Ray's Cooking for OneDinners for one, from Ray Delgado's kitchen

From Ray Delgado's kitchen in Yonkers

Real dinners for one. Not a week of leftovers.

I'm Ray, a retired Bronx handyman, seventy-three, cooking for one. My wife Rosemarie's recipe cards all said "serves four." I took a pencil to them. Now they say one, and every step tells you the heat, the minutes and what you should see in the pan.

Get My 5 Free Recipes See the cookbook

A free printable PDF: five easy dinners from everyday groceries.

Ray Delgado at his kitchen table with a plate of roast chicken and potatoes and his wife's wooden recipe box
How I write a recipe
No. 1, Rosemarie's Sunday Dinners

Rosemarie's Sunday Chicken

Serves 4 1

Before you start sitting down

  • Get out the deep two-handled pan and lid, tongs, a knife, a board and the thermometer.
  • Cut the potatoes. Slice half the onion.
  • Pat the thighs dry. Rub the salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano on them.

Cook it

  1. Heat the oil in the deep pan on Medium for about 2 minutes, until it runs freely.
  2. Place the thighs skin-side down on Medium for about 10 minutes, until the skin is golden and releases easily.
  3. Flip each thigh with tongs. Keep the heat on Medium.

...and four more steps, just as plain.

Done when the thickest thigh reads 165°F away from the bone. The potatoes are soft.

Leftovers go to the third thigh: No. 40, Chicken and Rice Soup. Potatoes: No. 26, tomorrow.

No "cook until done." Ever.

Sized for one plate

When a dinner makes extra, it's on purpose, and the card says where it goes.

Every leftover has a job

Sunday's extra thigh is Tuesday's soup. Less goes in the garbage.

Prep sitting down

Chop at the table, before the stove goes on. Then every step gives the heat, the minutes and what you'll see.

Everyday groceries

Chicken thighs, potatoes, eggs, rice, a jar of sauce. If your supermarket has it, you can cook it.

Free recipes

Start with five free dinners

Ray's 5 No-Waste Dinners runs Sunday to Thursday. Each night's extra goes into the next night's supper, so nothing sits in the fridge going bad.

  • Sunday: Rosemarie's Sunday Chicken
  • Monday: Potatoes and Eggs
  • Tuesday: Chicken and Rice Soup
  • Wednesday: Papa's Picadillo
  • Thursday: Eggs in Purgatory
Get My 5 Free Recipes

With two short shopping lists, by aisle.

The five free dinners on a wooden table: Sunday chicken, potatoes and eggs, chicken and rice soup, picadillo over rice, and eggs in tomato sauce
Sunday to Thursday
The cookbook
Cover of Ray's Cooking for One: 60 Easy Dinners for Seniors Living Alone, by Ray Delgado

Ray's Cooking for One

The whole recipe box, cut down to one: dinners for tired nights, slow-cooker mornings, pantry weeks and Sunday suppers.

60 dinners and 6 small sweets

In 9 chapters, sorted by how much you feel like cooking.

8 weekly meal plans

Seven dinners in order, each week with its shopping list.

Look Inside the Cookbook

Coming soon. The free recipes are ready now.

About Ray

A handyman in the kitchen

After Rosemarie passed, I stood in our Yonkers kitchen looking at a chicken and a card. We had been married forty-five years. She did every bit of the cooking. I fixed the sink. That was our arrangement.

Her Sunday chicken card said "serves four." So I made four portions. I ate chicken for six days, then threw out what was left.

I got a pencil from my toolbox. I crossed out the four and wrote a one. These recipes are what happened to those cards: a dinner for one, with the pan named and every step spelled out.

Ray

Rosemarie's worn wooden recipe box, open on the kitchen counter, with a carpenter's pencil beside it
Rosemarie's box. Still in the same spot.

Sunday's chicken is a good place to start

Five free dinners, two short shopping lists, and a plan for every leftover.

Get My 5 Free Recipes