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Borrego Springs, CA

Monday, August 1, 2011

Cooking for one

The other day, I decided to fix some pork stir-fry.  I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but sometimes cooking for one presents me with some problems.  I’m probably best at cooking for five or six.  At least that’s what seems to happen when I make soup, or casseroles, or stir-fry. 

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I like to put my stir-fry on top of a bed of fried rice noodles.  Of course, since I’m a crunchy salty type of person, I can’t just make one handful.  I make these in the wok before I start the thin strips of pork shoulder steak, and I use peanut oil.  After removing most of the oil, I dredge the pork strips in corn starch and toss a few at a time into the wok.  When they’re all nicely browned, I add a dash of sesame oil and a cup or two of water and cook the pork for about fifteen minutes.

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Then I add the rest of my ingredients.  This time it was celery, onion, four gloves of minced garlic, a can of water chestnuts, a can of bean sprouts, and a cup each of sliced fresh shitake and baby portabella mushrooms.  I heat that until the celery and mushrooms are done.

I find it very tasty, but as you can see there is enough there for five or six people.  I’ve had it two nights in a row now, and I’ve still got quite a few servings left.  I suppose I could freeze some of it, but you can’t freeze the fried rice noodles.  I keep the left over rice noodles in a zip-lock bag, but their crunchy saltiness calls to me each afternoon around snack time.  Embarrassed smile

If I can ignore that calling, I suppose I can have the stir-fry for another two nights in a row.  That’s about as long as the noodles will stay fresh.  Anyway, I have the same problem when I make chicken noodle soup or pulled pork.  There’s just no way I seem to be able to make those dishes in a one serving size.  Have you ever tried making corned beef and cabbage for one?  They say variety is the spice of life, but sometimes when cooking for one you have to live through times that are the same for four days in a row.  Smile  Bon appetite!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

22 comments:

  1. I say, if you have room..freeze the leftovers less the rice noodles...or anything else left over...I freeze lots of stuff, label it , and pull it out when I'm feeling lazy..which is LOTS!!!

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  2. The stir fry looks really yummy! I think I better go make dinner already...

    I have the same problem... Even cooking for 2! My feeling is some things are not meant to be made in small quantities -- soup and stew for instance. Those things I have for a day or 2 and freeze remainder in zip lock baggies.

    For the other stuff I'm slowly learning to make smaller portions. I did invest in a cookbook program for the computer. Reason being two-fold -- I love to cook and cookbooks are too heavy to carry around and I hate it when I find a great recipe on the internet and then can't find it or don't have an internet connection when I want to make it. As an added bonus the program will recalculate the recipe to any number of servings you want.

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  3. At least it's something yummy that you're eating several days in a row!

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  4. It's not a whole lot different cooking for only 2! We eat a lot of repeat dinners. Luckily Gordon doesn't mind.

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  5. once again..can you say HUNGRY!..stir fry looks yummy!!!!

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  6. Amen!! I'm sitting her trying to decide what to fix for dinner and if it will be somehow just enough for tonight or should I try to fix something that will be good to take for lunch tomorrow.

    What to do, what to do!!!!!!

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  7. That stir fry looks yummy! I know what you mean about cooking for 1; it takes the joy out of cooking if you have to make just a small amount, but it takes the joy out of eating if you have leftovers 4 days in a row!

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  8. Looks like a good recipe. Too bad it makes so much!

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  9. Looks delicious. You are right cooking for 1 is almost impossible.

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  10. Judy,

    We'll help ya out. Just FedEx enough for two to us here in Maine.

    Thanks and Bon Apetit!

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  11. Dinner looks great. You are so right, it is almost impossible to go through the process of cooking for just one person. It's easier to cook several portions and have it for a few days, maybe add something different to spice up the taste buds.

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  12. Looks good to me Judy! We sometimes have too many leftovers with two of us!

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  13. It sure looks good! We eat leftovers often, but not sure how many days in a row I could eat the same thing unless it was pasta:)

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  14. I haven't gotten the hang of cooking for two. I really think if it was just me, I might just plain give up. We always have lots of leftovers and thank goodness both of us like to eat them. Sure did look good though.

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  15. I've finally gotten the hang of cooking for two. If the dish is reheatable, we carefully stop at half and then have enough for a second meal. I like not having to cook the second ay.

    When my kids were little, I would make them dinner quite a bit earlier than Craig and I ate. I often made my own "TV dinner" type meals for them on divided trays.

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  16. I think I could go through that stir-fry pretty quick as it looks so good!

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  17. Kelly would really like all that stir fried stuff. I'd probably just settle for a hamburger.

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  18. I am lucky that eating the same thing for 4 days in a row is not a problem for me. Or I can skip a day with something different and stretch a one pot meal out to last me a week.

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  19. Maybe defrosting the fridge once in 3 yeas wasn't entirely accurate. It defrosted itself a few times when we had the 5er in the shop for various repairs. I guess it was just the first time I actually had to make a point of defrosting it on purpose! Still not too bad

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  20. Put the stir fry in the freezer, eat the noodles, buy more noodles for next time. :)

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  21. It's just as frustrating to cook for two when you're used to a housefull! Too bad we aren't in the same area, or we could help you out, lol! But don't make yourself sick of it...it's better to 'waste' it than lose your taste for it forever.

    Taste of Home has some good 1-2 serving recipes...I bought their cookbook so we can TRY to stop cooking so much food!

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