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I've never marinated chicken breasts (though I understand it's common and popular and normal). I generally do something like a pan-steam. I don't know if it has a technical cooking term but this is what I do:
I wash the breast under cold water and rub a couple drops of lemon juice over the whole thing just to make sure all the slime is off (preporptioned frozen chicken boobs feel weird).
I then chop the raw breast into chunks, and mince up one chunk for the cat (she loves raw chicken).
While I'm chopping, I have a teaspoon of olive oil heating up on the stove in an omelet pan. I swish it around so it coats the whole thing, then dump the chicken boob into the pan.
While it's sizzling, I shake some McCormack's seasoning on it. Either Montreal Steak, or 5-pepper spice, or Hamburger spice. Depends on my mood and what I'm cooking it with. For mexican (I've been on a big tex-mex kick lately), it's the 5-pepper.
I'll add either a big glob of bruschetta or pico de gallo (depending on the mood), turn the boob chunks over, and lower the heat to simmer.
Around 2 minutes later, I'll pour a palmful of water into the pan, and cover it, allowing it to steam through the contents.
Then, it's all done, and I dump it over salad, or macaroni, or on a plate, or whatever else. One time I mixed it right into a Broccoli and Cheese veggie side-dish that I had heated up in the microwave. Turned into something like a skillet dish and was pretty awesome. I'm gonna try it with garlic peas and mushrooms next
I understand the social aspect of it too by the way. I didn't get into a committed relationship with anyone til I was 28, and moved out for college when I was 18 and only lived home again for a year, during that decade. Since I was living comfortably, but not "well," I often made meals in my apartment, or shared the cooking duties with housemates (depending on where I was living that year). When I wanted to socialize away from my place, I went to the coffeeshop and hung out there. Price of admission: the cost of a cup of coffee, per person. We could stay there for hours as long as we didn't scare off the other customers
I just want to see what others do who live alone like me.
I'm not a cook at all really. I'd much rather get takeout almost daily for dinner & there's certainly enough restaurants & eateries around here for that. So there's never much food in my refrigerator. Occasionally, I do like a nice salad or maybe a few other foods to make at home, so I buy the smallest portions I can at the grocery store, but since I get takeout so much, I end up having to throw food away. I'm also the type who like different meals pretty much daily. It would be broing for me to eat the same foods until the ingredients are gone.
Is anyone in this kind of situation? What do you do to cut down on wasting food (& money)?
You've described *me* perfectly! I'm the same way. I like something different every day and I'm so busy that when I come home--usually late--I don't want to cook. I'm eager to hear the responses that others come up with. Since I do eat out so much, I try to pick healthier options (no fast food). Also, when I get take-out, I try to split the meal in half so that it stretches over two meals.
The difficulty for me is that fresh produce seems to go bad quickly, so I tend to get items that: 1) can store well in the pantry or freezer, and 2) can be combined easily to make a quick meal. This includes bags of chicken breasts, pre-made ravioli and stuffed shells, pre-made wontons, fish that was divided into smaller portions before going into the freezer, etc. Also, jars of pasta, organic instant oatmeal, canned beans...
Buy a few pounds of ground beef. 85% lean is optimum, shouldn't be more than $4/pound if you buy packages bigger than single-pound (in some places it's significantly less, in others it might be slightly more). Some supermarkets have butchers who grind daily on the premises; that's what you want. Otherwise, go to a butcher shop. Don't buy the stuff that comes in from a central warehouse already ground, it's nasty-tasting.
Divide the beef into fist-sized portions, and stick each portion in its own plastic ziplock baggie. Smush the baggie til it's sort of flat-ish, and stack each portion in the freezer - except one. Cook that one up within the next 48 hours. Now, you have 2 meals of chicken, and 1 meal of ground beef you can make tacos, or a cheeseburger, or stir-fry with veggies, or make a couple of meatballs with some oregano, a little garlic, and some breadcrumbs softened with a splash of milk. Your choice - a three-pound package will make around 9 individual-sized servings - 1/3 pound prior to cooking.
Anon, I just pour that Lawry's Baja Chipotle over the top of the chicken breast while they're cooking in the oven (like BBQ sauce). I don't have time to marinade.
My mom is widowed, since 2005.
It breaks my heart to go for visits and open up her fridge.
She got deathly ill from eating molded strawberries.
I clean out her fridge and get rid of expired/ moldy food.
I bought her a few cooking for 1 cookbooks, and sent her some links like the one above.
You have to really find a balance between eating out and making healthy food at home for yourself. think about your well being.
Good luck.
Although I can cook huge complicated feasts when i wish, I keep much of my day-to-day cooking very simple. A couple of key ingredients, a simple sauce, easy prep.
I invested in a few containers that are sized for a single dinner portion. Whenever I cook I cook for two, then eat one and put the other portion in a container and either 1) stick it in the fridge for a second meal later in the week, or 2) freeze it for eating later. Keep a roll of freezer tape and a sharpie marker handy for noting the contents and the date so you can manage them (the way restaurants do). This simple technique alone cuts my cooking in half.
There are many relatively healthy frozen meals available now, like Amy's Organics or the Healthy Choice steamer baskets, that only take a few minutes to prepare. I keep a couple on hand for those occasional times when I just don't have the energy for anything else.
Remember, this is not an all or nothing choice. If you just cut down your restaurant meals by one a week you are making an improvement, two is better.
My s/o works out of state two weeks out of the month, so often times its just me. I know it's "processed" food, but I frequently buy those bagged Stouffers meals, they're perfect for one person. My favorite one is the 'grilled chicken and vegetables'. I'll fix myself a piece of garlic toast with it and it's a complete meal.
Another thing I keep on hand are individually frozen chicken breasts or fish fillets, I can just thaw a couple of them at the time. If you have a FoodSaver machine you could even buy fresh and divide it before freezing.
+1 for the FoodSaver. I live alone and that thing has been great. I buy hamburger and portion it before freezing into 1/4 lb segments. I buy packages of chicken breast and freeze them in foodsaver bags individually.
I always have a problem keeping milk (for things like mac & cheese, mashed potatoes, etc). I've taken to buying canned evaporated (not sweetened) milk for when I don't have fresh milk in the house. Also, though it has more calories, heavy cream lasts longer than milk.
Vegetables are tough, but those green bags seem to help carrots and celery last longer than they might otherwise. Potatoes can be kept in the refrigerator for a while.
Making big meals on the weekend and then freezing portions is a great technique too. If, for example, I go out of my way to make a shepherds pie on the weekend I might as well make a couple and freeze one. I make tomato sauce in batches and freeze some.
Another technique is to stretch a protein into different main courses. For example, I'll cook (or buy if you don't want to cook) a whole chicken on the weekend. That night I'll have chicken with rice or potatoes. The next day I'll pick the chicken. Some I might turn into chicken tacos; the rest I'll put into a quick soup. You'd be surprised how easy a soup is if you've already got the chicken. Cut up some vegetables, buy some boxed chicken broth, cook it up, then add the chicken at the end. That's three different meals out of one chicken.
For beef, buy a package and make meatballs. Freeze them into individual portions (three to five depending on size). Then you can either heat up a beef gravy (if you don't want to make one) and serve it with noodles, or pull out some tomato sauce and have Italian. I've learned all sorts of these tricks over the years from living alone!
Trial and error. Do you have a crockpot? I use mine a lot. I like to cook chicken in it. I can throw in a piece of two in the morning, put it on low all day, and the chicken is ready when I get home from work. Make sure you put some water over it so it doesn't burn. Sometimes I season it with a little fresh pepper and parsley while it cooks. You can make chicken tacos, fajitas, chicken salad for sandwiches, or put it in a salad. Or you could marinate it in the fridge all day and bake it (putting it in the crock pot gives it a shredded texture.
I make chili a lot. A pound of hamburger, tomatoes and tomato sauce, black and pinto beans, and chili powder. You can add in veggies or jalapenos, whatever you like. I made it in the crock pot and it freezes really well. I make stir fry a lot too. I like the boil in a bag rice, I'll cut up veggies and do them in a skillet with some marinade and voila, really good stir fry that isn't too large of a portion. It can take more time to prepare your own meals, but unless you have unlimited funds it gets really expensive eating out for every meal and it's not very healthy for you. Good luck!
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