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OT: Meals for One

Theresa

(website)

Veteran

As part of my healthy habits plan, I need to address my diet, and my biggest hurdle is lunch and dinner.

I cook so much every single day because of the girls allergies - everything they eat is cooked from scratch by me - so I really have no desire to cook a proper meal for myself.

Leftovers based on mince (ground beef) don't work for my digestive issues, and I'm finding myself getting stuck in a rut of pasta/rice with tuna or roast meat with frozen mixed veg, or omelets, or eggs on toast. I also don't eat sandwiches because I just don't like my gluten free bread "fresh" - it has to be toasted LOL I also have to avoid as much dairy as possible.

I'd love to hear what those of you who often cook meals for one eat and cook! I just need a bit of a shake up of quick, easy meals that are tasty and nutritious that don't leave me wasting heaps of extra ingredients.

So, please help inspire me!!

Any favourite recipes? Any favourite blogs?

I borrowed a couple of books from the library yesterday but most of the meals in one book took over an hour to cook and were like gourmet meals - I just want nice simple, every day meals!

Thanks for any inspiration ladies

General

20 replies

Latest reply was from stringy

felicia

I have a lot of condiments on hand, stuff like tamari (soy sauce), chili paste, garlic flowers, etc. I make a big pot of brown rice every so often. At night, I steam some vegetables, put rice, cubes of tofu and the vegetables in a bowl, throw on condiments and microwave.

Aida

Veteran

Stir fry is easy and quick, especially if you make a batch of rice at the beginning of the week and keep in the fridge. You could also try making a stew, that'd cover a few meals. One thing I find helpful is making large batches of things then freezing them in single sized portions that I can pull them out and use later (for example, soup stock, caramelized onions, pesto, etc.). Any casserole is pretty easy, just change up the types of ingredients you mix in (e.g. base casserole with pasta+cream of mushroom to which you can add: meat, veggies, grapes, garlic, crumbled bread, cheese, various herbs, etc.). Hope you get lots of good ideas from everyone!

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Oh my gosh- it ate my long post! I'll try to remember what I said....

Just because you're cooking for just one doesn't mean that you have to make just one serving. Make a family sized dish and freeze it in single portions for easy meals- soups, casseroles, rice dishes, pasta dishes, etc.

I like to take some sliced soft cheese (you could try a dairy free version) and a piece of lunchmeat and wrap it around a pickle to eat. A couple of those makes a good lunch for me. I also like a cold meat salad or spread like this pumpkin dip:
http://www.food.com/recipe/sav.....dip-191775
on a piece of toast for lunch. Make one batch then eat it all week. I like an open faced toasted sandwich, too- mustard, ham and muenster put under the broiler is great. Green salads with meat, dried fruit, cheese and nuts makes a nice lunch, as do leftovers from dinner.

Queen Mum

Veteran

I buy chicken breasts and pound them down before freezing them. Then I can thaw one pretty quickly and cook it on my little grill thingy and use it for a taco, put on salad, make a sandwich, or just eat it as is.

wilson

My favorite easy food tip is to season and cook 7-10 chicken breasts (skin on and on the bone) in the crock pot, then debone and skin them before putting them in several baggies in the freezer. I can defrost a baggie at a time by putting in the fridge in the morning then by lunch I can add it to a simple broth, or a salad or roll up in a tortilla with an avacado quickly. If that sounds interesting to you I'm happy to give you exact directions to the seasoning and cooking!

Debora

Veteran

I will occasionally bake potato and stuff it with cheese, broccoli and diced ham for a quick meal. You could substitute chicken or any other number of ingredients for variety.

JayS

Veteran

My new favorite nutrition web site is drgourmet.com. There are recipes there for gluten free, lactose intolerance, acid reflux, etc. The recipes mostly are for smaller portions and also provide info on how well it works for leftovers. I've made 4 or 5 of the recipes since Thanksgiving when I found the site and all have been tasty.
Good luck!!

puffenstuff

(website)

Veteran

Theresa I am cooking for 3 at the moment (step son living with us temporarily) but I always cook a full serve for 4 no matter how many people I am feeding. If it's stuff I can freeze (which most of the meals are) I portion it up and stick in the freezer and if not I just have it for lunch the next day. I follow a low carb diet so most of the things I make are from scratch as well but have no pasta/rice in them, my favs are chicken dahl (slowcooker), tomato & chickpea stew, zucchini slice and I also like cooking up soups in the slow cooker they freeze really well. PM me if you want the recipes

londonkiwi (now back in NZ)

Veteran

Theresa - do you have coeliacs and are also diary free? I have a very good friend who has coeliacs I could ask her for some ideas.

Instead of sandwiches can you get hold of some tortilla wraps? With these you can make quesadilla wraps. I also like to keep a selection of sundried tomatoes, pesto etc in the cupboard for quick mixes with pasta.

I think that you might have to have a bit of a love in with your freezer too! You could make curries, fish cakes, soups etc and freeze them in single portions so that you could just get out what you fancy.

You might also find these two blogs useful (and if not they are just really beautiful!) -
La Tartine Gourmande (lots of gluten free stuff) http://www.latartinegourmande.com/
and Luculliandelights - (lots of veg based meals) http://www.luculliandelights.com/

rute

Veteran

For me the solution is always a salad, you can mix many different vegetables, fruit, nuts and you don't need to cook

yublocka

(website)

Veteran

Mmm great ideas here. I am always cooking for one, I find it much harder to estimate quantitites when I have to cook for 4 or 6!

Soup & salads in all their infinite combos are great options. Mexican wraps or tacos are great too - you can buy gluten free wraps can't you? Or stir frys with noodles or rice (are things like egg or rice noodles gluten free?) Gosh dairy and gluten free makes it tougher though!

londonkiwi (now back in NZ)

Veteran

Salads are a good point - I have a fantastic salad cook book from The Australian Women's Weekly. Donna Hay has great salad ideas as well.

Heather

Veteran

Theresa, you should purchase a Paleo cookbook. All natural, whole foods, gluten and dairy free. Most recipes are very easy. Also, you can find some books with sections for slow cookers. Good luck to you!

Diana

Veteran

I really like the bento box concept for lunches, and they really do not need to be fancy or anything. Check out http://www.justbento.com for lots of great ideas.

Stir fries are my go-to meals. My basic guideline is 1 part meat/protein to 3-4 parts veg, which works out to around 4 oz of meat for 2 very generous portions. Of course you can put more meat if you want, but I like a lot of veggies. I usually make a double portion for dinner and save half. I just put it over rice in a tupperware container; do this BEFORE you sit down to eat for dinner if you want to control portion sizes. You can of course reheat it in the microwave, or for a real bento-style meal, eat it at room temp. Like all good Asians ;), I use a rice cooker to make rice, which is basically effortless (just measure, add water, and push the button), and you can store the extra in the fridge for the next meal, or make fried rice (ALWAYS start with cold, leftover rice for fried rice) for a quick meal the next day.

Theresa

(website)

Veteran

oooh ladies you have my mouth watering!!!!

I forgot that i often make a plain risotto in my crock pot and freeze as a base for other meals - should whip one up again - I do love my crockpot!

I seem to just get stuck in a rut for a while, then go crazy and am happy to cook fab things for myself, so you girls have given me lots of interesting ideas! I'm adding a lot of things to my shopping list

Must admit though, I don't go for casseroles/stews and soups much - I think its psychological - those things remind me of hearty Winter meals, and with roughly 9 months of heat here they just make me feel hot thinking about them! I should try again though. Or just embrace salads more!

Fi those blogs... WOW - I haven't even looked at the recipes yet because I can't get past the photo's!! And I'm actually not a coeliac, I just have a wheat allergy - so rather than affecting my intestinal lining, wheat affects my immune system, and from what I understand, a lot of people with either wheat allergy or coeliac are also sensitive to dairy. I can handle about 1 regular or 2 small serves of dairy a day without the usual symptoms, but I'm still better without it - but I do treat myself occasionally

Hbaber I had never seen those cookbooks before - thank you - they do look just like what I need!

I am now feeling inspired again girls, so thank you very much!!

DanaLynn

One thing I didn't see mentioned was hummus. I'm an Arizona girl so I know exactly what you mean about not wanting hot food most of the time. Lots of times I'll just chop up what ever veggies we have around and get some hummus to dip them in. I normally top off all my lunches with an apple. I like to have something sweet

Salads are great too. We'll throw salsa and pico on some lettuce with a little ranch or avocado- Taco salad! Pears, walnuts, blue cheese and red wine vinaigrette on a spring mix- yummmm! We have salad almost everyday and most the time it's just letuce, tomato, onion, and dressing. Nothing exciting- it's just what we eat.

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Theresa- try spicy foods in the heat.

londonkiwi (now back in NZ)

Veteran

The photography on those sites is beautiful, I am a sucker for anything with beautiful food styling.

People with coeliac's often do have a compromised immune system. My friend manages to catch everything going - she is particularly sensitive to developing sinus infections.

Risottos are definitely a good one - you can also do baked ones in the oven - so no stirring. Risotto cakes made with the left overs, served with a poached egg or a salad are great too. Wonder if your little ones might also want to share in that meal?

I would as per Khris's suggestion, check out if you haven't already, some South-East Asian dishes like Lahksa.

Sally

Veteran

I have a wheat and dairy intolerence which brings on IBS. and I can't eat lots of carbs like my husband and child. Im quite boring with my meals. I sometimes do gluten free pasta with a tomato sauce or I do salad and fish and salad and meat. I have got so used to soy milk and gluten free bread that I actually crave it and can't eat the other stuff. Theresa- can you eat spelt bread? Its more digestable than wheat and i love the taste. I often make cakes with spelt flour. I find I can eat yoghurt but not milk and I can eat hard cheeses. Fritatas are also a good idea.

stringy

Veteran

I tend to have a list of what I call "lazy" meals for one... not sure how these go with your allergies but in case they're useful:

Vegemite on toast, with either tomato or avocado or cheese on top.
Baked beans on toast.
Steamed/baked potato with random toppings: salsa, cheese, ham, chopped tomato, spinach.

My favourite summer 'salad' is to cook a cup of lentils and barley (I do 20 mins on stovetop with a big pinch of salt, less water than is needed for pasta, but I'm sure you could microwave them) and mix it with lots of corn, green beans and capsicum. You can add celery in there too. Use a red wine vinegar dressing and add spring onions. I usually serve it warm-ish on the first go, but it makes great cold leftovers either by itself or in a pita bread or over a baked potato, maybe with a poached egg on top.

I don't know how you feel about tofu, but if you get the firm stuff, slice it into thin strips and marinate it in whatever you like, you can grill or fry or bbq and add it to salads or stir fries or even toasted sandwiches.