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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Cooking for two (or one) recommendations needed
Can anybody recommend a good cookbook or website that focuses on cooking for two? I have cookbooks and everything but I always end up with enough food for 4-6 people and DH loathes leftovers (except pizza). Leftovers often go to waste here for one reason or another.
I realize it's possible to cut recipes down to size, and I'm open to tips on that as well.
Re: Cooking for two (or one) recommendations needed
I haven't used this, but I have several Betty Crocker cookbooks, and IMO, you can't go wrong with them.
http://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crockers-Cooking-Two-Crocker/dp/0764561081
We have a Pampered Chef one called Cooking for Two or More, but they aren't all just for 2 people. They are delicious recipes though.
For the most part though I don't follow recipes, and just cook enough for the two of us. We buy chicken breast in bulk packs then vacuum and freeze them in packs of 2 and 3 and just pull one pack out for dinner and do whatever I plan on doing to it.
Usually if I ever do follow a recipe for dinner for just the 2 of us I either make it regularly since H loves leftovers, or I just completely cut it in half. The only difference when you do that is you just use different sized pans and keep an eye on it more when cooking since cooking times can vary.
I was going to recommend both of these. I don't do a lot of cooking for two though because E loves leftovers and so I make the regular amounts on our favorite meals so we have enough for later.
I've heard of a Rachel Ray cookbook that has recipes for 2.
But, I'll admit I've never bothered to worry too much about quantity. If I cook for four, we get a supper, and leftovers for another meal. More typically, I cook for 8-10, and make it freezable, so we eat a meal or two from it, and I end up with freezer-food that we can pull out on a different day when I don't feel like cooking...
You might want to look into repurposed meals. Like, a beef roast one night, and the leftover beef going into enchiladas the next day. Or something like that. I've got a WW cookbook that does that, but you might have to be a member to buy it, I'm not sure.
I actually just got an email for a free Pork cookbook thing that you can view online as well, and the first thing listed is meals that you can "cook once, eat twice."
http://www.porkbeinspired.com/Freebies.aspx
I've never bothered changing the way I cook. I always make at least 2 servings. One is good for lunch the next day. Quite often I make 4 servings so that I can freeze some.
Even if you do scale, don't buy a new cookbook. Just cut recipes in half. It's easy math. Or, better, don't rely so heavily on recipes. It's a lot easier to scale something down when you're not constraining yourself by exact recipe portions.
Can't you just cut the 4-6 serving recipe in half? This is what I have always done.
We eat leftovers, so it's usually not an issue for us.
We just bought a pack of I think 20 steaks at the commissary that are actually broken down into packages of 2, and each is like a 5 oz. steak, those are awesome.
And if you buy chicken breasts at costco, they come in a big pack of eight packages I think, and there are two breasts in each package. I think each breast is twice the size of what you would eat in a meal, but I guess you could use one and cut in half maybe....
Hi, I'm so sorry about the post and run. Right after I posted I got busy with homework and didn't stop until 3am. I totally forgot about you guys.
Anyhow, thank you girls so much for the variety of suggestions. I will look into them. The idea that interests me most is the re-purposing idea but I'm not 100% sure how that will turn out. It sounds like it will require some experimentation. It may be a little funny to work out too since we don't normally eat dinner together several days in a row, and the days when I eat by myself are difficult to predict. I think that's when freezing things will come in handy. DH and both wish that we could have a lot more freezer space.
I will try to keep my eye on any new recipes to see if they would be easy to cut down to size. Certain ones are as easy as making only 2 pork chops or chicken breasts, but others like casseroles and stews are much more difficult for me to judge.
I'm not sure how tight your living space is, but there are some reasonably affordable small chest freezers out there. (maybe even on craigslist, not sure - I bought mine new 10 years ago)
We've got a 7 cu. ft. chest freezer that has lived in a few places in the different homes we've had since all the moving around started. Usually, it lives in the garage, if we have one, but we found space in the dining room at one place that didn't have a garage.
There are some 5 cu. ft. freezers that might even fit in a closet.
It's a thought, anyways. I hate not having a deep freeze. We didn't bother using it at the last base, because we knew we would be there for only 6-7 months, and I didn't want to build up a bunch of stuff in the freezer and then have to get rid of it when we left... I should probably consider that now, actually. We might be moving again next year.
Hmm. I'll have to look into the smaller ones. We do not have any outdoor storage. We have a eat-in kitchen so I suppose we could make a little space in there. Ultimately I think I'd rather wait until we move into a house or something with a garage.
Edit:
Okay, after looking at this I'm now very intrigued. I need to start getting dimensions for some of the upright ones. I'm pretty sure we could find a corner in our kitchen for a small one.
http://www.amazon.com/7-0-cu-ft-Chest-Freezer/dp/B004E4KTYA/ref=sr_1_3?s=appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1318884638&sr=1-3