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Quick and easy meal ideas for a bachelor?

Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
I've been wanting to eat healthy and order out less, but my main problem is I never know what to make. Because I live alone I'm kinda limited in what I can buy as I can't eat it all alone fast enough before it expires. Some things are just nasty after they've been frozen, such as bread, so pretty much anything with bread is out, there is no way I can finish a whole bread loaf before it expires. That's like 8 slices per day or more. Usually you have maybe 2 days before it expires, I can probably do a week if I want to live on the edge. That's a lot of bread and I'd have to be eating ONLY that for that week.

I also hate spending an hour or more on a meal that takes 15 minutes to eat, I just find it inefficient use of my time. One thing that is time efficient is spegatti as it takes 4 hours to make with only 1 hour of real work (rest is just babysitting it) and it freezes well so a single batch usually lasts me a good 4 months with like 8 servings.

What other meals like that can I make? I've been eating lot of canned stuff and frozen dinners, but I want to try to get away from that stuff as it's unhealthy.

Any ideas or links to ideas would be appreciated. Basically I'm looking for ideas for easy meals that don't require me buying ingredients that go bad fast unless it's stuff that freezes well like meat.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I've been wanting to eat healthy and order out less, but my main problem is I never know what to make. Because I live alone I'm kinda limited in what I can buy as I can't eat it all alone fast enough before it expires. Some things are just nasty after they've been frozen, such as bread, so pretty much anything with bread is out, there is no way I can finish a whole bread loaf before it expires. That's like 8 slices per day or more. Usually you have maybe 2 days before it expires, I can probably do a week if I want to live on the edge. That's a lot of bread and I'd have to be eating ONLY that for that week.

I also hate spending an hour or more on a meal that takes 15 minutes to eat, I just find it inefficient use of my time. One thing that is time efficient is spegatti as it takes 4 hours to make with only 1 hour of real work (rest is just babysitting it) and it freezes well so a single batch usually lasts me a good 4 months with like 8 servings.

What other meals like that can I make? I've been eating lot of canned stuff and frozen dinners, but I want to try to get away from that stuff as it's unhealthy.

Any ideas or links to ideas would be appreciated. Basically I'm looking for ideas for easy meals that don't require me buying ingredients that go bad fast unless it's stuff that freezes well like meat.
Click to expand...

Umm...a loaf of bread can easily last 7 days w/o being put in the fridge or freezing.

I normally get Mrs. Bairds breads (different varieties) and I have a little bread cupboard thing that I store it in. As long as you make sure to try to push out any excess air in the bag, keep it dry, and tie it closed, then it'll last you more than 2 days. Sure by the 5th day or so, the bread may not be as fresh as the day you bought it, but it's completely edible.
 
Are you making spaghetti from scratch, like the sauce to the rolling of dough to get the noodles?

How on earth does it take you 4 hours to cook a batch of spaghetti?

Just cook up some noodles, cook some meat, cook some veggies, poor sauce over. Done.
 
Unfortunately, if you want to make a complete meal, you will have to buy some ingredients frequently.

Some items like meats can be frozen and things like seasoning will last awhile, but to get a full meal, you will have to make trips to the grocery to buy some items like vegetables.

But something easy would be like a grilled chicken salad. You could just buy the ingredients once for the week. Buy some chicken tenderloins or breast, lettuce, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, etc.

Season/marinade the chicken, cut up the vegetables, bake the chicken in the oven, then just put the chicken over the salad mix. Easy and healthy lunch item that could last you a full week depending on how much you buy.

But I don't know about you, I need to change up my meals every few days.
 
Well I have to let the sauce cook for 4 hours. At least that's what the recipe says. 3-4 hours. It takes about an hour to prepare then I'm just going to check it every 15 minutes. I just use premade noodles but I do them as I need them. So if today I decide I want to eat spegatti, I'll pull one of my containers from the freezer and start cooking up noddles which usually takes 10-15 minutes and I'll warm up the sauce meanwhile on the stove. I usually try to plan ahead and take it out of the freezer a day before so I'm not trying to cook a huge block of ice lol.

And yeah that's the tricky part I don't want to be eating the same thing every day, so like sure I could probably buy a loaf of bread but if I don't want to waste it I'd be eating toast or sandwiches for lunch and supper for the whole week. Same deal with hot dog buns etc. I love hot dogs, but not enough to eat them all week long. When I buy bread the expiry on it is usually that day or the day after, so I figure I can safely go a few days to a week over it. That's the thing with being in the north by the time stuff gets imported here it's traveled longer.


I also don't mind having to go to the grocery store more often, as it's not far from me anyway.

One thing I completely overlooked that I love to eat (usually buy) is pitas. I often order form the Pita pit. But really I could easily just make my own, and I'm sure the veggies freeze ok and I can just take a small batch out at a time. I also have a crock pot I keep forgetting I have, so maybe some ideas for that as well.
 
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Bachelor here.. and I make food that lasts 2+ days' worth of meals.

Parmesian chicken+broccoli+mushroom alfredo

4lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast or tenders ($6 on sale)
1 can of mushrooms ($1.50)
2 bundles of broccoli ($3.00)
2 cans of Bertolli light alfredo sauce ($4.00)
(assuming you have some permesian cheese if you want... basil pesto also optional)

Cook the chicken in a skillet until done (15 minutes)
Cut the tenders into pieces as fine as you want them to be. (15 minutes)
Steam the broccoli (10 minutes)
Cooking the mushrooms is optional. Pour everything into a pot and stir. Add permesian and/or pesto until you're satisfied. There's your meal.


Beef and bean taco mix
4lbs of lean ground beef ($18)
2 cans of refried beans ($2)
1 jar of jalepenos ($2)
2 packs of onion/pepper mixture ($4)
1 jar of Ortega taco sauce ($2)
2 packs of taco seasoning ($1.50)

This lasts for an upwards of 5 days' worth of meals. I make it quite a bit. It's pricey, but not per meal.

Cook the ground beef until almost done (15 minutes?)
Mix the vegetables in with the beef, turn the burner on low, and let the veggies simmer in the skillet (15 minutes)
Mix everything else in. There's your meal. This is a BIG meal, and it will last a very long time.
 
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Also, I drink a lot of casein protein shakes. I love the Gold Standard 100% casein:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYJ0M0

Milk is cheap. Eggs are cheap (and easy to fix). I buy a lot of deli turkey, pour some Sweet Baby Ray's buffalo dipping sauce on it, and heat it up in the microwave for about a minute-30. Good stuff. Cottage Cheese is cheap.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Because I live alone I'm kinda limited in what I can buy as I can't eat it all alone fast enough before it expires.
Click to expand...

This applies to me a LOT, but devastating with fruits and veggies. They pretty much have to be eaten entirely within a few days or they spoil, even if refrigerated.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Well I have to let the sauce cook for 4 hours. At least that's what the recipe says. 3-4 hours. It takes about an hour to prepare then I'm just going to check it every 15 minutes. I just use premade noodles but I do them as I need them. So if today I decide I want to eat spegatti, I'll pull one of my containers from the freezer and start cooking up noddles which usually takes 10-15 minutes and I'll warm up the sauce meanwhile on the stove. I usually try to plan ahead and take it out of the freezer a day before so I'm not trying to cook a huge block of ice lol.

And yeah that's the tricky part I don't want to be eating the same thing every day, so like sure I could probably buy a loaf of bread but if I don't want to waste it I'd be eating toast or sandwiches for lunch and supper for the whole week. Same deal with hot dog buns etc. I love hot dogs, but not enough to eat them all week long. When I buy bread the expiry on it is usually that day or the day after, so I figure I can safely go a few days to a week over it. That's the thing with being in the north by the time stuff gets imported here it's traveled longer.


I also don't mind having to go to the grocery store more often, as it's not far from me anyway.

One thing I completely overlooked that I love to eat (usually buy) is pitas. I often order form the Pita pit. But really I could easily just make my own, and I'm sure the veggies freeze ok and I can just take a small batch out at a time. I also have a crock pot I keep forgetting I have, so maybe some ideas for that as well.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know what kind of spaghetti sauce requires you to prepare it 3-4 hours. You do realize that you can just buy a jar of Ragu sauce and microwave it in 30 seconds to heat it up right?

Or poor some in the stove and heat it up in a few minutes.

Even higher end sauce you can just microwave or whatever. I'm really curious as to what kind of spaghetti or just pasta sauce requires you to prep for 4 hours.
 
Schfifty Five said:
I honestly don't know what kind of spaghetti sauce requires you to prepare it 3-4 hours. You do realize that you can just buy a jar of Ragu sauce and microwave it in 30 seconds to heat it up right?

Or poor some in the stove and heat it up in a few minutes.

Even higher end sauce you can just microwave or whatever. I'm really curious as to what kind of spaghetti or just pasta sauce requires you to prep for 4 hours.
Click to expand...

My wife makes a delicious sauce that takes a good 4 hours to cook and works great for spaghetti, lasagne, and a few other things like that (might mix up the ingredients a bit for a particular recipe). Mix a bunch of ingredients and slow cook it--ends up MUCH better than any sauce you're gonna find in a jar. However, yeah...most of the time we don't have that much time to spend cooking, and the Ragu is fine for spaghetti 😀.
 
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