Even the most carefully detailed plans can run into unexpected changes—you shopped for the ingredients, you chopped and refrigerated and prepped, but life gets in the way. Here are some questions from real women who wanted answers to the roadblocks that they have come up against while trying to cook for one.
“I got stuck at work and won’t be able to eat the meal that I planned for tonight. What should I do so it doesn’t go to waste?”—Stephanie Farrell, Philadelphia, PA
First of all, take a deep breath and make sure that whatever you’re feeding yourself tonight is as healthful as what you were going to cook. Sometimes when we get overwhelmed, we want to treat ourselves with food, but grabbing greasy pizza or fast food on the run is only going to make you feel worse. Now, take a look at your schedule for the rest of the week. Are you crazy busy? Is there a night where you might have a lot of extra time and could cook two meals so you could freeze one of them for later? Maybe you’re getting close to the end of the week—if your recipe serves two, you could reschedule a dinner date you had planned out to stay in. Or, could these ingredients turn into a different meal entirely? Maybe they would all be yummy mixed into a breakfast frittata. Think of this as a chance to cook and plan creatively, and not as a big road bump that will leave you with wasted food.
“It’s difficult for me to find the time to prep my lunches in the morning when I’m running around getting ready for work. This is even harder when I have an early exercise class that I want to go to, meaning my meal won’t go right to my work fridge.”—Deborah Binko Meehan, Stamford, CT
How much do you trust your coworkers? We have a great list of meals that can be made in advance for lunch, some of them even a few days before, so you can stock up your work fridge at the beginning of the week. This does mean that you don’t want big, bulky lunches (we wouldn’t want to take up too much space!)—a few Mason jar salads or soups would be perfect for this. Just put them all in a bag labeled clearly with your name, and be sure to clean them out at the end of the week.
“Having to cook a meal just for myself and then spend a ton of time washing dishes discourages me from cooking at all (particularly before I had a dishwasher). Even now that I have a dishwasher, it’s something I still try to be mindful of. I avoid cooking because one meal generally requires the use of practically all of the bowls I own.”—Becca Chazin, Philadelphia, PA
You could start eating your meals straight out of the pot over the kitchen sink to avoid cleaning an extra plate, but that just doesn’t sound like a very enjoyable dinner! There are a few tricks you can use to minimize the cleanup required after a meal. First, if you’ve done the prep that we talked about earlier in the book, then you should have a lot fewer knives and cutting boards to deal with over the course of the week. Also, try to be conscientious about using only one pot or pan, which you can do by cooking ingredients in shifts and cooking the recipes that we have designated as “one pan.” If there are a lot of herbs or vegetables to chop, put them in finished piles on your cutting board, instead of moving them to individual bowls (just make sure you don’t cut raw meat on the same board).
Most of the recipes in this book have already minimized the amount of kitchen tools you’ll need to use, but we’ll leave you with one of our favorite kitchen cleanup tips: For any baking or roasting (under 400°F), parchment paper or foil are your best friends! Line your pan or dish before cooking, then simply toss the liner when your meal is done. The pan might require a quick rinse if any crumbs or oil got through, but this trick will save a lot of cleanup time—we promise!
“It’s so tempting to use the more expensive pre-cut vegetables from the grocery store—frozen rice, pre-chopped onions, and especially cubed butternut squash. They really make cooking feel less daunting. How can I break this habit and save myself some money?”—Bethy Atkins, Boston, MA
Cheers to you for finding something that works to help you cook and save time! But you are right, those pre-cut vegetables are sometimes five times more expensive than their whole counterparts. You’re essentially paying someone else to do the prep work that we covered earlier in the book. We think you’ll find that once you prep your veggies a couple of weeks in a row, it will become a habit, and the idea of spending money to avoid a half hour of work won’t be so tempting. But some weeks, you might not have the time to prep, and in that case, these are a great substitute to help you continue cooking at home. Just make sure the only ingredients are the vegetables you’re buying, and you’re not accidentally eating a bunch of extra preservatives. And definitely avoid bagged salad mixes—the greens in them can be up to 2 weeks old before you even buy them, and one study found that many bagged salad mixes contain bacteria consistent with poor sanitation and even fecal contamination.1
“I love using herbs; they make a dish feel full, green, and fancy. But you have to buy a bunch of herbs all at once, way more than I need for a week’s worth of meals for myself. How can I put the herbs to good use and avoid wasting them?”—Melissa Kowalcyzk, Mt. Airy, PA
Herbs really do make a meal taste better, don’t they? But you’re right, they don’t last long, and unlike produce, you can’t buy them individually at the grocery store. The first step to solving this dilemma is to plan meals that use similar herbs throughout the week. For example, don’t just have one meal that features basil; add basil into your eggs or even a smoothie. But if it gets to the end of the week and you think your herbs have only a couple of good days left in them, turn to your freezer. Chop up your herbs either separately or in yummy blends, and fill an ice cube tray with them. Then cover the herbs in olive oil, pouring into each section until it’s almost full. Freeze your herb cubes until they’re solid, then pop them out and store them in the freezer in a resealable plastic bag (you can put multiple cubes in one bag). You can add them to all sorts of recipes for a yummy burst of flavor. You could even try growing some of your own herbs in little pots on your windowsill or in your garden if you are lucky enough to have outdoor space of your own! That way, you would always have fresh herbs at your fingertips.
“My produce always seems to go bad. Either it rots quickly outside of the refrigerator, or I refrigerate it and it comes out tasting mealy (I’m looking at you, tomatoes!). How do I know where to store everything so that it lasts the longest time possible?”—Haley Whitchurch, Louisville, KY
Mealy refrigerator tomatoes are the worst! But even worse than that is produce going bad before you get to use it, so we can feel your pain. We could write out a list for you of where to store everything you could possibly buy, or you could scour Google and all of its conflicting information, but the answer you seek is already in front of you (yes, we are produce gurus sometimes) at your grocery store! Who is more interested in keeping produce tasting and looking good for as long as possible than the people trying to sell it to you? It doesn’t matter if you’re in Georgia or Wyoming, a grocery store produce section is always laid out the same way—a line of cold storage on the walls, with room temperature storage in the middle. There’s your guide! Did you get it from the edges of the store (greens, carrots, herbs)? To the refrigerator it goes! Produce items from the middle of the store—potatoes, onions, citrus fruit, and yes, tomatoes—are happy campers right at room temperature. Some, like onions and citrus, will do just fine in the refrigerator, if your counter space is limited.
“I’m always starving when I get home, and I think it affects my cooking and eating choices. Sometimes I’m so hungry I can’t imagine cooking and end up ordering food. If I do cook, I make way more than I should. Help!”—Amy Palmer, Washington, DC
Cooking is always going to be faster than ordering in, unless your favorite Indian place is literally downstairs (in which case, wow are we jealous!). So you’re right, hunger is causing you to make irrational decisions, and you know what the better choices are, so let’s focus on eliminating this hunger. You can make many of the snack recipes in this book in advance so that you can take some to work with you every day and make sure you have an afternoon snack. Your body needs to eat every few hours, but the gap between lunch and dinner is sometimes as many as 8 or 9 hours depending on your hectic and ever-changing schedule. But let’s say you missed the snack and you’re starving and you need to cook and the delivery app is looking very tempting. Take a deep breath and drink a full glass of water. If you still need to nosh, try a handful of nuts or a slice of whole grain bread dipped in a tablespoon of olive oil. It’s okay to give yourself a little snack—like some carrot sticks or a piece of fruit—before dinner; it’s much healthier than ordering in. Now you can cook your dinner in peace without the grumble of your stomach leading you astray.
“I love onions, but there are times I find myself just leaving them out because every time I start to cut one, my eyes tear up! Is there anything that I can do to make this stop?”—Danielle Curtis, New York, NY
It’s the worst, right? Don’t tell anyone, but sometimes we skip onions in recipes, too, because crying in the kitchen is the worst (for reasons other than burnt casseroles). Or, we used to skip them, before we learned a few secret tricks for keeping your eyes dry while cutting onions. First, never cut the root end of the onion (the gnarly brown part). Cutting that releases most of the gas that makes your eyes tear up. Then, always keep a glass of ice water by your side; besides being refreshing and hydrating, sipping on the water will help flush your system and keep the tears at bay. If you try both of these and still find your eyes getting watery, it’s time to go nuclear. Grab a piece of bread and stick it in your mouth, with most of the piece sitting outside your mouth. You might feel a little crazy, but the bread will absorb the gas before it gets to your eyes. And trust us, the flavor that onions add to any dish will be worth the effort!