Smaller Recipe Cooking and Baking - Appliances, dishes and pans

Myrna and I were talking about how hard it can be to cook for just 1 or 2 people. My sister-in-law Bonnie has the same problem.  We regularly cook for 1 or 2 and we don't like to eat leftovers for days.  We have a few ideas to share that work for us and give us more variety with less waste.   I hope a few of them will work for you too.  These aren't new ideas and we have talked about them before...but it's a good refresher to help you get on track and back to cooking regularly.

Appliances:

Smaller appliances can help – smaller coffee pots or one that makes 2-4 cups well or use a thermos for extra coffee.

Cuisinart mixer, OXO egg beater, Rösle whisks   

A hand-held electric mixer will whip up those cake and cookie recipes that are too small for your stand mixer.  An egg beater is handy too...OXO makes a current one that works well.  Smaller whisks for beating eggs and making small amounts of sauce help.

top to bottom:  Breville, Cuisinart, Krups toaster ovens   

A good quality toaster oven like Cuisinart, Krups or Breville – We bake quick breads, muffins, cookies, pies, fish, chicken, chops, small casseroles, etc. in mine – they only take 5-10 minutes to preheat, as well as make toast.  You will use a toaster oven like this so much; it pays to invest in a good one that has good temperature control.  Look for them on sale.

Measuring Cups and Spoons:

Look for a measuring cup and spoon set that contains lots of sizes - this set ranges from 1/8 cup to 2 cups...and the spoons have a big variety - from 1/32 teaspoon on up.  These help you halve recipes without having to do so much math and cost less than $10.

Clockwise; top left:  Old pyrex refrigerator dishes, 3 cup pyrex dish, 3/4 quart Corningware, Corningware individual casseroles,  Le Creuset 4x6" and 5 x 5" oven dishes,  

 Pans and Dishes:

I’ve found a 5” x 7” shallow glass refrigerator dish holds half of an 8”x8” or 7”x11” recipe – or ¼ of a 13” x 9” recipe.  I have bought these dishes at both Walmart and Target.  I have several for baking casseroles.

I have several small 8” pie plates (old) that hold only 2 cups of filling – half of a usual pie plate.  Look for them at antique malls, etc.  I paid $1 each. Then I make a half recipe of filling and freeze the rest.

Make individual pies in custard cups or small metal individual pans

Buy several sizes of custard cups and ramekins for desserts and even things like corn custard, etc.  I have even made cornbread in greased custard cups.
We like the small Le Creuset casseroles for one or two servings, they are good quality and often come in a set.

Top to bottom:  6 cup muffin pan, 7 x 11" roaster with rack, 3 x 5" loaf pans, 6" cake pans, 6 cup bundt pan, 5" pie plates and heart-shaped molds     

6 cup Bundt pans and loaf pans make half of tube or Bundt pan recipes (check the capacity of your loaf pan by measuring cups of water in it).

The small baking pans work for desserts, breads, cakes and pies for one or two.  Cupcake or muffin pans make those recipes easy to freeze as individual portions.

Toaster oven sets, like this one from Nordic Ware, also help with small portion cooking.