Food Any recipes for 1 person

Michy1215

Michy1215

O.G.
May 26, 2007
1,273
84
#1
I'm a college student living on my own and I love to bake and cook. The problem is that I can't ever find any recipes that are only for 1 person and I hate left overs. I'm also watching what I eat so I want to keep it low cal.

I get tired of salads real fast so that doesn't work for me. I'm afraid to buy fish or most meats around where I'm living because I'm at school and the only place to really go grocery shopping is Walmart. So mostly I buy the thin cut skinless chicken breasts from perdue.

Does anybody have any ideas on low cal dinner dishes and side dish recipes for 1? I know there were other threads like this in the past but everytime I read them, I never get any good ideas that are healthy.
 
#2
Well, if you hate leftovers, have you thought about cooking a normal sized meal, for 3-4 and portioning out individual portions, then freezing? I do that sometimes, but normally don't go to the trouble b/c I don't mind leftovers.

Another idea is allrecipes.com. They have a scaling tool on each recipe and it will change the amounts for however many you plan to serve.

Aside from scaling and freezing, I can't think of anything else other than eating really simple stuff, like grilled or baked chicken/fish/pork whatever and a veggie for actual meals. Cooking for one can be a pain. HTH!

For baking, I'd just scale the recipe. You can cut a cake recipe in half and end up w/ 12 cupcakes or if you get the jumbo pans, 6. If you do box mixes, you can halve those too, so you don't have a full cake or whatever in the house. If I am feeling ambitious, I'll mix a normal size batch of cookies, make logs and freeze them and then you can bake however many cookies you want each time. Cookies and brownies (unfrosted) generally freeze well too, so you can make one batch and portion out.
 
#3
I cut recipes into smaller portions, freeze whatever I don't eat. I usually don't have a problem with bigger recipes though because my friends and I always invite each other over and BF will eat anything too... :P
 
#4
I always make this dish for myself, I love it and dont really know how healthy it is,sorry!
INSTANT BROWN RICE
SALSA (I use peach mango salsa)
SHREDDED CHEDDAR CHEESE
CILANTRO
Chicken-optional

I get a bag of brown rice, the instant boil in a bag (10min)
than I mix salsa, the kind I use is desert pepper trading co. in peach mango flavor(so yummy and can be found in the salsa isle) use as much or little as you want.
then cut up some cilantro and mix in shredded cheese(stir it so it melts) in the rice bowl! I love it! so yummy you can add some chicken if you want! whatever you dont eat, you can eat later it even taste yummy cold!
 
#5
another easy thing to use if your cooking for one is a bamboo steamer. you can take chicken and veggies and steam them all together. easy clean up too :smile: i usually just marinade my chicken with soy sauce, water, salt and pepper. then steam it with broccoli, string beans, whatever :smile:
 
#6
Small cans of salmon make great pantry meals for one. Take a can, mix with an egg (or half an egg or just an egg white), a few crackers crushed up, and some lemon juice. Form into small patties and cook in a fry pan with some butter or olive oil. Top with a squeeze of lemon juice and serve over some simple steamed rice with veggies. Yum. These are also great on a bun as a sandwich.
 
#8
MaxHavoc said:
Small cans of salmon make great pantry meals for one. Take a can, mix with an egg (or half an egg or just an egg white), a few crackers crushed up, and some lemon juice. Form into small patties and cook in a fry pan with some butter or olive oil. Top with a squeeze of lemon juice and serve over some simple steamed rice with veggies. Yum. These are also great on a bun as a sandwich.
Click to expand...

This sounds really good but I can't see salmon being formed into patties like hamburgers. Is it easy to make into patties?
 
#10
Michy1215 said:
This sounds really good but I can't see salmon being formed into patties like hamburgers. Is it easy to make into patties?
Click to expand...

The egg and crackers actually "bind" the salmon just like a meatloaf. It's similar to a crab cake but with salmon. Give it a try!!! This is one of my favorite pantry dinners you can make when you haven't been shopping. I can whip up these, steam some rice and veggies and have dinner on the table in about 20 minutes.
 
#11
^ I do that w/ canned tuna too. Paula Deen has a good tuna "burger" recipe as she calls it on the Food Network's site that I've used.

The salmon patty thing reminds me of my college roommate. She'd buy the cheapest salmon possible I think, b/c those things stunk up the apartment. She dipped hers in yellow mustard.
 
#13
For baking, I'd just scale the recipe. You can cut a cake recipe in half and end up w/ 12 cupcakes or if you get the jumbo pans, 6. If you do box mixes, you can halve those too, so you don't have a full cake or whatever in the house. If I am feeling ambitious, I'll mix a normal size batch of cookies, make logs and freeze them and then you can bake however many cookies you want each time. Cookies and brownies (unfrosted) generally freeze well too, so you can make one batch and portion out.[/quote]

For the cookies, that is a great idea, never thought to do that....how do you store the cookie log?
 
#14
^ I just use saran wrap or cling wrap, you could use freezer paper too and then tape it up. Normally, one batch is two logs for me and I just drop big drops onto the paper/wrap and roll it up, pop it in the freezer. The dough will stay better longer if you put the logs in a freezer bag too. It will stay good for at least 3 weeks. After that, the dough starts to taste funky, or at least mine does. Probably b/c of no preservatives like the pre-made kind.
 
#15
I'm not sure how healthy this is but when it's just me I eat this sometimes:

4 stalks of scallions chopped up 1" size
handful of beansprouts
1 can of chopped water chessnuts
1/2 can of spam (yes, we Alaskan's are #2 consumers behind Hawaii, hehe)
or 1 boneless skinless chicken breast cooked and chopped
2 packages of oriental flavored ramen noodles, cooked like normal
sesame oil for frying
sesame seeds for topping

Fry up the scallions, beanspouts, water chessnuts and spam/cooked chicken with the sesame oil. Add boiled flavored ramen noodles and 1/4 cup broth, heat entire dish and you're done! Top with sesame seeds..mmmm!
 
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