How to Cook for One

Preparing meals for just one individual can sometimes be a challenge. I am a single mom with just a baby and a 7 year old who is a very picky eater (there are a very limited selection of foods that my 7 year old will eat). When my oldest child was just a baby, that is when I first learned how to cook for just one.

The truth is that the best way for you to learn how to cook for one is a combined mixture of research and trial-and-error. It is a good idea for you to plan ahead of time; this is exactly what someone would if they were cooking for a whole family. The benefit of cooking for a family is that you can save a whole lot of money, simply by buying items in bulk. Unfortunately, buying in bulk does not serve a single person very well; that is unless they plan to freeze the food and reheat it at a later date.

I don't know too many people who can continue to eat off of the same meal until it is completely gone. So, if you must buy/prepare more than you can consume within a reasonable amount of time, then it is a good idea for you to invest in vacuum sealing device, which you can use to freeze your meals. Vacuum-sealed, frozen food will be very handy on those days when you do not feel like cooking or you simply do not have the time.

The good news is that there are now a whole lot of cookbooks available that are specifically targeted toward individuals who need ideas for cooking for one. I have a small collection of my own and I find these recipes to be great alternatives to something that I have sitting in my freezer.

Before I learned to cook for one, all my meals came from the frozen food isle of the grocery store. I started seeking other alternatives because the best frozen foods cost the same amount of money as eating out (at least they do where I live). I also grew tired of eating the same meals over and over again. Now, am truly able to enjoy every meal that I eat because I have stocked up on "cooking for one" recipes, and I have invested in a cool vacuum device for freezing my favorites.

A great resource to research and find good recipes for cooking for one, is your local library. And of course, there is always the great big, information super highway_ the World Wide Web.