Single Retirees: What do you Cook for Dinner? (meal, years, restaurant)

[AZgarden]

I hate cooking anyway so it's doubtful I would ever make a full dinner just for myself.

But am so sick of the grocery's frozen food aisle. I love pasta so everything with red sauce is on my diet, but even that gets boring after so many years alone.

So, what's the secret to eating without going out and without a companion? Any great recipes would be welcome too.

[rjm1cc]

Look for a company that sell ready made meals.

[WellShoneMoon]

I'll cook up a batch of chicken thighs, and freeze them in individual packages. It's easy to take one or two out of the freezer and reheat for dinner with a salad and/or a starch.

Here's a recipe I like. Take 3 lbs of bone-in chicken thighs, and rub them with a mixture of 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano, and 2 tsp chili powder. Put the chicken skin side up on a large baking sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, and bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees until the skin is dark and crispy.

[Meemur]

Cook just once, on Sunday. Make things like meatloaf, chicken, pork chops. Put them in the freezer with some sides and reheat them through the week.

Or find someone else to trade dinners with. Then you have half a meatloaf (etc).

[Clemencia53]

A lot of salads during the summer. I like to grow a variety of tomatoes, so need something to use with them.

Breakfast it is usually just coffee and maybe cereal unless we go out. I usually do a combo of lunch and dinner - a sandwich maybe. I love sandwiches. And pasta too.

I hate to cook now but wasn't always like that. Don't know what happened. Now I just eat to live, not live to eat! Unless i'm at a restaurant.

[jrkliny]

Red sauce variations:


Tomato sauce (preferably Hunts), garlic, basil plus
chicken or frozen/precooked hamburger or coins of sausage heavily browned, sliced pork chop.


One of the above meats plus dried tomato, artichoke hearts in oil and vinegar.


One of the above meats plus pesto.


Any of the above are great over pasta with parmesan or romano cheese. I precook a firm pasta such as penne. It lasts for days in the refrigerator.


I also precook white or brown rice and use it for meals for up to a week. Stir fry: garlic, Thai hot sauce, soy sauce, lots of sliced ginger, heavy scoop of extra chunky peanut butter, squirt of lime juice, vegetable such as bok choy, bean sprouts, mushroom, onion, carrot or whatever. An even simpler stir fry is cubed, fried and blotted Spam with chunks of pineapple plus garlic an soy sauce.


If you want to switch and have some variety most of the above can do well with seafood. A can of clams and a few frozen shrimp can be the basis of a whole variety of meals.


I do a lot of precooking such as rice, pasta and meats. That means that most meals can be fixed in under 10 minutes. All of them are tasty and a big notch above a chunk of meat with a starch.


BTW, I am not single but my wife has lots of dietary restrictions including gluten free and low fiber.

[sfcambridge]

A Costco rotisserie chicken for $5.

Eat chicken that night, with a couple vegetables.

Next day eat a big salad with chicken on top, or make a chicken salad sandwich.

Use the remainder of the chicken to make a chicken stew with onions/celery/garlic/tomatoes/mushrooms/sweet potatoes/herbs/chicken broth etc... Freeze portions and eat a bowl for dinner whenever.

[LillyLillyLilly]

I used to love frozen meals but the last several I've tried have been almost inedible, and certainly not worth the price they cost. I don't know if they've gone downhill or if my tastes have changed.

I bake up a family-sized tray of chicken breasts and freeze most of them in two's which will last two days. I use the pan drippings to make a sauce and freeze that in little containers too so I'll have some each time I defrost chicken.

For veggies I almost always just microwave a steamable bag and put olive oil and salt on them.

Just about everything freezes well. Invest in some good freezer containers that are the size of one meal, and make up a casserole or a lasagna or a meatloaf and freeze most of it in single servings.

I tried freezing full meals, putting meat and veggies and rice all in the same container and they did not taste good when reheated. Not sure why.

Oh I'm a big fan of soup, too. Put your meal (meat, veggies, starch) in a broth and freeze in single servings. Healthy and filling and easy. Same with homemade chili.

[tijlover]

Make one big holy mess once a month, 3 stockpots of stew, filled to the brim, then put 75% of it in plastic containers for the freezer. Sometimes I even make 4 stockpots of stew.

To cook every single day?

[jim9251]

I eat what I want. Sometimes a bone in rib eye or hamburger or ribs on the grill, sometimes a bowl of cereal, or pancakes and ham. Or a pizza, and an occasional tv dinner. Usually not the typical 7 course meal, and I eat when I'm hungry not the mandatory dinner is served at 5pm.