If you are like me, you've gone through that empty nest syndrome and in my case that included my spouse. You find yourself alone and discover that cooking for one is hard when everyone packages food for a family. So you start eating out all the time. This soon grows old because because, 1 it costs too much and  2 the food isn't that great when you have it for a steady diet. What are you going to do then?

Well you have to get creative. Learn to shop for one. I'll be the first to admit my diet isn't considered very healthy but we'll leave that for another discussion. Look for items that let you use however much or little you want. For breakfast that starts off easy. Eggs are a good example, you can use one or a dozen. Being a country boy, I like a country breakfast. That includes items like biscuits, gravy and sausage besides the eggs. Biscuits can be a problem. First off I can't make them from scratch, second if I could it would still be too much trouble for just me, and canned biscuits just have too many in them. My solution is to buy frozen biscuits. These come in a zip lock bag and are like made from scratch except they are frozen instead of being baked. I can take out one or two of these and bake them putting the rest back in the freezer. A bag having a couple dozen goes a long way and there is no waste. They taste nearly homemade too. If I want gravy, I buy the packets of country gravy. One packet is just enough for me. I have found that suasage can be bought in a box presliced and frozen. I can take out one or two patties whatever I want that day. For other days, cereal, french toast, pancakes can all be made for one without waste. Making those food dollars go as far as they can is the name of the game. So there we have tasty breakfasts without the waste.

Lunch and dinner are not much of a problem except the meat. Even if it's not packaged as "family pack" it is still too much for one person. The trick here it to invest in a quality vacuum food storage system. Then buy the family packs and separate them into individual packs. Vacuum seal and mark the date on each package. Make sure you use the oldest dates first. The vacuum sealing will help keep items longer by preventing freezer burn. For dry items such as pasta you will need some plastic food storage containers. Use what you want and put the rest in a container. This will keep food fresh and keep out bugs. Frozen vegetables are a good way to avoid waste. Use only the amount you need. Sometimes though fix more than enough and freeze the unused portion. Then when you're in a hurry, just thaw and heat one of these for a tasty meal. You might want to think about purchasing a small deep freezer.

I hope this has been of some help to you. With a little imagination you can come up with even more creative ways to save while preparing good tasty meals.