Starting from Scratch and Single

[Guest guest]

This whole topic has got me baffled of sorts. I'm single and grew up cooking for

a farming family of four and sometimes more for our extended family of 10-20 at

times, so down sizing my cooking portions is hard.  When I cook rice, I usually

cook a whole cup, so I eat on it for the whole week.  When I cook pasta, I cook

the whole box.  I know this is a bad habit and I end up eating left overs for

lunch and dinner for three to five days.  I really need tips on how to down size

my cooking, especially on the whole buying produce since I'm accustomed to

buying for a larger family and some of mine does go bad, though I try really

hard to eat it up.  I have gastric paresys, which is a slowing of the emptying

of the stomach, so I feel fuller for longer and usually eat two meals a day and

smaller than normal portions, which is why I live more of a vegetarian

lifestyle.  I can not eat meat and enjoy the rest of my meal as the protein

fills me up and take so

long to digest the animal protein.  I just can't enjoy myself due to feeling

sick.  I did this without thinking about my condition and before I even knew I

had a condition.  My eating lifestyle is what is treating my condition instead

of medication and the docs and I are very happy. I eat loads of fiber from rice,

cereal, breads, veggies (fresh/frozen/not so many canned), and some from

processed sources like white flour.  I tend to stick to whole wheat and rye, but

after reading some of your pantry list I feel that I'm negelected with my

limited shopping in my rural area where I have Harvey's and WM to buy groceries

without driving 60+ miles to get variety.  We do have some selection of Hispanic

foods, though I'm not very good at determining the differences in the spices and

goods, so help there would be nice, but the Asian foods section shrank

condierably when WM reconfigured itself last year.  Harvey's doesn't really have

much more than

Americanized of either.  I do have typical southern foods which are simple in

prep and heavy in meat and potatoes.  I do love soups, especially dumplings as

those fluffy bites of goodness are awesome.  Thanks for the tips and advice.

 

Dena in GA

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

[Default] On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:25:24 -0800 (PST), Dena Deen

<tigriss007 wrote:

 

> I really need tips on how to down size my cooking, especially on the whole

buying produce...

 

 

I live alone and have had the same problem. One way I deal with it is by

freezing the extra rice or pasta or cooked vegetable. Then you can pull

it out, defrost it in the microwave and serve it fast. I also use

smaller bits of things for additions to soups, stews or casseroles.