The Butcher, The Baker, The Bulk Bin Taker ... Grocery Shopping for One

Figuring out portions for one can be difficult.   Recipes are often written for 2- or 4- or even 6-servings or greater.  Sometimes, a little math can easily adjust the recipe down to a single serving; but sometimes - as with baking - it is not quite that simple.  And shopping for one is often no easier.

Besides frozen TV dinners, many grocery items don't come packaged for one.  Think about a loaf of bread, a head of cauliflower, a can of beans, or a carton of eggs.  Many of these go bad before a single person can consume the whole package.  So cooking - and grocery shopping - for one takes a few tweaks.  Here's a few simple tips that I have found to get by:

• Make friends with the butcher.  Prior to the Single Life, I rarely bought meat or seafood directly from the Butcher counter in the grocery store, opting instead for the pre-packaged protein from the Meat Department.  But the pre-packaged meats are usually portioned for two adults or a family.  When one buys from the Butcher counter, you can specify exactly how much you want. I can pick up 1 chicken breast, or 1 filet of fish, or 1/4-lb of ground beef.  It felt a little silly at first - asking the butcher for such a small portion - but believe me, in the end, this has saved me so much money and food waste.  Similarly, I do the same with dry food items ...
  
• Buy in bulk.  Ok, so maybe not "buy in bulk," but shop in the bulk section.  When I need 3/4 cup of arborio rice for a risotto recipe, I go straight to the bulk section.  Or when I need 1 cup of flour, why should I buy a 5-lb bag that is going to eat up my cupboard space for the next year? I can get exactly the amount I need when I shop in bulk.
  
• Buy less produce, but more often.  I have found that in my mini-fridge produce just doesn't keep for very long.  It wilts;  it gets soft; and it quickly loses its appeal.  Instead, I have found that visiting the grocery store every 2-3 days to pick up a smaller amount of fresh produce is a much better way of keeping appealing looking fruit and veg in my kitchen.
  
• Reverse engineer your recipes.  Also, when I am disciplined, I select a recipe first and then go to the store to get the fresh ingredients.  This works much better than trying to work the equation the other way around.
  
• Learn the Single Serving Substitutes.  Some produce just works better in the single kitchen than others.  I have learned to substitute most tomatoes with cherry tomatoes, which last longer and don't leave me hanging with a half-cut tomato in my fridge.  I will often substitute a shallot for an onion.  And I frequently buy loose spinach instead of a whole head of lettuce.
  
• Share with friends.  Just because you are single doesn't mean that you can't ever make cookies!  When I find myself craving a recipe that is just too hard to cut down, such as scones or a batch of cookies, I bake the whole batch and share it with friends (or neighbors!).
  
• And remember, sometimes, it's worth it to pay someone else to cook it.  Some recipes with rarely-used or hard-to-find-in-single-serving ingredients are just not worth making at home.  I have found that purchasing curry paste to make Thai curry at home isn't worth it.  Or buying a watermelon to make a watermelon-heirloom-tomato salad isn't worth it.  So when I'm craving it, I just dine out.