Crock pot cooking for ONE?

[Shan19]

Any recipes out there that don't make a lot of leftovers would be great. My friend wants to get a crockpot and make meals for himself, but he probably don't want a bunch of leftovers. Granted there probably will be some. Any recipe with 4 servings or less would be great maybe something really easy with more servings (ex. very little ingredients) that I could just 1/2 the recipe. Any help would be wonderful.

[Kristen in Chicago]

canbesweet_99 wrote:
Any recipes out there that don't make a lot of leftovers would be great. My friend wants to get a crockpot and make meals for himself, but he probably don't want a bunch of leftovers. Granted there probably will be some. Any recipe with 4 servings or less would be great maybe something really easy with more servings (ex. very little ingredients) that I could just 1/2 the recipe. Any help would be wonderful.

You can tell him to freeze the leftovers too, so that way he doesn't have to cook all the time.

Kristen

[Nancy Jo]

Freezing IS the answer. I have both a 6 qt. crockpot and a baby one that's about a quart and a half, and I use them both to cook for one. When round steak is on sale, I buy a lot, throw it all in the big pot with a can or two of beef broth and leave it alone for 6 or 8 or even 10 hours. Sometimes I trim all the fat off the meat first, sometimes I wait and remove it after it cooks. Then I freeze it in small packages, about 1 cup, more or less. When I want to use it, I thaw it in the microwave. You can add a can of mixed vegetables, a can of gravy (Campbell's new beef gravy and mushroom gravy are good and just the right size), put it in the oven for half an hour or so, put baked refrigerator biscuits on top, and you have beef pot pie. (If you put the biscuits on top and then bake, they get gooey on the bottom and it takes longer - long enough so the tops burn, unless you like uncooked biscuit dough.) Or just heat the beef, vegetables and gravy on the stove for a quick stew. Or you can cook noodles, stir in the thawed beef and a can of the above gravy. I've also used it instead of ground beef in some the many enchilada casseroles on Recipezaar. You can do the same kind of thing with boneless skinless chicken breasts, adding a can or two of cream soup. A can of cream of mushroom and one of cream of chicken is good. Or you can use canned broth instead of the soup.
If you want recipes for completely finished dishes for only one or two servings, try the Rival web site. They have recipes for their small Crockette. The macaroni and cheese is the only one I've tried, and it was very good.