Cooking for one

I love to cook, but I don't enjoy cooking for one.  I have become very lazy in the cooking department over the last few years.  I go to the store, buy ingredients, bring them home, then proceed to sit down & read a book (cookbooks too) or watch TV and snack on something instead of cooking.  This of course has helped me to not lose weight and waste a bunch of money.  I know it is healthier & cheaper to prepare meals at home, but I seem to lose the energy when I decide to do it.  My New Year's Resolution was to use up the food in my house - I am allowed to buy perishable food at the store, but not canned/boxed goods so that I can use up what I have.  I am putting it out there to hold me accountable!  And after watching the Big Waste on the Food Channel the other day, I need to be more responsible when it comes to using what I buy.

My pantry has lots of canned beans, soups, rice, pasta & potatoes (I love instant!).  Today, I made my standby lunch for work this week - mixed up a can of black beans, can of diced tomatoes (chili seasoned today), added some corn for color & cooked some rice.  This can go into tortillas with a sprinkle of cheese - easy, delicious & cheap!  It costs under $5 for  4 (maybe more) servings.  Then I went to store & picked up some spinach, mushrooms, carrots & a cucumber to go with the hummus, pita & eggs I have in the fridge, which is pretty empty except for water, milk & beer :) 

While wandering the store, I came up with menu options for this week including pita with hummus, carrots & cucumber (super easy to prepare - so no excuses!); eggs with spinach & mushrooms & spinach salad.  Of course this isn't using many pantry ingredients, but is a start.  Breaksfast will be yogurt with granola or some oatmeal (from the pantry!)

Now if I can just follow this when I get home from the office instead of stopping to buy something or grabbing a bowl of cereal or a bag of chips, I will consider it a step in the right direction :)  I am happy to say that when I got back from the store, I cooked some eggs with spinach & mushrooms & tossed it in a tortilla - late lunch/early dinner - done!   What do you plan to cook this week?