Cooking for two seems to be the holy grail of difficulty for many people. Let’s face it, most recipes are written to accommodate 4 or 6 people. Being able to scale back food portions and cook for two can be a daunting task but a simple too. Portion sizes are already distorted in America and because of this we end up throwing away a large amount of the food we prepare and purchase. With a few simple strategies, you can save on your grocery bill and reduce your waistline all at once.
We go through many aspects of life and sometimes we get stuck in certain phases. Parents who cook for several kids find it difficult to scale back when the kids are out of the house. Portion sizes are engrained in our learned motor skills and to change the visual, feel, and automated motions of preparing a large meal is difficult. It’s even difficult scaling back on portion sizes when we go out to eat. If you grew up in a home like mine, you were expected to eat everything on your plate. With the guilt of eating everything on my plate engrained in me, I end up eating enough food per entree to feed two people when I go out for dinner.
With restaurant portions out of reality and recipes geared towards larger groups, cooking for two can be difficult but not impossible. First learn to cut your recipes in half. Basic math skills are a must with cooking and being able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide is crucial. Most recipes are mathematical formulas known as ratios. These ratios allow the cook to properly season foods.
Once you’ve learned how to cut a recipe in half, practice visual amounts of the food. Pasta is a great example for visualizing amounts. Just a small amount of pasta can easily feed two people but many people cook up the bag and end up throwing away the left overs. Being able to visualize portions makes it easy to adjust your cooking for just two.
Once you’ve mastered the math and visual aspects of reducing a recipe, down size your pans. Large pans play tricks on your eyes and stomach. When you see a small amount of food in a large pan your eyes and stomach trick you into thinking there isn’t enough food. By scaling down the pan size, you can turn the tables on your mind and make it visually see a full pan of food. This visual mind game can help you save hundreds of dollars a year by preparing correct portions and alleviating waste.
With math, visual acuity, and pan sizes all figured out…what can stop you? The only thing left is lack of planning. Plan out your menu and apply the planned out menu to your new found skills. If you need to make a little bit more because you want leftovers, than adjust the food portions for wanted leftovers. We are such a society of “now” thinkers that we forget to simply make a plan that forces us to think past the “now”.
Fajitas are a great recipe to practice your new recipe reducing skills on as well as use up left over vegetables. Simply slice your vegetables up and make a pile that equals about 3 cups. Next slice your choice of meat up to equal about a cup. Fully cook the meat and than the vegetables. Season the fajitas to your liking and serve. Fajitas are also best made fresh so try not to have leftovers. Regardless of the recipe size, practice your new cooking for two skills on a fajita recipe. I’ll post my fajita recipe on my website at www.chefbryanonline.com.