When Sue's away (I should be so lucky), I do a lot of quick one-man cookery. Not the ready- meals sort; since the kids left we've been about two-thirds veggie, so I can do a really quick veggie stirfry with noodles (cooking time 20 minutes tart to finish) and infinitely variable- different veg, hot/sweet/sour ring the changes, use tofu, liquid made with leftover wine, stock cubes, anything that comes to hand.

Alternatively a quick microwaved veg with rice- selection of ingredients according to what's in, chop up, put in Pyrex dish, sprinkle on olive oil, soy, garlic, wine vinegar. two minutes, shake, another two minutes, done. Put the rice on first, 15 minutes in advance- Basmatti is best, because it works well in small quantities. rice, 2.5x as much water, a lickul salt, boil and let boil dry on a very low heat (heat mat useful if you can't turn the gas down to a glimmer).

My taste says don't put parsnips in because they're too sweet. Just shallow fry them and sprinkle with chili.

One of the big dangers of solo cuisine is a surfeit of eggs, as ommelettes are so easy and tempting. the other big danger is that there's no one else to share the bottle(s).