I live alone, and I make a lot of recipes that serve anywhere from 2-6 people. Really, I try not to eat something more than twice in a row. I tend to get bored if I make a dish and eat it six nights in a row, for example, even if I dress it up with extra vegetables.
What's saved me is freezing foods. I'm not one of those commando cooks who do a month's worth of meals in one marathon day's worth of cooking. But, I'll cook something, save one portion as leftovers, and freeze the rest. I live and die on those Ziploc semi-disposable plastic containers.
Anyone else had experiences with this? Most things I have good luck with, if they're main dishes. I eat semi-vegetarian/pescatarian (which is vegetarian plus fish), so that's the type of things I freeze. I've noticed that pastas freeze pretty well, as do tomato-based dishes and bean-based dishes. I'll make something like beans and rice, and just freeze the beans part and then cook rice when I thaw it. Or shrimp creole, freeze the shrimp creole in individual containers and then cook rice in the microwave separate. (When I ate meat I found that beef seemed to freeze better than chicken, at least in the dishes I made.) I haven't tried freezing, say, fish dishes. That just seems wrong, and I usually cook those in small quantities anyway.
I've had bad luck freezing breads, though, or bread-based things. If I freeze muffins, or fresh-baked breads, it's a disaster trying to thaw it out to eat. Now, frozen meals heat up like... well, frozen meals, the type they sell in the stores. That's easy. I still don't get how I can freeze muffins and English muffins and breads and have them thaw. I've never tried to freeze cookies. Never really tried to freeze anything but main dishes.
Anyway, just curious if anyone else freezes. When I first went to a dietician three years ago, I told her I would never, ever cook. That I'd live on convenience foods, fast foods, and frozen dinners. And I did -- for a while. Now I find I like cooking, and it's cheaper. And I still have the convenience of frozen meals to bring into work, say, just at less cost. Plus it's great when I don't feel like cooking, to peruse the freezer and see what's there.
