PRATIE PLACE

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Bachelor Meals

I have a cookbook called "Cooking for One." It's full of elegantly set tables and beautifully arranged plates of fancy foods. The message is, even if you're alone, you should be eating well. Does anybody ever do this? I think I'm doing pretty well if I actually sit down, with my food on an actual plate.

When I'm alone, which is often, these are my dinners:
  • cornflakes with bananas;
  • cajun chicken ramen with a box of frozen broccoli thrown in;
  • A little frozen dinner with cabbage added (microwave the cabbage first or it will be too crunchy);
  • a tortilla microwaved with mozarella cheese on it;
  • popcorn.
To see if people had better ideas, I googled "bachelor meals" and found other solitary eaters are doing just as badly as I am. Here are some of their picks:
  • ketchup sandwiches
  • cold spaghetti sauce on bread
  • nuked ketchup and water
  • hot dog rolls w/mustard and relish - no dogs left
  • dry cereal in a bowl - forgot I ran out of milk
  • pasta w/Cheese Whiz topping
  • Cheez-Its with milk as cereal
  • Frosted Flakes for breakfast
  • dill pickle spears dipped in Miracle Whip
  • bread dipped in salad dressing poured on a plate
  • bread sticks dipped in Marsh. Fluff and choc. syrup
  • Uncooked macaroni topped with mayonaise and barbecue sauce (when the power was turned off)
  • hamburg patty w/stale pizza wrapped around it
  • Take a can of pork-and-bean and poured it into a plate until the plate is brim full. In the center of that, empty a can of sardines. On top of the sardines, heap a few tablespoons of Miracle Whip salad dressing.
  • scrambled eggs, with hot dogs chopped up in them.
  • can of sour cream & onion Pringles and a six-pack
  • Best Bachelor Meal Ever: edamame (soy beans in pod)in water
  • peanut butter and Miracle Whip on white bread.
  • Peanut butter, blackberry jelly, Oscar Meyer bologna, and American cheese on toasted white bread

How about you? What do you eat when there's nobody else home?

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21 Comments:

At 6:48 AM, Blogger kenju said...

I love eating eggs for dinner. When I am alone, I scramble eggs and have them with 2 Eggo waffles. Yum!

There are some things on your list that are revolting:pork and beans, sardines and Miracle Whip? I would die before I could eat that.

 
At 9:31 AM, Blogger Lora said...

Yuck, many of those are just plain revolting.

In the whole year that I lived by myself, the week night a week I wasn't working I made an effort to cook myself a real well-balanced dinner. I'd even light some candles. But not anymore.

I eat a lot of plain yogurt with berries, nuts, and granola.
Eggs in various forms.
Soup (I always have individual containers of homemade soup and stews in my freezer)
Salad greens topped with George Foreman Grilled salmon or chicken

 
At 10:42 AM, Blogger Badaunt said...

Golly, looking at that list makes me feel incredibly healthy, and I thought I was a bad eater.

But if I'm alone I make an effort to eat SOMETHING healthy. And I always sit down at the table to eat.

My favourite (and I have it all the time, because it's fast) is spaghetti. I fry slices of garlic and a chilli in lots of olive oil, then add tomato, herbs, mushrooms, and at the end whatever leafy greens happen to be in the fridge get thrown in as well. Eat with lightly toasted bread for dipping in the remainder of the sauce when the spaghetti is gone, and a glass of red wine helps wash it down nicely. Takes about 10 minutes to prepare.

Other times I go Japanese. Rice, miso, toasted agedofu (a kind of tofu) with grated ginger on top and soy sauce sprinkled over it (yum), and some sort of leafy green blanched then sprinkled with sesame and katsuo. (Dried bonito.) A piece of grilled fish is optional, and so is yakitori chicken. (There's a little place near here that sells it by the stick.)

I'm not a good cook, which is why all my meals are really simple and almost impossible to get wrong. And quick, because I get bored with preparing and just want to eat.

 
At 4:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pan fried steak, tomato salad (that is, a sliced tomato with bleu cheese dressing), corn on the cob.

-Adam V.

 
At 4:23 PM, Blogger Ruby Sinreich said...

I actually cooked at home more when I was single. I love making extra so I can freeze the leftovers and not have to cook some other time.

Now it seems like a hassle to negotiate something we both like, etc. so we end up going out too much. But we're getting better.. we made Pad Thai this week!

 
At 10:33 PM, Blogger Craig said...

My wife is in Geneva right now, but she hardly ever cooks when she is here, even though she's a great cook. Our housekeeper works two days a week. Today she'll make corned beef and cabbage, enough for today and for leftovers this weekend. Next Monday I'll have her make a deep fried Thai fish with coconut milk curry sauce. She also makes two big green salads every week. So I usually only cook once or twice a week, sometimes a tuna casserole, sometimes steak and baked potato or sausage and fried noodles. I almost always go to the mall for lunch.

 
At 10:37 PM, Blogger melinama said...

Man, you guys are doing great. I'd like to say you inspire me to do better, as you do - theoretically - but in practice, dunno... thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming!

 
At 10:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Most often I nuke some frozen vegetables, but when it's cold out and a need for variety strikes, I'll make Trinity Soup: chopped celery, onions, and carrots sauted in olive oil, then flavored with white wine and add water, simmer until hungry.

O'Rupp

 
At 6:30 AM, Blogger Cheryl said...

Mayonnaise sandwiches.
Nothing else, just mayonnaise!
(guilty secret rofl)

 
At 6:48 AM, Blogger phoenix said...

When I was growing up it was called hash, but it was always a staple and now when I am alone it is what I crave.

Hash browns made fresh by grating a potato. Fry the hash browns in a combo of butter and crisco. Add onion and any meat you might have in the fridge, preferably ham diced. Scramble 2 eggs in a bowl and add to the mixture once it is crispy enough. Scramble the whole thing until eggs are cooked. Put on your plate and add american cheese (melts faster).

Gosh hungry now... gonna go make some :)

 
At 11:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Try making a Dutch one-dish meal called "boerenkool stampot" - you mash some potatos and kale/spinach with a little bacon. Not the greatest dish, but quite filling. Have a lowfat turkey sausage to go with it, for an extra treat.

I usually make stirfry or curry - both are low in fat, and have a good spectrum of vegetables to go along with the meat.

I used to make pizzas from scratch, but most pizzas aren't all that healthy - at least the ones that you want to eat anyways.

 
At 9:39 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Slacker Egg Tortilla: Line a bowl with your tortilla. Break open an egg into the tortilla lined bowl. If you do this right, all the egg should nest in the tortilla. Now get a paper plate to cover the bowl, cut some holes in it to let the steam out. Put a coffee mug on top of the plate to keep the plate from blowing off. Put that in the microwave for say 2 minutes, and presto. Add whatever you want to it. Quick, cheap, easy and no mess...

 
At 9:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Peanut Butter and Dill Pickle sammich on toasted bread. Sprinkle nutritional yeast on the peanut butter.

 
At 8:33 PM, Blogger George Rivello said...

I am a brand new bachelor, but I have always enjoyed cooking for myself and cook omlettes in the morning, and weekly meals for the weekends such as bbq chicken, spanish rice, fish soup, shrimp salad, and of course pasta and meatballs. Lately I've been looking for recipes that will last me the whole week, like stir fry or crock pot type meals.

Ironically I was looking for menus when I found your lamentable collection of loathesome loner meals. Not for me!

Although, I'll never light the candles dining alone. Thats just too much drama.

 
At 6:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

pork and beans with browm or white rice allyou need

 
At 10:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

stouffers skillet sensations over rice or noodles is grewat and healthy

 
At 11:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

beans and rice...any beans, any rice, add a beef/chicken boullion cube when making the rice. it's soooo simple, i'm all about simple.

 
At 8:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love all these suggestions!

 
At 1:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

boiled vegetables (cabbage, broccoli onion) over a nuked baked potato, with margarine, mustard...

deli 5-layer bean dip burritos

int'l salads: chinese (add wonton strips, canned mandarins, water chestnuts, chopped green onion

lean cuisines, cereal, one-serving oatmeal...

 
At 8:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Usually I either boil/fry some rice w/frozen veggies, or fry potatoes and meat in about 1/2 in of oil.

Other than steaming, does anyone know how to make rice "fluffy" like at the restaurants? also, how do you make miso soup?

 
At 3:54 AM, Anonymous Peter said...

Glad I am not the only one with the same problem! I am retired and keep plenty apples,(eat straight or microwave (with sugar) banannas, eggs, minute noodles,and packet soups & rice, instant mash, gravy, mayonaise,bread for toast and toppings of bottled spreads (eg. peanut butter and cereals and instant oats for breakfast. All intersperced with a glass of flavoured milk or coffee/black tea.

Thanks for all the great ideas this site has given me!!

 

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