Cooking For Two

Cooking for two is hard! Lord knows, I am notorious for cooking WAY too much food, only to end up throwing it out a few days later because we forget to eat it the next day. Of course, even for large groups I cook way too much. I am always paranoid that there won’t be enough, and I end up with a week’s worth of leftovers. In a few instances, however, I have actually managed to come up with a few things that work perfectly for two.

Chicken Tenders
When buying frozen chicken (lets face it, it’s cheaper and easier than foster’s farms), get the tenders instead of breasts. The tenders are much easier to work with and portion control is much easier (2 tenders per person is one serving, although my husband usually eats three). When you buy the breasts, sometimes you get 8 moderate sized breasts, some times you get 4 breasts that look like they came from a mythical beast-sized chicken. So yeah, tenders all the way!

Make Your Own Rice-a-Roni
Stay away from those boxed flavored rice and noodle deals (ie: the San Francisco Treat), and make your own. Those boxes have more than two servings, not to mention WAY too much sodium. Buy a big bag of plain white rice (or brown), store it in a Tupperware container. When you cook it, only measure out what you need for TWO SERVINGS. To change things up, try cooking it in chicken broth or pineapple juice instead of water. Those little bullion cubes are great to have on hand, just toss one in with your rice and water. Don’t be afraid to add some spices and herbs to your cooking rice, or even some onion and veggies. Adding some peas and Parmesan cheese right at the end of cooking is great little treat!

Say No to Mold
Stick to non-perishables. Whatever you do, don’t stock up on food that is only good for a week, in an amount that you could never possibly eat. I have thrown out enough moldy and expired food in my time to know my limits. Yes those little veggie flat bread pizzas from Trader Joe’s are yummy, but I can’t eat all 8 of them before the green fuzzies come and be dammed if Chris is going to eat them. That’s not to say you should never get anything fun like that, just don’t fill up your fridge with them, it’s a waste of money and makes for one stinky trash day.

Make a Plan
When cooking, make a plan before hand and think ahead. Since you can’t freeze EVERYTHING, come up with something to do with those leftover ingredients. If you need to open a can of black beans to complete that fiesta meal, instead on letting the other half of the can rot in the fridge, plan to make chili sometime that week. Be creative with your meal planning – you don’t have to eat the same thing every night, but you can reuse the ingrediants!

I’ll leave you with my favorite “meal for two.” Everyone loves lasagna right? But it can be a lot to store in your fridge if there are only two of you eating that mega sized casserole. Instead, I make “lasagna roll ups.” Portion control is easy (two roll ups per person), and there are endless combinations of meats, veggies, cheeses, and sauces. Here is my basic, cheese-sauce recipe, but feel free to get creative and try adding ground beef or turkey, diced chicken, spinach, mushrooms, Alfredo sauce, etc. Have fun with these!
Lasagna Roll Ups

Ingredients:
4 Lasagna noodles
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg*
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup marinara sauce

Directions:
1. Boil noodles according to package directions.
2. Mix ricotta and egg until blended (you can also some basil oregano, pepper, etc for flavor). Spread a spoonfull of ricotta onto each noodle (cover the noodle, but not too thickly).
3. Spoon sauce onto the length of the noodle and sprinkle desired amount of mozzarella cheese.
4. Roll up the noodles and top with a spoonful of sauce and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, or until cheese is slightly browned.

*(Why the egg you ask? I’ve noticed that a lot of people skip this step in lasagna making. Basically the egg keeps the cheese together, instead of leaking out of your lasagna in a melty mess. This is especially important for these roll ups.)