How do you plan & shop for one person

I have spent time in South Korea and Serbia. I find they shop more frequently, every day or 2. However, stores are within walking distance in most cities, making this chore easy and keeping ingredients fresher.

great ideas! I also cook for one and hate it...Im not fond of cooking anyway and not very good or innovative at it ... I found it so much easier esp when I was ill to slap something between 2 pieces of daves killer bread...thank you for your insight!

I really like how you broke down the use of a chicken! So many people say batch and freeze but yawn. I like this idea a lot!

I'm too frugal to buy a book....get my books at the library and scan the recipe pages I want to keep.

I agree with @MARYJOANNA, that freezing one-half (or more according to portion size) is the way to go. The best part in doing so is you'll only have to cook for half the month or less :)

Edited by: LIVEANDLAUGH at: 8/6/2019 (12:55)

You can make a recipe for more than one person and freeze the other part.

If you look on Amazon, there are cookbooks written for one or two persons. I prefer to make batches of regular recipes and portion them out right away, eating leftovers more often than not.

I always freeze loaves of bread, and certain vegetables like celery, where I won't manage to consume most of it before it goes bad. I also try to ALWAYS shop with a grocery list, to avoid over-shopping or impulse items.

Edited by: KEELYME at: 9/20/2018 (13:10)

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Buy small packages and divide into one portion.

I have trouble with that, most meals I make a 1 serving size, rarely 2 servings, soup enough for 4 times. Fruit is easy, I buy lose & not in bags the correct amount, some vegetables,like celery I buy ready cut in the supermarket 4 days worth at most. Other vegetables I buy the smallest size available, for tomatoes I do not buy the large heavy ones, I buy the smaller ones on the vine & use 1 tomato per. serving. There is more then one kind on the vine and the amount I buy I use in a week or I can put in soup or spaghetti sauce if I have some not lasting, most times I get them on sale. I freeze mostly fruit for the winter, blueberries, strawberries in season. I live alone in a apartment. I live close to a fruit & vegetable market so I buy that 2 times a week with the correct amount. I also find that I need to start checking my fridge every 2 days for food I should use up that day. I need to do this in the evening after supper so I have less throwing out of food. I make quick homemade apple sauce when the skin wrinkles on the apples.1 apple makes 1 cup. All you do is after peeling and slicing apples you cook them until soft but not too mushy in only enough water to cover them. Then I use a hand blender in the pot to mash them up & add cinnamon & a small amount of brown sugar to it. I blend it for a minute with my hand blender.Dark brown sugar has molasses in it, so adds flavor & nutrition & is sweeter then white sugar. I use 1 teaspoon per. apple. It will keep for 7 days in the fridge.

Buy foods that are easy to divide into smaller portions, either before cooking or after

If you have a local supermarket with a salad bar I would use that to purchase fresh fruits and veggies. You can get just what you need. It may cost more per pound, but you will not have waste.
I would also consider purchasing a small freezer. You can get one the same size as your refrigerator if you have room for it. That will give you a bit more storage space and maybe help from wasting food. You can buy bags of veggies and just take what you need for a meal. If you make a pot of soup, you can freeze the extra for another day.

When you buy a food, try to think of ways to use it throughout the week.

For example, a roasted chicken.
-- First meal -- have the drumsticks while they're still hot
Freeze the chicken breasts now or use them in subsequent meals.
Cut up the chicken breast and an apple; throw in some nuts and raisins and a bit of mayonnaise. Chicken salad
Take the carcass and boil it to make broth. Strain and you'll see large chunks of meat. Pick out meat; discard bones. Meat back into broth along with veggies and you've got a couple meals of chicken soup. (Bones can be added to your compost pile for full use).

Step one is to take stock every day or two. What do you have coming up that changes any of your time requirements? What do you have in the fridge that needs to be used up?

Step two is to shop more frequently, or at least have an extra day or two where you could stop by the grocery store if you need to. It can be easier to figure out two days at a time than it is seven or more. At the store bulk bins are your friend. You can buy as small of a quantity as you need. Be aware of the policies of the stores you shop at. Publix sells produce by the pound, but often most of what is on the shelf is packed up and ready for a family of four. If you look around, you'll likely find a tiny section of loose items that you can choose from. If you ask, they will also split the package for you. My personal rule with shopping is that if I cannot think of three uses for it then it does not go in my basket. If I still want it later I can always search out some recipes and pick it up on the next trip. And always use a basket instead of a cart. I also try and limit my new or weird items to one or two. This way you don't have to try to figure out what to do with hoisin, fingerling potatoes, eggplant, tahini, orange sauce and skyr, all before they go bad.

Which brings us to recipes. You'll likely work up a certain amount of staples from a base set of ingredients. For those one or two new or weird items, use up one before you work on the next one. So you might work your way through a bottle of hoisin and then work your way through a bottle of BBQ sauce. Have a few staples in all the time (ketchup and mayo for example), but plan on just one extra rotation slot and use up one before you open something new.

Since you have little to no fridge and freezer space, look to shelf stable options for perishables like produce. Canned foods give you more play than fresh. Dried is another option. What you do buy fresh, buy hardier options. Which means that berries can easily spoil in a few days. Apples can keep for two weeks or so. Carrots, cabbage potatoes and onions are hardy, avocados are finicky. If you don't have time to use them in the next day or two, stick to the hardier fresh options.

I also find that cooking ingredients rather than meals helps. Which means I can cook up some cabbage, onions and mushrooms on day one. A portion I will take out for next day's lo mein and the rest I will add five spice to and braise. I cook up a pot of rice today to have under the brasied cabbage. Day two I use up my veg blend with some pasta, ginger and soy sauce to make lo mein. Day three I can use the rice to make fried rice or top it with broccoli and cheese. Day four I might have broccoli and cheese over baked potatoes. Day five I could use up the last of the potatoes and cabbage in colcannon. By cooking ingredients and mixing them together I avoid the trap of cooking for four and getting so sick of the same thing for lunch and dinner all the time until it's finally over. Plan on cooking one new thing and using up something that you have already made. It's the same idea as roasting a chicken on Sunday and making soup with the bones. You have some pieces of chicken on Sunday and use leftovers Monday and Tuesday in different things (sandwiches, fajitas, casserole, salads) for lunch and dinner. Then you have the soup on Wednesday. It's just when you are by yourself you have to scale back. You need one zucchini, not four. You need a 1 lb bird, not a 5 lb one.

Shopping and planning for just two can also be challenging. My strategies in cooking once and eating twice, freezing in individual portions, planned leftovers and a detailed weekly menu. I have worked on developing 4 serving soup recipes that work for us for lunches and we have 3 "standard" breakfasts we rotate.

I'm not good at planning & shopping for one. I end up throwing out food or running out. How do you all plan & shop for one? Btw, needs to work with apartment fridge & storage space.