Sharing a few tips on how to cook for two I’ve learned since James moved to the DC area and I had to re-think how I plan weekly menus.
Photo Originally From This Post (Summer Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad Recipe)
James’ move to DC happened at lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, we went from thinking he’d move sometime this summer to learning he’d move in just about a month. I immediately snapped into planning and organizing mode. I did a serious clean-out of my apartment to make room for James and, of course, Miss Riley Dog. Sidenote: Donating used clothing through the Purple Heart Project is incredibly easy and they do curbside pickup, which is amazing if you, like me, don’t own a car.
I also soaked in the last moments of an end of an era, living by myself for a whole decade and my years of Secret Single Behaviors.
But the anxiety of such a big new chapter happening so suddenly manifested itself in the oddest of ways – panicking about how to learn to cook for two. Even I was incredibly aware from the start that this was an odd aspect to fixate my worries on.
In my years of living alone, I felt like I had mastered the art of cooking for one. I was also used to a few non-traditional dinners reserved for lazy nights or after long work days. Think boxed or canned soups, carrots with Trader Joe’s Spinach Artichoke Dip (the freezer section kind), that sort of thing. Meals that are easy to make (okay, heat up) for one person but aren’t necessarily easy to expand to feed two – particularly since I lovingly refer to James as a bottomless pit.
To solve my (not-so-terrible) dilemma, I turned to a source I knew would help me: Amazon Prime. I picked up a copy of Serena Wolf’s Dude Diet Dinnertime cookbook. I’ve been a religious follower of Serena’s food blog for years and always found her recipes to be easy to prepare and filled with easy to locate ingredients. Plus, I knew the Dude Diet’s manifesto of putting a healthy spin on comfort food would be a perfect balancing act between James’ and my taste preferences. I’m a little bit plant-based, he’s a little bit carnivore.
If you sang that last sentence in your head, we can be friends.
Using the cookbook as my guiding light, here are the biggest tips and lessons I’ve learned on my journey for cooking for two:
When In Doubt, Double the Protein
This was a lesson I learned the hard way right out of the gate. For our first meal together, I made bulgogi beef bowls (a now favorite recipe of ours from Dude Diet Dinnertime!). The plan was to enjoy this dish for dinner and then pack the leftovers for our lunches the next day. Perfect, right? The recipe called for 1.25 lbs of meat – but I significantly underestimated James’ carnivorous ways and watched him devour the dish (like I said, it’s delicious!!) and with it, our lunches for the next day.
Since then, I’ve made it a point to double up the protein for dishes. I can always freeze the leftover protein for another meal and it’s better to err on the side of caution.
Pick ~3 Meals To Prep for Weekdays
With trial and error, we’ve found that prepping three meals for weekdays is the right amount for us for dinners and leftovers for lunch. We don’t always have a ton of time on weekday evenings with our work hours and taking care of sweet Riley girl. Doing the legwork on weekends (like making a batch of quinoa or taking the chicken out to thaw) frees up time to actually get to cooking right away. Some people like to make all their meals ahead of time but this is the system that works for us. Cooking is one of our favorite things to do together and gives us time to unwind, tell each other about our days, and sometimes sip a glass of wine.
Stock Versatile Freezer & Pantry Staples
This has been absolutely essential for nights where we failed to plan ahead or frankly just lost steam. The goal of our meals is to have a protein, a veggie, and a grain. We always have these items in our freezer: Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice and bags on bags of frozen veggies. Trader Joe’s frozen brown rice cooks in 3 minutes in the microwave and then I’ll pull out a bag of frozen veggies, put them on a sheetpan, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast them in the oven. No need to wait for them to thaw!
We also love Just Bare chicken nuggets from Costco, they’re more chicken than breading and you don’t have to wait for them to thaw. I like to serve over a bed of greens so that we’re getting in our veggies.
