How to Cook for One Without Wasting Food

Cooking for one has a specific problem that recipe sites rarely
address: groceries come in sizes designed for families. You buy a
head of cauliflower, use a quarter of it, and find the rest
rotting ten days later. A loaf of bread is three people's weekly
bread; for one person it is a science experiment by day 5.

The solution is not to cook less. It is to cook with a rotation
and a freezer strategy so that ingredients flow through the
kitchen at your pace, not the grocery store's.

## The two math problems of solo cooking

1. **Recipe scaling.** Most recipes serve 4. You need to halve,
quarter, or scale to 1 serving — which often produces weird
fractions and impractical quantities (1/4 of an egg? 1/8 of
an onion?).

2. **Ingredient scaling.** Groceries come in amounts sized for
multi-person households. You buy what you need, plus a forced
surplus.

Both problems are solvable, but the solutions differ.

## Solution 1: The batch-of-2 rule

Do not scale recipes to 1 serving. Scale them to 2. Eat one
tonight, eat the second tomorrow for lunch.

Why 2 instead of 4 (a typical family batch)?

- 4 servings means eating the same thing 4 times in 5 days. Most
people hate this by day 3.
- 2 servings means 1 dinner + 1 lunch. Over 48 hours it does not
feel like "leftovers," it feels like prep.
- 2 servings uses ingredients in practical quantities: half a
chicken breast, not a quarter; one can of beans, not half a
can sitting in the fridge.

This single shift — cook for 2, eat over 2 meals — solves 70
percent of solo cooking waste.

## Solution 2: The 3-day rotation

Plan dinners in groups of three that share core ingredients.

**Example rotation 1 (chicken anchor):**
- Monday: Roast half a chicken breast + vegetables
- Tuesday: Remaining half sliced over a salad
- Wednesday: Bones + scraps into broth for Thursday soup

**Example rotation 2 (grain anchor):**
- Monday: Cook 1 cup of rice. Stir-fry with whatever vegetable is
on sale.
- Tuesday: Rice bowl with a fried egg and sauce.
- Wednesday: Fried rice with the last scraps.

The same three days can repeat indefinitely or rotate through
different proteins. You are not eating the same meal three days
in a row — you are using the same ingredients three different
ways.

## Solution 3: The freezer is your teammate

Single-serving freezer portions make "cooking for one" actually
mean "thawing for one" half the time. Here is what to freeze:

| Item | Freezer life | Thaw method |
|------|--------------|-------------|
| Cooked rice (in flat zip bags) | 3 months | Microwave from frozen, 2 min |
| Cooked beans | 3 months | Overnight fridge or simmer from frozen |
| Chopped onion (half-cooked) | 3 months | Throw into pan frozen |
| Ginger (whole, peeled) | 6 months | Grate frozen |
| Garlic (minced in oil, ice cube tray) | 3 months | Drop cube in pan |
| Single-serving soup or stew | 3 months | Saucepan from frozen |
| Sliced bread | 3 months | Toaster from frozen |
| Herbs (basil, parsley, in oil cubes) | 3 months | Drop in pan |
| Stock/broth (ice cube tray) | 6 months | 1-2 cubes per use |

The habit: every Sunday, freeze what will not get eaten by
Wednesday. Solo cooking without an active freezer is impossible.

## Shopping for one: the quantity guide

For a week of cooking for one:

- **Protein:** 1 to 1.5 pounds total (mix: chicken thighs, one
piece of fish, tofu, eggs, beans)
- **Vegetables:** 4 to 5 different ones in small quantities
(2 peppers, 1 onion, 1 bunch of broccoli, 1 cucumber, 1 bag of
salad greens)
- **Grains:** 1 small package of pasta OR 1 cup of dry rice (cook
once, portion and freeze)
- **Pantry:** cans of beans, tomatoes, broth — all single-use
sized
- **Dairy:** 6 eggs, a small yogurt, a small piece of cheese

A solo grocery run is about 12 items totaling $35 to $50 per
week for 7 dinners + some breakfasts/lunches. That is competitive
with takeout for a single meal.

## What to buy in larger sizes anyway

Some things are actually cheaper in bigger sizes AND store well
for one person:

- **Frozen vegetables.** A bag of frozen peas or spinach lasts
months and portions perfectly — take out what you need, reseal.
- **Dried beans.** A 1-pound bag is 3-4 cooked batches. Cook,
freeze in 1-cup portions.
- **Rice, pasta, quinoa.** Shelf-stable for years.
- **Nuts.** Freeze them to prevent rancidity; they last 6 months
frozen vs 3 weeks pantry.
- **Parmesan cheese (block).** Wrap tight, lasts 2 months
refrigerated.

## What NOT to buy in bulk when cooking for one

- Fresh herbs (except parsley, which freezes). They die in a week.
- Bread unless you freeze it. Four days max on counter.
- Lettuce. A whole head is three salads for a family and six
salads turning to slime for one person.
- Ripe fruit. Buy what you will eat in 3 days.
- Large cuts of meat unless you are going to portion and freeze.

## A solo cooking weeknight in 15 minutes

- 5 minutes: scoop frozen rice into bowl, microwave
- 7 minutes: heat skillet, sear a chicken thigh, add frozen peas
and frozen garlic cube
- 2 minutes: splash of soy sauce, bowl assembly
- 1 minute: fried egg on top if needed

That is dinner, using 3 frozen items, 1 fresh protein, 1 condiment.
No wasted produce. No recipe scaling. No mental overhead.

## The recipe library angle

Solo cookers benefit most from a recipe library that tracks
serving size and lets you scale and save the scaled version.
See our [recipe scaling guide](/blog/recipe-scaling-2-vs-12) for
the math behind scaling without breaking recipes. The ability to
mark "this worked scaled to 2" saves you from re-solving the same
scaling problem every month.

Cooking for one does not have to mean eating worse than a family
or wasting more than a family. It means a slightly different
system: batch-of-2, 3-day rotation, active freezer, and
quantity-aware shopping. 20 minutes of weekly planning saves 3+
pounds of food waste a month.