Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    Dunno about the Seal-a-Meal, but cooking in batch and making your own
    frozen foods does work. Too bad I don't do it more often... ;-)
    
    Hardest thing for me is keeping fresh foods, esp. produce, on hand. I
    eat better in the summer, because I can usually go pick *something*
    from my garden, but otherwise I either have nothing in the house, or
    there's a moldy head of lettuce and a fuzzy tomato lying forgotten in
    the fridge.
    
    This is something I've been meaning to work on this summer; I really do
    feel better, physically and emotionally, when I feel that I'm
    "providing for myself". But it sure doesn't come naturally - and the
    temptation to fall back to a chips-n-salsa supper is very strong.
    
    -b

    when I'm alone, I don't really cook.
    Maybe something in the microwave, but I don't really COOK.
    
    Company, I'll cook.
    
    My main problem is I *hate* to clean up.
    And I'm seldom home at mealtimes.
    And it all seems such a great deal of muss and fuss when I'm
    really trying to de-emphasize food in my life.
    
    Some friends of mine cook all their BIG meals for the week at once, and
    then bag and freeze them (or fridge them).  They take them out and use
    them when they need them.  It seems to make sense.  
    
    There's a cookbook called "Cooking for One or Two" which an old
    roommate used to have, not sure who puts it out.
    
    -Jody
    

    other alternatives that come to mind for easy food prep are the
    crock-pot, and a food processor.  Even if I don't COOK, per se, I try
    to keep healthy foods around the house (cans, boxes, packages, frozen)
    so what I *do* eat is fairly healthy.
    
    -Jody
    

    
    Get a fish fillet or fish steak and bake or broil it.
    I do this a couple of times a week.  Simple and quick.
    
    [disclaimer: the "super Stop and Shop is only a mile from
    my house, and on the way home.]
    

    
    Also, if you don't have any, or only a few, get some
    more cookbooks.
    

    CQ,
    	I'm not single, but I do the most of the cooking and love every
    	minute of it.  One of our earliest purchases was a freezer, and
    	it thas been indispensible.  Since we both work and often get home
    	late, we very often cook large batches on weekends and freeze the
    	leftovers.  We've used the seal-a-meal for frozen veggies from the
    	garden particularly -- one year we were overrun by green beans and
    	just blanched them, put them in bags, and froze them.  The
    	reheating was enough to cook them through, and since they were
    	unseasoned, we could do anything we wanted with them.
    
    	Jan was on a business trip recently and I went back to cooking
    	for one.  I noticed that I did a lot more one-pot meals, adding
    	things in stages.  It cuts down on the dishes, and it simplifies
    	the cooking.  American cuisine doesn't always take advantage of
    	economies like this -- it's easy to brown a chicken leg, throw
    	in some broth and some rice and seasonings, and when it's almost
    	done, throw in some veggies.
    
    	Sigh!  Don't get me started on cooking!  I could fill a disk...
    
    	Good luck!
    	Ron

    
    When I was single and living alone, I found the easiest, most healthy
    thing to do for dinners was stir-fry.   No waste; you only chop up
    what you need.   Quick; chopping was the most time consuming, actual 
    cooking time is about five minutes.   Not too boring, cause you can 
    vary the meats (chicken, shrimp, beef, etc) and/or vegetables (broccoli, 
    red/green peppers, pea pods, bok choy, etc).  Easily expandable; for
    when friends drop in unexpectedly!
    
    Carol

    Re .4 and .5: No, no, no! "More cookbooks" is exactly the wrong thing
    to do - at least, for we cooking-disadvantaged people. Heck, I can sit
    and read the darned cookbooks for hours, and get no closer to actually
    preparing anything to eat...
    
    As for the "simple" fish fillet, yep, fish (if one likes it, and has a
    handy store that provides decent fish, or if one can tolerate frozen)
    is very simple to cook. But is that all you eat for the meal? [If so,
    you cook like I do; my "menus" usually consist of a single ingredient!]
    
    People who are not cooking-disadvantaged don't even notice that, while
    broiling that simple fish, they're also whipping up a tasty salad from
    the fresh vegetables they remembered to buy when they were at the
    store, and which they remember to use before said veggies decompose...
    
    Tonight, I'm planning a tasty dinner indeed. 1. Open jar of marinated
    artichoke hearts. 2. Pour into bowl. [This is only because it's very
    hard to get the little devils out of the jar one by one.] 3. Eat.
    
    See my problem? ;-)
    
    -b

    
    There are few things that don't make delicious leftovers.  I
    cook two or three times a week (pasta, casseroles, and soups
    mostly), enjoy the leftovers on the nights I don't cook, and 
    eat Raisin Bran or sunflower seeds when I run out of meals to 
    prepare or leftovers to heat up.  I can't afford to eat out,
    not weight-wise nor financially.
    
    On a barbeque grill, it's easy to throw a potato wrapped in
    foil and a piece of halibut on.  Relax, read your mail, and
    tantalize your neighbors with your delicious smelling meal.
    (My neighbors barbeque almost every night -- drives me mad!
    Especially when I'm ravenous yet too lazy to cook.)
    
    Crockpots are luxurious.  I love coming home to an aromatic,
    hot, hearty meal.  I tend not to use my crockpot much in the
    summer, though.
    
    If you're looking for small amounts of produce, buy them at
    your local grocery store's salad bar.  They'll be already
    chopped, at a reasonable price, and you can buy precisely
    the amount you desire.
    
    I don't have a wok, but I've heard stir-fry is convenient.
    And easy to heat up leftovers.
    
    Good luck, CQ!
    
    Carla
    

    
    re: .10 
    
    Carla,
    
    I have (had? who knows where it is?)  a wok, but prefer to just
    use a large, relatively deep, no-stick fry pan for stir fry.
    Try it, you might like it!
    
    Carol

    
    Carol,
    
    Thanks, I'll try it!
    
    Carla
    

    I usually cook big on Sunday and eat whatever all week.  This week
    it's macaroni and cheese.  If I make spaghetti sauce, I freeze 
    half of it.  Makes a quick meal.  
    
    This meal is quick and tastes pretty good.  While macaroni is 
    boiling, brown hamburger, onions and green peppers in large
    skillet.  Add jar (or homemade) spaghetti sauce and simmer.  Drain
    cooked macaroni and add the meat/sauce mixture to it.  Eat.  Can
    be done in small, med or large amounts.
    
    A tasty macaroni salad can be made by mixing can salmon, onions
    and macaroni with salad dressing (I use Light Miracle Whip).  Lasts
    about 4 meals.  
    
    I find it easiest to make something I like and won't mind eating for
    more than 2 or 3 meals.
    
    Linda
    

    What worked for me was cooking lots (as though there were four or five
    people ) and freezing most of it. I always had a variety of food in my
    freezer. So I never had to eat the same thing for four consecutive
    meals.
    manisha

    1. Seal-a-Meal works just fine.
    
    2. It can also be used to store chopped onion (one onion per seal)
    and stuff like that for when you've gotten energetic or dogged.  I
    buy multiple packages of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trim
    each piece of every speck of gristle, fat, and tendon, then store
    one-meal sized collections of pieces in bags and freeze them.  They
    thaw quickly under cold running water.
    
    3.  Buy a steamer.  It's found among the cooking doodads, or just
    dangling from hooks in the canned food aisles, waiting to entrance
    the impulse buyer.  Now you can buy those enormous bags of frozen
    veggies, shake out just the amount you want into the steamer in the
    right-sized pan, steam in about ten minutes, and add butter.
    
    4. Tupperware makes a very nice hamburger press, and set of hamburger
    patty storage, um, disks.  (I admit I have trouble facing a frozen
    hamburger.  I will at least melt a cheese slice over it.)
    
    5.  Rice can be prepared in about 15 minutes.  Its flavor can be
    varied with herbs and stocks.  Pasta takes less time, and can also
    be buttered and eaten.
    
    						Ann B.

    
    Thanks for the responses!  
    
    I should've mentioned that I don't want to eat meat or fish.  I have
    been, out of sheer laziness, but I'd like to stop doing this (again).
    Maybe part of my problem is that it's easier for me to think of "quick 
    and easy" meals that are the standard hunk of flesh and a veg or two.  
    
    I have a jumbo sized crock pot, and they are great.  I've been meaning
    to buy myself a smaller one.  (I think I saw a one-person crock
    recently...)  
    
    As for using plastic containers vs. Seal-a-Meal; this may be silly but
    I don't like using plastic containers or zip lock bags because after
    awhile, ice crystals build up on the stuff inside and that somehow
    makes the food unappealing to me.  Unless the Seal-a-Meal is really
    expensive, I may buy one.  (Anyone got one laying around that they've
    never used? :-)
    
    CQ

I have (had, before I started Nutri/System, that is) the same problem!

I never came up with a truly adequate solution, so I ended up eatting a lot
of grilled cheese, soup from cans, fried eggs etc. Not very healthy.

One suggestion, I don't think you need "seal-a-meal", just ziplock freezer
bags and a microwave.  Next time you want chicken, say, cook up four pieces
instead of one, put the uneaten two or three in bags and freeze them, then
nuke 'em some other night.  Or take them out to thaw for lunch and eat
them cold!  I have sucessfully frozen soup, stew, chicken, meatballs, etc.
It's great to have a genuine home-cooked mean a couple weeks later without
having to cook.

My biggest problem was motivation - I really need someone to appreciate me
and thank me when I cook.  Even if it is for multiple meals, I had a hard
time going to all that work when the only one who was going to taste it
was me!  Maybe invite friends over for dinner more often! (Have one friend
over, make a double batch, freeze the leftovers.)

D!

    The solution is rather simple and depends only on your desire to plan
    and the complexity you're willing to put up with every night.
    
    The easiest is to pick a number of things you like to eat that share
    a number of common ingrediants (onions, garlic, peppers, etc.) Pick
    part of a weekend day and chop, dick, cut and assemble.  Make fair
    sized batches, cool, wrap individual servings, and place the servings
    in resealable plastic bags in the freezer.
    
    An example is to make a batch of tomato sauce, then assemble a lasguna,
    a macoroni cassorole, chicken cacittori, something parmesian, and
    freeze small containers of sauce for other things.  Label them with a
    date and toss them in the freezer. 
    
    The next time you cook, make somethings of a different genere.  Side
    dishes, cassoroles, potatoe this and that, rice something or other.
    It also make a nice social occasion to invite others over, all make
    lots of food and mix and match care packages.
    
    Preparation:
	Decide what you want in the morning, take it out of the freezer to
    defrost and reheat buy whatever method is avaialable (a microwave is a
    real must for the terminally impatient who hate to slow heat in an
    oven)
    
    The intermediate steps are to buy in bulk, meat, poultry, veggies, etc.
    and semi-prepare parts of common meals.  Dice meats, bone chicken, etc.
    and precook (some partially) with some basic sauce.  Making basic soup
    up to a point with out the final seasons, add-ons and veggies is
    useful.
    
    Preparation: 
    	Remove the base chop or add leftovers, heat and eat.
    
    The final form of madness is sous-chef in a freezer.  Buy in bulk in
    the least refined form things that are one sale.  Chicken breasts on
    the bone show up at $0.99 a lb, brocolli is $.079 a head etc.
    
    Chop a half pint of garlic at once, cover with a bit of oil, and keep
    in the fridge.  Chop up onions, carrots, celery and freeze in little
    baggies in a common measure and keep them together in a larger bag
    (e.g. 1 onion, 1/2 cup carrots, etc.)  Buy bulk spices and mix common
    blends for favorite cooking styles (cajun, poultry roasted, chili,
    italian herbs, fine herbs).  Take left over bones and make stocks and
    keep them in 1 cup containers (Individual yogart containers are a joy
    here).  Take stocks and make basic brown and white sauces.  Keep a
    large assortment of meat and poultry in basic form in individual size
    portions.
    
    	Note beans tend to be poor freezer food.
    
    Preparation: 
    	Remove approperate ingrediants in the morning and you're minutes
    away from veal francaois with potatoes au gratain, and broccoli in herb
    butter in only 20 minutes.
    
    -Kevin
    
    
    
    

    Christine, this is going to sound totally silly, and look even more
    ludicrous, but it helps me prevent ice crystals from forming on frozen
    stored foods, and reduces freezerburn.
    
    When you put the food into the ziplock, close it almost all the way,
    leaving about 1/2 to 1" unsealed.  Put your mouth over it.  Inhale.  If
    the air isn't all the way out of the bag, hold it closed (like a
    balloon), exhale away from the bag, seal your mouth on it, and inhale
    again.  Vacuum packed food is just a little reverse artificial
    resuscitation away!
    
    -Jody
    

	More of a suggestion for fall/winter than this time of year,
	but I'll sometimes make a big pot of stew or soup, have some
	to eat now, and lots to put in bowl sized tupperware for later
	in the month. Especially when the DECturkey is cooked, as the 
	leftovers become *lots* of turkey stew.

	Second the idea of a wok,  you can boil up some rice in it,
	and then add some veggies toward the end.

					Tom_K
	

Jody, doesn't everyone do that????

D!

    
    Nope, not everyone does that!  And, I think it's a great idea!
    (Instead of sucking the air out, I've always just tried to "roll up"
    the bag before closing that last 1/4" of an inch or so.  This only
    works with things that are kind of solid.)

    And I always used a soda straw to suck the air out.  This is great when
    freezing peaches.  Zip down to the straw and suck.  slide the straw out
    while continuing to close the zip lock.
    
    Meg

    OK, I'll own up ... I guess I'm a hopeless yupster ...
    
    my meal-sealing thingy sucks the air out for me.  I just have to be
    sure that the tiny little vacuum doesn't touch the food or sauce.
    
    ...is this the place to confess that I also own and electronic herb and
    spice dispenser?
    
      Annie

Living alone and cooking can be hard.  I cook up full recipes and then
eat the leftovers for 2 or 3 days.  It can get boring after the second
day but I usually manage not to throw stuff out.  I never liked
freering stuff for some reason.  I'm vegatarian so I like I eat a lot
of vegatables, beans, rice, and pasta supplemented with fruit and
grains.  I like to make big bacthes of stuff like cheese-beans or
pasta sauce and save it.  Or sometimes I'll make more one-shot stuff
like spinach and tofu over rice, over steamed veggies with Japanese
noodles...

john

re: -1

	John, that sounds SO good, you want some company..? ;-)

I am in the same quandry, I, too, am uninspired to cook for myself, and
I'm a vegitarian, so it limits things.. so I usually eat rice or pasta with
Salsa, or cereal with fruit, or on the RARE occasion, when I indulge 
in cheese, I have a great vegie lasagne..  

But when I go marketing, I'll just see what they have in the deli (such as bean
salads, cous cous etc.) and buy some.. (wimp).

		..jlg

    
    	As a change from rice or pasta, I like to steam some new potatoes
    and mix them with salsa, pesto, pasta sauce, chili, or cheese.  I keep
    a cache of interesting sauces for emergencies.
    
    clb

    CQ -
    
    Thank you, thank you, thank you for this note.  Over the course of the
    past 6 months, I've become a one-person-for-dinner family.  And the
    consequence is that I'm not eating.  It's sooooo nice to know that I'm
    not alone.  Like many, the problem is motivation, coupled with
    available time.  I can cook, I love reading cookbooks (even though most
    recipes are for a minimum of 4 -- halving stuff isn't too hard,
    quartering it becomes close to impossible), I just *don't*.  Frequently
    it's 7 by the time I get home (who's rushing home to an empty house?)
    and 8 by the time I get around to thinking about the fact that eating
    would probably be a good idea.......
    
    Thanks for the ideas on how to do easy stuff, quickly.  Please keep
    them coming.
    
    Alison

    Someday I'm gonna write a cookbook....
    
    a thousand and one ways to serve english muffins.
    
    -Jody
    

    -Jody
    
    there is a cookbook that is very close to what you want to write...
    
    it is "The Starving Students Cookbook"
    
    it has a whole chapter on things to do with english muffins as I recall
    it...
    
    Bonnie

    I, too, have found that batch-cooking and freezing help a lot
    with making sure what I'm eating is healthy. Vegetarian lasanga,
    lentil soup, curried yellow-pea soup (run this though a blender)
    and pasta sauce are some of my favorites. There's a Super-Roni 
    brand of pasta that is protein fortified. 
    
    Vegetarian soups are quick, and you can add some canned chick
    peas (the brand that has yellow labels on the cans are best)
    for protein.
    
    I have discovered things I used to make at home in the
    deli section of the Purity Supreme supermarket, and they can be
    quite good for a night I can't cook or have run out. Vegetarian
    chili, hummus, and tabouli are all good. Buying supermarket 
    "gourmet" prepared food might be too expensive for a family, but 
    I find that it's affordable for one person.
    
    Eileen
    

    Re:  861.16
    
    I have a Seal-A-Meal I've never used.  I inherited it from my mother
    (she never used it either).  I keep threatening to give it to Goodwill
    but noooo, I might use it some day.  Of course, I hate to cook and,
    even more, I hate cooking just for myself.  So, I end up eating
    alot of unbalanced meals (you know, just meat, no vegetables, just
    pasta, butter with grated parmesan cheese, no vegetables).
    
    However, to my credit I must say that when I buy meats I do separate
    them into single serving zip-locks before freezing.  It's the fresh
    stuff (fruits and vegetables) that I blow it on.  I buy fruit thinking
    I'll force myself to eat it and it sits there till it ferments.
    
    This is a great topic.  Maybe I'll get more movtivated after seeing
    all the suggestions.
    
    Jan

        Those who don't like to cook for one but don't mind
        cooking for many can get together and form a "cooking
        pool" (like car pooling).
        
        Dan

    
     I get a can of Rosarita's vegetarian refried beans, a jar of salsa, 
    and a box of matzos...
    
    Maybe a broccoli and spinach side salad with homemade dijon dressing.
                        
    Eating right is no prob in California..
    

    I'm in California.  The problem is not eating right...it's fixing 
    it first.  I'll eat right as long as someone else cooks it.  Maybe 
    one of these days I'll teach the cats to cook..nah, they'd just eat 
    up all my food instead of their own.
    
    Jan

    
    Take a peek at PAGODA::COOKS, they have several topics on this.
    
    bonnie
    back from Las Vegas and dying for a home cooked meal!