Food For Thought
Cooking for two
By Leanne Ely, C.N.C.
Whether you’re just starting out, a single parent, out or empty nesters the challenge is the same. How do I cook for just a few rather than a whole crew. What I hear most often is “it seems like so much work to cook for just the two of us”. So what’s a cook to do?
If you plan well it’s really not that difficult to create dishes for two as opposed to four or five. There are several ways that you can adjust mom’s recipes to work for you and your new family. You might have to think outside the box, and make a few adjustments but it can be done.
Add it up
Use math to shrink a recipe to the correct amounts. In some cases this can easily be done. If you’re cooking for two and you need to cut a recipe in half, just simply divide all amounts by two if the recipe states that it serves four. This is simple to do for many recipes such as pork chops, stir-fry, chicken dishes and other single food dishes.
Feed your freezer
For some dishes this might not work well such as with casseroles, soups and stews. In that case, make the entire amount, then freeze the rest.
In fact you can use freezer cooking to put aside wonderful dishes to pull out for surprise guests. Simply invest in some good freezer containers, and immediately upon the food being ready to serve, save half or more to the containers for the freezer.
By doing this for an entire week, you will then have 7 freezer meals ready to heat up and could technically then have 7 days of meals without cooking so you’d only have to cook every other week. This can be a great cost savings over eating out when you’re tired too.
Brownbag it
By using individual containers you can create instant lunches and homemade “TV dinners” to use on nights you’re just too tired to cook. Your lunches will be easy to heat up at work in the microwave. If you have a long commute make sure you freeze the dish and put in a cooler for transport to work.
See that wasn’t so difficult was it? Just a few simple steps and you too can have dinner on the table just like mom used to.
0 Responses
I’ve been gluten free for 6 years. The gluten free offerings in stores and restaurants are unimpressive, so I ‘bank’ food like this for myself all the time. There are just 2 of us now and by planning ahead we have varied and delicious meals.
I’ve been a fan of yours and a periodic customer for about 8 years.