer. I usually freeze after cooking unless I plan to consume within the week. Naturally defrosting and reheating in the water bath is pretty simple and can be done all at once at 130F.

The thing you want to be mindful about is using salt as you don't really want to store many salted foods for very long.

I sometimes pasteurize eggs in the water bath, but I haven't really investigated doing it for other things. Longer term storage of pasteurized food products usually involves antiseptic food packaging which isn't all that practical in the home.

[procon]

3. Same here, I cook in big batches, portion out the servings and freeze for

later meals. I still cook family sized recipes even though it just me, but my freezer is well stocked with all the foods I like so I can always find a meal to enjoy. I chop and dice veggies, like onions, celery, peppers, freeze them on a tray so they don't clump and then put them into baggies for use in recipes as needed. Some veggies need to be blanched first, but they are handy to have for soups and casseroles. Same with fresh fruits, many will freeze well and still be good to eat frozen (grapes, cherries, berries) or thawed. Even bananas can be frozen whole to use in breads and muffins.

I use a food processor and a mandoline to do the bulk of my prep work, cuts down on time and effort. I bought a food dehydrator last year, but I've only tried it a few times. It did a great job on fresh herbs like parsley, cilantro, basil leaves and rosemary. Did not like the banana chips as they were tasteless. the onions rings were wonderful and I eat them like a snack. Bell peppers also did well. I need to try more things in it.

[spinbaby]

5. I'm exhausted just reading this

I’ve found that having lots of ingredients in the freezer does nothing for me because I’ll just wind up reaching for that protein bar instead of cooking something for myself. I’m prepping things I can just grab and eat, or grab, microwave, and eat.

[procon]

7. It's easy! I only cook one weekend a month and that produces

enough meal portions to freeze and last a whole month. Some things like soups and stews I'll reheat in the microwave, but most of the time I prefer to use a steamer so the food reheats evenly and it's hot. There's no spots that are overcooked and too tough while other places don't get hot enough, as happens with the microwave.

I'm cheap too, so I take advantage of good sales when I can afford to buy foods that I can use in my menu plan for the month, or things that will store or keep for a long time. It works for me, I still like to cook and I also like the convenience of having a big selection of meals ready to be reheated with practically no effort on my part.

[spinbaby]

8. I don't think I'm ready for that

I’ll start with food for a few days.

[Major Nikon]

9. Reheating with sous vide can be pretty fast

I've never timed it, but I can take frozen food from the freezer to serving temps in about 15 mins in the water bath. Much better than reheating in the microwave, especially for frozen foods. There's also no danger of overheating.

[northoftheborder]

10. Thanks for some good suggestions....

.....for storing and reheating food with sous vide....which I am still considering buying....

[Phentex]

11. I can offer no help...

one night last week I had Brussels sprouts and toast for dinner. BECAUSE I COULD.

I think I'd still cook for myself the majority of the time but I'd also do stuff like have a big salad for breakfast. Then some asparagus for dinner followed by a bowl of applesauce.

I'm the kind of person who can make a batch of something and eat it several times that week. My people are not like me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. I understand.

I live alone and I love to cook. I've learned to figure out how to cook and freeze.

Or cook and eat the same thing for three days running. In part this is because at my age, 70, I generally only eat one meal a day.

Anyway, today I fixed scalloped potatoes with ham, using sliced up ham from one I fixed back in January. Note: when you thaw frozen ham, it will have a lot of liquid. Blot it with paper towels. I really, really love this meal. But potatoes just don't freeze, so this is what I'll eat for the next few days. Luckily, I really love it. Oh, and I season it quite well.

Oh, heck. Here's my recipe for this.

Scalloped ham and potatoes

Sliced and cut up ham, probably about two cups. Who knows? I don't measure many things.
Five or six medium potatoes, peeled and sliced thin.
About a half cup of chopped onion.

The sauce:
3 Tablespoons butter.
A bit less than 3 Tablespoons flour.
Melt the butter, then stir in the onion. Let it brown for a couple of minutes. Then stir in the flour. If the flour and butter are in exactly equal amounts, which is what most cookbooks tell you, it won't work out. Trust me. Cook books get a lot of things wrong. And if you live at high altitude, PM me because the conventional wisdom about high altitude cooking is totally wrong. So, anyway, you need about 2/3 flour to the same amount of butter. Trust me.

Now add ground pepper (probably about a teaspoon or so), celery seed (NOT celery salt) likewise about a teaspoon, and about a half teaspoon of thyme. Also marjoram and tarragon. Use your own judgment here. I don't measure these things, so the amounts are my best guess.

Meanwhile, heat 3 cups of half and half (yes, half and half. NOT skim milk -- and if you're cooking with that there's probably a circle of hell just for you -- and not 2% and not whole milk. Half and half. What’s leftover goes nicely in your coffee.) in the microwave at 50% power for about three minutes. You definitely want to take the chill off, and maybe even get the half and half almost hot. Give the roux (the butter, flour, onion, and seasonings) about three minutes to do their thing, stirring all the while with a balloon whisk. Now stir in the warm half and half. Let it continue to do its thing for a few minutes at a medium heat. You want it to thicken up somewhat.

Smear butter on the bottom of a pyrex baking dish. I think mine is a 3 quart one, but I just looked at it and couldn't find that information, but it is the largest of a three dish set I acquired more than 35 years ago. Use your own judgment here. But do not even remotely consider using a metal baking dish.

Once the butter/onion/half and half mix has thickened up, which will take about five minutes, more or less, put a bit of your sauce on the very bottom of your baking dish, which you have already smeared with butter. If you are using the spray crap, shame on you. Then do a layer of potato slices, topped with the ham. Now pour some of the sauce to cover the ham and potatoes. Another layer of potatoes, another layer of ham, and more sauce. Top with the rest of your potato slices, and the rest of your sauce. Dab a tablespoons of butter on the very top, in three or five different places. You want to create the opportunity for the butter to melt and burn to create something interesting at the very top. You could, of course, leave it out entirely and may not notice the difference, but the cooking gods will.

Bake in the preheated oven, 350 degrees, covered (I'm hoping your baking dish has its own cover, otherwise aluminum foil will suffice) for 30 minutes. Uncover, bake for another hour. Oh, and be sure to place a cookie sheet under the baking dish because if you've done it right, there will be overflow of the sauce.

If you live at high altitude, as I do, make the baking times 35 minutes covered, 70 minutes uncovered.

Let stand five minutes.

This is one of the few things I make that isn't better the next day. This is absolutely at its best fresh out of the oven, so it's probably best made when you have enough people to eat it all up right away.

Don't despair, because it really does reheat in the microwave (dear Lord, what was life like before them?) adequately.

Oh, and since I don't add salt earlier, you will probably want to salt your portion at this point. I also add more ground pepper, but that’s just me.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. Doesn't your salad lettuce get soggy and limp.? Geez

I can't even keep that from happening on the same night.

You know who always seems to be able to provide crispy crunchy ice cold salad all the time? Red Lobster.

Some restaurant cook told me one time that the secret is bathing greens in hot water. But didn't work for me.

Am on an arugula kick. Love the bitterness especially with blue cheese. Also great with beets and goat cheese. Arugula seems to hold up too if it is super fresh.