Updated · WeeklyMealPlans kitchen
Cook three or four times, eat five or six
Cooking a fresh single portion every night is a lot of dishes for one plate. Most solo cooks do better with a mix: three or four cooking nights, a couple of those doubled, and a night or two of leftovers or something very simple.
A shape that works:
- Sunday or Monday: a dinner you double, like chili, a curry, or a tray of roast chicken and vegetables
- Tuesday: something fresh and fast for one, like fish, eggs or a stir-fry
- Wednesday: the leftovers, maybe turned into something else, like chili over a baked potato or chicken in a wrap
- Thursday: another quick single-serving dinner
- Friday: pantry pasta, eggs on toast, or whatever's left
Set the number of dinners to the nights you'll actually cook, then tap Double for leftovers on one or two of them.
What to double and what to cook fresh
Some dishes get better on day two and some are ruined by it.
Double these:
- Soups, stews, chili, curries and dal
- Braised meat and beans
- Baked pasta and casseroles
- Grain salads with sturdy vegetables, dressed just before you eat them
- Cooked grains and roasted vegetables, which become bowls later in the week
Cook these fresh, for one:
- Fish
- Anything fried or crispy
- Dressed green salads
- Pasta in a light sauce
- Most egg dishes, apart from frittata
Buying groceries for one
The supermarket is set up for families, but there are ways around that:
- Buy loose produce by the piece: one onion, two carrots, one zucchini, a single bell pepper
- Use the butcher and fish counters for exact amounts. Asking for one chicken breast or a single salmon fillet is completely normal.
- Buy family packs of meat only if you portion and freeze them the day you get home, flat in zip-top bags so they thaw quickly
- Use the salad bar when you need a small handful of chopped vegetables
- Keep frozen vegetables, shrimp and fish fillets, which let you take out one serving at a time
Make each fresh ingredient work twice
For a solo cook, half-used produce is usually what ends up in the trash. Plan in pairs: a bunch of cilantro goes into Monday's tacos and Thursday's rice bowl, a bag of spinach goes into pasta and then under a fried egg, and half a can of coconut milk becomes a curry and then a soup. The planner reuses fresh ingredients across the week on purpose for exactly this reason.
Freezer habits worth having
- Freeze cooked rice in single portions after it cools. It reheats well in the microwave with a splash of water.
- Freeze half a loaf of bread and toast slices straight from frozen
- Freeze leftover chili or soup in one-person containers for the nights you can't face cooking
- Freeze small amounts of tomato paste, pesto or coconut milk in an ice cube tray
Cooked leftovers generally keep three to four days in the fridge, according to USDA food safety guidance, so freeze anything you won't get to by then.
What it costs
Cooking for one usually costs a bit more per serving than cooking for a family, because you lose some of the bulk savings. At typical 2026 US supermarket prices, roughly $35 to $50 covers five solid dinners for one person, with some leftovers, and less if the week leans on eggs, beans and pasta. It's still far cheaper than delivery.
Make it pleasant
Cooking for yourself can feel like a chore when nobody else is eating. Small things help: a dinner you actually look forward to once a week, a good sauce in the fridge that makes plain rice and an egg feel like a meal, and permission to eat cereal on Friday without counting it as a failure.
