Rebecca from the podcast Table for One shares her tips for making cooking for one easier and more enjoyable. Whether you live alone or regularly cook just for yourself, this episode is for you!
Today's episode is all about the joys of Cooking for One.
We all know the story. You get home from work late, you're alone and you have zero desire to pull out pots and pans to make dinner for yourself. Maybe you reach for a bowl of cereal or perhaps you grab your phone to order takeout.
But it doesn't have to be this way. Sure, there are night's when both of those options are just what the doctor ordered, but they aren't a solution every night! And cooking for one doesn't have to be exhausting and time consuming.
In today's episode I chat to Rebecca, host of the podcast Table for One, who shares all her tips for making cooking for one easier and more enjoyable.
Rebecca is a Salt Lake City based registered dietitian who creates quick and delicious recipes for people who are cooking for one. She is a recipe developer, food photographer & videographer, and runs the food blog, Nourish Nutrition Blog that's full of recipes and tips for people cooking for one. She loves cooking, gardening, and hiking.
You'll love Rebecca's laid back and doable approach to tackling solo cooking!
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Positives of Cooking for One
- You can cook what you want.
- You don't have to make adjustments or changes to your cooking based on other people's preferences.
- There's a lot of flexibility with cooking for one - you can play around with new recipes and you can cook whenever you want to and don't have to have dinner on the table at a certain time.
- License to experiment more in the kitchen.
Challenges of Cooking for One
- Learning how to scale down recipes as most recipes are 4-6 serves and that's too much food for one person, even when you portion it out over the week.
- Not looking forward to cooking after a long day.
- It can be viewed as a lonely process.
- Doing a lot of meal planning that is "just" for you. Can seem more arduous when it's for one.
- Working out what to do with leftovers, including leftover ingredients (fresh produce, chicken broth etc).
How to make cooking something to look forward to
- Make cooking easier and more helpful have a well stocked pantry, fridge and freezer.
- Play music, a podcast or your favourite TV show while you cook.
Tips for making cooking for one easier
- Have a well-stocked kitchen and be realistic. If you aren't someone who loves meal planning, that's OK. You can throw something together from food in your pantry / fridge / freezer on a whim.
- Shop at home first. Look at what you have already before you head to the supermarket. Is there produce that needs to be used up?
- Choose recipes based off of ingredients so you can easily use ingredients up e.g. make a few meals with butternut pumpkin / squash over the week.
SCALING DOWN RECIPES
- Cut it in half and cook for two. Keep the second serve for lunch the next day.
- Make the whole recipe and freeze in portions for later.
TIME STAMP
5:17 - Positives of Cooking for One
8:00 - Challenges of Cooking for One
12:55 - How to Make Cooking Something to Look Forward To
18:55 - Tips for Making Cooking for One Easier
25:15 - Scaling down Recipes
LINKS DISCUSSED
Rebecca's Cooking for One Pantry Staples List
Warm Harvest Bowl with Apples and Maple Glazed Butternut Squash
PODCASTS
WHERE TO FIND REBECCA
MORE EPISODES
Visit our show page for more episodes!
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