If you’re like me and you’re a recent empty-nester or you’re newly married or just cooking for yourself and a partner, you may be on the lookout for easy ways to cook healthy meals for two. Today’s guest is fellow dietitian and cookbook author, Jenna Braddock, and she joins me with easy recipes, tips for shopping for two (vs. a crowd), and simple advice for reducing food waste. Cooking for two is about to get easy, nutritious, and delicious.
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Jenna Braddock is a registered dietitian and certified Sports Dietetics specialist who lives in Florida with her husband and two kids. She hosts the blog, Make Healthy Easy, and her new cookbook, Easy Cooking for Two: 75 Perfectly Portioned Recipes is a hit in my house. On today’s show, you’ll hear Jenna’s advice for stocking a pantry when you’re cooking for two and not a crowd, tips for keeping fresh herbs from spoiling when you buy a big bunch but only need a handful, and lots of recipes including her Adobo Turkey Nachos. We’ve got advice for reducing food waste and making recipes like Warm Quinoa Salad and Mango Salsa Pork Chops with everyday ingredients from your pantry.
“Cooking for two allows you to experiment with new things with a low risk. “
– Jenna Braddock, MSH, RDN, CSSD
[Tweet “Tune in to this wk’s Liz’s Healthy Table #podcast for my interview w/ @JBraddockRD about her new book, EASY COOKING FOR TWO. Get recipes, tips for stocking a pantry for two (vs a crowd), and advice for reducing food waste. PLUS, we’re giving away a copy!]
GIVEAWAY NEWS:
We are giving away 2 copies of Easy Cooking for Two: 75 Perfectly Portioned Recipes to one lucky U.S. winner. For a chance to enter to win, post a comment in the Comments section at the end of this post and tell me about why you want to win the book or your favorite recipe for two. I’ll pick the winner on April 7th. For extra entries, head to my Instagram page.
Adobo Turkey Nachos
Adobo Seasoning
Mango Pork Salsa — which we talked about on the podcast
Show Highlights:
- Get to know Jenna and her life in St. Augustine with her football coach husband and two young sons; it’s a football-filled life!
- Tips for feeding teenage athletes (think about salads and fresh fruit)
- What dinner looks like at Jenna’s house
- Why Jenna started her blog, Make Healthy Easy, which is food-focused with do-able and delicious recipes
- How Jenna’s cookbook provides the perfect solution for those who don’t want to cook large meals
- How cooking for two helps eliminate food waste
- The benefits of cooking for two include experimenting with different ingredients and recipes and avoiding the “condiment graveyard” in your refrigerator and pantry
- How Jenna’s cookbook is structured with vegetarian/vegan recipes, lighter fare, seafood, poultry, pork, and beef
- Tips on how to make fresh herbs last longer so they don’t end up in the trash
- One of Jenna’s kids’ favorite recipes: Taco Bowl with refried beans, beef, cheese, tortillas, and toppings
- How we can rethink grocery shopping to accommodate cooking for two
- Jenna’s Adobo Turkey Nachos, which are made with diced onions, broccoli slaw, ground turkey, and adobo seasoning
- Jenna’s recipe for Warm Quinoa Salad, which is made with quinoa, wilted and chopped spinach, frozen edamame, red wine vinegar, and dried cherries
- How Jenna’s Sheet Pan Shrimp Bowls use frozen rice as an ingredient
- Why freezer section fruits, veggies, and grains are perfect for easy and nutritious recipes for two
- Jenna’s recipe for Mango Salsa Pork Chops uses boneless pork loin chops and a salsa made with chopped mango, jalapeño, red onion, and lime juice
- Jenna’s husband’s favorite recipe is Chile Lime Pork Chops, which are seasoned with chipotle chili powder, lime juice, and salt
- Jenna’s favorite family go-to recipe is Apricot Chicken with Spinach Rice; she uses two boneless, skinless thighs from a frozen bag of chicken thighs and makes a pan sauce of apricot preserves and balsamic vinegar
Resources:
Easy Cooking for Two on Amazon
Liz’s links:
Liz’s Podcast Posse on Facebook. Stop by and ask to JOIN!
Have a question about the show or a suggestion for a future show? Ask away by posting a comment below or joining my Podcast Posse.
For other podcast episodes, check out:
SATISFY; Healthy Recipes That Hit the Spot with Mona Dolgov
A New Vision for Healthy Eating in 2021 with Maya Feller, MS, RD
The Power of Potatoes with Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN
I’m currently listening to this episode. I’m loving it so far. There’s a lot of recipes I’ve wanted to try but don’t want to waste anything and I think this cooking for two is a great idea. Plus roasted strawberries? I’m gonna try that.
Although I enjoy having leftovers for lunches, with only 2 people in it house it is easy to get overrun with leftovers. I have to plan accordingly and mix recipes with leftovers with recipes with no leftovers into my way meal plan. This cookbook did be a great addition to my menu planning process.
I’m with you on the roasted strawberries!
I love to sit down and read through a good cookbook. We are always looking for new ideas and don’t like the feeling of being overwhelmed with leftovers. Recipes for two people sound like a great opportunity to try new dishes without having to worry about stockpiling my fridge/freezer with leftover containers.
I need some inspiration around meal planning. I always cook too much for portion size and fall back on processed foods when working late or tired.
I am about to be an empty nester and absolutely love to cook….but get bored by too many leftovers of the same thing. This cookbook would be right up my alley!
Now that our children are away at college, I am having a hard time figuring out portions for the 2 of us without having leftovers that last for days. I don’t want to waste food and down-sizing the recipes and shopping has been more of a challenge than expected. And what do you do with those extra fresh herbs or special condiments when you’ve used what you need in the recipe? This cookbook sounds like it would be helpful!
My husband and I are empty nesters. I cook regularly for us, but would love some new healthy recipes with less food waste!
I lost my husband almost three years ago. Our children are grown with families of their own. I like to cook and love to eat different and healthy options. I could use the recipes to cook for two, eat one and have the other serving for another meal. It’s equally as hard to cook for one. Thank you.
I am recently divorced and now an empty nester and would love having a healthy 2 person cookbook to help me keep on track
This cookbook would be great so that I won’t waste food and I won’t get tired of eating the same thing, love the recipes that were shared.
A cookbook for two would be a perfect way to try new recipes more often without the extra leftovers!
My mom used to cook all the time. Now that it’s just her and my dad, they usually get prepared food from the grocery store. I’d love to give this book to her so she can do back to preparing healthy, delicious meals, without having to scale down a recipe.
Cooking for two can be such a challenge when I’m conditioned to cook for many. Looking forward to this cookbook filled with recipes that I anticipate to be a game changer! ❤️
This book would help me get out of the meal planning slump. This past year has been challenging to think of new healthy recipe options, especially ones that would only make so much. I hate wasting food with making large meals each night, only to throw out the leftovers a few days later. I would love this book to review for myself and then would gift it to my parents to help them prepare just enough for meals with various healthy recipes.
Cooking for two has become boring, the same old same old. Would love to add some new and different meals to my menus. So excited to learn more.
My husband and I became empty nesters at the beginning of this year. We are trying to adjust to all facets of this situation! We are now both more actively trying to exercise and eat better and would love this book to help with cooking for portion size and yummy, healthy meals.
I love everything about this podcast and cookbook! My daughter is about to move out into her own apartment. She doesn’t always like what I cook for dinner and decided to try Hello Fresh for a week’s worth of meals. YUCK! What a disappointment and waste of money. She practically threw all of it away after making the recipes. This cookbook would not only help me make delicious dinners for two, but I’d love to share it with her to teach her to make healthy and tasty foods that she actually would eat! Thanks for the podcast and recipes in the show notes!
My favorite recipe for two is Mango Salsa Pork Chops
Oh, I would love this cookbook! I often cook much too much for the two of us! While eating leftovers for one night is good, and two nights is okay, sometimes they last quite a bit longer. Unfortunately I don’t realize I should have frozen some of the food, or even know if I can, until we’re a few days into eating it. I’m sure my husband will be relieved tonight when we finally finish eating the same soup we’ve been eating for dinner as it’s the fourth night we’ll eat it! So maybe I should really say that my husband would love for me to win this book!!
My husband and daughter travel a lot for bicycle races leaving me and my daughter at home. This will come in handy at those times when its jus the two of us.
This way of cooking sounds perfect for me! We are still getting used to being empty nesters, with too many leftovers being a big deal here! I would love to have some healthy recipes that guide me in cutting back and Cooking For Two!
Another empty nester here – I need guidance on how to avoid having so many leftovers.
Absolutely loved this podcast and can’t wait to try out the posted recipes. I would love to win this cookbook. My husband and I are newly empty nesters and after over 28 years of having kids in the house, cooking for 2 (instead of 6+) is a new challenge!
It’s just my husband and I and could use recipes for just two. Tired of lunch leftovers for days.
Although we have three in our family, I often find myself with a lot of leftovers that no one will eat. So, cooking for two and then adding another side dish if it doesn’t seem like enough seems like a good plan for us. And the recipes in this book sound delicious!
Every weekend I have leftovers that no one eats most of the time. I need something new and just enough for 2 adults to eat without having too much food leftover.
So I would love to win this book for my husband and myself. I find we eat out way too often because it is more difficult to find simple, healthy recipes made for feeding only 2 people. This book might be just the thing to get us cooking together again. 🙂
I love trying new recipes.
I like trying new recipes and I find myself cutting down on the recipe because I don’t want to end up with a lot of food if we don’t love the recipe. I’m also excited for the section that gives you ideas on how to use up ingredients you have.
Listening to Jenna and you in this podcast reinforced for me that I need a total do-over in the meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking department. I think I have been in denial that my two sons no longer live at home. I have to accept that my husband and I can’t keep up with all the food I still make even though it’s just the two of us. Jenna’s cookbook would get me started on my cooking “makeover” and bring some sanity to my refrigerator!
Pam, I can sure relate! On many nights, I open the fridge and toss together a dinner w/ all the leftovers on hand. Way too much food. It’s quite the learning curve.