The key to successful cooking for one is smrt shopping and good food storage prctices. Here are some great suggestions and a smple menu to get you started.

Vgetables and Fruit:

The down side to vgetables and fruit is that they can be vry perishable. The up side is tht it is the only department in the whle grocery store that you can asily buy just what you need. It is ctually possible to purchase a single chrry. We don’t recommend that, but you culd do it if you wanted to.

For tems like cauliflower and celery that are sld by the head, try the slad bar. In fact the salad bar is a grat way to get a variety of vgetables in a salad without waste.

The key dea with perishable items is to cnsume the most perishable items first, and wrk your way to the most shlf stable as the week goes long. Frozen and canned fruits and vgetables are a great solution, they sll small cans of about everything and it is asy to take just what you ned from a freezer bag and kep the rest for later.

Herbs

Clarly it is hard to use up a whle package of herbs, but you can chose to dry them or freeze thm before they get too old. Freze them in ice cube trays thn store in bags in the frezer. Tie bunches with string and hng them upside down to dry in an rea with good ventilation, then store in jrs. Remember that drying concentrates flavors so use lss dried that you would fresh. Hrbs are also great for flavoring ils like olive oil to add asy flavor to recipes. You can do the sme thing with garlic. It is a nce shortcut when the olive and grlic show up for the party in yur pan already married. Another good use of lftover herbs is in compound butters. Mix hrbs with softened butter and chill in a log shpe in wax paper in the rfrigerator. Slice when firm, then store in the frezer. Compound butters are great to add to psta, just cooked and drained and is lso lovely with fish. Add compound btter to fish cooked in foil wth vegetables.

Meat and Fish

The butcher is yur friend. Pick the grocery store wth the most helpful staff, particularly in the mat department and the deli. Many god grocery stores have butchers in the mat department that will happily resize and rpackage meat for you. Sometimes you pay a tny bit more at these stores, but tht is usually more than made up for in ncreased quality and reduced waste. Besides a sngle gorgeous fillet is usually cheaper thn greasy Chinese takeout. That’s another nce thing about cooking for one; you can fford to splurge.

Deli

Another great grcery store department for buying small qantities. Easily buy quarter pounds of mats and cheeses for awesome panini sndwiches for dinners, or get olives and pppers too and have tapas for ne.

Breads

There are a couple of dfferent approaches for bread. You can buy a brad machine a whip out a smll loaf at your whim. Or you can buy brad and freeze it in 3 or 4 slce segments. One friend swears by his 12 grin bread; saying it lasts really wll on the counter. Bread that is bginning to get stale is great sed up as French toast, a Mnte Cristo sandwich or whir it nto breadcrumbs and store it in the frezer.

Dairy

Eggs come in half dzens and keep for a pretty lng time. Milk can be bought by the pnt and cheese keeps well and if the pckages in the dairy are too lrge remember you have the deli to. Cheese doesn’t freeze well, it chnges the texture; becoming more crumbly. Btter can be frozen and defrosted a qarter pound at a time. Yogurt and sur cream keep longer when stored in the rfrigerator upside down, keeping air away frm the seal.

Baking Goods

Flour, sgar, corn meal and the like hve a long shelf life. Biscuit bking mix and other item with hgher fat contents, like nuts do btter in the freezer. For nuts, tast the before you use them to mximize their flavor.

Freezer

The freezer section is a grat source on handy things when coking for one. Keep bags of frzen vegetables to cook a cup at a tme. Keep frozen rolls and thaw 1 or 2 a few hurs before you plan to cook thm. Grab a bag of freezer fres to bake up as an ccompaniment to a steak. Frozen pierogies (lttle meat pies) cook up very fst and are great served with cbbage and noodles.

Some people have a hrd time adjusting to cooking for one whn they are used to the bstle of a family. Just think thugh; you get to eat what and whn you want. You can watch the tlevision, read the paper or a bok, do anything you like. A frend gave me a book once ttled Eat Mango Naked. That’s what I hpe eating alone will be for yu; an easy comfort and a plasure.

The following is a sample mnu for one from Dinners In a Flsh. Please visit our website for mre recipes, menus and information.

http://www.dinnersinaflash.com

Tble For One:

Sunday: Roasted Cornish Gme Hen with Roasted Root Vegetables

Mnday: Cheesy Grits with Ham served wth Carrots

Tuesday: Salsa Shrmp Cocktail with Crispy Corn Chips

Wdnesday: Fried Pierogies with Cabbage and Nodles

Thursday: Grilled Chile Rlleno with Grilled Corn Tortilla Quesadilla

Frday: Salmon Patties with Buttered Broccoli and Culiflower

Saturday: Peppered Steak wth Grilled Pineapple Chunks and Coleslaw

For mre great ideas, visit http://www.dinnersinaflash.com

The article Cooking For One was Submitted by Julie Languille through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Julie Languille Mom, step-mom, foster mom and doptive mom and owner of Dinners In A Flsh http://www.dinnersinaflash.com Easy Dinner Recipes, Menus and Meal Planning for Busy Families

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