12 tips that make cooking for one person a breeze (2024)

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Start planning meals based on a set of ingredients.

When you live with multiple people, it is easier to buy an abundance of vegetables, proteins, and fruits, because it is all more likely to be eaten. Shopping this way for one person, however, will leave you with way more fresh foods than you can handle.

Instead, plan to buy a smaller variety of vegetables that can be used in multiple recipes (so you don’t end up bored with just one or two meals). For example, plan to buy bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and spinach — all of which can be used in a quiche, tacos, pasta, rice, soups and more.

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Keep staple items on hand.

In your pantry, make sure you have a variety of grains and beans. It’s helpful to buy from grocery bulk bins and store these items in air-tight jars or containers. When your pantry is stocked this way, you can easily measure out single portions of rice, pasta, quinoa, beans, lentils, or nuts rather than relying on convenience items from the grocery that are wrapped excessively in plastic.

Plus, buying from the bulk bins is very cost-effective. You might also want to keep a few bags of vegetables and fruits in the freezer, as these are also simple to portion for one person.

“Frozen fruits and vegetables are great options," Elaine Magee, M.P.H., R.D., wellness services corporate dietitian for Albertsons Companies, told SELF. “You can use what you need and put the rest back in the freezer without any worry of waste.”

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Become a regular at the deli counter.

When you need meats, seafood, or cheeses, go to the deli counter. You can order exactly what you need instead of coming home with a huge package of chicken or cheddar that you will never eat before it goes bad. Plus, this is a great way to get really fresh ingredients for your next meal.

Buy individual pieces of produce.

You could buy a bag of potatoes and get stuck eating them for every meal, or you could buy just a couple of potatoes for one or two recipes. Most vegetables and fruits in the grocery come singular, so you can bring a produce bag (or use the store’s plastic bags) and grab only what you need. If you have a farmers market near you, it is even easier to buy smaller amounts of the produce you want.

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Familiarize yourself with easy recipes.

Sandwiches, omelets, quesadillas — recipes like these are easy to make for one person without recalculating ingredient measurements. When you know a handful of simple recipes that are already meant for one person, you can make a meal in no time.

Learn how to scale down recipes for one person.

An easy way to do this is to buy or make a conversion chart and keep it on your refrigerator or framed on the wall. Your phone is also a handy tool in converting larger measurements into smaller portions for one person. This way, when you are dying to make a lasagna meant to serve six people, you can quickly glance at a chart to convert larger measurements of ingredients into just what you will need.

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...Or, make two-person recipes and enjoy just the right amount of leftovers.

Making a family-sized meal for one person can often mean you’ll be eating leftovers of the same dish all week — blegh. Instead, make meals meant for two people. You’ll have one serving now and another for later rather than eating the same food for several days in a row.

Get creative with seasonings.

If you do happen to have a lot of one type of protein, vegetable, or grain in one week, divide it into portions for multiple meals, and then season each portion differently. Seasonings, spices, sauces, and marinades can make one ingredient taste completely different, which helps to avoid getting bored with your food.

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Freeze loaves of bread.

One of the hardest things to do — no matter how much you love carbs — is finish an entire loaf of bread alone before it spoils. Save money and stop food waste by keeping a loaf in the freezer. When you need a piece, just set it out to thaw or pop it in the toaster. It will still taste fresh, so long as you keep it tightly wrapped in the freezer. You can do the same with tortillas and baked goods, like bagels and muffins, too.

Invest in a small slow cooker.

You should invest in a smaller slow cooker. Standard-sized slow cookers might be too large to cook just one meal, but a smaller version will be just right. Plus, you can throw ingredients into the pot in the morning and have a delicious meal waiting on you when you get home.

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Freeze extra ingredients and leftover meals.

Throwing out food is an awful feeling — you’re basically throwing away your money (not to mention contributing to the growing food waste crisis). When you realize you might have gone overboard in purchasing vegetables or you made too many servings of your favorite recipe, simply store the extras in the freezer.

Fruits and vegetables freeze well and are great to have on hand. On days when you are too tired to cook and forgot to prepare something in the slow cooker, just reheat one of your home-cooked frozen meals.

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Get creative with leftover produce and meals.

Just as it’s smart to mix things up with spices and seasonings, you might also find you can do a lot more with less. Whether you only bought a couple different types of vegetables for the week or it’s the weekend and you need to use up everything before it wilts, think of new ways to turn these ingredients into a meal.

You can search the internet for recipes with the veggies you have on hand, or you can start adding things together in a pan and see what happens. Either way, have fun with it — you might just end up creating your new favorite recipe.

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