Single people: what are your go-to meals?

[dubyalass]

I have fallen out of love with cooking and it feels like a chore. I seem to cook the same six things (that recent thread rang very true!) and am stuck in a rut. Need some inspiration.

I don't mean single parents with kids, or if you live with a partner only - I am interested in what people who live completely alone cook for themselves on a weeknight. Can be with meat, veggie or vegan. I can get hold of most ingredients. I definitely need to eat more green veg.

Current rotation is:
Ready-made chicken pie with potatoes and veg
Saag paneer
Pasta with tomato and bean sauce
Mushroom and pea risotto
Some sort of stir fry
Sausages and puy lentils
Pizza
Dhal and rice

Any ideas welcome. I often batch cook but sometimes I just fancy something different.

I hear you. I make gorgeous salads for work then cannot be bothered when I get hime. Have u tried taming twins website,chicken satay- yummy?

I dunno but there’s a 10 min meals thread that looks promising

salmon, new potatoes, broccoli and green beans (steam the greens over the potatoes so it’s only one pan)
breaded fish, oven chips and peas
lasagne, garlic bread and salad (ready made cos who has time to make lasagne!). Slice up the garlic bread before cooking and freeze the rest.
baked potato, tuna, salad and coleslaw
spag bol (batch cooked)
a small ham in the slow cooker - usually have the first couple of servings as a “roast” dinner and then use the rest up cold on sandwiches or with salad and chips
chicken & broccoli pesto pasta - fry off diced chicken, put the broccoli in to boil when the pasta is about half way thru then mix it all together with pesto.

What’s being single got to do with your question? The meals you currently cook are meals you could cook for one person or ten people surely? I mean I could tell you what I cook for me and my daughter but I don’t live completely alone so I guess I won’t

@Hamfish some things are harder to cook, or not worth cooking just for one portion. Or things like salad and veg you have to plan your meals around what you buy to make sure half of it doesn’t go to waste. So if I be dish needs broccoli then you need at least 2 other things that week to also broccoli, whereas a family would finish it in one meal. It’s hard to avoid eating the same thing several days in a row!

When my dd Is here I am happy to cook. When she is not here I really struggle to motivate myself and so seek out quick things.

Eggs are good. Things like omelettes and frittata. Jacket potato.

Omelettes
Egg on toast
Soups and crusty bread

I have bacon and blue cheese pasta. Which is basically fry some red onion add some cherry tomatoes. Add chopped bacon that I have cooked under the grill. Stir in some blue cheese and mix into the cooked drained pasta.

Fish with veg and either rice or potatoes (I subscribe to fishbox.co.uk and they send me £35 worth of fresh fish every 4 weeks - I pause sometimes to catch up eating it).

Quorn/mushrooms/tomato sauce with pasta (batch cooked, freeze the rest). Also spag bol (same).

Stir fry: tofu/chicken/prawns with veg and noodles or rice. (Lots of variations of dinner but 1 way of cooking)

Tuna/red pepper/pasta/cheese

Chicken in white sauce (from a tin) with mushrooms & rice

Burger, veg, rice

I made a conscious effort a few years ago - and consolidated during lockdown - to make sure I ate more veg, and also I have wholewheat pasta and brown rice which makes my diet healthier at minimal effort.

(Obviously there are also meals that are pizza, ready meal, pie, takeaway, cheese/crisps/sweets but mostly I have the above and variations on similar themes.)

Well @Hamfish I imagine it's more a question of scaling down. I can cook a steak pie for 10 people easily, but doing it for one, without a shedload of left overs, is tricky. I did a curry last night and I still did too much with half an onion and a couple of cauliflower florets. I have a freezer full of food where I scaled it down to two people's worth. That involves remembering to get it out in the morning.

My tip is to make up a batch of tomato, onion and garlic sauce. Gives you a base for spag bol, curry, chilli and all sorts of other things. The grunt work is done. I even use it as a base for soup.

The roast ham joint is a great idea too.

I hate cooking so I mostly just assemble and heat up. I eat things like:

Eggs on toast
Baked potato with cheese and salad
Tuna salad (with pasta, spinach, tomato, cucumber, olives or whatever's in the fridge)
Filled pasta and roasted veg in a tomato sauce
Quiche, potato salad, with other salad bits
Pizza
Falafel wraps with hummus, spinach and sliced hard boiled egg
Scampi, potato wedges, vegetables
Soup with crusty bread and cheese

I also make this quite often:
www.tinnedtomatoes.com/2020/04/easy-roasted-vegetable-gnocchi-bake.html

I don’t live completely only but I do eat completely alone very regularly due to shift work… so I hope I count!

re the green veg - I buy packs of tenderstem broccoli, M&S do a good one that you steam the whole (small) pack. Otherwise Birds Eye steam fresh micro veg.

cook.net do some really good ready meals with proper ingredients - Mac cheese is about £4.

jacket potatoes - either frozen ones or buy 2-4 fresh ones in a pack. Start them off in microwave for 2-3 minutes then finish in oven, endless topping options.

sometimes I do a little plate of fairly high protein snacks - e.g. olives, sliced cheese, nuts, avocado, any salad I have such as mini plum tomatoes. Crackers or fresh bread roll (I get a single one from anywhere like a Sainsbury’s local). Or roast a chicken breast or two and slice up - can be used in sandwiches or salads or with a plate of oven chips…

Breakfast type meal - poached or fried eggs, hash browns and/or toast, beans, any sort of tomatoes, mushrooms cooked in butter, sausage or bacon if I can be bothered to cook them.

I'll do warm goats cheese salad with pomegranate and pomegranate molasses in the summer.

Or chicken with some kind of sauce and roasted Mediterranean vegetables (peppers, tomatoes, courgettes). Spaghetti bolognaise/cottage pie or kyiv and mash but I have to go to waitrose if I do that as they seem to be the only supermarket near me that sell 'old' potatoes loose.

Occasionally on a Sunday I'll do a roast. If I've been to the farm shop then burgers on a Saturday.

I eat the same thing. I do have things like birds eye chicken pieces and potato croquettes in the freezer if I really can't be bothered.

I need to cook more so thanks for starting this. I have the following:

Jacket potato with beans and cheese

I do spaghetti bol and freeze half the sauce as pasta can be cooked easily

Scrambled eggs and ham on toast

Stir fry

Rice with prawns and peas

Frozen prawns are useful (raw or cooked) for those of us that like them. I use them for stir fries, sandwiches, with cocktail sauce on a jacket potato or with avocado.

Californian BLT - Toasted white bread, mayo, black pepper, avocado slices, tomato, lemon juice and topped with slices of sizzling crispy bacon

Tomato Sandwich (boring but delicious) - Sliced open roll or toast, mayo, black pepper, grated mature cheddar, sliced tomatoes

Rice Bowl - Sushi rice, canned tuna, sweetcorn, grated carrots, avocado, any other veg lying about, drizzle of soy sauce and mayo, dried onions

Roast Chicken - Using the BBC Good Food recipe (incredibly easy, only 5 mins hands on time). Eat half with a salad/veg for dinner and save the meat of the other half for sandwiches the next day

I’m a vegetarian but trying to eat more veg

poke bowls/Buddha bowls are great - nice interesting mix of different things - loads of recipes online and really nutritious. I usually have leaves, roast broccoli, pulses (the packs of precooked flavoured lentils or chickpeas are good), air-fried tofu or tempeh, sweetcorn

roast veggie tacos with protein (I use sliced veggie sausage, halloumi or Quorn)

fajitas

(veg) sausage and Mediterranean veg traybake

veggie burger with salad chips and wedges

pasta with blue cheese or Brie and tender stem broccoli

quesadillas - you can add different veg

nachos topped with salsa, guacamole and cheese

frittata with cheese and veg

rice noodles with miso broth, mini corn, broccoli, peanuts, and tofu (the air fryer is great for cooking tofu and tempeh)

stir fried veg and noodles with tofu or tempeh

pad Thai

thai green curry (can freeze portions)

poached eggs with spinach, mushrooms and hash browns

basically I fined Asian or Mexican style foods easy to scale down and good for bulking up on veg

Well, when I am alone (half the week) I tend to eat things like

• seabass with asparagus
• steak
• chicken wings and coleslaw
• Spaghetti bolognese, lasagne etc (frozen individual portions)
• mussels and chips
• Salmon and veg

but I also cook all the above (except mussels) when my daughter is here too

I find it easier in the summer, probably because I'm happy eating salads on repeat! I tend to buy meat and fish from the counters in the supermarket as it's easier to buy smaller quantities, but I will also use frozen fish or buy a packet of chicken breasts and freeze. (M&S do individually wrapped ones that are particularly handy.)
Another thing that helps is the fact that I'm not someone who sticks to recipes, I'm happy to throw things together or sub one ingredient for another to use things up.
I've also got a really good supply of herbs and spices which helps to make dishes taste different with the same base ingredients. For example I might marinate a chicken breast in honey and mustard one night and then tandoori paste another.

This week I've made some veggie burgers that I've frozen, had field mushrooms stuffed with garlicky leeks, broccoli, rice and topped with bread crumbs and Parmesan, a baked sweet potato with tuna, peppers and red onion, a grilled lemon, garlic and herb chicken salad, chickpea and cauliflower curry from the freezer, cod wrapped in prosciutto and chicken with fajita veg and salad.

@Hamfish : @Coronationstation and @Kittensat36 have hit the nail on the head - it’s hard to scale some meals down, or it’s not worth the effort (leftovers won’t freeze or whatever), or I don’t want to eat the same thing three days in a row because some things only come in family-size packs. I’d also like to expand my repertoire to some more interesting recipes than my usual fare. Hence the request to single people because they’ll probably encounter this scenario frequently like me. It’s not the same if you have a partner or a kid, although I appreciate the suggestions from those who find themselves eating alone regularly for whatever reason.

Lots of delicious ideas here. Am scribbling them down.

It’s also useful to know what people have in their freezers - someone mentioned prawns for instance. I never think to buy frozen prawns but I will now.

Batch cooking usually
Although, tonight I had a large tomato, mozzarella, avocado, basil and red onion. Some of the basil and red onion will go to waste if I don’t make something with it tomorrow but the rest is single portions.

Aldi do packs of roasting veg so you don’t need to by a whole courgette/pepper/onion etc. that’s good with some halloumi or chicken

@Hamfish , there's a different mentality when it's a meal for one. People who end up living alone due to an empty nest, divorce/separation or bereavement often struggle.

I struggle to find motivation to cook for myself, but one of my favourite things to do is a fish fillet (either smoked haddock or salmon- I buy these frozen from Tesco in bags of five, so I only get out one at a time) frozen prawns (as a pp said- useful to have in the freezer) peas and spinach in a dish. I then make a cheese sauce and pour over and bake in the oven. Sometimes I have pastry on top (I buy a puff pastry block and cut it into pieces just the right size for my individual pie dish and freeze in portions, so I can just get the amount I need) sometimes I do extra veg on the side, sometimes I have chips. I guess you could put mash on the top instead. It takes about 5 mins to make the cheese sauce (again with practice I have learnt to make the right amount, but you could make a batch and freeze portions), then it really is a case of putting in the oven.