Aging ain't for Sissies

How I Stopped Cooking for a Soccer Team and Started Loving Dinner for Two

• Marcy Backhus • Season 2 • Episode 16

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Dinner doesn’t need a crowd to feel good. We dig into the real challenge of cooking for two (or one): old habits that make too much food, too many leftovers, and a crisper full of regret. With a few smart tools and a calmer plan, small-batch cooking becomes faster, fresher, and way more fun.

We start with the gear that actually makes a difference in a compact kitchen—small air fryers for crisp, quick meals; a downsized slow cooker for cozy, right-sized braises; and multipurpose helpers like a toaster-oven air fryer, single-serve blender, and even a microwave pasta cooker. Then we move into strategy: how meal kits can teach technique, control portions, and eliminate waste while keeping dinner interesting. If you’re solo, you’ll hear easy ways to portion for lunch without feeling stuck with reruns; if you’re cooking for two, we share simple splits and flavor boosts that keep plates balanced.

From smarter grocery habits (no more “aspirational” produce hauls) to weeknight winners like sheet-pan dinners, breakfast-for-dinner, and Soup Sunday, you’ll pick up practical ideas you can use tonight. We talk food safety with a clear two-day rule, realistic fridge organization to stop spoilage, and little rituals—candles, real dishes, sparkling water—that make a table for one feel intentional, not incidental. Expect honest stories, helpful tips, and a reminder that cooking small isn’t sad—it’s sophisticated.

If this helped you rethink dinner, hit follow, share it with a friend who’s still cooking for a soccer team, and leave a quick review. Got a favorite cook-for-one tip? Tell us—we’d love to try it.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to AGNA for Sissies. My name is Marcy Backis, and I am your host. Well, good morning and welcome back, my fearless foodies, to AGNA for Sissies, the podcast where we laugh at life, one wrinkle, one ache, and one overcooked chicken breasts at a time. Today we're diving into the fine art, or let's be honest, the ongoing struggle of cooking for two or one. You know, the phase of life when your grocery cart looks like a college student's, your freezer is a crime scene of good intentions, and that Costco membership, well, it's questionable at best. Yes, those are the things we're going to be discussing today. I just got back from a trip to California, had a great time spending time with my oldest child, Kyle, and friends and some family, and just um had a really great trip. It feels good to be home. I don't know about you. I love to travel, but I always love to come back home. Coming home always feels good. I left Chicago and it still felt like summer, came back and it feels like fall, which is just fine. We're in the 60s, high 60s, and I love that. Have to wear a jacket. It's fine. It's beautiful. The skies are gorgeous, sunrise is beautiful. Um, life is good. We're home. I'm home for a little while till next week when we leave for Ireland. Let's see what else has happened. Well, just uh an FYI. We canceled our real estate deal on our two-bedroom condo, and I'm glad we did. And I'm gonna talk about that on my podcast, Inside Marcy's Mind. So if you want to know what happened with that real estate deal and about the meltdown of our real estate agent, um, check into Inside Marcy's Mind. You can find that where you find all your podcasts. Uh, same place you find this one. And uh, that was an interesting story. I think we dodged a bullet. I am fine with it. You when you're younger and you lose real estate deals, it seems like the end of the world. This one, I actually sent me a new lease on life. I will tell you this. The day we canceled the deal, I was in California. And Kyle and I had been out all day doing stuff, and I came home and I laid down in the bed uh in the hotel at seven o'clock. I did not wake up again till six in the morning the next day. Literally, no potty breaks, no nothing from seven, 11 hours of sleep. So I think it was weighing on me a little heavily. But again, you can catch that on Inside Marcy's Mind. Also, watch my for my new podcast, Unbottled. I almost couldn't remember the name of it. Um, that's gonna be all things sobriety and just um feel good stuff for life. You don't have to be a drinker to enjoy all of the things that we think about when we get sober. So check that out. That's gonna be happening sometime in November. Again, it's called Unbottled. Well, let's see what else is happening. Just getting ready for our trip. Craig is gonna be gone this weekend down in Champaign for football weekend with friends and um buddies of his. So I get a weekend alone, which doesn't happen very often. You know, Craig in our whole first part half of our marriage traveled all the time. This last half, honestly, since probably 2009 when he left Marriott after the whole crash of the world. Um not so much traveling. And so I I savor my time alone. I used to get it all the time. I don't so much anymore. He gets it way more than I do because I leave and I travel. So it'll be a nice weekend. Uh and what do I have planned? Cleaning. What is that? It'll just be nice. I'm going to do since we decided not to move. And I love where I live. I love my condo. I love everything. I I feel like I need to pull it apart and clean. Cat fur. Just do the deep cleaning. I'm going to do a deep fall cleaning. We've talked about that. I've already organized everything on the inside is super organized, inside cupboards, inside closets, inside all of that. But I'm going to do one of those good deep cleanings where you move everything and I'm kind of excited about that. I that is sad, but I am. So Saturday I will go to the gym and then I will get that done. Friday is laundry day. That's today. Get my laundry done. Don't know about you. If you have schedules or plans that you keep, even though I'm retired, I like to have a little bit of a schedule of when things get done. But today I'm kind of, you know, that the whole cooking for less is not easy. And I'm going to give some tips, some tricks, some um things that you can use, appliances, you know. I got rid of a lot of my gadgets when I moved, but there's some that I kept and I'm glad I did. So we're gonna get into all to all of that, hang in there, and I'll be right back. Well, all right. That nasty dinner time, you know, it seems to always have been a thing with the kids, without the kids. I've actually enjoyed cooking more for two than I ever did cooking for the family. And there's a couple of reasons for that, and I'll share those as we go along. You spend decades cooking for a family, big pots, extra servings, giant lasagnas that could feed an entire youth group, then suddenly it's just you and maybe one other person, and your brain doesn't get the memo. You make chili and wind up with enough to feed the bear's offensive line. Even recipes mock us. Everything says serves four to six. Meanwhile, I'm cutting out meatloaf recipes into thirds like a math test, and that is the truth. That is the truth. Everything is for more. You're trying to cut it in half, you're trying to do this, that, and the other thing. I don't know. It's crazy. But there are ways to make it better. Um, I I enjoy cooking a lot more now, and one of those reasons is uh Hello Fresh, and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But let's first talk about gadgets that actually help. So if you don't have an air fryer, if you haven't used an air fryer, I highly recommend it. If you are um a small little, you know, one to two persons, get a small air fryer. Don't get one of the giant ones. I chose to get a my actually my brand new oven um that I got has an air fryer in it. But again, it's huge. I don't need that. We have a um cuisin art toaster oven that is also an air fryer. Uh, due to lack of counter space, I have to double up on things. So um that is something that has been perfectly helpful. You can do just a handful of fries, you can reheat pizza in your air fryer, you can do a lot with an air fryer. It might be something fun to learn if you're a single or a two. If you don't know it, learn it. The next thing is an Instapot or a small slow cooker. I don't have an Instapot. My sister-in-law does, um, she uses it, and I loved that. I just I don't have the space for one, they are slightly quite big, but I did downsize my slow cooker, and I do use my slow cooker, especially in going into this season. Um, pot roast, all those types of things. Um, and I have a small slow cooker, so I will recommend downsizing your slow cooker. That way you don't make chili for a hundred. You can make chili for a few, you can make taco, you can throw one chicken breast in there, or you can throw two to do, you know, chicken taco meat, uh etc. Just downsize that. That's a good place to start. A countertop griller panini press. Um I don't have that. I got rid of my panini press when I moved. I don't have room for it. But if you do, that's a good thing to have. A single served blender, I do have that. I do have that. Vacuum sealer, we have always had um many reasons. Um breaking up large packages of meat. Um, one of the things that my sister-in-laws listed and I um I do now is I buy the rotisserie chicken off the bone from Costco. You can get it where they've already pulled it off the bone. Then we bring that home and Craig freezes it into um individual servings for two. And if you're one, you can do that. Um, we use a vacuum sealer for a lot of things. We get our meat still at Costco and Craig, um, really our pot roast, because uh you'll hear where I get my meat, but um we get a pot roast and then Craig breaks it down into sizes that fit in that small slow cooker. I still have a hard time in the pot roast doing less potatoes, less carrots, less onions. But you know what? Blend it into a soup when you're done. It, you know, it doesn't hurt. And they're cheap. I because I just I don't know. I throw the bag of small potatoes in, I smell the throw the bag of small carrots in and still do that. But um, again, you can just blend it into a soup and it's delicious. Um, the other small gadget that I use is um a microwave pasta cooker. I bought these, it came in a pack of two from like the TV back in the day when the kids went to college. It's called Fasta Pasta. They're still around. It's on um Amazon, Fasta Pasta, and I cook all my pasta in the microwave. It's so great. It doesn't take less time, it's just less water, less mess. I don't know. It's great. So that is my gadget that I use, and I have loved, and I've used that gadget forever. Fasta pasta. Because if you're still cooking spaghetti in a pot that can bathe the toddler, it's time for an intervention. Seriously, people. You know, go down to a smaller pot. You don't need as much pasta. That's a really hard thing to not use the whole package of spaghetti, but let me tell you something, you don't need it. If you're eating that much spaghetti, I I guess, but there's no way Craig and I would eat a whole package of spaghetti. I made that for the four of us. So, you know, just think about that. It's okay to use half a package of spaghetti. All right, meal kits to the rescue. This is where my life has really changed. Let's talk about one of my sanity savers, meal delivery kits. I use HelloFresh for three meals a week. And it's like having a personal chef who respects portion sizes. You pick your meals, a box shows up, and everything is pre-measured, no more half bunches of cilantro turning into green slime. This is the greatest part about this. Everything comes, you use everything for your recipe, and portion sizes are controlled. So for me, when I split the meal up after I cook the chicken or whatever, I two-thirds goes to Craig, one-third goes to me. And it works out great. I have learned to cook bulls, I have learned to cook more in my lifetime from cooking these HelloFresh meals than I ever did before. I wished I had known how to cook like this when my kids were at home. I would have been a better cooking mom. I wasn't the greatest. Part of it was because back in the day, Craig was so freaking picky. I and I don't know why. The man goes out and eats anything, and at home it had things had to be done a certain way. It was just weird. And it took, he sucked all the fun out of my cooking. And when we moved here, I told him I was going to try these HelloFresh boxes, and he seems to really like them. So I like I said, I wished I had known this earlier, but better late than never. So the recipes are simple, they're quick, they're delicious, perfect for two people for dinner, or if you do lunch and you don't do dinner. If you're solo, it's still great because it makes, I think the smallest portion size is two, but then you have it for leftovers. And you can pick as as few as two meals a week and up to seven. I do three. Um, I once made a pork tender lime with an apricot glaze in 25 minutes. Felt like Julia Child's minus the accent and definitely minus the wine. If you're tired of buying 12 ingredients to make one meal, that's why I love HelloFresh. If I'm making a um Korean bowl, I get just the the amount of spices I need for everything. It's awesome. I don't have leftover zucchinis. I don't have leftover green onions. I get just the amount I need for that meal, and it's great. It runs me for three meals a week around 70 some odd bucks. And I find that to be great. I fill in with groceries. Craig and I usually eat out a couple times. I usually try to go one meal where I just he can do what he wants last night. He golfed, came in late. He made a pot pie, I made a quesadilla, life was good, we moved on. So, you know, it works for me. I recommend them highly. I've tried a bunch of the different boxes. I've gone back to HelloFresh every time. So, you know, funny aside, the only downside, the box looks like it might contain a small pet, but it just has what we need in it. And um, everything's recyclable that is it's packed in, so you're not doing wasteful. There's no styrofoam. It comes, everything comes cold. If it comes in the morning, it's gonna be fine by the afternoon. If you are at work, if you are like me and don't work, I'm usually home and I unpack it right away. The meat, I put the meat right in the freezer. It gives me just enough meat for whatever we're doing. I put it right in the freezer. That way, if something happens and I don't get to cook it right away, it's in the freezer. In the morning, I take out the meat. Each meal is um individually packed in a brown bag, sealed with everything you need for that meal. I use my bottom drawer, my fridge. They go in there. When there's no HelloFresh in there, that drawer is empty. Um and I grab it at night, then I grab the bag out and I get to chopping, cooking. It's very fun. I really like it. I recommend it highly, highly, highly. Um, if you want a try it code, um, email me at agingfast1 at gmail.com and you can try some meals for free. I get a few meals that I can give away. So to the first people that ask, I'm happy to send your email address in and you will get some free meals to try. So again, if you want to try out HelloFresh, just um drop me a line at agingfast1 at gmail.com and do that this week because I will be gone in Ireland and I won't be checking things. So I'm happy to share. All right, grocery store shenanigans. You go to the stores, where you'll shop smart and come home with$80 worth of produce that will die in your CRISPR drawer. Honest to goodness, I hate that. I just don't do it anymore. If I don't have a reason to get that bag of salad, I don't buy it anymore. I don't buy good intentions because you know what? Right out the window they go. I I don't like throwing away food. I've done that a lot. And honestly, I just did an order from Amazon Fresh while I was gone and it literally did look like a college student's. There was Fritos because I wanted I already had chili and we're gonna do um Frito pie. Because when I travel, I don't have the Hello Fresh ordered. We're gonna be traveling and um so yeah, just you know, it it does. Lettuce has a shelf life, people. Bread has a shelf life. I just came home to hot dog buns in our um and I think Craig can, I did learn this about Craig. He cannot throw things away. It can be the grossest, slimiest thing in the refrigerator. He can't throw it away. He just can't do it. It's weird, but he can't. I came home to gross flowers in the vase, should have been thrown out, and also hot dog buns in our bread keeper that were green. Moldy hot dog buns. And he did his bread was right next to it because he has his bread he gets from Whole Foods. Yeah, he put it right next to moldy hot dog buns, didn't throw them out. I find that weird, but whatever. We all have our weirdnesses. Oh, so gross. Anyways, um, here's some easy meal ideas that don't feel like leftovers. If you have not done sheet pan dinners, shame on you. Google sheet pan dinners. A lot of the HelloFresh dinners I do are sheet pan dinners where you cook your chicken, your vegetable, your potato, all on one sheet pan, all at the same time, or maybe you throw in the potatoes for 15 minutes, pull it out, throw the chicken and the green beans in, back in, and it's all done. I'm telling you, sheet pan dinners. I wish I knew about that when my kids were little. Greatest thing ever. Honestly. So look up sheet pan dinners. You will find a myriad of recipes for one. I mean, honestly, or do a couple of chicken breasts, then you have them for another meal. Um, breakfast for dinner. It's fun and it's legal, people. Have breakfast for dinner. Make yourself a waffle, get one of those cute little individual waffle makers. I have that. Um soup Sundays. Soup Sundays are great. I think soup sundays are the way to go. And I know a lot of people who do soups every day for dinner during the week. That that is their go-to soup at this at our age. I know a lot of us aren't as hungry as we used to be. Uh, we don't burn off calories as easy. So, soup dinners are a great way to go. Soup Sundays is a great way to go. Always plan a soup on Sunday. You got that tiny crock pot that I told you to get. So have at it. Two-day rule: if it's older than 48 hours, it's not dinner, it's compost. That is one of the things I do want to talk about. The older we get, and I know my mom was really bad at this, also. My mom was a child of the depression. I don't happen to be a child of the depression. But my mom would not throw out food. And I also know I this also used to bug the crap out of me with my mom. We'd go out to dinner and she'd always bring home leftovers. Well, I do that now. But if you don't eat your leftovers the next day, get rid of it. Honestly. More senior adults get food poisoning than any other group of people. And we do it to ourselves. All right. You know, we don't want our leftovers to start introducing themselves by name. It's time to get them, exercise them right out of your freezer, refrigerator. If you have leftovers, come on, eat them the next day. If not, it needs to go. Just be careful because uh the amount of times you think you've had the stomach flu, you've probably poisoned yourself with your condiments. We used to go through, my sister Cindy and I used to go through my mom's refrigerator and throw out all. I mean, ugh. Should have been thrown out a long time ago. I can't even think about it. But be careful, don't poison yourself. Get rid of those leftovers. Um, even your own leftovers, you know. Be careful. Kitchen confidence. Cooking small doesn't mean thinking small. It's self-care with seasoning. So whether it's dinner for two or a table for one, pour sparkling water, light a candle, and pretend you're at a bistro. You deserve it. Eat at your dining table. Don't eat in front of the TV. Craig and I, that is one thing, honestly, as a family and as a couple, we have never eaten in front of the TV. We eat here, we have a kitchen island with two stools. That's what we eat at. In our home, we always ate at our dining table in the living room, in that formal dining room. We always used our formal dining table with the kids. Kitchen table was for breakfast, dining table was for dinner. And I don't know why, but that's just how we did it. Treat yourself special. You are special. And I will tell you this when we moved here, I got I had so many sets of dishes, got rid of them all, kept our sasaki um plates that we had for our that we got for our wedding. They're black, they're beautiful. The problem is they suck the heat out of your food. So I don't use them often, but I kept them. And my in-laws had given Craig and I for our first few Christmases, two sets each Christmas for four Christmases of Frank Lloyd Wright China. Well, in California, I was afraid to take it out of the box because of earthquakes here. I use it daily. We eat on our Frank Lloyd Wright China. Yes, we do, every day. That is our everyday dishes. I don't have room for everyday dishes and fancy dishes. I use my fancy dishes every day. Break out that china and use it. It's not gonna, it's not gonna hurt it. Goes in the dishwasher. I don't care. Am I gonna die and not use this china? No. I use it every day. So you know, take care of yourself. Do something nice for yourself. All right, and then there are plenty of cookbooks out there, everybody, that are for one or for two. And I suggest getting one, at least one. Go to Amazon right now, look up a cookbook for one, get a sheet pan dinner cookbook. Um something that will help you learn to shrink down that size of food. All right, my sassy sous chefs. That's it for today's episode of Aging Eight for Sissies. Kicking cooking for one or two isn't sad. It's sophisticated. Leftovers are just meal prep that already happened. So use those leftovers the next day. Please subscribe to this, leave a review, and tell a friend who still cooks like they've got a soccer team to feed. Until next time, keep it hot, keep it funny, and keep aging like a fine wine. We're no longer drinking. Cheers. Go out and do something positive.

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Marcy Backhus

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