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Cooking for One
Having had to cook the evening meals since the age of 11 I'm bored with it all. So now
in my 60's and only two of us I find setting aside a weekend and cooking a few of our favourite dishes (they always seem to be for 4 but you can find some for two) then packing in them into single meals to freeze. I make casseroles, curries, rissoles/meatballs.
With the rissoles I make them up to cooking stage and then freeze even putting a couple aside flattened to have as hamburgers.
I even cook up a batch of rice for four and freeze that in meals size portions, just thaw and heat in the microwave and it comes out as if freshly cooked. If I have too much rice for the meals to accompany it I still freeze it and then on a night when you have a little more time you can turn it into fried rice. I always have the ingredients in the pantry. It is so easy to take a ready-made meal out of the freezer in the morning put it in the fridge to thaw and then just heat it or finish cooking it at night.
If you like to have dessert there are several dishes including single serve fruit pies you can make and freeze. We like crumbles but instead of making the crumble each time, I again make a full batch and freeze it so I always have it on hand and once again there are always apples, tinned fruit or frozen berries on hand.
I have to start all over with this regime as last week due to the Hunter Region storms I was without power for five days and lost the contents of a fully stocked fridge and deep freezer. I will have to see how much I can reduce my grocery bill by to save enough to restock.
Contributed by Suzanne McEwen
in my 60's and only two of us I find setting aside a weekend and cooking a few of our favourite dishes (they always seem to be for 4 but you can find some for two) then packing in them into single meals to freeze. I make casseroles, curries, rissoles/meatballs.
With the rissoles I make them up to cooking stage and then freeze even putting a couple aside flattened to have as hamburgers.
I even cook up a batch of rice for four and freeze that in meals size portions, just thaw and heat in the microwave and it comes out as if freshly cooked. If I have too much rice for the meals to accompany it I still freeze it and then on a night when you have a little more time you can turn it into fried rice. I always have the ingredients in the pantry. It is so easy to take a ready-made meal out of the freezer in the morning put it in the fridge to thaw and then just heat it or finish cooking it at night.
If you like to have dessert there are several dishes including single serve fruit pies you can make and freeze. We like crumbles but instead of making the crumble each time, I again make a full batch and freeze it so I always have it on hand and once again there are always apples, tinned fruit or frozen berries on hand.
I have to start all over with this regime as last week due to the Hunter Region storms I was without power for five days and lost the contents of a fully stocked fridge and deep freezer. I will have to see how much I can reduce my grocery bill by to save enough to restock.
Contributed by Suzanne McEwen