Cooking is hard enough as it is, but as you age and experience issues like arthritis, limited mobility, and more, it becomes increasingly more difficult. While it might seem easy to just order in, this isn’t the best nourishment for your aging body.
Instead, we encourage you to keep cooking, but to change how you do it. Without easy meals for seniors article series, we teach you how to make some really easy meals in just 40 minutes or less—ensuring you don’t have to stay on your feed for long.
In addition, we’ve collected the following arrangement of one-pot meals for seniors, ensuring you can cook healthy meals for yourself without leaving a ton of dishes behind. So, if you’re ready to find some healthy meals tailored to those in your age group, keep reading.
12 Easy One-Pot Meals for Seniors
1. Salmon Poke Bowls
Salmon Poke Bowls are one of our easiest meals ever, and you just need a single pot to cook the rice. Of course, in our example we also had to cook the edamame, but you could use the same pot twice if yours need to be cooked, or just buy the precooked ones from the deli section. Either way, this is one easy to make meal that won’t make a mess!
2. Rice Cooker Teriyaki Shrimp and Rice
While we have a delicious vegetable stir-fry recipe, it does involve more than one pot. However, we did find a neighboring website that has a variation you can make with just your rice cooker! So, if you have a rice cooker, definitely plan this meal for one of your dinners this week and enjoy the flavors of teriyaki without the clean-up.
3. Slow Cooker Mac n Cheese
If you don’t have a slow cooker yet, we highly recommend buying one, especially so you can make this one pot mac n cheese! They make it super easy to mix ingredients and leave them to cook while you go about your day. Just make sure you get a size small enough that you can lift the pot to clean it like this one we found on Amazon.
Additionally, know that this recipe isn’t the most balanced. But for lunch or a potluck side dish, it works!
4. Cous Cous Salas
Cous Cous Salad is a ridiculously easy meal to make and you can do everything you need with just one pot, a cutting board, and a knife. It’s perfect for lunch, or a light dinner. It is cold, however, meaning if you want something warm in the cooler winter months you’ll want to look at a different recipe.
5. One Pot Salmon
Salmon is delicious and very nutritious, as your body needs the omega-3 fish oils as you age. Although fish can be a bit intimidating this one pot salmon recipe makes it easy. Just make sure you serve it with a healthy side dish or add extra veggies to the pan to get your daily greens!
6. Tortilla Soup
There is nothing quite as delicious as a warm bowl of tortilla soup in the cold winter months. What’s better is the fact that this recipe only takes a few minutes to prepare and a single pot. Plus, it’s adjustable, so you can spice it exactly to your liking!
7. One Pot Cheese-Burger Pasta
Do you remember the Hamburger Helper meal kits that were all the rage a decade ago? Well, this recipe for one-pot cheese-burger pasta tastes just like it, and it’s super easy to make. You’ll only need one pot, which is great, and it takes just 50 minutes to prepare. Plus, it’s cheaper than buying the box, so you’ll save money too!
8. Fried Rice
Fried Rice is one of our go-to meals when we want to eat something flavorful but don’t want to make anything complicated or do a lot of dishes. While there are many varieties of fried rice, this one for chicken fried rice looks pretty simple. If you don’t eat chicken, you can swap it for something else, like shrimp or even tofu, to make it fit your dietary needs.
9. Mediterranean Lentil Soup
No matter the type of soup you make, it is almost always a one-pot meal unless you are making something fancy. Plus, most soups allow you to toss in ingredients, then go sit while it cooks, just stirring occasionally. This Mediterranean Lentil Soup is no exception, and you could even make it in your crock pot and let it slow cook while you go about your day.
10. One-Pot Chili
On the topic of soup, Chili is another way to enjoy the one-pot factor of soup with something a little heartier. We specifically like this recipe, which is ready in just 30 minutes. It can even be made vegetarian by swapping the beef for veggie ground meat and the chicken bouillon for vegetable bouillon. Either way, you make it, it’s delicious!
11. Skillet Lasagna
We absolutely love our vegetable lasagna recipe, but it makes a large number of servings, and it isn’t the easiest to clean up after. If you want something a little more on the simple side, check out this skillet lasagna recipe, which is made using one skillet in just 35 minutes.
12. Cacio e Pepe
One of the easiest Italian recipes of all time is Cacio e Pepe, which uses a single pan and just 5 ingredients. While it isn’t the healthiest, it’s a good, quick meal when you are in a bind. Plus, if you serve it with a salad of some sort, there is a way to get your greens with this delicious and easy recipe.
Overall, there are so many one-pot recipes that you can make for your upcoming meal or for your next potluck. Whether you want something cold, hot, or savory, this list has it all. So, pick a recipe, buy the ingredients, and start cooking—you won’t regret it!
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