Cooking for 2

[WebLady]

So for those of you that it is just you and your SO; how often do you cook and how do you deal with leftovers? Any good recipes for 2-4 servings you want to share?

I work from home so I try to cook most of the time. Often DH works away from home and I'd make him a lunch to take the next day from leftovers. But the last few weeks he has been working from home a lot and we have been accumulating a lot of leftovers. I think I have only cooked twice this week.

[sweetvenus]

I like to cook when we are both there for dinner, but lately FH has been working till nearly 10pm, so I usually microwave something quick for myself and he eats at work. But when he's not working late, we usually cook about 4-5 times a week.

If there's a substantial amount of leftovers, I'll put them in a Ziplock container and take them to work the next day for lunch. But if there's just like leftover veggies or something, I'll throw them out, because they'll end up growing mold in our refrigerator, heh. FH rarely eats leftovers, even when he says he will, so I only save them if I'm planning on taking them to work with me (or sometimes I'll eat them as dinner when I'm by myself).

[snowflakebride]

I really like cooking the Campbell's box dinners. They're called supper bakes and you just add chicken and water to it. They have Lemon, Garlic, Herb, and Cheesy and come with noodles or rice. They may sound gross on here, but if you go to the store and look by Hamburger Helper, you'll see the box and it looks really good!

[Jacobs_Girl]

Lately hes been grilling a lot. He preps the meat and lets half of it sit overnight and grills the rest. But tonight we are going for sushi with my MOH and tomorrow I am going to cook something. I haven't been cooking lately but I end up cooking too much and giving some to his family. Like he would call his uncle over or cousin or mom. :D

Sometimes I take the leftovers to work and eat for lunch or give it to my coworkers. Jacob doesn't like eating left overs unless it is super good.

[Dani]

I really like cooking the Campbell's box dinners. They're called supper bakes and you just add chicken and water to it. They have Lemon, Garlic, Herb, and Cheesy and come with noodles or rice. They may sound gross on here, but if you go to the store and look by Hamburger Helper, you'll see the box and it looks really good!


I agree, those are good! Quick and easy too! I also saw some dishes where you add chicken made by Macaroni Grill that look really good. We bought some, just haven't tried them yet.

[KMS]

For a while there I was making an entire recipe and we would eat the leftovers. We never actually ate all of the leftovers though; just part of them. So lately I've just been cutting recipes in half. If I make soup, casserole, beans, etc I'll freeze whatever we don't eat so I can pull it out when I'm not feeling like cooking.

In the past, I'd buy organic meat on sale and re-package it into individual servings before I froze it so I could just pull like two chicken breasts out at a time, half a pound of ground turkey, etc.

[Nekochanpurr]

I usually put left overs in Steves lunch, and eat for lunch. :D

[NOTKT]

We haven't been eating dinner at all lately. We both work 2:30pm-11:00pm so when we get home it's just too late. I will either have a Slim Fast for the nutrition and Pete will have a protein shake. I miss dinners together. I have some great cookbooks for two, I will find the names and post.

[Goin2thechapel]

Sunday's mean cooking days!

Here's what I do on Sundays, and since today is Sunday, I'll tell you what I'm up to!

I currently have a pot of beef stew going (I always make an large Sunday meal for after church). Shut the stew off and go to church and warm it up when I come back. Then, after lunch has been eaten and cleaned up I cook some more. Today I'm cooking to pans of Sheppards pie. Once those are cooked I put the lids on a throw them into the fridge and when I don't want to cook we take those out and pop them into the oven...Quite convenient actually.

plus by separating the meals out, that reduces the amount of leftovers to accumulate.

[NOTKT]

Here are the ones I use:

http://images.netshops.com/mgen/digimarc.ms?img=master:EMG157.jpg&h=400&w=400


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512U11oY4iL._SS500_.jpg



http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41HDQX6YRYL._SS500_.jpg

[WebLady]

Amanda, I have wanted to try Shepard's pie, but DH doesn't want anything like that :p

Katy, I will check out a couple of those books, thanks for sharing :)

[ikkin510]

I normally just make regular reciepes, but cut the amounts in half. We will buy our meat in bulk and split it up and freeze is so we only have to defrost what we will eat that night.
LEftovers tend to get thrown out after a week. Steve will say he will take them to work and eat them, but never does.

[NOTKT]

I was having that problem too, it's terrible to throw away food :(

[Whitewater]

I suppose I should have mentioned this in the What's For Dinner thread but ALL of the recipes I've mentioned there are proportioned for two. Either that or they're good to go for the next couple nights, so that we have a choice.

F'rinstance, when we made homemade chicken and black bean, er, wraps (they didn't really wind up being burritos or whatever!) we didn't have a lot of chicken left because I used three frozen breasts -- enough for each of us to have two wraps -- but we had a TON of tortillas and beans and so on left over, which we both had for lunch or snacks over the next couple of days.

The Creamy Chicken Casserole that I mentioned wound up being a smash hit (he went back for THIRDS) and it stayed good the next day, so I finished it for lunch. But that recipe was ideal for two. So is the Tater Tot Hot Dish recipe and all the baked chicken/pork I do.

What I do is make enough protein for us -- one meal's worth -- (I know that he usually eats one chicken breast, if he's hungrier than normal he'll have a breast-and-a-half), then steam a bag of those new steam-in-a-bag veggies (the brand is called Steamfresh, I think Birds Eye makes them, otherwise Target has their own generic brand which is just as good if not better and they have stuff like endamame and asparagus that you can't get with the steamfresh people). One bag is enough for the two of us if it's something he'll eat, like corn, otherwise I'm allowed all the veggies I can stuff down my gullet, and one bag is approximately the amount I'm supposed to be eating per meal, so it's easy! They're really good, too.

Protein plus veggies! Then we make rice or baked potatoes or noodles, and I estimate portions for that. I'm only supposed to have a half-cup of those kinds of starches per meal, so it's easy for me. I make a whole box (Uncle Bens Long Grain Wild Rice is good, low fat and decent amounts of fiber and whole grain, plus it tastes yummy and is easy to cook) and take my portion out of it, then he takes his portion, which is generally bigger than mine, but then he's a bigger guy, and I bag up the rest -- if there is any, which generally there isn't -- for the next day.

It's easy for me to cook because I'm not working right now. We have a pretty traditional relationship and I'm happy to be a stay-at-home-wife (or wife-to-be!). In short, any casserole that fits in an 8x8 dish will be good for two, or anything that's packaged at the store (like meat) that's NOT marked 'family size'. I admit, we *do* buy family sized packages of meat because we get a great deal, but when we get them home we immediately break them up into individual meal sizes and THEN freeze them.

Fresh fruit is good for meals-for-two also because hey, it comes pre-packaged and pre-portioned! :) LOL! One apple or banana for each of you! Fresh potatoes are good too, whether they be sweet or regular, because again, one potato per person. You can bake or fry or mash or whatever.

I also like those pre-portioned sticks or little blocks of cheese. They're like, 1 oz packages, but you get 16 or 24 of them per bag. They're great for snacks, and I don't have to wonder how much cheese I'm getting (my nutritionist is strictly rationing my cheese intake :( ).

As for meals for two, sandwiches are also a good option! Get meat from the deli counter (I find about 3 lbs -- 1lb of 3 different meats -- of meat and 2lbs cheese will do both of us for two weeks) and pre-sliced bread and voila, a meal. Add in some fruit and buy whole grain instead of white bread and it's even a healthy meal!

Bagels, yogurt and peanut butter are always handy to have around the house, for us. They're an easy breakfast or snack, and they're more or less healthy. And you don't have to worry about 'cooking for two' -- because they're pre-portioned already, so one bagel + peanut butter and yogurt cup for each of you, and away you go!

I don't worry myself so much about meals for two. Instead, I think about food I can make that's not hard to cook or takes hours of fussing and prep, and go from there. I do plan my recipes in advance so that we can save money going to the grocery store, but again, I just pick my meals based on what we like, and what we have. Proportioning them for just us seems instinctive, or second-nature, or natural, probably because I was cooking for myself for over a decade of me being a single person. Adding another person into my meals was easy to do.


Whitewater

[Scrwballsgrl]

We don't live together yet so it varies how often we eat dinner together, both of us are from big families so its going to be an adjustment to cooking for 2.

We both like to cook a little extra to have leftovers for lunch the next day, we are big fans of brown baggin' it, then rewarding ourselves at the end of the week by going out to lunch together. This saves us alot of money b/c when we first started working close to one another we were out to lunch every other day and it was getting expensive.

My sis works for Pampered chef (shameless plug!:grinhappy:) and we registered with them for some of their cookware...and also for a "How to Cook Healthy Meals for Two Cookbook", (haven't gotten it yet so I don't know what type of recipes are in it but figured it was worth a shot).

[fireprincess2009]

FH is self employed and he's on and off all day/night, so I do most of the cooking (although he'll usually pitch in if he's available and I ask him to.) I either cut the dish in half or most of the time I just portion out the leftovers. Some go in the freezer for days I don't want to cook and some in the fridge for lunches during the week. I don't mind leftovers - I hate wasting food! Since his schedule is all over the place and he's pretty lazy about cooking for himself, he'll eat what quick and available. :winktongue:

[neebelung]

So for those of you that it is just you and your SO; how often do you cook and how do you deal with leftovers? Any good recipes for 2-4 servings you want to share?


I'm the only one who cooks, and I TRY to cook at least 3x a week if not more.

Most of our meals consist of some combination of chicken, whole grain rice and a vegetable, so it's always a challenge to come up with new and different ways to cook chicken to keep it from getting boring (I do cook other stuff, but chicken is a staple for us since it's lean and high in protein).

I do buy organic fresh skinless whole chicken breasts here and there, but I ALWAYS keep a bag of the Tyson frozen breast fillets in the freezer, because with a few simple dry ingredients, I can whip up dinner in 30 minutes.

Usually I intentionally make 4 servings of whatever I cook, with the intent of either having it for dinner again the next night, or for both of us to take for lunch the next day. When I do this, I automatically serve up our plates, and package the leftovers in two Tupperware containers RIGHT AWAY so that there's no temptation to go back for seconds.

Let's see... a few of my easy, quick chicken recipes are:

Cheesy Fiesta Chicken

8 breast fillets
1 bottle of medium Taco sauce (brand is unimportant)
4 slices of chipolte cheddar cheese (the sargento presliced kind is great)

Preheat oven to 375
In a rectangular glass or metal baking dish, pour enough of the taco sauce to cover the bottom of the pan
Arrange chicken in pan
Cover chicken with remaining taco sauce
Break up cheese to cover all of the chicken

Cover pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes; remove foil, and bake for another 10 minutes (this browns the cheese a little without scorching it)

Serves 4

I do this with either a southwestern seasoned brown rice, or black beans and rice, and then the southwestern corn (steamer bags of veggies are a Godsend!)

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Another one (I just concocted this over the weekend)

Asian BBQ Chicken

In a medium mixing bowl, combine:
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup catsup
1/4 cup steak sauce
a splash of peanut oil
a couple splashes of soy sauce
minced garlic (to taste)
Emeril's Asian Seasoning Mix (to taste)
Mesquite seasoning (to taste)

Mix all of that in the bowl

Preheat over to 375

On a plate, pour a large pile of progresso bread crumbs; add some of the Asian seasoning and the Mesquite and mix to blend well. Rinse chicken breasts, then roll them in the sauce mixture, and then in bread crumb mixture.

Bake in a shallow pan for 30 minutes. If you LIKE you can mix up more of the sauce mixture to use as a dipping sauce, but you won't need it -- it stays very moist.

I served this with a saffron rice and snow peas.

[vicky_vicky]

Cheesy Fiesta Chicken

8 breast fillets
1 bottle of medium Taco sauce (brand is unimportant)
4 slices of chipolte cheddar cheese (the sargento presliced kind is great)

Preheat oven to 375
In a rectangular glass or metal baking dish, pour enough of the taco sauce to cover the bottom of the pan
Arrange chicken in pan
Cover chicken with remaining taco sauce
Break up cheese to cover all of the chicken

Cover pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes; remove foil, and bake for another 10 minutes (this browns the cheese a little without scorching it)

Serves 4

I do this with either a southwestern seasoned brown rice, or black beans and rice, and then the southwestern corn (steamer bags of veggies are a Godsend!)

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I will definately try this one!
It sounds really good, thanks neebelung!


I am new to this and its kinda tricky! I cook for FH and me, when we are alone, when he stays at my place and if someone drops by, ha no food left! Then parents say they will come, I cook a lot, they decide not to, food is left!

Argh!!

I cant wait to have my own home of just the two of us!!!!

[neebelung]

Another easy one is basically an EASY reverse chicken cordon bleu -

8 chicken breast fillets
8 slices of swiss cheese
8 large thin slices of deli ham (I used the sweet or honey ham)

Preheat oven to 375

Rinse each chicken breast and pat dry; if you'd like, you can roll them in breadcrumbs and/or sprinkle them with seasonings of your choice (I used a little bit of fresh cracked black pepper and dried parsley)

Lay a slice of ham on a plate
Place a slice of cheese on top
Place a chicken fillet on one side, and fold the ham/cheese over (like a taco)
Place in pan

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes
Serves 4

The juices from the ham cook down and keep the chicken REALLY moist, so it requires no other basting, oils or fats.

I served this with steamed broccoli and a butter and garlic long grain wild rice.

[70707Bride]

Another easy one is basically an EASY reverse chicken cordon bleu -

8 chicken breast fillets
8 slices of swiss cheese
8 large thin slices of deli ham (I used the sweet or honey ham)

Preheat oven to 375

Rinse each chicken breast and pat dry; if you'd like, you can roll them in breadcrumbs and/or sprinkle them with seasonings of your choice (I used a little bit of fresh cracked black pepper and dried parsley)

Lay a slice of ham on a plate
Place a slice of cheese on top
Place a chicken fillet on one side, and fold the ham/cheese over (like a taco)
Place in pan

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes
Serves 4

The juices from the ham cook down and keep the chicken REALLY moist, so it requires no other basting, oils or fats.

I served this with steamed broccoli and a butter and garlic long grain wild rice.

That sounds good, I might try that sometime!

I've been wanting to get a cookbook for 2. I just haven't had the time to go look for one. There's a magazine called "Cooking for 2", Chris' grandma gave me one and there was some good recipes in there that I haven't got the chance to try.

[70707Bride]

That magazine's website is www.cookingfor2.com (http://www.cookingfor2.com).

[southern*belle*]

as a wedding present, we were given the Newlywed's cookbook, which is all recipes that focus on cooking for two. I haven't tried anything yet though.

My DH will eat leftovers till they are gone...He doesn't like to waste, so if I cook a big pot of something, he'll eat it till the entire pot is gone!:D

[OKBride2Be]

I buy the Everyday Foods with Martha Stewart magazine at the grocery store checkout lane. Not personally a "fan" of hers, but the food is great....we use a lot of the recipes in our weekly meals. Here is the website:

http://www.marthastewart.com/everyday-food

They have back issues and online recipes that you can print.

[sandy03]

I have found that soups are a great way to use leftovers (chicken and rice is one of my personal favorites, and we eat a lot of that anyway). I try to keep celery seed and onion powder in my pantry (or chopped onion or shallots in the freezer) plus a jar of garlic and one of those re-sealable containers of stock in the fridge. I just toss everything into a pot, let it cook for a little while, and heat up some bread and it's a very warm and tasty dinner (it also freezes well if I'm in the mood to make a big pot).