Dog Walker - thanks for your post. I have the opposite problem as you, as I presently cook for six every night. However, I do cook for myself for breakfast and lunch...

My latest favorite breakfast is two poached eggs served over quinoa. If there is leftover bacon from my kids' breakfast, I will crumble it up and add that to the egg/quinoa mixture too.

Quinoa cooks in a 2:1 ratio, water:quinoa, so I will use 1/2 cup of Q. to 1 cup water. Prepare it like rice or couscous. Takes about five minutes.

This dish is high in protein but tastes like comfort food. It also gives me great energy for the rest of the day.

Meantime, can you share your polenta vegetable recipe? That sounds like it would be a hit for our family and I'd like to try.

Thanks! Quinoa is a good idea and I never thought of it for breakfast.

The polenta with caramelized onions is from The Golden Door Spa Cookbook -- a classic with great healthy dishes. It's pretty long to type, but I bought a copy used from amazon and it was inexpensive.

I've always had the empty nest (no kids) but have been cooking for a S.O. since I was 19.

What caught my eye in your post is fewer baked goods. I can't remember the last time I opened a bag of sugar or flour. I bake about once a year at Thanksgiving. A pie. Don't do the cookies at Christmas, and not much of anything else in between. I have a huge sweet tooth and don't trust myself. I could probably eat a whole cake.

For the two of us...I do a lot of casseroles, pasta dishes, roasted chicken, big salads, homemade soup. My husband loves leftovers and that makes it easy.

Yummm..looking again at your cherry pie. Looks delicious.

I find a slow cooker a great friend when I'm cooking for one...I make a big pot of soup/stew in the crock pot, eat a serving one day, refrigerate another, and freeze the rest in individual containers. That way I have a home cooked homey meal in a minute anytime I want one. If I'm really eager to make something like pie, I do it as individual tarts instead, so I can eat one and freeze the rest...your friends will be so surprised when you can pull out individual homemade fruit pies the next time they pop in unexpectedly!

I've been cooking for one for a long time now. As a result, I only cook about once a week, but try to make enough to feed me for two meals. It makes the effort more "worth it."

I like easy things to put on the grill. Less burgers, more steaks and lamb chops. A friend recommended that I buy some things that freeze well, like London Broil, cut it in half, add the marinade and freeze it "ready to go". So I do that as it works well with some cuts, and (half a London Broil) feeds me about 3 or 4 meals, just enough to start getting sick of it....

I'm also a huge fan of turning my homegrown tomatoes into marinara. I freeze it in containers that hold about 2 portions, and break one out when I want a pasta fix. So I have about an hour of prep time, but I get to enjoy it for several months. Plus I get to enjoy the aroma all day while the tomatoes cook down... it's like being at Mom's house on Friday night :>

The polenta looks wonderfukl but are you sure those aren't canned mixed vegetables! :) What's the white chunks? looks like Feta . . .

I cook for two, which is almost the same as an empty nest. The people at the markets all know me, because I'm there almost daily. I never buy more than what I'll cook within a day or two.

What I have difficulty with are small sauce batches. The tiniest slip results in something that tastes drastically differnent.

So here's the thing. I went on the South Beach diet and lost 8 pounds. But what was also exciting was that I discovered dinner did not have to be such a big deal. Lots of vegetables, legumes, fish...all easier than dealing with meats and grains.

Big find: Make a meal one evening, and eat the rest the next day for lunch or a second dinner.