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planning for a very small family (help!!!)

931 views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  courtenay_e 
#1 ·
I grew up in a fairly large family, so growing up I always saw my mom shop in bulk and cook huge amounts of food. This works well of course, when there are many people (including large teenage boys) in and out of the fridge all day long eating leftovers, etc. So I have trouble cooking for a small number of people. And by a small number I mean *one*. :LOL It'll be just me and dd now, and she just nibbles off my plate pretty much.

So I'm looking for advice on how to plan meals for the two of us: what (and how often) do you shop for? Do you make a large dish and freeze a bunch of it? What about fresh produce: If I don't want it to go bad because we can't eat it fast enough am I running to the store to buy produce every couple of days??!!???

Thank you SO much for any input!
 
#2 ·
I cook for 2 but grew up with a big family so I KWYM. For me, I make my menu up on Sunday and I try to make it so that I use the leftovers. DH doesn't like too many leftovers so I have to hide them. There are some labor-intensive things that I make in big batches and freeze. For produce, I get some frozen and the fresh stuff I buy on Sunday and Thursday mornings. IMHO it take a lot of planning. It will take a bit before you get totally used to it, but it will happen.
 
#3 ·
Don't know if this will help but, my mother recently told me to make dinner like I usually do [I usually make a lot and end up with lots of leftovers Adam won't eat] and freeze whatever I know we won't eat right away in meal size containers. That way, it will be leftovers, but we can eat it far enough away from the time it was first cooked, so it didn't seem like it.
I have a hard time too, since I too grew up in a big family. :|
 
#4 ·
My mom is used to cooking for a big family to but now it is just her a dad. She just found a magazeen called cooking for two and say's it is great! She is so good at using what is on hand for meals. I am always in awe. It appears that there is nothing to eat in the house and 30 min. later she has a great meal on the table. I am trying to learn
 
#5 ·
: here for ideas too.

our family is also small. it is just me and ds (18mo) right now (DD obviously BF) so it's really just cooking for like 1.5 people. latley I have to say we haven't been eating real well (aka lots of canned stuff) and I have no idea how to cook for just 1 person! not to mention I have wasted alot of food as well, thinking I would make something then didn't.

I usually buy bagged frozen bean burritos but plan to cook these from scratch next time. we also eat alot of spagetti then eat leftovers for lunches but I am soooo bored. I am trying to make a menu right now but haven't come up with much.

a freind and I are planning on doing some joint cooking for things to freeze (she is also a single mama-and a superb cook I might add) but that won't be for a couple of weeks at least. and we stuill need to come up with some ideas for recipes.

off to search the web!
hoping to return with ideas.
 
#6 ·
When I got married, I was accustomed to cooking for four(I cooked for myself, my mom, and my two siblings)which is not HUGE, but four with leftovers is much more food than two with leftovers for one lunch, you know? So, what we did a LOT was freeze leftovers in ziplocks, and rotate them in and out. I ended up with great meals on days when I didn't feel like cooking. I could also plan to eat the leftovers on nights that I knew we'd be busy. I really think stuff like fahita meat, sloppy joes, taco meat, roast meat and gravy, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, meatballs, goulash, or pasta sauce freezes really well, and are good to have around anyway. Now, I make two or three batches of these things when I am making it, and freeze them for later consumption. This makes good use of sales, too, because I can use meat up cooked, and freeze it ready to eat.
 
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