Good meals for one. No endless leftovers.

Cooking for yourself should mean eating food you actually want, not finishing the same casserole for four days because a recipe served six. The challenge is that grocery stores sell whole cans, bags of spinach and packages of chicken even when you're cooking only one portion.

Instead of halving every recipe automatically, plan the number of meals you want to eat and where an occasional deliberate leftover is genuinely convenient. This five-dinner example needs just four cooking sessions and gives the ingredients you open a specific next use.

These are illustrative recipes for this article, not claims that they appear under the same names in supperz. The quantities are calculated from the exact example meals below, serving one person per dinner. Breakfasts, lunches and snacks are not included.

Start with your actual week

Before choosing recipes, look at which evenings you're home and which ones might change. There is no rule that a solo household needs seven different cooked dinners. This week uses five planned meals and leaves the weekend flexible for eating out, pantry food or a favourite repeat.

The Tuesday-to-Thursday leftover is planned, not accidental. Wednesday and Friday share one can of black beans, and Monday and Friday use frozen broccoli and dry rice. A single bell pepper and onion are split across two different meals.

One grocery list for the five dinners

This list combines the ingredients for four cooking sessions that produce five dinners. The Tuesday pasta already accounts for two servings; it isn't counted a second time for Thursday.

The bean cans include packing liquid. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and black beans. For the black beans, split the drained contents approximately in half between Wednesday and Friday; don't assume a 400 g can contains 400 g of drained beans. Use the entire can of chopped tomatoes with its liquid.

You may need to buy a larger package than the recipe quantity—two tortillas from a pack of eight, or 170 g of chicken from a multi-portion pack. Freeze suitable extras promptly or plan another use. What matters is not pretending that the grocery shelf sells exact recipe portions.

Four short cooking sessions

Each method below uses the amounts already counted in the shopping list. Set up your ingredients before cooking so that nothing gets missed.

Monday: Lemon-garlic chicken, rice and broccoli

One serving: 170 g chicken, 70 g dry rice, 150 g frozen broccoli, 1 lemon, 1 garlic clove, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper.

1. Cook rice according to its package instructions and steam or microwave broccoli until tender.
2. Cut chicken into even pieces and cook in a skillet with oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper until the centre reaches 74°C / 165°F.
3. Serve the chicken and broccoli over rice with lemon juice. If you purchased extra chicken, portion and freeze what you won't use promptly.

Tuesday: Tomato-chickpea and spinach pasta

Two servings, one saved for Thursday: 160 g dry pasta, 1 can chickpeas (drained), 1 can chopped tomatoes with liquid, 150 g baby spinach, half an onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

1. Cook the pasta according to its package directions. Meanwhile, soften the chopped half onion in oil, add minced garlic, tomatoes, drained chickpeas and herbs, and simmer for 8–10 minutes.
2. Stir in spinach until wilted and combine with the drained pasta. Divide into two equal portions.
3. Eat one now. Transfer the second to a shallow covered container and refrigerate promptly for Thursday. Reheat it thoroughly before eating.

This two-serving batch is intentional: one cooking session makes two different evenings easier. If you don't want to eat it again on Thursday, choose another recipe instead of making extra food without a plan.

Wednesday: Black bean and pepper quesadillas

One serving: 2 tortillas, half the drained contents of 1 can black beans, half a bell pepper, half an onion, 60 g cheddar, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp cumin, salt and pepper.

1. Dice the pepper and remaining half onion. Cook in oil until softened, then add half the drained black beans, cumin and seasoning.
2. Divide the filling and cheese between two tortillas, fold and toast in a clean skillet until golden and the cheese melts.
3. Put the remaining drained beans into a covered container in the refrigerator promptly. They'll become Friday's rice bowl.

Friday: Egg, black bean and broccoli rice bowl

One serving: 70 g dry rice, 2 eggs, the remaining drained black beans from Wednesday, remaining half bell pepper, 100 g frozen broccoli, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp soy sauce and black pepper.

1. Cook the rice fresh according to package directions. Steam or microwave broccoli until hot.
2. Dice the remaining pepper and cook in oil until soft. Add the refrigerated black beans and broccoli and heat thoroughly.
3. Move vegetables to one side, scramble both eggs until fully cooked, and add the fresh cooked rice and soy sauce. Stir together until hot and serve.

For food safety, keep Wednesday's opened beans refrigerated in a covered container and use them promptly; if Friday won't work, freeze the extra beans rather than leaving them in the refrigerator indefinitely.

When to make one serving—and when to make two

Making one serving isn't always the most efficient choice. Making two isn't automatically better either. Pick the approach that matches when you'll eat the food.

Halving recipes is easiest when quantities scale normally: 200 g of pasta becomes 100 g, for example. Eggs, baking ingredients and some sauces may not scale as neatly. Taste, cooking times and pan sizes may also change when you make less food.

If you enjoy batch cooking, make a double portion of a dish that freezes well and label it with what it is and when you cooked it. A freezer portion is helpful only when you remember it exists.

Five ways to avoid half-used packages

1. Plan the second use before buying. The Wednesday black beans have a specific Friday meal. The extra half pepper does too.
2. Use frozen vegetables for flexible amounts. You can use 150 g broccoli today and 100 g later without racing to finish a fresh head.
3. Buy single produce items when possible. One onion or pepper can be easier to finish than a bulk pack, even if the larger bag has a lower unit price.
4. Keep pantry ingredients for another week. Dry rice and pasta don't need to be completely consumed by Sunday. The remainder of a package can be a useful head start next time.
5. Freeze extra portions early. Don't wait until leftovers have been sitting in the fridge for several days before deciding that you're tired of them.

A short note on leftovers and storage

USDA guidance recommends refrigerating perishable leftovers within two hours and using refrigerated leftovers within three to four days, or freezing them for longer storage. Tuesday's pasta is planned for Thursday, two days later. Store it in a shallow container promptly and reheat thoroughly. USDA leftover-handling guidance.

Fresh raw poultry generally needs to be cooked or frozen within one to two days when properly refrigerated. If chicken is sold only in a larger pack, portion and freeze the extras promptly rather than keeping them in the fridge until later in the week. USDA chicken-storage guidance.

The rules are simple: cool and store food safely, use leftovers on a specific planned day, and don't make more than you genuinely want to eat.

Building a solo meal plan in supperz

With supperz, you can browse recipes, choose serving sizes, make a meal plan, and build a grocery list from the recipe versions you've selected. You can also save favourites and revisit meals you've cooked before, so planning for one doesn't require starting from scratch every week.

This example is hand-calculated for the article. A real supperz grocery list depends on the exact recipes and servings you choose, so check what you have at home and adjust your list before shopping. If a recipe's available serving options don't match what you need, plan how the extra portions will be used.

For more inspiration, see our five-meal weekly plan, meal planning for two, and how to combine ingredients from multiple recipes.

Frequently asked questions

Meal planning for one FAQ