Cooking for one

Healthy eating

Preparing your own meals can help you take control of your health. Here’s how one can cook delicious and nutritious meals.

Why cook for yourself?

Today, more and more of us live alone, either by choice or circumstance. As a single person, it can be hard to find the motivation to cook for yourself, especially after a long day at work. Even if you know how to cook and have a full kitchen at your disposal, coming up with meal ideas and finding recipes for a person can seem like a chore.

Eating out, hitting the drive-thru, or throwing a frozen dinner in the microwave may seem like a much easier option. But regularly eating convenience foods can take a toll on your physical and mental health, as well as your waistline.

Fast food and TV dinners are low in nutrition and high in unhealthy fat, sugar, sodium and calories. Often, for less money and less time, you can create healthy, great-tasting meals yourself.

The key to cooking for one is to acquire some basic skills, gather essential ingredients, and get creative in making meals that work specifically for you. Even if you live in a dorm room, bachelor apartment, or other living space without a full kitchen, you can learn to cook quick and inexpensive meals that not only taste great, but also boost your energy, stabilize your mood, and keep you healthy. is possible.

Benefits of Cooking for One

One of the easiest ways to improve your mental and physical health is to prepare more meals at home. Cooking for yourself gives you more control over the ingredients in your meals, which enables you to cut back on the additives and calories that are often loaded with takeout and convenience foods. Supplementing your diet with simple, healthy home-cooked meals can help reduce your risk of serious illness, increase your energy, and sharpen your mind. Lose weight and improve how you deal with stress, anxiety and depression.

While all this remains true of cooking at home for the whole family, there are also distinct advantages to cooking just for yourself:

You can eat what you want, when you want. The great thing about cooking for someone is that you don’t have to please anyone but yourself. Cook with ingredients you enjoy, even if others don’t, or eat breakfast if you like it.

Food can be cooked quickly. A single serving meal cooks faster than cooking for four or more people.

Less waste, less cleanup. You don’t have to eat according to anyone else’s taste, so don’t go without. When you cook food in a pot, for example, you can eat it straight from the pot and minimize cleanup afterwards.

This can save you money. Cooking at home costs less than eating takeout or restaurant meals. Being a smart shopper will enable you to find healthy food at affordable prices. Since you are cooking for yourself, you may end up eating expensive ingredients every now and then. Organic meat or produce.

It is empowering. Taking charge of your diet and taking time to take care of yourself can improve your mood and self-esteem—as well as your overall health.

Cooking for someone doesn’t mean eating alone

For some single people, cooking for yourself means spending more time alone. To feel a connection with other people, you may choose to eat out regularly—even if it involves sitting alone at a fast food restaurant. Eating out means you’re more likely to meet new people, strike up a conversation with a stranger, or break up the monotony of another evening. However, cooking for yourself doesn’t mean eating alone. With some creativity, you can cook healthy and inexpensive meals at home and find the connection with others that we all need.

• Cook some more, and if social distancing rules allow, invite a coworker or neighbor to join you. Everyone loves a home-cooked meal, and most people who live alone are in the same boat as you. They may feel as uncomfortable reaching out as you do. Be proactive. You might even be able to share cooking responsibilities—one prepares the entrée, the other the dessert, for example. Cooking with others is a fun way to try new recipes and strengthen relationships.
• Make your meals at home, then eat in a park, picnic area, or other public space. Enjoying a home-cooked meal rather than a store-bought meal can be a great conversation starter.
• Buy food at a community or farmer’s market instead of at the grocery store or supermarket. People here take the time to discuss food and offer cooking tips, making it easy to make new friends.
• If you don’t have people in your life that you want to eat with, find ways to meet new people. Take a cooking class, join a club, or join a sports team or special interest group that meets regularly. Volunteering at a community organization is another great way to expand your social circle and find future dining companions.

How to start

Dinner doesn’t have to mean a traditional meal of protein, starch and vegetables. In fact, when you cook for yourself, dinner doesn’t have to mean dinner. A breakfast of omelets, cheese and vegetables can also serve as a healthy evening meal. Mix things up and cook with healthy ingredients you enjoy.

Cooking for one does not have to involve a huge investment of time. A microwave-baked potato filled with cheese or canned tuna, served with steamed vegetables or a salad, for example, makes for a healthy, balanced meal that’s ready in minutes.

Stock up on staples. Keeping small quantities of key ingredients in your cupboards means you can always make healthy meals quickly and easily. These include items such as canned tomatoes, beans, tuna, frozen fruits and vegetables, dried herbs and spices, nuts, oil, vinegar, bouillon cubes, pasta, rice, and flour.

look for shortcuts. Buying pre-chopped and washed vegetables and salads will save time on meal prep and cleanup.

Cook once, eat multiple times. Of course, you can take a family-size recipe and divide everything by four or six to make a meal for one person. Or you can cook a large meal and freeze the leftovers in individual portions.

Prepare food without cooking. Making your own food doesn’t always have to involve any cooking. In addition to eating raw vegetables and salads, try uncooked probiotic foods — those that contain “good” bacteria, such as yogurt, sauerkraut, soft cheese or pickled vegetables — for quick, healthy snacks or side dishes.

Cook your main protein once a week. Roast a chicken or slow cook a turkey breast on the weekend, for example, and you can use leftover meat to quickly create different dishes during the week. Add meat to a soup or salad, cut it into sandwiches, use it in tacos, quesadillas, or burritos, or combine it with vegetables and add it to pasta or rice.

Reconstruct the remains. If you don’t want to eat the same meal twice, eating leftovers can be a great start to your next meal. For example, wrap leftover chicken, rice, and vegetables in a tortilla, then add some cheese and salsa—and you’ve got a whole new meal.

You don’t have to be perfect. Don’t think you have to start cooking all your meals at home to reap the health benefits. Like anything, cooking for yourself is a habit that develops over time. Preparing home-cooked meals just a few times a week can improve how well you think and feel and encourage you to cook more often.

If you live in a dorm room, bachelor apartment, hotel room, or other place without a full kitchen, cooking for yourself can be more challenging — but it’s certainly not impossible. Even if you have access to a full kitchen, space-saving appliances like a slow cooker, steamer, or toaster oven can be quick and easy to use, especially if you’re a novice cook.

Using a slow cooker

A slow cooker or crock-pot is a plug-in appliance that slowly cooks food on a counter or table. It’s designed for unattended cooking, so you can add ingredients in the morning before work, then come home at the end of the day to a fully cooked meal.

• Slow cookers are ideal for cooking one-pot meals such as soups, stews, chili or curry.
• Even the cheapest meat can be delicious when cooked slowly.
• A slow cooker uses less energy than a traditional oven and can cool your home in the summer.
• Slow cookers are easy to use, even for inexperienced cooks.

Other useful devices

Toaster oven. Because it heats up quickly, a toaster oven is an economical way to cook, bake, roast vegetables or make toasted sandwiches.

Hot plate. Perfect for hotel rooms, dorm rooms and small apartments. Anything that can be made on a stove top can be made on a hot plate in a pot or pan.

Rice cooker.With a little creativity, it can also be used to cook delicious one-pot dishes and rice.

Steamer. Steaming is one of the fastest and healthiest ways to prepare food. You can use a standalone electronic steamer or a steamer basket that fits into a pot.

Preparing meals without a fridge

If you don’t have a fridge, buy food in individual servings or small packages. Although these will be more expensive, you will have less waste from damage, so they will ultimately be more cost-effective.

• Buy only what you can prepare and eat before the food goes bad.
• To keep food fresher for longer, try filling a cooler with ice when buying perishable foods. Remember to keep food away from water while the ice melts.
• In winter, windows (unless there is a heater below) are often cold places to store perishables.

Authors: Lawrence Robinson, Robert Segal, MA.