COOKING FOR TWO SENIORS...or even one

You’ve heard of Love for Three Oranges? This is Cooking for Two Seniors – it can be done, and very easily too if you’ve planned ahead.  Planning means knowing what you eat and planning accordingly.  You can do that, right? Or are you a run-to-the-store kind of person? For twenty-five years our closest supermarket was seventeen miles away on the other side of the Berkshire Mountains, so I am not accustomed to fast foods or take out. We’re retired now – way up there in years – and, naturally, we don’t eat as much as we once did.  While you can find recipes for two on line, most ‘shelter’ sites assume their audience is twenty- to forty-something, and recipes are for larger appetites. My husband and I once ate a chicken breast each, but now I’ve got to filet just one into two portions. I still make a full recipe of things like soup or meatballs, but I bag and freeze less for each meal. Smaller appetites mean smaller portions, smaller packaging, and a food budget that goes further.

I do have a small freezer, and I have become adept at proper prior planning.

I buy many foods in bags: shrimp that has been flash frozen on the boat; bagged frozen veggies because the boxed varieties serve more than two and the leftovers have to be repackaged; and frozen fruit, especially wild blueberries and peaches, because I never know when I’ll want to sauté some with butter and brown sugar for a quick, hot dessert or add some to pancakes or muffins. I never know when I’ll want just a few asparagus or some peas to add some green to an otherwise drab looking concoction.

What I don’t buy in bags I can easily package: after I cut all the ‘guck’ off of the chicken breasts I bag them individually, then I stack them someplace handy in the freezer so that they freeze in sort of a lump. Then they go on the meat shelf.  Same with a whole boneless pork loin cut into chops and, in expectation of company, small roasts. Bag ‘em, stack ‘em, freeze ‘em.  

I’ve developed a list of things that I absolutely have to have on hand: onions, eggs, tomatoes, bacon, pasta, cheese, various types of canned beans, and butter. (And never forget some ice cream!)  Sounds like a good meal in the making right there.  Of course I’ve always got plenty of flour and sugar, herbs and spices, oil and various condiments, and chocolate and nuts. Yeah, and fresh fruit and salad fixings too. I’m sure you’ve got your own favorites staples.

I regularly make a big pot of spaghetti sauce, or soups and stews. When I do make a roast I make lots of extra gravy. Sauce and gravy portioned into one-cup containers, and soups or stews in three cup containers can last the two of us for weeks. I’ve got a handy set of shallow, plastic carrier bins that fit beautifully on the freezer shelves to hold bagged fruit and veggies, meats, and my own or store-bought baked goods. I invested in good freezer containers and baked-goods bags to insure the quality of what I freeze. I make my own bread, my husband slices it once it’s cool, then into a bag and into the freezer it goes. If you properly bag store-bought bread it will keep as well. Other shelves are reserved for those containers of frozen sauce and soup.  Works for me, and as I said, it keeps the food bill down.

Another thing that works for me is writing down good recipes for two when I make something good for the first time. I’ve got a great file of family recipes on my laptop, and I’m gradually adapting those and adding the good results to my recipes for two. I also keep cheat sheets in a box by the fridge.  Most of the time I wing it: I think of what I have on hand and how I can combine a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a handy starch like pasta or beans, and come up with something good. 

Sometimes I get a great hint from a magazine or website I’ve seen that today.  Today I saw a recipe for asparagus and pasta, so tonight we’ll have some variation on that theme – I’ve got the butter, lemon and parmesan in the fridge, linguini on the shelf, and asparagus in the freezer.  We’re set for a good meal – for two.

NOTE!  Yesterday I started a recipe blog - LATELIFE RECIPES. It will be a compendium of recipes I've adapted for just the two of us.  There's just one recipe there today, but I'll add to it regularly - I've got a slew of recipes of my own, as well as recipes and ideas culled from other sources.  I'm sure you will like the list of sweet and savory hints from Jacques Pépin - coming soon! Well, as soon as I can decide what to post next.