Easy, Delicious, Budget-Friendly Meals For One Person

I hear from people all the time who live alone that they rarely cook for them self because it is too much work to cook for one person. It takes a lot of time and there usually ends up being too much food which means a lot is wasted (unless of course you are big into leftovers!).

And so they end up spending money eating out or just eating junk food for dinner. And believe me – I totally get that! I have been there many times.

I first started researching meals for one person when my husband was on an out-of-town trip. I decided that I did not want to be one of those people that just gives up on dinner because I was alone. Instead, I searched for quick and easy recipes that I thought would work well for just one person.

To be honest, I wasn’t necessarily looking for healthy recipes. I just wanted fairly simple and budget-friendly meals.

Here are 5 that I enjoyed and found simple to make:

Meal For One #1 Minestrone Soup For One by One Dish Kitchen

I have a minestrone soup recipe that I use often and love, but after trying this one, I think I might have a new favorite!

This was so easy to make and so delicious.

One thing I love about minestrone soup is how it is packed with vegetables. I get to eat very tasty soup while also getting lots of vitamins!

Now I have only ever used fresh vegetables to make soup (in fact I haven’t used frozen vegetables in years for anything). But after listening to Alton Brown say he has no problem with frozen vegetables, I decided to give them a try. They tasted just as good had they been fresh and saved me a lot of work by not having to cut them all up! And I love anything that saves me work 🙂

Next time though I will be a little more careful of which frozen veggies I choose because these ones had pretty big pieces, which you don’t really want in a soup. I didn’t even think about that when I bought the bag. (I tend to just look for the cheapest option!) But there are often reasons to look a little more carefully at what I’m purchasing.

I also doubled this recipe so I would have leftovers for lunch the next day. I actually ended up with leftovers for two more days 🙂 Mmm this was delicious!

Meal For One #2 Fettuccine Alfredo For One by Baking Mischief

I love how this recipe turned out! It was so easy to make and it didn’t take long at all. I used 2% milk and added broccoli for some extra vitamins.

For some reason I didn’t melt the cheese enough, so that was part was a little weird. Next time I will just cook it a little longer.

I highly recommend this recipe and will be trying Baking Mischief’s Quick Mac and Cheese for One soon as well.

Meal For One #3 Potato Bacon Soup For One by A Frugal Chick

This is the second soup recipe I have on this list, which means it must be pretty easy to make soup! (There are of course more complicated soup recipes but who wants complicated when you’re cooking for yourself? :))

I had to cut up the potatoes and onion, but that didn’t take more than 5 minutes.

I also left out the bacon because I like bacon more as a side rather than in something. Had my husband been home, he would not have let me leave it out!

I had salad as a side and dipped crackers in the soup.

It also made enough for lunch the next day – score!

This soup was OK, but it wasn’t my favorite. I completely blame myself for that though since I left out the bacon. I think it would have been smarter to put it in there. I mean, bacon IS in the name. So yeah, me not liking it better is ON ME. Don’t let that stop you from trying to make this. Follow the recipe and I’m sure it will turn out fantastic!

I will definitely be trying this recipe again by either including the bacon or something else for a little more flavor. I will update this post once I do!

Meal For One #4 Chicken Bruschetta Pasta Salad For One by Cafe Delites

I was very impressed with this dish. Like the others, it was also very easy to make.

I grilled the chicken in a cast iron skillet while I was cutting up the tomatoes and onion.

I used balsamic vinegar instead of balsamic glaze because that is what I happened to have on hand. I thought about making a balsamic glaze (which seemed fairly easy when I looked it up), but I decided to just use the vinegar since that is what I have used for bruschetta in the past. It worked great!

Meal For One #5 French Onion Soup For One by Happier Than A Pig In Mud

I love French onion soup. To be honest, Panera’s French onion soup is my favorite and I’m always trying to find a recipe that imitates theirs. This one is actually pretty close! Not exact, but closer than a lot of others I have found.

I was a little concerned at first because the color of mine turned out so much lighter than the chef’s based on her photos. But the flavors in this work well together and it turned out to be delicious!

I did make some minor adjustments. I thought half an onion was the right amount for the one bowl this makes. I also didn’t cook the onions quite as long as it said but only for about 10 minutes or so.

I love Worcestershire Sauce so I put in a little more than the few drops it called for. And lastly, I put in a 1/4 tsp of balsamic vinegar rather than the 1/2 tsp it calls for. This was the perfect amount. Next time I want to see how it tastes before putting in any vinegar.

I didn’t have the right bread on hand so I put some croutons in.

This was delicious, inexpensive, and so easy to make!

Bonus! Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe For One by One Dish Kitchen

Confession: I have a major sweet tooth. So much so that I realized I was eating waaayyyy too many sweets. This is not a habit I want to pass onto my son.

So I made a commitment a couple of weeks ago that I am no longer going to buy sweets. Instead, I can only have sweets if I make them myself (because I figure I should have to work for it) or if someone else provides it.

So far I have been doing pretty good with it but I know I probably won’t stick to my commitment one hundred percent of the time.

I came across this chocolate chip cookie recipe (another recipe by One Dish Kitchen!) a couple of months ago and it first stood out to me because my husband is on the Keto diet and can’t have sugar. And I really do feel bad when I tempt him with a big batch of something I make.

This cookie is perfect for one person! (Full disclosure: although I often eat it myself, it can also be shared between two people.) This cookie is really easy to make and so when I am craving sweets, I usually have it in the oven in 10 minutes.

I have made this as one big flat cookie, a bunch of mini cookies, and in a ramekin similar to this one. In my opinion, it turns out best in the ramekin.

Next time I make it I will snap a photo to share here as well!

Update: Waffle Recipe for One by One Dish Kitchen

My 2-year-old son recently pulled out our mini waffle iron and asked me for waffles for lunch. The last thing I felt like doing was making a huge batch of waffles just for him.

So instead I turned to another amazing recipe from One Dish Kitchen.

These waffles were so quick and easy to make and were so delicious! They made 5 mini waffles and my son ate 2 of them.

Next time I might try them in a regular size waffle iron but my son does love the more kid-size ones 🙂

Final Thoughts

Overall, I was very happy with these recipes and the dinners they provided for me.

I feel I need to admit that I do not consider myself all that great of a cook. I’m not terrible, and I can follow a recipe just fine for the most part, but for whatever reason my food never turns out as good as my husband’s! I’m not sure why. But I do know that while he is not afraid to greatly change up a recipe, I tend to not stray too far.

So regardless of whether or not you consider yourself a good cook, give these a try! They can all be doubled to feed more than one person.

Do you have any meals for one person that you enjoy? Please comment below!

If you enjoyed this post, please share with others 🙂

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