How to Make Great Meals for One

When I get home from a long day at work, the very last thing I want to do is choke down some microwaved chicken nuggets, a starchy paste claiming to be mashed potatoes and some dehydrated carrots.

But living alone, crunched for both time and money, I don't have time to whip up a gourmet meal for four - half of which will end up in the trash can if I fail to eat the leftovers quickly enough.

So what do I do? A number of things, all of which help me create cheap, health-conscious, fast meals that - most importantly - taste good. Here, culled from years of living on my own from college to present, are my tips on cooking for one.

1. Use your freezer. I hate throwing out food, but most food products - from loaves of bread to packages of chicken breasts - come in sizes too large for one person to consume before the product expires.

Instead, I just freeze everything in freezer-safe bags. If I'm freezing something like chicken or beef, which can freeze into hard-to-separate masses, I portion the product into individual servings before I freeze it. Then I just take out a portion and heat it up as needed. Depending on the kind of food, the product will stay good for weeks and sometimes months to come.

Freezers are also a great place for frozen veggies and fruits. I love produce, but, if I buy a bunch of the fresh stuff at the store, I'm stuck eating copious amounts of it all week in a race against decomposition. With frozen, I only have to use what I need, and it tastes just as good as - if not better than - the fresh. Plus, most stores have really good veggie mixes now that include vegetables I would never attempt to skin/chop/prepare on my own.

My favorite way to use frozen fruit is in a yummy breakfast syrup for one. Just heat about a ½ cup of berries - raspberries, blueberries, mixed berries, whatever - with about a tablespoon of maple syrup in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally until the berries pop and then pour over pancakes, waffles or French toast.

2. Learn to scale down your favorite recipes. Most cookbooks come built with the nuclear family in mind, featuring meals built for four to six people. But smart cooks can shrink any recipe to accommodate one or two.

Halve the size of a favorite casserole and bake it in a smaller pan; try a quiche recipe using a mini-pie pan and a quarter of the recipe for the filling. Brush up on your math skills and - if all else fails - improvise.

Inspired by a recipe on the back of Minute Brown Rice, I scaled down this recipe for black bean and rice tacos to make a nice-sized burrito for one - it's one of my favorite weeknight standards.

To start, you'll need:

- ½ cup of canned black beans, rinsed and drained

- One-quarter of a green bell pepper, chopped

- some salsa

- ¼ cup Minute brown rice

- A tortilla

- About a ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a small saucepan, combine the black beans, chopped pepper and a couple of glugs of salsa - I add a lot, but some people may like less. Pour in ¼ cup of water and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Once boiling, add brown rice, cover and cook on low for 5 minutes. Stir, remove from heat and let stand - covered - for another 5 minutes. Once done, pour rice mixture onto tortilla, sprinkle with cheese (pop it in the microwave for a couple of seconds if you like it melty), fold burrito-style and enjoy!

3. Plan ahead. Plotting out your meals for the week really helps cut down on the amount of food you can waste as a single diner. For instance, the burrito recipe above calls for ¼ of a green pepper and just half a cup of black beans - but then you're stuck with the rest of the can of black beans and ¾ of a pepper.

What to do? The rest of the week, plan recipes that incorporate those ingredients in other meals. Toss the beans into a pot of chili; sprinkle some of the chopped green pepper on a pita bread pizza.

By just thinking ahead, you won't waste a lot of food or get stuck eating the same meal over and over again. And, if you still end up with a lot of leftover ingredients at the end of the week, just get creative and throw them all together.

Whenever I have a lot of perishable produce left over, I like to make a veggie couscous mix. I just chop up whatever fresh produce I have - bell peppers, sliced mushrooms, onion - throw in some frozen stuff - chopped broccoli - and sauté them all in a pan with Italian dressing. Then I toss them with some couscous and feta cheese. Easy!

Other miscellaneous tips:

- Think small. Look for scaled-down products at the grocery store. For example, instead of buying a whole can of tomato sauce, look for mini ones from companies like Hunt's. They're perfect for one or two servings, cheaper and taste great if you doctor them up with some fresh herbs.

I also love cheese sticks. Grocery stores sell individually wrapped servings of cheese in all kinds of flavors now - cheddar, pepper jack, mozzarella. They're a little pricier than just buying a bag of shredded Kraft sometimes, but they're individual wrapping means they won't go bad right after you open the package. Plus, you can slice them, chop them, shred them - everything you do with normal hunks of cheese, just without the waste.

- Get crazy. Eating alone is not the most exciting activity you'll undertake most days, so it helps if your food can bring a little action to the table. Try new ingredients and combinations regularly to make your meal more enjoyable; you don't even need to step very far out of your comfort zone. Usually make a grilled cheese sandwich? Try an exotic cheese or a new kind of bread, throw in some thinly sliced apples or a little bit of ham. Small changes can make big differences when it comes to cooking.

- Share your ideas. Got your own single cooking tips? Post them in the comments section below to share with everyone else!