Solo living is on the rise, with more and more peoplechoosing to live alone. There are many amazing benefits to living by yourself;you have complete decorative freedom, you can do whatever you want when youwant to do it, and no one can tell you off when you’ve left the flat a bitmessy. As with everything, there arealso a few challenges when it comes to living by yourself, and one of those canbe figuring out what to cook for every meal. While you have complete freedom tomake whatever you like, this can also become a challenge when it comes totrying to reduce food waste and supermarket spends, especially with householdbills on the rise. Here at Salter, we want to help you feel inspired to cookagain, with these delicious meals for one.
Breakfast
Start the day off right with a smoothie. A quick and easybreakfast, they are also an easy way to use up any leftover fruit and veg. Welove using theSalter NutriPro blender as it is smaller than a jug blender and therefore perfect for solo smoothies.Why not try the following combinations to kickstart your morning:
Strawberry and Banana Smoothie
175g Strawberries
1 Small Banana
100 ml Orange Juice
Green Smoothie
250ml Milk of Your Choice
1 Medjool Date
1 Small Banana
Handful of Spinach
1tbsp of Nut Butter
Simply pop all your ingredients in the blender and you’regood to go.
Lunch
Quesadillas are a delicious and filling lunch that won’tbreak the bank. Much like smoothies, you can fill a quesadilla with anythingyou like or need to use up, and we are a big fan of using leftover meat fromthe night before. For a veggie option,simply replace the meat with vegetables, tofu, or any meat replacement.
2 tbsp Salsa
1 Large Flour Tortilla
100g Kidney Beans
1 Spring Onion
30g Chicken (leftover chicken would be perfect for this)
40g Mild Cheddar
½ tsp Paprika
¼ tsp Cumin
Roughly mash the kidney beans then add the paprika and cumininto the beans. Spread the salsa onto half of your tortilla, then top with thebeans, spring onion, chicken, and cheddar. Fold the tortilla over so all of yourtoppings are covered. Brush the tortilla with a little bit of oil.
Heat up a large non-stick frying pan, we recommend our highly ratedMarblestone Non-stick Frying Pan, and cook the tortilla oil-side down for 3-4 minutes. Then, carefully flip itover and cook the other side for 2 minutes until golden. Cut into wedges andserve with some sour cream for dipping.
Dinner
Dinner for one doesn’t have to be a microwaved ready meal oran oven pizza, it can still be fresh and delicious. Below we have two recipesperfect for one, to give you some inspiration.
Air Fryer Jacket Potatoes
Having the oven on for over an hour for just one potatomight not seem desirable, but did you know you can make the perfect jacketpotato in anair fryer.This hands-off recipe meansyou can get some other household tasks done while your dinner cooks, and stillsit down to a hearty homemade meal.
Drizzle a little oil over the potato and rub it into theskin, making sure the potato is well-coated. Season with salt and pepper- thesalt will help crisp up the skin. Set the air fryer to 200°Cand cook for 40-50 minutes. Check the potato after 20 minutes to ensure itisn’t browning too much on one side and turn it around if necessary. Split andserve with your favourite toppings, we like tuna mayonnaise on ours.
Roast Chicken
A roast dinner might seem unattainable or too much work forjust one person, but it doesn’t have to be. This roast chicken and leek dish isperfect for a Sunday roast for one. Serve it on its own or with roast potatoes,which you can easily cook at the same time using ourdual function baking tray. Youcan also double this recipe to ensure you’ve got chicken for leftovers, whichwould be perfect for the quesadillas mentioned above.
1 Chickenbreast
1 Large Leek
A Few Sprigsof Thyme
Olive Oil
A Pinch of Saltand Pepper
1 tbsp White Wine
4 Slices of Pancetta(bacon will also do)
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Add the chicken breast to a bowl with thewashed and sliced leek, the sprigs of thyme, a tablespoon of olive oil, thesalt, pepper, and wine and toss together. Place the leeks on the tray and wrapthe chicken breast in pancetta to help flavour it and prevent it drying out.Put the chicken breast on top of the leeks and drizzle everything with oliveoil. Cook in the middle of the oven for 25-35 minutes, until the chicken isfully cooked. Serve with a side of potatoes and a glass of something nice – werecommend finishing off the white wine needed for the recipe!
