Home alone. Eating for One.

Associate
Joined
23 Aug 2020
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163
Will be on my own from Wednesday or Thursday next week till Sunday the following week while the wife goes visiting.

I can cook, have a fair few cookbooks and basic pantry ingredients so wonder how people menu plan to minimise waste, monotony and shopping when cooking for one.
Will obviously eat out, get a takeaway and go to friends for some meals over the next 10 or so days.
 
Consigliere
Joined
12 Jun 2004
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151,024
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SW17
The way forward is just make what you like and put the rest in the fridge to heat up the next day or two after. :)

Works great with chillis, curries etc. Or even cook up some chicken with spices (cajun, Nandos style or whatever) and have it what you like then the next day could chuck the rest into a sandwich/burger.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
11 Dec 2002
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10,815
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Darkest Norfolk
The way forward is just make what you like and put the rest in the fridge to heat up the next day or two after. :)

this or the freezer, we batch make curries, stews, lasagne, cottage/shepherds pie etc and save them for when one or the other of us is working away :) the metal containers work pretty well as you can just chuck them into the oven to re-heat.

That or go to the pub!
 
Soldato
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18 Jul 2021
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Land of Gin (I wish)
Live alone. Meals are a variety of pasta, curries, salads, soups, pho and things cooked under the grill or in oven - fishcake, sausages, pies etc.

Not mentioned lunch situation- unsure if wfh, work away from home. On days of working- carry on as per normal. If got a day off and usually have it with your wife - beans on toast, sandwiches, bacon butty etc.

If your wife doesn’t like a certain food or cuisine and you love it - use this opportunity to have it at home!
 
Caporegime
Joined
22 Nov 2005
Posts
45,280
Live alone. Meals are a variety of pasta, curries, salads, soups, pho and things cooked under the grill or in oven - fishcake, sausages, pies etc.

Not mentioned lunch situation- unsure if wfh, work away from home. On days of working- carry on as per normal. If got a day off and usually have it with your wife - beans on toast, sandwiches, bacon butty etc.

If your wife doesn’t like a certain food or cuisine and you love it - use this opportunity to have it at home!
slow cookers a win for me.

diced potatoes+Carrots + 4 shepherds pie sachets in slow cooker.
fry onions/garlic add them to slow cooker.

Wait 6 hours.

fry qourn mince on it's own then layer into foil containers. (I hate beef mince and qourn should always be added at the end or it will lose it's texture)

add a tin of marrowfat peas to slowcooker and leave to cool. (empty the liquid from the can, fill it with water and shake, repeat 1-2 times so the peas aren't coated in green sludge)

empty slow cooker into the foil trays and place back in the fridge once it's cooled.

mash 1-2kg of potatoes.

add a layer in to each foil tray..

Shepherds pie for 1-2weeks for about 50minutes of active work and probably cost you 10-20 quid.


use foil trays so you can heat them in the oven and get a crust on the mash :) or just use plastic if you don't care and will microwave them.

you can whack up 5.5 litres of curry or whatever so easily the same way and it's way less effort than you would imagine.

often made litres of thai curry sauce or pasta sauce in a huge wok too (bigger than any pans I own by volume)
if you start to get bored of rice/pasta you can just add it to oven chips etc :)
 
Last edited:
Don
Joined
24 Feb 2004
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11,916
Location
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Make a massive batch of slow cooked chilli.

Day 1) Chilli with rice
Day 2) Chilli with jacket potatoes
Day 3) Chilli with nachoes

If you get to Day4 and still have chilli left, you did it wrong and repeat days 1-3 :)
 
Associate
Joined
20 Mar 2012
Posts
2,308
Location
London(ish)
The way forward is just make what you like and put the rest in the fridge to heat up the next day or two after. :)

Works great with chillis, curries etc. Or even cook up some chicken with spices (cajun, Nandos style or whatever) and have it what you like then the next day could chuck the rest into a sandwich/burger.

This

this or the freezer, we batch make curries, stews, lasagne, cottage/shepherds pie etc and save them for when one or the other of us is working away :) the metal containers work pretty well as you can just chuck them into the oven to re-heat.

Or this. It's not really possible to buy ingredients for one portion, so you'll nearly always have enough for more than one meal (which is great because although I do enjoy cooking, cooking all the time is hassle).
 
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