Cooking for a single guy

A lot of single people found this book useful.

A package of hot dogs and a knife. They'll warm up inside you. If you want to get fancy, you could dip them in hot sauce or something before shoving them in your face. Sometimes I do that.

Or one of those nozzle cans of Cheez Whiz.

Look at just some of the possibilities! Your only limit is your imagination!



Shrimp on toast?

If you like fish, I suggest salmon en papillote (salmon cooked in a parchment paper wrapping). It has many advantages for a single guy... cleanup is easy, it's cooked in individual portions, so you can easily cook 3 dinners in one shot, and the leftovers are microwavable in the original parchment wrapping. This recipe is with fennel, but there are many other variations, such as green beans, sliced zucchini, carrots, etc.


http://hereswhatworksblog.com/2014/01/16/salmon-with-fennel-baked-in-parchment/

It may be hard to believe, but there is a line not even I would cross. And I've eaten a pickled pig lip. Once. Blerg.



Now, that I can see. A slice of cheeze and there ya go.

Pizza is the best option for this. A medium size or small size pizza will be great.
The best instant pizza recipe is here : http://www.foodily.com/r/xz2apkbdqc-joes-favorite-pizza-by-joes-pizza

Get a grill.
Make grill Hot.
Put red meat on grill.
Cook red meat to your liking.
Eat red meat.

Go to McDonald's for everything else.

That should just about cover every meal for a single man.

I do not argue such sound advice McGentrix but this time I will have to. I'm looking to eat healthier and that means less MCDS, I'm 41 and not getting any younger.

How are you doing with your cooking?

This thread inspired me to try some new (to me) things with the crockpot. I made a chicken in it over Christmas - the leftovers were fantastic and the leftover leftovers made a good soup base and the leftover leftover leftovers (all the junk in the bottom of the crockpot liner after I'd made soup) made an excellent start to the dog's broth.

I haven't had a chance to try anything yet. Lots of changes going on the last few months and I've been swamped. I just got a slow cooker for Christmas from my sister and I made my first beef stew last week. It wasn't half bad.

I'm not sure what the weather is like where you are - if it's cold, go with the slow cooker as much as you can. If someone hasn't told you already, invest in a couple of boxes of liners - turns the clean-up time to literally seconds. You can get them at dollar type stores (as well as amazon and most hardware stores).




<edit - just checked, here they are about half the amazon price when you get them at a dollar store>

I second the liner idea. I feel like testifying in a house of worship - they changed my life!

Seriously. They are awesome.

oh yeah sistah!

I feel like Setanta says his grandmother felt about cake mix - life changer!

You could get yourself a wife... or a Pot Noodle.

Same thing really.

I agree with all that, ehBeth. Leftover leftover leftovers are often a kind of treasure. Hidden treasure, if I didn't label them if I put them in the freezer.

I've got a soup on hand now that started out as a package of pork for posole, not a lean cut, (I'd had no intention of making posole), cooked in a crock pot until it tasted good* (I usual have cpot on low, but this time high), with water, new mexican chile peppers, thawed caramelized onions, garlic, cumin). Delicious.

After I scraped off the cold fat on top after refrigerating, that remainder kept as leftovers for a few days/fridge, still good, still a bunch left even after a couple of more meals (sandwich, tortilla wrap). So, I made a batch of rice, added the leftover to that with some leftover tomato sauce, and some leftover sauteed collard greens, diluted with more water and cooked back down a bit.

Delicious again, and it's a pretty good volume of soup ..again. A lot of the flavor in the juice was first in the form of aspic (jelly), which dilutes easily, and the meat is still flavorful even now.

*usually you can leave a crockpot on low for hours, and I suppose some have timers - mine is just a cheapo item. This was the first time I've used high on my crock pot, other than to get the heat started. Anyway, it worked, but I was on hand to check the progress.

Hey, good, homemade beef stew..

Our son is single and lives on his own. He cooks most of his own meals because he's very health-conscious. No fast food or fried food for him! He's not interested in cooking just a single serving because he doesn't have time to cook every day, so he cooks in quantity, for two or three days at a time. He also freezes leftovers.

In the spring, summer and fall, he uses his bbq grill often, but in the wintertime it's too cold, so he uses his crockpot a lot. He forwarded me this website and says that he's made a number of the recipes so far:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/26/slow-cooker-recipes_n_1029031.html?&amp;ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

If you like pork ribs, this recipe is a favourite in our house. I found the recipe on Food.com a few years ago and it's as super-simple as it says. The temperature/timing is accurate, I've found, and the ribs are truly tender and will fall apart. Add potato salad, as the author says, and baked beans or coleslaw.

http://www.food.com/recipe/low-slow-oven-baked-ribs-super-simple-303245

Ok, for seriousness then...

1001 ways to cook chicken. Were I a single man I would get one of those NuWave cooking systems. Easy and safe and less room than a cooktop.

Soup is always a great option. Look into how to make more then a chicken noodle though. Try making a bisque. they are wonderful.

Get a bag of broccoli, rice and cheese (green giant) and fry up some skin less chicken cut into small pieces in olive oil and garlic. Mix it all together for a delicious, healthy meal.

Pizza can be healthy with the right ingredients.

Chili.... mmmmmm good. So many recipes too.

Remember that red meat in moderation is healthy.

Go on dates and try out various restaurants. If the date doesn't work, at least you've had a good meal.

Just some ideas, I am sure that you will make some good choices.

Nevah sans sesame seed oil here. (why does spell check not recognize sesame, mysterious)
Plus I'm thinking of making my own tahini, expensive to buy, not sure why, seems easy if you have a bulk section with sesame seeds in your store.

I'm off to make cole slaw again, still riffing off of panzade's early post, sort of unrecognizable by now.

The idea is that I'll make a tortilla wrap, involving cole slaw and grocery store andouille and maybe a scrambled egg. Or not. The carrots and green beans are in the cole slaw. The flour tortilla here is by El Horno, inexpensive, less obnoxious to a californian that all the other fluffie Texan type ones.