Trader Joe’s has so many great food products. It is fun to look for something new and figure out what can be made out of this dish. I bought a box of organic couscous and went on Pinterest to find some ideas of making couscous. I found this one that made a lemon couscous and I tweaked it a little and added chicken tenders to make it simple and delicious. It is fun to make a one-pot dish because cleanup is so easy. This cooks in about 20 minutes which is great too. I liked the flavor of the couscous with the lemon and the chicken. It does make a big batch, so you can enjoy it later in the week for lunch or dinner. Next time I will add some feta cheese to this dish. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 1 cup organic couscous, 1 cup chicken broth, 3-4 chicken tenders, sprouts, 2 green onions, garlic, 1 lemon. Lemon pepper, salt-free dash, poultry seasoning

DIRECTIONS: Pour a little olive oil into a saucepan. Press one clove of garlic into the pot. Slice two green onions and add that to the pot and saute. Cut your chicken tenders into bite-size pieces and brown them in your pot. Season with lemon pepper, salt-free dash, and poultry seasoning. Zest one lemon into the pot. Add the juice of one lemon. Add a pinch of sprouts and stir. Once the chicken is brown add one cup chicken broth. Bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add one cup of couscous stir and cover for 5 minutes. Stir and serve. Cooking for one can be fun.

At Trader Joe’s they have this box of Thai noodles. They are plain, like pasta, in three individual packages and it is one serving each. For me, it was a bit too much so I got two meals out of it. I found some sauce ideas and added shrimp and an egg to make it like a pad Thai dish. It really turned out delicious. If you want you can chop up the peanuts, but I left them whole. I used the dry-roasted low-sodium nuts. This dish cooks really fast so get all your ingredients together and have them ready to mix them all in. You can always use a different protein than the shrimp, or make it vegetarian. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: One package of Thai noodles from Trader Joe’s, a handful of spinach, sprouts, 2 green onions, 2 cloves garlic, 5-6 shrimp, 1 egg, dry-roasted peanuts. Sauce: 2 tbls Bragg coconut aminos, 1 tbls sesame oil, 3 tsp rice vinegar, 1/2 tsp coconut sugar, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

DIRECTIONS: Mix your sauce and set aside. Pour a little sesame oil into a frying pan. Add your two cloves of garlic minced. Slice your green onion and add that to the pan and saute with the garlic. Slice a handful of spinach leaves and a pinch of sprouts. Add them to the pan. Open one package of Thai noodles. Break it up and mix it with the veggies. Add your shrimp to the pan. Add your egg and stir this all together. Add the sauce and peanuts and stir this all together. Once mixed, serve. Cooking for one can be fun.

I like being creative with leftovers. I had about 1/4 pound of organic ground beef and came up with making a pasta dish out of this with leftover bruschetta. Even if you don’t have these items just lying around, you can buy them and make this easy pasta dish. It takes less than 20 minutes to make. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 1/4 pd of organic ground beef, 1/2 jar of bruschetta, 1 cup grated rosemary cheddar cheese, olives, and pasta. Seasoning: black pepper, salt-free dash, basil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder.

DIRECTIONS: Brown your ground beef in a skillet. Season with the seasoning generously. Keep breaking up the ground beef while it is cooking. Start your pasta water. Slice 8-10 black olives and add them to your ground beef. Add the bruschetta and stir. Keep cooking on low while the pasta is cooking. Grate your cheese into the pan. Add your pasta and stir. Cooking for one can be fun.

Here is a perfect way to cook a chicken breast that is juicy and tender and delicious. I cooked two organic chicken breasts, or one package so that way I could make a sandwich or salad later on in the week. It was ready to go. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: one package of organic chicken breast, lemon, pesto sauce, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and black pepper.

DIRECTIONS: Oil your chicken, I used avocado oil. Squeeze 1/2 lemon over the chicken. Season with poultry seasoning, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. Spread the pesto sauce generously over the chicken breast. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cover the chicken and cook for 30 minutes. Serve with a salad or any other side dish. Cooking for one can be fun.

I have this package of organic cauliflower rice that is a quick and easy side dish to add to any meal. All you do is microwave it and you have a side dish. It is low in sodium and has no preservatives so it is really easy and healthy to keep on hand. This time though, I thought it would be fun to make tater tots with them so I looked on Pinterest for ideas and took a few and modified it to make it my own. These were a little hard to shape, however, once on the cookie sheet it was easy to form. They cooked up nicely. You can snack on them by themselves or serve as a side dish with protein. An aioli sauce would be good to add as a dipping sauce. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 1 package cauliflower rice, 1 egg, mozzarella cheese, 1 tbl flour, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, pepper, and salt-free dash.

DIRECTIONS: Add the cauliflower rice to a bowl, add your egg and flour, chop or shred your mozzarella cheese, and add this to the bowl. Stir all together. Use a small cookie scoop and place it on a lined parchment paper cookie sheet. Shape your balls into a form resembling tater tots. Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Brush the tops of your tater tots with olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes or until brown. Serve. Cooking for one can be fun.

I bought some organic ground beef at Costco and was trying to come up with something different to do with ground beef. So, I have some keto street taco shells that I really like. They are only 25 calories and 0 carbs. I made egg cups with them in the past and thought why not do something like that again but make mini tacos. These are really filling. I ate two and was stuffed. It made 7 tacos for me using 1/2 pound of organic ground beef. I froze 3 of them and will enjoy the other 2 during the week. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 1/2 pound organic ground beef, (or you can use ground chicken), 1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green peppers, low-fat Mexican shredded cheese, shallot, keto street tacos, pepper sauce, black pepper, oregano, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, ground cumin.

DIRECTIONS: Brown 1/2 pound ground beef. Save the other half for something else fun to make later on. Season the ground beef with black pepper, oregano, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and ground cumin. Stir all the seasoning into your ground beef and keep browning. Slice your shallot add that to the ground beef and stir. Drain your can of Ro-Tel and add this to the beef. Season with pepper sauce to taste. Gently fold the taco shells into your muffin tin. Sprinkle to bottom with a little cheese. Fill the ground beef mixture into each cup. Top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Enjoy with a cervesa. Cooking for one can be fun.

I like to use the less-fat Philadelphia cream cheese. Sometimes I use it on my toast in the mornings with tomatoes. The other morning I noticed the recipe for mini ginger cheesecakes and they looked easy and delicious. They are easy to make and they are perfect for cooking for one; which can be fun. I substituted some homemade jam that I get from my good friend Betty, instead of using the lemon curd that is on the recipe. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 7 gingersnaps, 1 package Philadelphia Neufchatel cheese, softened, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp flour, 1 tsp each zest and juice from 1 lemon, 1 egg, 3/4 cup thawed cool whip reduced-fat whipped topping, 1/8 tsp ground ginger, 6 tbsp lemon curd or your favorite jam.

DIRECTIONS: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1 gingersnap in each of the paper-lined muffin pan cups. Beat the Neufchatel in a medium bowl with a mixer until creamy. Add sugar, flour, lemon zest, and lemon juice; mix well. Add egg and beat just until blended. Spoon into prepared muffin pan cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the centers of cheesecakes are almost set. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove cheesecakes from pan to wire rack; cool completely. Refrigerate the cheesecakes 1 hour. Removed cheesecakes from paper liners. Mix cool whip reduced-fat whipped topping and ginger until blended. Top cheesecakes with lemon curd, then top with the cool whip mixture before serving. Cooking for one can be fun.

This is a simple quick meal that you can put together in less than 15 minutes. Now that is what I call fast food. You can add veggies to this if you have some on hand. For example, frozen peas or broccoli would be good, or even peppers. When I buy gnocchi I divide the package into individual servings and freeze them. So when you are ready to make something quick you can pull out your shrimp and gnocchi and mix it all together with some pesto. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 6 shrimp, 1/4 package gnocchi, 1/4 cup pesto, white wine

DIRECTIONS: Thaw your shrimp in a bowl of room-temperature water. Bring water to boil in a saucepan. Pour a little bit of white wine into a frying pan. Place your shrimp in the wine and saute on low. Add the pesto and stir. Once the water comes to a boil, add the gnocchi. Gnocchi cooks in 3 minutes. Drain and add the gnocchi to the shrimp and pesto. Stir. Serve and top with parmesan cheese. Cooking for one can be fun.

Recently, I bought a can of Pillsbury Grand Biscuits and noticed it was almost to expire. I thought I would make my version of a chicken pot pie using the biscuits as a topping. This was an experiment. This made 4 ramekins. For two of the ramekins, I pulled the biscuits apart and put half on the bottom and the other half on top. For the other two, I just put the whole biscuit on top. The two with the biscuits on the bottom did not turn out. The biscuit didn’t cook as a crust and was mushy, so I recommend using the whole biscuit on the top or pre-cooking the bottom biscuit before placing the mixture on top. Next time I will make more of a gravy, however, the mixture was delicious. These biscuits are not very healthy for you. They are 170 calories each and they have 450mg sodium. That is a lot and because they are so good you want to eat two biscuits if you cook them by themselves. That is way too much sodium for anyone, like myself, with high blood pressure. Since I do not salt anything it balanced out eating just one. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 1 can of Pillsbury Grand Biscuits, 1 pd organic ground chicken, chicken broth, Wondra flour, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 shallot, 4 baby carrots, broccoli, and spinach. Lemon pepper, 21 seasoning salute, oregano, garlic, and herb salt-free dash

DIRECTIONS: Pour a little olive oil into a pan press 2 cloves of garlic and slice 1/2 shallot and saute. Add the ground chicken and break it into pieces. Season with the seasonings. Slice the carrots and add to the chicken. Keep stirring and browning the chicken. Add your broccoli. Keep cooking and stirring. Slice a handful of spinach and add that to the chicken mixture. Add 1 cup chicken broth or enough to cover the chicken mixture. Make a rue with the flour and olive oil. Add the rue to your chicken and veggies. Stir and let it thicken into your gravy. Spoon the mixture into four ramekins. Place one biscuit on top. I cooked the other four along with the ramekins and had them for breakfast and lunch. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes till the biscuits are brown. Cooking for one can be fun.

My best friend, Debbie, who passed away a few years ago, gave me this recipe for tarragon chicken salad. I miss her and wish she was here to share this salad with me again; however, I get to share this with all of you. This salad is simple and delicious. Cooking for one can be fun.

INGREDIENTS: 1 organic chicken breast, 10-15 red grapes, candied walnuts or pecans, 1 lemon, tarragon, garlic powder, poultry seasoning, 1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 heaping tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 heaping teaspoon light sour cream.

DIRECTIONS: Place some avocado oil in a baking dish. Roll your chicken breast in the oil on both sides to cover the chicken. Season with tarragon, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning on both sides. Squeeze in one lemon. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. After the chicken cools, cut your chicken into bite-size pieces and add it to a bowl. Slice your red grapes in half and add them to the bowl. Add your walnuts. Add your Dijon mustard, mayo, and sour cream. Mix this all together and serve with lettuce. You can use butter lettuce wraps or tear lettuce to make this into a salad. You can also make a sandwich with this tarragon chicken salad. All of the about are perfect. Cooking for one can be fun.