When you live alone, cooking can become a chore. You have to get all the ingredients, assemble the dish, cook it, and then wash all the dishes afterward.
If you feel this way, you’re looking at it all wrong. Cooking meals for yourself is healthier than buying pre-made ones all the time. It’s a chance to slow down and create nourishing meals for your body, which is a form of self-care.
Finding recipes designed for one or two people is another big issue with cooking for yourself. If you’re familiar with this problem, you’ve come to the right place. Today, we’ve rounded up twenty delicious, easy dinners for one you can make this week.
Spaghetti
It’s hard to find a meal easier than spaghetti. Cook the noodles, top them with tomato sauce, and toss with browned beef and parmesan.
Macaroni and Cheese
Even as an adult, mac and cheese can be a comforting dish. It also makes an easy dinner since this recipe only takes 20-30 minutes.
Pizza
Making a pizza from scratch isn’t as hard as you might think. With plenty of pictures and instructions, this recipe walks you through the process until you have the perfect pizza.
Wedge Salad
Wedge salads are delicious and come together in ten minutes or less. And since you have to buy lettuce by the head, you can have it for several meals throughout the week (or use it for another recipe).
Caesar Salad
Caesar salad is another easy dish you can make in bulk for multiple meals. This recipe even shows you how to create your own salad dressing (although buying at the store is a perfectly acceptable option).
Meatloaf
If you live alone, you can still enjoy meatloaf with this easy recipe. It makes two mini loaves, so you can freeze one for later or half the recipe to make a single serving.
Chicken and Rice
Chicken and rice is a filling dish perfect for cold winter months. Just throw it in the oven and leave it to bake while you work on something else.
Fried Rice
The beauty of fried rice is its adaptability. You can include whatever protein and vegetables you like best or happen to have on hand, and it comes out great.
Pasta Bowl
Pasta bowls are another dish you can make any way you want. Cook some pasta, then top it with whatever you like. This can be chicken, beef, veggies, butter, olive oil, seasonings, or anything you have.
Tacos
While you could make taco meat for one serving, it’s more efficient to cook a regular batch and freeze the leftovers in individual servings. When you want tacos in the future, all you have to do is thaw one.
Roast Veggies
Roasted vegetables are delicious alone or paired with chicken or fish. They’re fairly intuitive, but this recipe will show you how to season and roast them to perfection.
Chili
There’s nothing more comforting than a warm bowl of chili on a cold night. This recipe makes enough for two people, so you’ll even have leftovers!
Baked Salmon
Oven-baked salmon is easy, flaky, and delicious. You can half this recipe to make two servings or the full four fillets and have meals for the rest of the week.
Quesadillas
Quesadillas have all the fillings you love wrapped in a delicious tortilla. And even better, you only need to make as many as you want to eat.
Baked Potato
Baked potatoes are another one of the easiest recipes you can make. Since they cook quickly, they’re great when you’re running short on time.
Ramen Bowl
While you can buy ramen cups from the store, making them at home is much healthier. This recipe only takes fifteen minutes and a glass jar to prepare.
Chicken Noodle Soup
Chicken noodle soup is soothing and great for times when you’re sick. While it takes a little time to prepare, you can freeze servings of the soup and pull it out for future meals.
Lasagna
You don’t have to make an enormous dish of lasagna with this single-serve recipe. Don’t let the long amount of time fool you, though. Most of it is oven time.
Shepherd’s Pie
Shepherd’s pie is a delicious mix of ground beef and veggies topped with mashed potatoes as a “crust”. This recipe makes an 8” x 8” dish, so you’ll have plenty of servings throughout the week.
Baked Chicken
Baked chicken is as easy as it sounds. Throw your chicken in the oven with whatever seasoning you want and bake until it’s done. But if you need more instruction, check out this recipe.
Cooking for yourself doesn’t have to be the same old bland meals again and again. Get creative and try one of these recipes this week.
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