When I was in college and living by myself, I used to make a big pot of something– spaghetti sauce, pea soup, stew– on Sunday nights, and then eat it all week. I mostly did it because then I didn’t have to cook all week.
Here at the other end of my journey, I find myself in the same predicament, but it’s more because I just can’t get the hang of this cooking-for-one-person thing.
I’ve actually come up with strategies– I work late on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I need something easy to fix when I get home at 8:30. I need leftovers. So I make my too-big meals on Sunday and Monday, and reheat on Tuesday and Wednesday. This doesn’t help much with Thursday, when I work at night, and have to come up with something early, which I hate to eat early, and I end up having cheese and crackers for dinner at 10 p.m.
Which I suppose is a step above a bag of oreos.
One of my cooking-for-one innovations (you’ll be amazed to hear this is my own innovation; no one in the history of living alone has ever come up with this, in case you need to know who to credit), has been the amazing ability of the top of the fridge to actually freeze things.
I mostly use this for breads. I’ve discovered (NO, I did not read this in Barbara Kingsolver, okay maybe a little) that you can make pizza dough in large quantities ahead of time, divide and freeze, then just pull a single-pizza size out of the freezer a couple hours ahead of cooking, and voila– pizza! Same thing with pita. Since I make it myself, it was such a drag when it would go moldy or stale on me, until I read on the internet figured out (ahem) that I could bake them one at a time. Of course, you have to heat the baking stone at 450 for 45 minutes, so it’s not exactly energy efficient, but I don’t waste pita anymore.
It works for scones, too, which I learned from a scone-baking class, figured out about a month ago! This is helpful not so much for the problem of scones going bad, as for the problem of scones going in my mouth a dozen at a time, because I’m really good at scones and they are delicious.
What are you (not) cooking?
Not Dabbling In Normal 
I end up cooking “for one” meals for both Steve and I. I cook him something like a family sized pot of chilli or a shepherds pie and it lasts him a few meals. Most fo the time I can freeze the leftovers for later (portioned off into single servings) but with the spud (potato) based creations they need to be kept in the fridge as they don’t freeze well. Steve is a creature of habit and loves repeat meals so leftovers are not dreaded here. We have evolved a bit as we have learned what we do and don’t like. We eat this way because Steve is omni and I am vegan. At least we are prepared for solo living even though neither of us is contemplating a move. You just never know when you need those skills though.
When I was in college we had to eat “regothermic” meals. Huge trays of glop, cooked up at a remote location and shipped off to the residential colleges to be slopped onto plates and served up to poor long suffering students which is a bit of a ridiculous thing when you think that we were supposed to be using our brains and we were being fed pap! Oh well…maybe that is why we Aussies don’t make the most of our educations? 😉
Back in my college days, I would occasionally buy the family size packages of meat or produce, chop it up and freeze it in individual portion sizes in plastic bags or containers to take advantage of the better pricing and to prevent it from going bad before I could use it all. Large pots of spaghetti sauce, white sauce, or gravy can be stored in small plastic containers and frozen. (Unfortunately this method doesn’t work for a lot of fresh produce unless you are going to cook it anyway or use it in a green smoothie.) When you are cooking frozen cubed chicken breast or pot roast in a skillet and adding to a sauce or gravy, cooking time is a fraction of the time compared to cooking the whole chicken or roast. This allows you to be much more versatile with what you are craving for dinner, adding fresh ingredients as they are available.
I have a “college days” experience too. Even eating by myself, I would occasionally buy the family size packages of meat or produce, chop it up and freeze it in individual portion sizes in plastic bags or containers to take advantage of the better pricing and to prevent it from going bad before I could use it all. Large pots of spaghetti sauce, white sauce, or gravy can be stored in small plastic containers and frozen. (Unfortunately this method doesn’t work for a lot of fresh produce unless you are going to cook it anyway or use it in a green smoothie.) When you are cooking frozen cubed chicken breast or pot roast in a skillet and adding to a sauce or gravy, cooking time is a fraction of the time compared to cooking the whole chicken or roast. This allows you to be much more versatile with what you are craving for dinner, adding fresh ingredients as they are available.
Sounds like you are finding some good ways to work this out. I have never been from a large family, but I still cook for one. Over the years that has worked out great because there is always enough to freeze for later. All this has been extremely helpful when I got sick and couldn’t do much of anything. Just pulled something out of the freezer to thaw and re-heat. OR when I am out of town…. JD can take something out in the morning before work and it is thawed & ready to heat when he gets home.
I go the extra step with the pizza crusts. I cook them all (single serving size ones and larger ones) and store in freezer in the the different size plastic freezer bags. Saves me longer backing time. They thaw pretty fast. That way I am only heating the over or toaster over to melt cheese, etc. I have other toppings frozen like ground sausage or grilled peppers. They are all in small bags.