SINGLE LOW-COST LIVING: Weekly Cooking
Anyone for Homemade Soup? by Melissa Gray
For one person, cooking every night just doesn’t make sense.
After all, it’s only you. And when cooking a dish, there is usually enough for one or two more leftovers. If it is really good, I do not mind eating it again. But more often than not, I take the food and add some more ingredients to create a new dish. It does not take long, challenges your creativity, and satisfies your hunger all the same. Here are my strategies that I learned.
1. Cook a pot of soup over the weekend. I usually have a weekly soup that can be used for quick lunches, snacks, or paired with anything for dinner. And it almost always includes things that I need to use before they go bad. Sometimes it is a hearty lentil soup with pieces of beef and sometimes it is a light chicken soup. You can almost add anything to it and create a different meal. Add rice to create a pilaf, risotto, or curry. Add pasta for a rustic dinner. Pair it with a sandwich for lunch. Use it as a base for a sauce. Drain the soup and use the vegetables as a side. The possibilities are nearly endless.
2. Love Tupperware.Half of my refrigerator is Tupperware. But it is especially important to know how long things last in there. After two days, check what you have saved. It is easy to forget about something and only realize it is there when its odor is taking over your kitchen. Be mindful how much you cook and make sure you use everything perishable in a timly manner.
3. (If you eat meat or fish) Choose your meat or fish for the week. For example, when I buy meat, I just don’t buy one chicken breast. And you can’t refreeze meat, so I have to put it in tupperware. Within two days, it has to get eaten otherwise you are gambling with all sorts of bacteria. Same for fish. And fish is even mroe delicate. I may not want to cook it all the same way, so I know that if I open a package, I am going to have to cook it sometime during the week. I would be lying if I said I’ve never rushed home on a weeknight becuase I had to cook a lamb chop before I couldn’t use it anymore.
4. Aerate and prepare all fruits and vegetables. Fruit and veggies hate being trapped in plastic bags. You may keep them in there, but make sure there is some oxygen ventilation. It keeps them fresher longer. If you keep the bags closed, they will reuse their own air and decay faster. If you love fruit, make it a different fruit a week. Peaches are in season right now (summer), so I buy five peaches a week. I eat one every day. I look forward to it. If you buy a cantaloupe, know how you want to eat it and prepare it for the whole week. I would cube one half of it and leave the other half to eat with a spoon. Celery is always chopped up in sticks in case I want peanut butter on them. And if I have to cook them, half the work is done already! It’s a win-win.
5. Have a running grocery list. And as soon as you see you ran out of something you use all the time, add it to your grocery list until the next time you go the market. It makes you accountable for what you really need and it gives you an idea of what you’ve been using. Perhaps this is the third time you ran out of orange juice. Maybe you’d want to get another type of juice next time? Ran out of chicken? Why not get another type of meat? Thinking ahead makes your life much easier and organized. And it challenges you to be creative with what you already have and to try different types of food.
