My husband is a vegetarian -- nothing with a face -- so if I am eating chicken breast or fish, I am making one serving. So many recipes for chicken breast or fish call for making some kind of sauce or marinade, but when you are making one serving, it's pretty hard to make that tiny an amount of liquid. When I divide a recipe for four into fourths, I find myself mixing one teaspoon of balsamic or something with dry ingredients and it's difficult.

What's your favorite way to make one serving of these items?

My favorite way to cook fish fillets (any white fish) is a little bit of olive oil and lemon juice in a small frying pan for moisture, throw your fish in, sprinkle with cajun seasoning and pepper (or any spices you like) and it is DELISH!

chicken - you could always just grill it with salt, pepper and italian seasoning on the bbq, or wrap it in foil with some garlic, salt and pepper and lemon juice and throw it on the grill or in the oven. it stays super moist that way too!

You could always make it in bulk and freeze it The marinade should be fine frozen as long as you don't leave it like that for months.

I like to just take my fish and throw on some adobo seasoning and grill it- DELICIOUS. Also garlic salt and onion power is a good one.

Or you can throw on some salt and pepper and put a lemon wedge and bake it

One thing I'll do also is make more than one portion and take it to work the next day for lunch as well.

My favourite recently is taking a chicken breast (salt, pepper) and brown in a non-stick frying pan (a very small one) for about a minute on each side. Mix a small amount of salsa with chicken broth and pour over. Put a lid on it and 'poach' for about 10 mins (this will vary depending on size). Lift chicken out onto a small plate and cover with lid from frying pan. Thicken the pan juices to the consistency you want.

To the same basic concept I've used (instead of the salsa/chicken stock):

lime ginger - 1 Tb lime juice, 1 tsp honey, 1/2 oz chopped candied ginger, chicken stock

apricot ginger - 1-1/2 Tb apricot jam, 1-1/2 tsp ginger root grated, ~1 tsp lemon juice, chicken stock


(Oops, I just say that I'm in a specific diet section, so these may not be suitable. However, it gives you the idea.)

Here's what I do: When I get home from the store with a bag of chicken, I mix up a marinade or two. I put the chicken breasts in individual plastic ziplock baggies and dump some marinade on them and throw them back in the freezer. When I take one out to thaw, it marinades some more and I throw it on my single-sized George Foreman grill (or however you want to cook it).

That's the same thing we do. I'm veg, and hubby still enjoys the occasional hunk of poultry. I buy meat, divide it into actual portion sizes, toss in some marinade, and freeze it. That way, when he gets tired of meatless dinners, I can pull out one piece at a time and toss it on the grill for him.

It takes a bit more planning when you come home from the grocery, but it's worth it!

I live alone, so I make a lot of quick single serving things. My favorite quick meat prep lately has been to broil in my toaster oven.

I have a toaster oven sized broiler pan and rack. I'll put some aluminum foil in the pan so I don't have to work too hard cleaning the pan.

My favorite, chicken thigh, is just 8 minutes per side. I'll use a variety of seasonings, from blackening to montreal chicken, or sometimes just marinate in a ziploc bag overnight (teriyaki, lemon pepper, etc). It always comes out moist and yummy without a lot of work.

I'm single so I cook for myself a lot. For fish i just broil it like rocketbunny does except I use my stove broiler ... so easy, just throw it under the broiler. This works best for fish that has some taste like salmon or swordfish. Then I add lemon as I eat it. For chicken I do what Hyacinth does except I broil it -- I maranade it overnight in either a homemade or store bought maranade then I broil it. Obviously I love to broil!