Cooking for one

If you can't be bothered to cook, do scrambled eggs, filling and nutritious! No messy pans, I have a perfect recipe.
Break two eggs into a glass jug (Pyrex type), add seasoning and/or grated cheese to taste. Microwave for 1 minute at 800. Take out and whisk with fork. Put back for 15 seconds. Take out, whisk again and pile onto buttered toast!

Try googling: Cooking for one recipes. There seems to be a good many sites that should be helpful.

Make smaller portions corresponding to what you yourself usually eat of chops, meat balls etc. Usually, you cannot only buy one chop, so you need room in the freezer for the other (s) in the package.

Hope your daughter loves University and you enjoy being on your own, when the first wave of homesickness on her part, and your feeling that someone has stolen your baby wears off.

so inspiring reading this thread, thankyou each and every one

I am elderly, as is dh, still alive,, but he has been ill, so both of our appetites had decreased, been wasting quite a lot of food recently, now accepting I cannot eat the huge meals that I could before.

I love most if not all of your suggestions... woohoo, so glad that I still enjoy food even if not such quantity!

Soup! Keeps for 24 hours in the fridge. Freeze it in a bag so it fits anywhere. Eat it with a sandwich or crusty bread. My favourite is carrot and parsnip with a little firesh ginger.

When working I always cooked extra to have the next day or to freeze, just to save time. I still struggle with portion control as am so used to cooking for a big family !

I've been cooking for one for about nine years and I'm in a weekday routine (others would say a rut) of making a mixed salad each day in the summer and a vegetable medley. I prepare these first thing each morning so that it's out of the way - if I left it I'd be tempted by the bad stuff.

At weekends I break out with different things. I've lost interest in food and don't expect to be excited by it but I do still enjoy my meals. Batch baking would bore me as I don't actually want to do it. I get by reasonably well and try to make healthy choices.

I love cooking just for me when DH is working away!
There are a lot of things he does not like that I love so it is a real treat.
I practically live on prawns & other seafood!

Can't beat fresh vegetables. Use a local greengrocer as they really don't mind serving small portions. Mine are popped straight into my bag reducing plastic bag usage. Farm shop for single portions from butchers too. Personally I like to cook daily. It fills time and gives me a sence of achievement that I don't get if I take a ready prepared meal out and ping it in the microwave. Not for everyone I know particularly if you struggle. Loving all the suggestions here ladies.'Food for thought' indeed. Love the idea of freezing cake as I too often get tempted to have just another small slice?

I have been alone for thirty years and I never have ready meals or eat out. I do cook casseroles and bolognese sauce etc and freeze in individual portions. Make two Shepard’s pies, meat pies and fruit tarts and freeze one. Packs of Frozen veg and soft fruit have more vitamins than “fresh” because they are frozen as soon as harvested and there is no waste. Make my own bread and rolls and freeze. Make a large amount of crumble mix. it will keep a month in a container in the fridge.
Couldn’t manage without the freezer.

My hubby works away from home so I cook for one for weeks at a time. I’m a lazy cook but I like to eat quality food. I don’t like to cook and freeze. So I buy 10 chicken legs or thighs and put 1 portion into freezer bags, split bumper pack mince into portions and freeze, same with fish. Then keep frozen peas, sweet corn ,beans, and fresh carrots courgettes broccoli red onions etc. Then take out portion in morning to defrost. Then make cheese burgers ( my burgers are just mince squashed flat salt pepper) , or stir fry with 4 min noodles stir fry sauce or soya spices , chicken carrot onion roast , chicken soup with turmeric ( takes longer ) grilled fish grilled veg herbs. I might make pots on Sunday with roast. But my tummy isn’t keen on variety, I don’t enjoy cooking, and I have to watch my weight like a hawk and my food bill is £5/6 day (but I eat avocado on toast most mornings which is not cheap and egg or mozzarella for lunch. My personal hobby is to see how luxuriously I can live for how little lol.

I’ll try to cut my posts down ladies I haven’t quite got the hang of short and sweet lol !

I do that too Camelotclub, very tasty and filling plus healthy

Amazon has lots of cook books for one. Worth a look.

At my ripe old age, I've only just discovered frozen onions - perfect for one person - and frozen aubergine £1 in Tesco and no faffing when trying to slice thinly.

Last week I bought a large M and S lasagne for guests who cancelled. I cut it into small portions and froze it. It worked out cheaper than buying several small ones.

I have a big pot of vegetable soup cooling, ready to divide up into 10 portions. It is tasty and very low-calorie. I throw everything into it. This batch has carrots, parsnip, onion, potato, mushroom, pepper, peas, sweetcorn, red kidney beans, butter beans, chickpeas and tomatoes, plus various herbs and a few stock cubes.
Delicious!
I'm not that fond of cooking, especially just for me. Batch cooking is useful for when I don't feel like bothering.

I have been in my own for almost 11 years now and can’t say I enjoy cooking for one, it have now become used to it. I keep basics in my freezer such as fish cakes, chicken , meatballs etc, so just adding veg.makes an easy meal. I do cheat with ready meals sometimes . Would love to have more purpose in my cooking as I did when I had a family at home.It is meant to be a sociable activity as well as a necessity.

A small slow cooker is a god send.
Product Features
Compact 1.5L slow cooker
Three heat settings – low, high and auto
Element encircles the crock for even cooking
Dishwasher safe ceramic cooking pot
Glass lid allows you to see what's cooking

My son was expecting a cooking for one book as his A level reward. I told him to look up that sort of thing on the internet. We are teaching him to put shallots, garlic, peppers, potatoes, chicken and seasoning into one baking tray, spritzed with oil and he will get a nutritious meal in 40 mins. We also used our sizzler plates to cook steak, onions, tomatoes and peppers last night. He is thinking of getting one for Uni because he said he could swap the steak for something cheaper and minimise on washing up as you eat straight off the Sizzler plate. He wants stuff with the least washing up!

If you live alone why batch cook? You'll have plenty of time to choose what you wsnt to eat each day instead of the ubiquitous fish pie, spag bol, lasagne, curry etc that get trotted out every time someone mentions batch cooking.
Surely shopping for 1 can be done at least three times a week and tgat way you get the latest stuff on the shelves and new offers.
You can also change your mind according to what the day brings, which you can't do if the night before you've taken frozen fish pie out to defrost.
It's no life if, as a single person, your freezer dictates what you have to use up.

GG54, not everyone wants to shop three times a week.
Also the OP says that she suffers chronic ill health and may not be able to get out and about easily.

Gabrielle, if people choose to batch cook the dishes you mention, so be it, but I just choose my recipe, which can be anything from the around 200 I have in my card index. I currently have 12 different dishes in my freezer, none of which is any of the above.

As for shopping three times a week, what a waste of time, especially when the nearest supermarket is over 5 miles away.

As far as I am concerned, I plan my menus, shop once a week and always have a wide range of home made ready meals in the freezer. That way I eat well and can concentrate all my time and senses on savouring my food rather than wasting endless hours shopping and cooking.

You can change your mind on the day when batch cooking as wll because of the wide range of choices in the freezer - and you can always just get a sausage or fish finger out if that is what you fancy.

Ditto what MOnica said.

The freezer means I can use all my ingredients when fresh and there is never any wastage. Thus cutting down the cost of the food and the cost of electric/gas to cook it.

M0nica
I was talking about people who are on their own, not ones who have a partner or family who visit.
Batch cooking often means you have to add fresh stuff to complete the meal anyway and for people who go out daily for a paper or to walk their dog etc, there is often a shop on the way home where you can do a 'small shop', as Mick calls it.
I understand that batch cooking saves time over the whole week but if you live on your own...you'd have to have a very full life not to spare time to cook at least one main meal a day from scratch...I mean just how long does it take fgs?
A fresh pork chop or half chicken in the oven on a bed of veg or Mac n cheese or even cottage pie.
I thought we had more time when we retired. Time to savour the making then eating, not having to eat the meal you made 2 months ago and took out of the freezer in the morning but decided after lunch that you didn't feel like it the defrosted meal after all.
Oh well...
Each to her own methods.

I cannot see what difference it makes whether there is one or two of you. DD is single, lives alone, has a busy job and lots of outside interests and works to much the same pattern. She hasn't got time for anything else., neither have I.

I savour the eating, I only cook to eat. Multiple shops are fine for city dwellers but I live in a village. We have shop, but its range of fresh food is limited and the last time I went on for a tin of tomatoes it would have cost, had I bought it, £1.49.

Batch cooking doesn't limit choice. You do not need to decide what to eat until lunch time, look down the long list of ready meals in the freezer and say. Why do we not have moussaka for lunch' While the potatoes and veg are cooking you shove it in the microwave and defrost and cook it and the whole meal is ready in 20 minutes.

You may have wanted to slow down when you retired, I didn't. The day I slow down will be the day I die.