| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/22/2008 4:59:45 PM | one thing I've tried is to freeze the sause instead of the whole meal. I make my own salsa then put it in ice cube trays, let it freeze over night then transfer it to a freezer bag when I want something with a salsa taste I take out as many cubes as I need.
It workes good in tomato soup or add to your favorite pasta. I do this with beef broth vedelia onions and mushrooms makes a quick tasty meal. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/22/2008 11:13:33 PM | People tell me that I do not cook since I do not mix ingredients. I prepare meals usually of fresh foods. I buy chicken, beef, pork in serving sizes weekly, cover with different mustard's and black pepper and broil. I steam veggies on the stove or in the microwave. I have the whole deal down to a science, I heat up my food, eat it, then wash up everything dirty, generally takes me an hour or so.
Kewl | |
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zeeba
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Joined: 8/31/2008
Msg: 28 | |
| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/23/2008 4:54:19 PM | I had to pop on over to this thread.
My main motivation to cook for one? Taste, pure and simple. I really dislike the processed taste of frozen, most canned, or convenience dinners. And very fortunately, there are a variety of alternatives that didn't exist years ago!
I just finished a good and quick meal of sauteed lean ground sirloin patties, with a side dish of a veggie mixture (frozen snow peas, cauliflower, and carrots.) Took about 20 minutes literally from start to finish, and I'm also done with the dishes!
I also own a slow cooker with a timer, which is a godsend. I can mix up a meat loaf when I'm home from work over the noon hour, set that baby for four hours on high, and come home to good cooking scents! The other night, I was hungry for cobbler, so I used one refrigerated pie crust and a bag of frozen peach slices. I cut the pie crust to fit the bottom and top of a small baking dish, tossed the peach slices with sugar, a teaspoon of cornstarch, and a bit of vanilla extract. Baked it for about an hour, and that's totally satisfied my cobbler craving.
Luckily so far, I've never gotten burnt out on cooking for myself. And as the old metabolism slows down, it helps incredibly to keep the weight where it should, and also the figure where it should... | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/23/2008 5:09:56 PM | | Fresh, real food is worth it. My standbys are grilled fish, easily bought for one, chicken breast, etc. I freeze individual servings of meat or fish. I might add a little fresh pasta with veggies. Add a glass of wine and all is good. I cook for friends at least once a week and utilize those leftovers, but I am totally worth the little effort in cooking a simple, fresh meal. For dessert, I roast a fresh peach or some plums and top with greek yogurt and honey. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/23/2008 6:32:10 PM | | Hi, That is what they made freezers for and all of the freezer bags and so forth. It is certainly much better to eat at home with all of the diabetes and illness that are out there eating a well balanced diet is in your best interest. We all know that the fast foods that so many people are eating every day is not good for us. It is really much better to cook your food at home at least you know what you are eating and you also know how it was prepared and cooked. Eat at home | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/23/2008 7:16:15 PM | | In the week my kids are with their father, I'll make a pot of soup and eat that over a few days or make an omelette or whatever. Something simple. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/23/2008 7:46:07 PM | | Maybe you could find someone to trade dinners with, you can cook for 2 or 4 and then trade, then both of you will have different things all week long. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/24/2008 10:00:21 AM | no offense to any posters, but i don't think the OP was looking for HOW to literally cook for one; they were saying its hard to get MOTIVATED to do so; that they like to cook but it seems anticlimactic without someone to share it with
OP, hope you don't mind me paraphrasing, and please forgive and correct me if i'm wrong
i am interested in answers to THAT question because i also find that i easily default to take out or frozen entrees, not because i don't know i can cook and package/freeze, but because i just can't get myself to do it except once in a blue moon........i always enjoy it when do, but i don't do it nearly often enough | |
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zeeba
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Joined: 8/31/2008
Msg: 34 | |
| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/24/2008 10:16:21 AM | Beadonna,
I think that's a good idea to focus upon the original question. As noted, my primary motivation is indeed taste. I like to enjoy my food, and I do a pretty good job at coming up with new combinations, spices, etc.
And I may be weird (heaven knows I must be...otherwise I'd have the guys lining up at my door! Just teasing.)  But, I do look forward every day to figuring out what to cook next! It's a fun challenge and opportunity.
So what's for dinner tonight? Well, that is for me to know and you to find out... | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/24/2008 1:01:40 PM | charm, thats one of the neatest ideas i've heard. wouldn't work for me as i'm rural with no singles around,but,for someone in a densely populated area it's a great idea. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/24/2008 6:11:22 PM |
no offense to any posters, but i don't think the OP was looking for HOW to literally cook for one; they were saying its hard to get MOTIVATED to do so; that they like to cook but it seems anticlimactic without someone to share it with
beadonna, it seems that most of the posts here have been exactly on topic. I see a few recipes thrown in, and general chit chat, but to me, the inspiration and motivation have been front and center. Which thread are you reading?  | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/24/2008 10:53:27 PM | I love to cook! Restaurant food gets old fast. The fat content is astronomical. Once in a while, sure, but as a habit?
I like an occasional steak dinner. 'Ever price one at a restaurant? I mean a REAL steak dinner, a porterhouse or rib-eye, thick, charcoal grilled medium rare, swimming in sauteed mushrooms, garlic and butter. Yeah! A huge baked potato, brimming with creamery butter and sour creme. Whoa! ...... 'Guess I lost control. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/25/2008 8:16:22 AM | Oh ambelcanto you lost me at the creamy buter and sour cream..................oh well!  | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/26/2008 12:32:17 PM | I do what so many here do--just cook it and portion it out. And I go one further to help me not cave in so much to last minute decions for fast food (oh, don't get me wrong...I'll go get fast food at the drop of a hat!! LOL). I actually do a menu and plan ahead what I will have so I can have it to look forward to. I don't always stick with the plan, but I find it helps. I've tried to remember to plan things I really like so it doesn't get boring. I think this Recipe and Cooking Forum helps a great deal too. Now some of the folks are into "eye of newt, wing of bat" type recipes, always trying to push the envelope with something new and exotic, and if that works for them, great. But there are also lots of people putting on just nice simple recipes, things I've forgotten about over the years, or things I've never tried. That helps keep it fresh. The europeans and Canadians are especially helpful to me since my mom was from England and I grew up with those foods more than American ones.
One new trick I'm trying is to have my main meal at noon like I used to do (not literally noon, but the mid day meal). And as I'm writign this, the timer has just gone off on a simple dish called Russian Beef (it's a simplified stroganoff like beef). It has sounded good for days, and when I have lunch/dinner I am really going to enjoy it.
It's good to read the struggles others have and how they overcome. Always good to know the boat is bigger than you think.
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/26/2008 12:37:27 PM | i definitely go through phases with cooking (or not)..........either i am totally doing take out and frozen dinners all the time, or i am doing alot of cooking. this time of year seems to be when i want to break out my recipes
maybe to get motivated you could try some new recipes, or take an old favorite and figure out a variation........when i am in this mood to shop and cook, i love it and enjoy trying new things
i would also say, and i need to do this myself.........if you take the time to cook yourself a nice meal, sit at the table and eat it ............i think many of us cooking and eating for one tend to eat in front of the computer or on the couch......just a thought
ive even thought of buying myself some flowers for the center of the table.........you don't have to have company to have a special meal .... it IS worth cooking just for YOU!!
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/26/2008 1:26:28 PM | I always go through phases too, especially with breakfast. I get on a waffle kick or a certain breakfast scramble or whatever, so meals are never boring here at my place, but this works for me when I need motivation (well besides inviting someone over ):
Try a new really nice well stocked well lit grocery store! Shop somewhere they don't have the typical boring same old everyday things! That always gets me going when I see a nice piece of fish or some great looking steaks etc, but what really does it for me is seeing shelves with a hundred different olive oils, seeing spices I don't see at other stores, different and new brand names, I like the variety and something new always triggers me to want to use it in one of my recipes or develop a new one.
And if they are really well stocked on hot sauces I don't see all over? LMAO!! I will stand there half an hour and READ the labels! Yeah cannot leave there without at least one or two just because I never tried them before.
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/26/2008 1:32:43 PM | | I agree with you! Why spend hours cooking, then pick at it. Even if I freeze it, I don't want it. Wish there was a place, you could take what you cook, go in look around, find good cook too, then take turns cooking! Maybe, for a five day period.??? | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 9/26/2008 2:12:09 PM | | Their is a cook book called Cooking For Two. They have some really nice ideas and you wouldn't be freezing back as much to get tired of. | |
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wilful
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Joined: 8/17/2008
Msg: 44 | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 3/27/2009 8:49:20 PM | | I motivate myself by just not wanting to eat out all the time ! I used a wok tonight and just simple ingredients that I like. It was fast, healthy and delicious ! | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 3/28/2009 8:43:38 AM | | My motivation nowadays to cook and eat in is price. It is much cheaper to eat something at home than get it from a restaurant. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 3/29/2009 6:24:04 AM |
My motivation nowadays to cook and eat in is price. It is much cheaper to eat something at home than get it from a restaurant.
What a great time to state that, with all the unemployment and job loss in the last few months.
I am starting to get motivated again, looking at the black earth showing from under the snow on the garden. I am already looking forward to summer, so I can have some fresh roasted veggies, or corn on the cob, grown right here at home. Now, if I can only find someone to sit around a fire late at night and share some of the proceeds, life would be grand.  | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 3/29/2009 7:38:11 AM | Hey scouse....go for it! Make that chicken and peppers in white wine sauce for "1" I think it is all 'BS' that we can't make a meal for one person and have it presentable and tasty without making a gallon and having to freeze the rest (of which never tastes as good after freezing!) My opinion - of course. Every once in a while I plan a great meal - such as the one you describe - and in my fav. grocery store, they sell single servings of meat or fish or poultry. I take this and make the same meal I would for two or more but just with less measurements. I also buy the meat in places that have sales on large pkg'd meat and take the single wrapped frozen serving out in the morning (I buy maybe 10 chicken breasts and put into single freezer bags and freeze individually), and that night I use the same wine in the sauce that I am serving myself along with my gourmet meal! 
The left over wine can be used in another meal later during the week. - unless you have a good corker that takes the air out of the bottle. Flat wine - yuck! | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 3/31/2009 3:14:59 PM | There's no motivation for cooking. I simply enjoy trying different things on a regular basis. If it
s simply cooking for me, family and/or friends. It doesn't matter... I've always got left overs here in my house. At the present point in time... I am cooking some tasty Chicken Wings. It always great to have left-overs so the next day you don't always have to cook.
DolceSempre. | |
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| cooking for one - motivation
Posted: 3/31/2009 3:34:02 PM | Sure there's a motivation for cooking ... when I was single and cooking for myself, I made a point at least once a week to treat myself to a nice dinner. Not only did I cook something special (and I love to cook anyway, so that wasn't a stretch), but I did the table setting with the nice china and silverware, candles, the fireplace, the music just right for the mood ... why not? I deserve(d) it and I always felt better afterward. Like going to the gym ... you may hate it walking in, but you feel better walking out.
Now, I'm cooking for two, but we still do the same thing ... at least once a week if not more often, it's a semi-formal dinner in the dining room with the "full Monty". Still deserve it, and we enjoy it immensely. Great boost to the spirit. | |
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