Meals for single people

[Sjenson21]

I am needing some ideas for meals - lunch and dinner. Live alone now and since becoming single I’m so lazy and don’t cook. Send me some inspiration to get me back in the kitchen!

What do you like? I like curries, roast chicken and veg....a small roast chicken can be reused the next day for sandwiches and soup! Make a roast chicken so you get the loveliness of it and then use the rest for soup which can be batch frozen.

I always really hated batch cooking but fine with freezing ingredients so you can pare back recipe quantities. I really enjoyed cooking for just me.
I taught myself loads!
Curries, casseroles, mixed grills, marinated meats.
And sometimes I had oven chips on white bread with Lurpak!

I do roast chicken, too, and expect to get a few meals from it. Stuff like spag bol, chilli, soups, stews - eat one, have one as leftovers, freeze the rest in portions. Bagged salads are easy for a quick, no cook meal. I use my freezer a lot, as I'm not good at cooking for one. (Must eat some stuff from the freezer.)

Goodness I need this thread! I've fallen into the trap of snacking instead of cooking and it makes me feel so sluggish. What I've done recently instead is bought things like cooked chicken, cooked prawns, and do a big salad with them. Or avocado and poached egg on bread etc.

It isn't exactly what you've asked but it is how I'm approaching meals for one at the moment.

It can be easi this time of year when you are more likely to want salad than a hot meal.

@Londono

Goodness I need this thread! I've fallen into the trap of snacking instead of cooking and it makes me feel so sluggish. What I've done recently instead is bought things like cooked chicken, cooked prawns, and do a big salad with them. Or avocado and poached egg on bread etc.

It isn't exactly what you've asked but it is how I'm approaching meals for one at the moment.

I also like making bean salads with boiled egg or avocado on top. It's lovely if you add nice dressing and super healthy.

Ok it's not the most healthy but I've been making this for lunch
https://youtube.com/shorts/ibOZCEjP5yc?feature=share

I generally have a wrap of some kind, usually chicken salad and dressing or the youtube one!

Main meals I do are
Batch cooked - beef stew, cottage pie, pasta bakes, chicken pie (mash topped), corned beef hash

Not batch cooked - feta and bacon salad, omelettes, chicken Caesar salad, the Wagamama kits from Sainsburys (the pad Thai is fine cold for lunch the next day too), jacket potatoes with beans and cheese/creamy mushrooms/tuna/salad, beige freezer tea

I always have in the freezer to make life easy
Frozen mash, frozen steam bags of veg, birds eye type flavoured chicken, potato waffles, wedges, fish fingers

Honestly? Cook for 2 or 4 and put extra food in individual portions in your freezer before you serve your plate.

If you do this all the time, you don’t need to cook everyday at all but just to take your dinner out of the freezer in the morning and your lunch before you go to bed.

I eat fish quite often as it’s something that’s available in ‘one person’ size portions. Also, it’s easy and quick to cook, and can be dressed up with tartare sauce or similar.

For lunch, I sometimes buy a pack of smoked salmon. This isn’t as extravagant as it might seem, as it makes two or three meals, open sandwiches with cream cheese or avocado, or with poached or scrambled egg for instance.

Chicken Caesar salad is another favourite, a tasty use for leftover chicken, or chicken with noodles in broth is simple & quick too.

I always try to cook once / eat more than once. So make double / triple for freezer eg spag Bol / curries / chilli etc which is great for nights you can’t be arsed. Also use slow cooker as can just bung it in so less prep time

But also like pps have said - things that can do more than one meal - so say baked salmon with peri peri or sweet chilli sauce for tea with rice and veg, and then for lunch with salad the next day. Also crustless quiche - 4 eggs, plus any veg / meat and cheese eg mushroom, spinach and goats cheese, or broccoli, asparagus and cheddar cheese etc - bake for 25 mins and is enough for 2 meals

I have an old Delia cookbook called "One is Fun!" Which is great but a bit old fashioned, a more modern one called Solo came out last year that is brilliant too written by Signe Johansen which I can definitely recommend!

www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/lifestyle-wellbeing/signe-johansen-s-top-tips-for-cooking-for-one

My favourite solo dinners are ones that are too expensive to buy for a crowd - eg. Scallops with ginger/garlic/soy on noodles with coriander and chili, a really nice steak, slow roasted salmon, that kind of thing.

For lunch I like to fry some chopped tomato, diced onion, garlic and crushed fennel seeds, add a tin of drained black beans and half a tin of water and simmer for 10mins. I like it quite saucy so I top up with water as needed. Serve with cubes of feta and parsley or coriander. It’s nice and tasty and enjoyable to cook.

Definitely agree with batch cooking and freezing, bolognese, ragu, beef stew, Chinese beef (from bbc good food).

I also like to make chilli type dishes and mix up between dinner with rice or tacos, baked potato for lunch or eggs and tacos for brekkie. Jamie Oliver’s green chilli is delicious and I don’t mind having a few meals in a row with that as my base.

@Xiaoxiong

I was going to mention both those books! I have done the One is fun (Delia) toad in the hole recipe several times!