What’s so hard about cooking dinner for one?  We all started out our young adult lives cooking for just ourselves when dinner time rolled around.  That is, unless we were fortunate enough to have that few extra dollars allowing us to grab McDonald’s or Wendy’s, or maybe a small pizza from Pizza hut.

Gradually over the years it went from cooking for one, to a family. For myself, I was eventually cooking for eight. At the end of my 20 year marriage, I had to relearn how to cook for 3 again.  Now every other weekend, 5 weeks in the summer and on alternate holidays I have to fix dinner for just one.

What’s so hard about cooking for one?  Nothing, if you like TV dinners or lunchmeat sandwiches. But try to fix Chili or Spaghetti.  This is a little bit more difficult when you cook from scratch.  Over the last three years I still find it difficult to cook a fresh dinner for just myself but have discovered if you plan ahead, you can still have a good meal. I have several tips that involve freezer bags and/or freezer bowls.

Being a single mom is twice as much work as a two parent household, so to save a little time, I suggest sitting down and making a list of at least two weeks worth of dinners before you hit the store on grocery shopping day.  Not only will this save you time when you are trying to decide what to cook, you will find that knowing what you need from the store will cut down on some of the expense of shopping.

Here are some shopping tips:

• Buy family packs of meat.  They are usually a few cents cheaper than buying smaller packages. If you are only cooking for two or three, you can repackage the meats in the freezer bags.  And don’t forget to package a few single pieces of meat for your weekends home alone.
• Frozen Vegetables.  There are some veggies you can’t get in a can or that will stay fresh for more than a week in the fridge, Broccoli and Cauliflower as an example.  You can now buy frozen vegetables in single packs, or in a box of four singles.  So mix it up.  Buy some full sized packages for the family meals and pick up some singles for your own dinners.
• Go ahead and buy those ingredients for dishes that you just can’t cook for one.  That is where freezer bowls come in. Spaghetti sauce can be frozen and reheated when you are ready for it, as can Chili.  Like Beef Stew?  No problem, cook up a batch and freeze the leftovers.

Just these few tips, should provide you with plenty of meals for one.  Not to mention, you will spend half the time in the kitchen as you normally do,  leaving you free for that alone time all single moms cherish – doing what you want to do.