Living alone, it's far too easy for me to slide into takeaway or toast-for-dinner mode — especially on low-energy days when even simple tasks feel like an uphill battle.While that's OK sometimes, too many fast food or snack-based dinners aren't great for my health or wallet, and create a lot of food and packaging waste.To make things easier, I've developed simple storage and cooking systems that keep food visible and fresh while ensuring I use things up.Here's how I make cooking for one feel more doable, affordable and lower impact.Much of the low-waste cooking advice out there appears to be aimed at people who either need to feed a cast of thousands or have boundless energy and time to make bulk food from scratch every week.I'm neither of those.Often, it's just me eating at home That might mean pulling something out of the freezer early to defrost during the day, so dinner becomes a four-minute microwave reheat job.If I do resort to a very basic meal, such as baked beans or two-minute noodles, I'll look for no-effort ways to add fresh veggies or extra protein — maybe dropping in an egg and a few spinach or kale leaves fresh-picked from my backyard permaculture garden.I'm hyper-conscious of food waste, knowing that one-third of the 7.6 million tonnes of food ditched every year in Australia happens within households.While the scale is daunting, it shows individual actions matter