Single Cooking Philosophy

I’ve been playing around with single serving dishes for a while, and I’ve come up with some tips and tricks that work for me.  Most of these came about because of some annoyance that I had to solve.  The problem with these kinds of things is that some amazing little trick that works for me can be just another quirky little idea that has absolutely no practical utility to you.  Maybe these don’t work for you, but they may give you inspiration to come up with your own quirky little solutions. 


My freezer is my friend
    
     I use my freezer a lot.  I freeze leftover stuff in small chunks to use later.  I buy red peppers when they are on sale to use in dishes with cooked red pepper.  I flatten out tomato paste in a plastic zipper bag so that I can break off a tablespoon at a time.  I make a meatloaf (once or twice a year) slice it up and freeze it for sandwiches or cube it for easy to eat lunches I take to work.  I buy a package of bacon, roll up single strips, freeze them sitting on their flat sides then place in a plastic zipper bag.  I can easily use a single piece of bacon any time (they thaw in the skillet).  I have individual frozen raw prawns that can be added to any dish.  I keep brownies and other baked goods in the freezer for a quick dessert or workday lunch.

Get the idea?


What do I do with ½ an egg?

    A couple of years ago I got the book Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos.  I was very inspired by her recipes for tiny batches of cookies, cakes and gooey baked things.  Unfortunately, I have never tried any of the recipes.   Why?  Because most call for 1 ½ tbs. of  beaten egg (or something like that).  The author says she bakes often that she can use up the rest of the egg within a couple days.  Good for her.  I can’t.  I don’t bake that often and I don’t use many eggs in my cooking.

     I’ve come up with a philosophy about baking.  I scale down my favorite recipes so that I use 1 egg.  I bake brownies that use 1 egg, I bake almond cherry bars that call for 1 egg,  I even bake a tiny 1 egg  birthday layer cake in my tiny 6” round cake pan (which comes in handy for having 1 or 2 people over for a quiet birthday dinner).   I should add that Debby Maugans Nakos's book helped me learn how to bake small amounts of baked goods  (lower temp and a shorter time-  small things heat up quickly).
    
     This philosophy holds for other types of cooking.  I don’t want ½ a tomato sitting around or ½ a potato, onion, etc.  I tend to buy smaller tomatoes, onions, eggplants, etc. so that I can use up the whole thing in one meal.  That can throw off a recipe a little, but I’ve never made anything I didn’t like because it had too much tomato in it.




Vegetable madness   

    This is a really quirky thing that works for me, but it may not for you.  In the summer I tend to eat a lot of salads and vegetables, especially the lunches I take to work.  On a day off I will set aside a couple hours preparing vegetables for these salads.  The cooked vegetables should last for 5 days, but if they don’t, another half hour of labor later on in the week will fill the void.

     I’ll rinse and dry lettuce, then store in a plastic box.  I’ll steam all sorts of veggies, like broccoli, leeks, green beans, kale, etc.  I’ll boil new potatoes, sauté zucchini or red pepper.  In barbeque season I’ll toss the veggies on the grill.   I go to my local summer farmer’s market and get seasonal veggies like fava beans, baby artichokes, sugar snap peas.  I’ll have some raw vegetables to provide crunch.  I’ll make a variety of dressings and sauces that I put in little squeeze bottles from the Japanese 99 cent store. 

     Pack a variety of veggies in a water tight container, add a dressing, some frozen chunks of meatloaf, roast chicken or garlic shrimp and you’ve got lunch.  Put together a different combination each day for variety.  Make a big plate and add whole wheat toast with garlic, olive oil and parmigiano and you’ve got a quick after work supper.


Roast a chicken

     Once a week or so I’ll roast a whole chicken for dinner.  The next night I’ll pick off the meat and freeze it in a plastic zipper bag (loosely packed so I can break off frozen chunks).   I’ll add the chunks to my packed lunch, toss into a small cheesy noodle casserole, add at the end of  a stir fry.  If I’m industrious I’ll save the bones and make a stock, reduce it, pour into ice cube trays and keep in my friend, the freezer.  Once in a blue moon I’ll make a pot roast or cook some other hunk of protein.  Cut up in small chunks and freeze.

You get the idea.


A toast to toast

     I’ll put anything on toast to make a meal.  Mac and Cheese on toast under the broiler.   Quick and dirty pizza sauce and mozzarella.   Leftover garlicy tomatoey shrimp and feta on crunchy  whole wheat toast.   Chopped raw broccoli, a couple chunks of frozen roast chicken, olive oil and a thick slice of cheddar cheese, under the broiler until bubbly and brown.

Middle Age Fitness

As I mentioned before, I get frustrated looking online for clues about exercise because most advice out there for the over 40, over 50 crowd seems to be for people who are already athletes. Even the articles and interviews with people who weren’t (athletes or really athletically inclined) seem to say “I did it, so can you. Don’t give up.” While that help might help for Day 1, it doesn’t go much further.

I’m not a specialist in sports medicine, but as an everyday guy I can at least tell you what I went through, and maybe why certain advice is worth noting.

Get a physical exam

If you haven’t had one in a while, it’s time. Once you reach a certain age, you need to keep track of things. If you aren’t in very good shape now, chances are you’ve let other things slip. Tell your doctor you want to get more exercise, make sure your heart and knees are up to the challenge.


Find something you like to do

You’ll see this when you look for advice on how to start exercise. Try to pick things you genuinely enjoy doing. Why? For a few simple reasons. 1) You’ll enjoy yourself. 2) Enjoying the activity means you won’t need lots of motivation to do it again, you already ARE motivated. Also, if it’s something you actually enjoy doing, you won’t look for excuses on rainy, cold days. 3) You’ll meet other people who enjoy the same activity. You’ll associate exercise with fun.

A friend of mine likes to go walking. That is, she likes to go walking as long as the sun is shining, it’s at a beach (not any beach, one specific beach), she can take her dog, Someone goes with her, the tide is low, etc., etc., etc.. In other words, she doesn’t really like to go walking. She’ll tolerate it if her long list of conditions is met. Because all these conditions rarely happen all on one day, we rarely go walking together.

On the other hand, I just love to go walking. I won’t list all the reasons, because they don’t really matter to you. It’s just an activity I love doing. I’ll walk in forests, busy city streets, early morning, noon and night. I walk when it’s sunny, rainy and when there is snow on the ground. That’s because I love to go walking. There are plenty of physical activities I don’t love, quite a few I hate. I don’t do those.

So, find something you like to do. Whether it’s walking, bowling, playing golf, waltzing, or kayaking if you love to do it, you’ll go back for more. And even if you don’t think it’s enough exercise, the more you do it, the more exercise you get. Five years ago I took a swing dance class. I wasn’t very good at it, I was very self conscious about it, I could never remember the steps. I kept showing up. I loved taking those classes. After the first few classes I had no idea how much exercise they involved. I worked up to some intermediate classes, was taking 2 or 3 classes in a row, I got plenty of exercise. Same with walking. You may start with a leisurely stroll today, but a five mile walk that makes you break a sweat is exercise.


One final thought, if you haven’t gotten much exercise in the last few years, take it easy. In middle age, it takes longer to recover form exercise, just as injuries take longer to heal. Don’t expect changes overnight or in a week. You should pace yourself enough that you actually want to go back and do it all again.