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Cooking for one.

onejayhawk

Afflicted with reason
Joined
Jul 6, 2002
Messages
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Location
next to George Bush's parents
A friend of mine is now a SMLA (single [American] male living a loan). My bachelor years are back a ways, but I'm the best cook he knows (poor guy). I suspect he means the best male cook, but you can see his problem. In any event, this is a thread for such individuals.

Posted elsewhere, but worth repeating.

How to make soup.

1) choose a base: 2 cups tomato sauce, 6 cups water, 3 cups stock

2) add a meat: 1# browned beef, 1 cup diced cooked poultry, 8 pieces of cooked bacon, 1 cup cooked game, etc.

3) add 2-4 cups fresh or cooked vegetables: onions sauted in olive oile, carrots, celery, corn, parsley, diced tomatoes, green beans, peas, parsnips, rutabegas.

4) add a starch: 2 cups cooked rice or pasta, 1 cup dried peas or lentels plus 2 cups water, 1 cup barleyor millet plus 1 cup water, 2 cups cooked beans, 2 cans beans with gravy, 2-3 cups potaoes, or 2 cups frozen fries (the cheap kind with no oil).

5) add 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsps seasonings: dried basil, oragano, rosemary, tyme, sage. If fresh use triple amounts.

6) If a cream soup is desired, 2 cups 1/2 and 1/2 or heavier cream or 1 cup powdered coffee creamer. Shredded cheese may also be added but not to a boiling mix or it will curdle.

Cook fresh vegetables in water or stock til tender or saute in butter or olive oil til slightly browed. Mix all ingredients in large pot or slow cooker and heat over low heat for 1-2 hours to blend flavors. Add beer, popcorn, croutons, shredded cheese just before serving if desired.​

You can keep left over food tubs in the freezer compartment. Many can go into soup or stews. Pasta sauce can go into chili. Chili plus water can be your soup base.

When I was single, cooking too much was a big issue. Most cookbook recipes are for at least four servings. A lot of things can be divided before, during or after cooking. Freeze the part you will not eat right away.

A rice cooker can be a big asset. The number of things that can be poured over rice or pasta is staggering. Cooking rice in a quality cooker is idiot proof.

J
 
there is a cooking thread on here. at least, a "what are you making tonight" kind of deal. Or, for the glorious bachelorhood, "what are you making tonight and having leftovers for the next 4 days"
 
there is a cooking thread on here. at least, a "what are you making tonight" kind of deal. Or, for the glorious bachelorhood, "what are you making tonight and having leftovers for the next 4 days"

:lol:

I just did a dry rub on a package of chicken thighs, and now I have baked chicken for 5 days straight.
 
I was thinking earlier this week that CFC could use a recipes thread, with an index of recipes. We do have the "What are you making tonight?" thread, and there are some good recipes in there, but they often get buried in the middle.

My favorite to have leftovers of for four days is chili:

1. Dice up a bell pepper and an onion. Mince 1 clove of garlic. Brown 1 pound of hamburg with said vegetables and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a skillet until the meat is cooked and the onions are translucent.

2. Add the above plus 42.5 oz canned diced tomatoes and 28 oz. of drained canned beans (kidney, black, etc.) in a large pot. Spice with 1 tablespoon chili powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Stir together, let boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Optionally, you can also add hot peppers (jalapenos, serranos, chilis, etc.) or pepper mixes such as sambal oelak to add some heat.


I actually like it when I have a fair amount of leftovers because then I can bring it in for lunch the next day and often can also have it for dinner again, thus not having to cook the next day.

I am curious how one cooks and/or eats rutabagas. I'd never so much as heard of them until I was nearly 20 years of age, but I do see them in stores. I have no idea what to actually do with one, though. Put it in soup, sure, but do you chop it up and sautee it, or just put the whole thing into raw, or what?
 
One should always eat rutabegas raw. The smell of one cooking is enough to drive me from a house. Raw they have a subtle, slightly peppery flavor and nice crunch, suitable for dipping. Ditto for cauliflower.

Raw veggies is good bachelor food. They are very healthy, easy to make and can be kept refrigerated several days.

J
 
When I was in college I could never really manage to scale down recipes for only myself. My roommates rarely wanted to eat with me (most of them had meal plans) so I did indeed eat the same thing for 4 days quite often.

Tomorrow I'm planning on doing the opposite, taking a recipe meant for a single serving and scaling it up for a family of 4. The recipe is for a dish that I would often order while a college student at the best on-campus restaurant. Both the dish and the restaurant are called the Tin Drum. The owner shared his recipe with the newspaper last month.

http://www.ajc.com/news/lifestyles/food-cooking/from-the-menu-of-tim-drum-asiacafe/ngYcb/
 
My easy pizza recipie:

1. Take some sort of flatbread, pita bread, naan, etc. and spread a bunch of tomato sauce on it. Ay sort of tomato-based sauce will do - spaghetti sauce, salsa, actual pizza sauce, whatever you prefer.
2. Sprinkle cheese and/or whatever toppings you want on top.
3. Leave in the oven for at least 10 minutes, at least around 300 degrees Fahrenheit (though to be honest you can make it hotter if it works better for you). Remove once the "crust" is hard enough to your liking, and the middle bottom of the bread is warm enough.
4. Enjoy.

Usually I have to make at least 2-4 for one person, though. Amount of tomato sauce may vary depending on your preferences and how much the bread can handle - certain types of bread can't handle too much sauce, for instance. Additionally, be wary of adding too many toppings to the pizza, these breads aren't built to handle too much on them.
 
Suggestion for soup. Leave out the starch. Make rice or noodles or whatnot separately in small quantity and add to hot (or reheated) soup in bowl. The starch component degrades in the reheating process, and this will make your (seemingly endless) leftovers taste much better.
 
Cooking for one is a pain in the neck. It's a downward spiral towards eating uncooked food nearly all the time, in my experience.
 
I hate cooking for one. When I was single my way out of it was moving in with a friend and cook food for him too. That was a win-win.
 
Deserve to stare vacantly at the pot. Only get out for groceries. Stare out into the yard.

There is a street outside. I can hide from it.
 
How to make salmon sushi:

1) buy some salmon
2) buy some sea kale
3) buy some avocado sauce
4) prepare salmon and roll it in sea kale
5) apply sauce over the mass

voilà!
 
Thinner, without the chunks, and with different spices/additives...flavor of avocado sauce is generally more like straight avocado flavor. Sometimes you can find it in a bottle if you shop hard enough.
 
I eat canned food mostly. I can get vegetables, fish, fruit and make quick, nifty combo with them...it's pretty great. Sometimes I cook, but I really can't be bothered most of the time. If I buy fresh vegetables or fruit it usually rots and goes to waste. I know eating canned is not healthy but I deemed it better than just eating pasta and sandwiches over and over again.
 
All of my "cooking" consists of 6 ingredients or less and takes less than 10 minutes to prepare
 
TIL there is a thing called avocado sauce, which I will be looking hard for at the supermarket.

I have been experimenting with a breakfast burrito that contains bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, and guacamole. It is delicious. Unfortunately, no real way to scale down the production since I can't find less than a half-pound of thick-cut bacon and a relatively large container of guacamole for one person.
 
On a side note, a lazy bachelor (me) has a hard time a bit with freshness of produce. I dont want to take the time to go get things "as I need them", so my trips to grocery store stock up on what I think I might use.

Then some things have short time windows, like avocados. Avocados were on sale super recently and I got 4. The struggle is real trying to eat avocado in their short window of maximum goodness.
 
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