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Cooking for one (or two) means thinking about storage, preparation, selection

 
Ideally, you can shop for vegetables in whatever amounts you need, but if what you want is prepackaged, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask your grocer to break up the package so you can buy only what you need. Your purchasing mantra should be “no waste.”
Ideally, you can shop for vegetables in whatever amounts you need, but if what you want is prepackaged, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask your grocer to break up the package so you can buy only what you need. Your purchasing mantra should be “no waste.”
Published Feb. 24, 2015

Consider it one of life's mysteries: If 60 percent of American households consist of one or two people, why are zucchini sold in packages of four?

Cooking for a small household is fraught with challenges. Perhaps most vexing is how to make it economically feasible, time-effective and healthful all at the same time.

Consequently, singles, empty-nesters and other tiny households may seesaw between takeout, prepared frozen meals and leaning collectively over a saucepan and taking turns with the fork.

Sometimes small households need to spend a little more for individual packaging, says Nan Jensen, dietitian and family and consumer sciences program leader at Pinellas County Extension.

"A lot of individually packaged things like string cheese or tuna are a little more expensive, but less than if you threw part of a larger container away. A lot of food manufacturers are now appealing to smaller households, but you're paying a little more per unit."

She cautions people against relying too heavily on processed foods and suggests fruits and vegetables be purchased at different stages of ripeness. She sees an increased array of precut bagged fruits, veggies and salad mixes as a boon to small households.

Steer clear of large and shorter-lived foods that aren't easily divided — that overripe beefsteak tomato or that huge head of delicate red leaf lettuce. Instead, head for grape or cherry tomatoes (they're smaller and more durable), hearts of romaine or a handful of loose mesclun mix.

You can get your grocer to work for you: It's perfectly acceptable to ask that packaged produce be opened and repackaged when you want one pepper and not four, and almost all butcher counters will repackage a smaller quantity of meat.

The purchasing mantra for the small household should be "no waste." And considering that the U.S. Census Bureau tells us that 27 percent of households in 2010 were people living alone and 33 percent were shared by two, for many shoppers this means buying smaller quantities of foods that are easily portioned and frozen, or foods that have a substantial shelf life.

Storage

Keeping your refrigerator organized is the first step in avoiding waste. Knowing what you have in stock alleviates duplication and helps guide meal planning.

Portion chicken breasts, ground beef and other meats in individual storage bags before freezing. (Mark them with the freeze date.) In the refrigerator, meats keep longest on the bottom shelf in the back, and marinated meats will keep a day or two longer than plain meats.

And as tempting as it is to wash all your fruits and vegetables when you bring them home from the store, most live a little longer if you wash them just before preparing. Most vegetables flourish when stored in the crisper loosely in plastic bags, perhaps with a paper towel thrown in to absorb excess moisture. (Always unband asparagus, broccoli and other veggies before storing them to give individual stalks more breathing room.)

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Preparation

The key to successful cooking for the small household is to maximize your return on time spent in the kitchen. If you spend an hour making dinner, it should yield not only a delicious meal and leftovers, but extra sauce for another use, the base of a soup, a filling for an omelet or sandwich, etc. As Jensen says, "It's about cooking once and eating twice."

If your cooking time is limited during the week, set some time aside on the weekend to make a couple of one-pot wonders to reheat. The time spent making your own tomato sauce on Sunday will be justified when you use it to top a pizza on Monday, accompany pasta on Wednesday and smother eggplant Parmesan on Friday.

Some foods are real chameleons: A root veggie puree one night, with the addition of chicken broth and a swirl of light cream, becomes a soup the next night, served with croutons and a green salad. Leftover rice can be gussied up as fried rice the next night; a restaurant's doggie bag of leftover ribeye becomes the anchor for homemade fajitas tomorrow.

What to make

The problem with cooking for a small posse is that often the effort yields a one-dimensional, monochromatic meal. Step back and think about providing something from each of the food groups with a variety of color, consistency and flavor.

Stews and soup recipes often yield four or more servings, two of which can be cooled and frozen in individual portions. Chili, slow-braised meats and casseroles all freeze well in leftover portions. Jensen says that to this end, canned foods can be your friend: "As much as people are averse to them, they can play an important role in people's diets, from canned beans to canned tomatoes."

Most important for the small household is to have healthy foods in the house — and have a plan.

Contact Laura Reiley at lreiley@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2293. Follow @lreiley.