I am a bachelor and aside from dating do all my cooking at home. I am always on the lookout for dishes I can eat several days in a row without getting tired of them because I prefer to cook large batches but not cook so often. What I have found is that blander food does not get tiring as quick. One of my staples is burritos made from either pork, chicken or beef. The basic recipe is green chilis, jalapenos, meat with salt and pepper. I used to spice them up with seasonings for added flavor but found myself getting tired of them by the third day and not wanting them again for a month. I decided instead of adding seasonings I would add things like spinach and carrots it improves the flavor while still remaining desirable indefinitely. I started cutting down on the spices on nearly all my dishes and find that for the most part true across the board.
Aged wisconsin cheddar cheese from any of my favorite cheddar producers is right up there. Also english muffins and decent bagels as a vehicle for many spreads and sandwiches. Plus sriracha peas.
I don’t know about those peas! I enjoy them a couple of times a year. They tend to last me a awhile.
Tater tot hot dish.
Homemade chili.
Vegetarian samosas.
Fresh fruit, especially raspberries.
Good colby cheese.
Spaghetti Bolognese and fried chicken, separately. I could alternate days eating these two dishes for the rest of my life if I was forced to.
Spaghetti.
Egg on toast. In one of Nigella Lawson’s cookbooks, she writes something to the effect of, before cooking a meal for one, I ask myself it will be better than egg on toast.
If I ever get tired of quiche, my macaroni and cheese with sharp cheddar and gouda, or the Crispy Chicken Sandwich from McDonald’s, I’m probably anhedonic in general.
If we’re talking “bachelor chow,” my go-to was always cook 1 lb of ground beef or sausage, dump in a jar of tomato sauce, I just used Prego but use whatever you like, and let it simmer while you cook a whole box of penne to 1 minute under the recommended “al dente” cook time printed on the box, drain the pasta, add it to the meat and sauce, and mix it all up real good and let it cook over low heat for another few minutes. Good for at least a few days of meals.
Can be easily scaled up to however much you can store, but I recommend just making it in batches as described, as needed. You can add in any vegetables or whatever as you like. Have it with some garlic bread and topped with shredded parmesan, it never gets old.
I also like to make big batches of Chinese-style soup. Vegetarian broth base (I use a powdered vegetarian pho base, but chicken broth is more traditional), cubed carrots, jalapeno, tofu, vegetarian “chicken,” bok choy, frozen chopped spinach, and corn cut off the cob, all cooked down and thickened with potato starch. Have it for lunch most days. It’s how I make sure I get my vegetables.
We are on the same page.
My go to is a simple green salad with grilled chicken, hard boiled eggs, whatever shredded cheese I have in the frig and 1000 Island or Walla Walla sweet onion dressing. When I was still working, this would be my lunch all week. Now that I am retired, it still eat it at a minimum once a week.
I eat watermelon, cantaloupe, raspberries and cherries every single day all summer long. I never get tired of them. Once summer is over and the pickings are slim for those fruits I have to resort to boring apples and grapes. I crave watermelon all winter long.
As for meals, there isn’t a lot that I don’t get sick of. I make a big batch of something every weekend so I don’t have to cook dinner every night. My husband will eat it every single day and sometimes have it for lunch too. I can eat it twice and then I’m done. I’ll fix myself a grilled cheese, frozen pizza or a bowl of cereal. But if I had to pick something it would be pepperoni pizza.
One of the very many reasons I love Nigella Lawson.
To the OP: roast chicken (with steamed greens, roast potatoes, and a nice jus).
Sausages?
A friend’s dad is a night watchman at a facility where they make sausages. Every so often employees are offered free frozen sausage packages (near expiration). My friend doesn’t eat sausage, her kids don’t like them and her dad doesn’t eat meat.
In July he gave me 20 packages, each with 6 sausages. Every other day I’d grill a package and then eat some for lunch and incorporate some into dinners. My gf got sick of them, but not me.
When I was low carbing, I ate a lot of smoked turkey breast, pretty much every day for lunch at work. Frozen Butterball, in the net. Reach into the net* and pull off the large slab of fat they all seem to have. Rub with, well, rub (salt black pepper & cumin mostly) and smoke for about 2 hours.
*Do not attempt to take the raw turkey out of the net. You’ll never get it back in.
Is this a specific “recipe?” How is the egg cooked? What do you put on it? What kind of bread is the toast? How well is it toasted? I can’t quite picture how this could be anything but what you’d eat when you’re recovering from being sick, so it’s hard for me to find it tantalizing. Can you elaborate? Thanks.
I rarely get tired of stuff and tend to eat the same thing for long periods of time. I’ve been eating the same breakfast (handful of fiber cereal) and the same lunch (fried egg, yogurt) for years now. But just to play along: popcorn.
Pizza
Scrapple
Chocolate chip cookies
Pizza. I could eat it every day.
Pasta of some sort. Buttered egg noodles, plain or with lemon. Fettucine with alfredo sauce. Spaghetti Bolognese, or Chicken spaghetti. Little bitty ditalini in soup, or cold orzo salad. Macaroni and cheese!
I’ll stop now.