Recipe, tick; ingredients, tick. Looking forward to dinner. Image: Su Leslie, 2016.
With the Big T working in Melbourne pretty much every week, and the boy-child electing to spend his evenings with friends, I’m doing a lot of “meals for one” at the moment. The bonus is that I get to cook stuff that doesn’t have to please anyone else’s palate. The downside is that I’m running out of ideas.
But an afternoon spent poring over some recipe books has provided plenty of inspiration.
Now I just have to remember to scale the recipes down, so I don’t drown in leftovers.
This post is written for the Daily Post Photo Challenge, which has as its theme dinnertime — and for Ailsa’s Travel Theme at Where’s My Backpack. The theme there this week, is books.
Zimmerbitch 
May your meals be as good as they look in the book!
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Thanks Sue. They always look different though, because I can never resist tinkering with the recipe 🙂
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You and me both!
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Scale down or freeze the leftovers. Happy cooking! I find lots of inspiration in cooking books as well and I’m familiar with the problems you have to cope with. 🙂
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Thanks you 🙂
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great post in response to WPC-dinnertime!
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🙂
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Hmm, when I am alone for dinner, it’s either eggs, cereal, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! I never cook for myself…too lazy.
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🙂 Eggs would make my cut, but I love food, and treat being alone as a chance to pamper myself. Most of the time I try to cook stuff I know my boys will love and that’s not always what I’d choose for myself.
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As you can guess, cooking is a chore for me. I only do it for others, not for myself.
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My mum is like that. But then I guess she cooked for a bunch of really picky eaters for most of her married life, then worked as a housekeeper, cooking for elderly people. Nowadays, she tends to cook and freeze, or make a sandwich. I’m surprised at how having to cook every night drains my enthusiasm. I think I get it back when it’s only me because I don’t have to try and second-guess anyone’s current (and ever-changing) likes and dislikes. And let’s face it, I love food!!!
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LOL! I do too! I just like other people to make it for me. 🙂 Enjoy your meals!!
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🙂
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I’m alone every night! I should get more creative but it’s always some variation of chicken and rice, beef and rice, chicken and pasta. All with broccoli lol. If I do cook something more interesting, I definitely freeze leftovers for work.
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I’m with you on the broccoli, unless there are Brussels sprouts in season. I’ve tried freezing leftovers, but somehow I never enjoy them as much. And no-one else ever looks in the freezer so we end up with lots of little plastic containers full of stuff that (even though I try to label), I’m never quite sure about. Next-day leftovers used to be wolfed down by the boy-child for breakfast or taken for lunch, but he’s in a can’t-get-out-of-bed in the morning phase, and barely has time to get dressed let alone organise breakfast and lunch!
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Oh I hear that. I am totally not in the mood to get up early at the moment. Have to start going to bed a lot earlier. You’re right, I do have leftovers in the freezer that I’ve forgotten about 😁
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“Been there, done that” as the saying goes. I love to look for/at recipes, even though I often don’t get to them all. My goal is to try a new recipe each week and sometimes I go over, sometimes miss completely. Enjoy your time and food.
janet
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Hi Janet. I like the idea of trying something new once a week. I do tend to get into a cooking rut, but I’m trying to only buy what’s in season locally and use up the years worth of store-cupboard ingredients I have. I found five tins (seriously) of coconut milk in the pantry a couple of days ago. I think I’ll be having a lot of thai-style meals (soups maybe) in the near future 🙂 Cheers, Su.
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Su, when you find a recipe you like make the full amount and divide it into portions and freeze them. You’ll have a lot of meals already in advance.
Leslie
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Hi Leslie. That is the sensible solution, but we always seem to end up with little containers of unspecified leftovers in the freezer — that usually end up on my plate — I have too much of the “waste not, want not” philosophy.
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Me too and what I really hate is when I neglect to label it. But I have been pleasantly surprised by finds in my freezer.
Leslie
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🙂 I wish I could say that. I think here the general rule of thumb would be if there are leftovers by lunch-time the following day (e.g. if the boys haven’t wolfed them down), then the dish probably wasn’t that great and freezing probably won’t make it any better. 🙂
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You can do that only with the good stuff.
Leslie
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Hey! I nominated you for the 3 Day Quotes Challenge!
https://ancientegypt2016.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/the-3-day-quote-challenge-3/
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Love your image, Su. A creative idea for the theme.
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Thanks Jane 🙂
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Kudos for not opting for cheese, crackers and pickles, which is my go to ‘I’m too lazy to cook” meal option.
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I love that combo, but I know I’d be hungry again later, and start preparing round two of the cheese and crackers when I shouldn’t be thinking about food 🙂
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It is hard to get inspired to feed just yourself. But then again it is fun trying out recipes that you like but you know the others won’t. Nice photo
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Thanks Raewyn. The main thing at the moment is finding recipes that use up some of the store-cupboard stuff I have accumulated.
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Like the look of that recipe! Adore chick peas.
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I recently found a food blog that I love and it has really re-energized my zest for cooking and eating. I hope your recipes are delicious!
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