My goal is spending as little time as possible during the week on cooking and washing pots and pans so I am all about meal prepping and don’t mind eating leftovers, I actually prefer leftovers to having to cook from scratch every meal.
I keep a small dry erase board on my fridge to remind myself of what I had planned to eat that week so don’t forget, this is especially important for things that might be getting near expiry.
I live in a house with a standup deep freeze in the basement so I make good use of it, using the small fridge freezer as my staging ground for the week’s meals. I have always loved to do once a month cooking and have chili and 4-5 different soups in the freezer at all times, I freeze in 2 cup deli containers so a whole shelf is taken up by these containers after a big cooking session, which I do once per quarter. I try to have half of the food in my freezer be ready to eat meals as opposed to just ingredients so I don’t keep things like ground beef/turkey there, instead i buy that stuff and do once a month cooking with it right away, for example, the double pack of ground turkey from Costco gets made into a batch of chili and pasta sauce that weekend. I even cook rice in large batches and freeze it in 1 cup portions, some plain, some as fried rice and some flavoured with korma sauce (makes a great quick base for a rice bowl, just add the fresh veggies and a protein).
Whenever I want to make a baked pasta dish, I always make the normal size recipe and portion it out into small loaf pans which I freeze, then pop them out, wrap in foil and return to the freezer. When I want to use it I take the pasta “brick” out, put it back in the loaf pan to cook. This method is especially great for lasagna.
I also have learned to appreciate frozen vegetables as I was throwing away way too much fresh veg that would go bad before I could eat it. I like the Asian mix from Costco, I find it is extremely versatile for many dishes. I also like frozen broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I also am a big lover of frozen fruit and berries - I actually pre make my own smoothie kits so they are grab and go in the morning without needing to get out all the individual bags of fruit.
I like the frozen packs of salmon that are individually shrink wrapped from Costco, and I use the Glad perfect portions to freeze individual chicken breasts, steaks, pork tenderloin etc. when they go on sale at Costco. I also get bags of frozen shrimp and scallops from Costco. I get frozen udon noodles from the Chinese grocery, and frozen single serve packs of edamame.
One thing I have started to do since the fall is get a meal kit delivery service every 4 weeks or so, it gives me additional variety in my diet cutting down of fatigue for the foods in my freezer without pushing me to do restaurant meals, which is what I would have done in the past. I also found a salad delivery service which was great to get a few times in the summer, again giving me far more variety in my diet, I could never justify purchasing all the individual ingredients for one person, the food waste would be horrific. The meal kits have given me an appreciation for pre assembled spice mixes, I have since sought out a few “gourmet” mixes from a local spice purveyor to, ahem, spice up my life, and chicken.
I am addicted to my Aerogardens. I now have three small ones, one for cherry tomatoes, one for lettuce and one for herbs. I love it, especially here in the winter, it act like SAD prevention lights to have them turn on in the morning. The aerogardens produce a nice amount for one person giving me herbs for cooking, lettuce for on a sandwich or burger, and a steady stream of cherry tomatoes to pop in my mouth.
Oh, and I eat a lot of eggs. A simple cheese omelet with fine herbs is my comfort food.
ETA, I also don’t buy milk anymore because I never used it before it spoiled, instead I keep powdered skim milk for when I need milk in a recipe. Works a charm.
