Living alone and cooking for one now - please help me shop and cook!

[lorettalemon]

I'm unexpectedly living alone after years of shopping and cooking for 2 - 5 adults every day. I'm on a budget, but not a tiny one, so I could stretch to about £25 -£30 a week for food for one.
How to cook frugally for a number of people is deeply ingrained into my head, but I have no idea what sorts of things to buy and eat on my own - most packets contain too much and I would prefer a bit of variety rather than eating the same thing a few times in a week.
I've taken on an extra job in the evenings so I don't get home until 10 now, so I do tend to feel too tired to do much in the way of food preparation.
I'd be so grateful if anyone who lives alone/frequently cooks just for themselves could give me some ideas of what to buy/eat that's quick and simple!
I'm not following any particular diet and not vegetarian or vegan.

I've been single for ever - but I've also cooked for a full household for many years too.

Erm, lots of veg and salad (salad bowl prepped and ready in the fridge, veg chopped and ready to steam (takes minutes in a saucepan, tiny bit of water in the bottom, lid on tight). Then buy a selection of protein, from cheap to treat eg corned beef/ pulses (39p per can in home bargains) /fresh meat. You're missing the supermarket bargains at 6-8pm, can you get to any?

I usually have a basic neopolitan tomato sauce always on the go in the fridge, which you can use in practically anything.

Lastly have some carbs cooked and ready in the fridge - rice, quinoa, pasta.

Then choose a selection and get it in the microwave. I usually cook my supper in the advert breaks.

Or beans/cheese on good wholemeal toast with a good size salad. Yum.

Or make a 'pizza' with toast, basic tomato sauce, cheese, and anything hanging around in the fridge. Drizzle with olive oil and stick it under the grill.

Batch cook in a slow cooker and freeze in portions. Makes it easy to eat when you come home late, all you have to do is warm it up.

There are some easy recipes for stews, curries, etc online for slow cookers.

Do you have a freezer? In which get some small plastic containers so you can freeze individual portions. Lakeland do them in multipacks. I'm just making a large pan of veggie chilli as i freqently work away and it's something my MIL can easily warm up for the DC.

If you freeze individual meals, you can take a portion out the night before so it's defrosted & ready to warm up when you get home from work. Stuff like pasta sauce, chilli, curries etc that you could just add pasta, rice or a baked potato to.

Thank you for the suggestions everyone!
I will definitely do the batch cooking.
I just wondered if anyone can suggest anything along the lines of jacket potato, cheese on toast- simple ideas like that which I might not have thought of?

When my other half travels for work I cook a big pot of soup that lasts me the week. A bowl of this then a salad with meat/cheese/coleslaw,beetroot,couscous. I chop up enough cucumber, peppers, red onion to do a few nights. So it's just grabbing stuff and popping it in the bowl which I do while my bowl of soup is getting 5 minutes in the microwave

Eggs! Omelet with anything you have to hand, scrambled with beans, French toast x

Also do a spatchcock chicken which is delicious hot the first night but you then also have the rest for salads or on the side of rice (microwaveable flavored bags) Frozen veg is your friend, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, runner beans, peas, sweet corn.

Warm frying pan with butter Chuck in a tortilla bread - add cheese and red pesto, another tortilla on top. Instant pizza

Boiled egg and soldiers is my favourite quick dinner after a tough day. Boiled egg and asparagus soldiers if you’re being fancy!
I also used to do corned beef hash, salad of steak strips, salad potatoes and watercress, roasted tomato soup ( put tomatoes in roasting tin with garlic clove olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper. Roast 15 mins then add stock and roast 10-15 mins more. Blend, sieve if you can be bothered and eat with bread and a dollop of yoghurt.)
You can use the same method for red pepper soup, and add some ground almonds when blending.
Quick pasta: add creme fraiche, dill and lemon zest to hot pasta. Or flat leaf parsley, chilli flakes and black olives.
Have a tin of those Greek giant beans in tomato sauce with toasted pitta bread and a cucumber salad. I also love home kebabs: chicken breast, lettuce, yoghurt and hot sauce in pitta.
I can recommend Delia Smith’s slightly dubiously named ‘One is Fun’ as a great cookery book for one person.

Enchiladas are good, you can make 4 hearty portions on a Sunday, freeze 2, then eat Monday and Wednesday for instance (I use quorn but chicken is better), cassoulet in a slow cooker on a Tuesday, save some for Thursday, freeze the remainder and so on ..

Maybe pick up a cookery book and cook your way through it? There are plenty of ‘cooking for one’ titles (even some of the student cook books are good) and I second/third batch cooking and freezing.

Try Miguel Barclays books ‘One Pound Meals’. Fantastic cheap recipes all aimed at one person

Get a mini pressure cooker and batch cook and freeze- it'll change your life!

I try and get a lot from aldi as me and DH eat separately in the week so my 3 priorities (as I'm sure most people's would be) are fairly healthy, fairly cheap and fairly quick

I find aldis pork steaks really good! A four pack is about 2.60 and you could have one or two then freeze. They come in some nice flavours and are quick under grill. I like them microwaved broccoli and some of a pack of flavoured quinoa, also from aldi.

I quite like making tuna with pasta, mayonnaise, spring onion, peas and again aldi do flavoured tuna. Microwaved sweet potato can be a slightly healthier version of baked potato and I find omelettes can be satisfying too.

Sure there are lots more good ideas around! I begrudge going anywhere but aldi for a lot of things so hopefully you can get to one too. I don't work for them BTW!

Good luck

Tin of Mackerel in a Spicy Tomato Sauce on toast.

Tin of soup and toast.

I love the stir fry veg mixes the big supermarkets do for about £1, they give a small amount of lots of different veg which is great for 1 person, and it's ready chopped so no prep. Add chicken chunks or cooked frozen prawns and noodles, and make your own sauce.

Ready made quiches work well cos they keep for quite a few days, so you don't have to have the same meal 2 days in a row.

Smoked peppered mackerel in a tin.
Delia Smith one is fun - maybe old now
Stir fry

Risotto is a good, easy to make for one thing

Feature on women's hour today about unexpectedly eating for one 🌸

Thank you for the replies everyone! I do want to rediscover my love and enjoyment of cooking - I don't have the same enthusiasm when cooking for one but batch cooking and thinking I can enjoy several meals after one lot of cooking will be great!

When I was single long term I tended to cook for two and eat it two nights in a row (no freezer then), now I would freeze the second portion. So you'd have a few different "second portions" to choose from over the next few days.

If it's ever just me at home these days, I'm all about the eggs or occasionally just pork pie and salad cream or occasionally a packet of Jaffa Cakes

At some point my Mum kindly (I think?!) gave me this book by Delia Smith:

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/books/delias-one-is-fun

Omelette - my fave is fry a small chopped red onion, pour the 2/3 egg mix over, top with grated cheddar, stick under the grill for a few mins

Salmon and broccoli omelette (tinned salmon)

Fried egg on toast with ketchup

Packets of tortellini (filled pasta) - they take minutes to make and are nice with just a bit of butter stirred in and black pepper

Packets of gnocchi (potato dumplings) with a sauce, takes a few minutes

Broccoli and cauliflower florets, pour over ready made cheese sauce, top with grated cheese, in oven (add a bit of ham if you have it)

Toastie with salad

What do you do with the other 1/3rd Jovial?

I do lots of batch cooking about once a month.

I normally do the below and freeze. Take a meal out the morning for that night.

Curries (Thai green and red, tikka masala, madras)
Lasagne
Beef in red wine
Chicken with red wine and chorizo
Chicken and chorizo lasagne
Chilli
Chicken in white wine sauce
Pork in honey and mustard sauce

Quote often I part boil baby potatoes and then roast them in skins, freeze them with veg in single serving portions to go with any of the above.