When I was single I didn't cook a lot at home because I was only taught to cook with recipes for a family, so everything I had would easily feed four people.  I felt this was wasteful because I would get tired of eating it after having it for dinner and then again for left overs.  Fast forward to my "couple" life.  I now cook more often and I don't have the same issue with most meals, but there is one particular recipe that we absolutely love, but whenever I make it me and Luis almost kill ourselves trying to eat it all before it goes bad.  The lasagna recipe yields about 12 servings.  By the time we get to the end of the pan we don't want to see lasagna again for months.  Well, something I started doing is making the lasagna in mini servings.  Just make the recipe as it is written, but when it is time to build it, use the alumnium pans (usually you can get 5 or 6 for a dollar or so).  Layer the lasagna as you would in one big pan, just do it in the numerous little pans.  My recipe can yield five little pans of lasagna!!!  Each little pan is two and a half to four servings, if you aren't being greedy.  The beauty is that you can build each tray and then freeze them until you are ready to eat.  Take one out and bake as usual.

<a href="http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/lasagna.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1202" title="lasagna" src="http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/lasagna.png" alt="Photo from Kraftrecipes.com" width="137" height="91" /></a>

You can do this with many recipes that freeze well...just break them into smaller containers before you freeze them.  This is known as freezer meals.  I am soon going to branch out into freezer crockpot meals...so stay tuned for that, especially now that we have a 6 qt crockpot!

Go ahead and explore your inner chef and stop making excuses as to why you can't cook (single people)...come on you can do it!  I don't want to discriminate, so those parents that just don't seem to have enough time to cook at home because there are so many family activities...make a couple of freezer meals and assign it to someone who comes home to pop it in the oven so that when you get home it can already be in the oven cooking.  For those newliweds/couples out there that just don't want to cook...come onnnnnnnnnnnn you can do it...try cooking together...or challenging each other to see who can make the best freezer meal.  You can eat the first servings and then freeze the rest...well unless someone doesn't do so well and then welllllll I don't know, that isn't my problem LOLLLLL j/k I'm sure it will be fine.

Explore something new...and have fun!  You can search for "freezer meals" and "Crockpot meals" to get some inspiration.

<a href="http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent7.png"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1025" title="The-Happiness-Bucket transparent" src="http://thehappinessbucket.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/the-happiness-bucket-transparent7.png?w=300" alt="" width="300" height="125" /></a>