Cooking For One

Modern life presents us more and more with the situation of a person living alone. It may be someone who has never married, or possibly it is someone who is divorced, or widowed without children, or maybe the children are already grown and out of the nest. People today, especially in the big cities, tend to live in such situations by themselves and not with their extended families or friends.

Some of the singles will eat out most of their meals. But not everyone is happy eating out. Sometimes you prefer the quiet hood of your own home, sitting alone and listening to your favorite music, reading an all-absorbing book or the morning newspaper.

These situations bring out the need to plan for a one-person meal. When you have been by yourself for all of your adult life, this situation seems more natural, and you will be more comfortable in dividing the quantities of a "regular" recipe. When you were used to live with a bigger family - whether it was your spouse or your now grown children, you will probably have a harder time, as you are too used to be cooking in bigger quantities.

In any case, the best would be if you could see this situation as a challenge. With no one else to complain about the meals, you experiment. Try new cuisines. Be creative, try to invent or change your regular recipes.

One thing you should keep in mind though is that it would be more convenient to cook things which you can freeze. In this way you prepare a regular sized meal, and then when some day comes and you are not in the mood for cooking you can open your freezer and heat up some great meal from last week. This way you will not be left with half tomatoes or onions etc. floating around your fridge.

Today you can find more and more recipes and cookbooks that are designed around the "cook for one" concept. Look for them to get ideas. Possibly you can borrow some from a nearby library.

If you are living alone, don't relegate yourself to boring meals or eating out. Your attitude to your meals will spread out to life in general: You don't have to see your living alone as a compromise, or an "in-between" period that has to be suffered or passed-by with minimum hardships. See it as a growing period, a time to invest in yourself - in your cooking, and in your life in general.

Visit Debbie B.'s meat cooking blog to read more of her writing and cooking advice. You can also get her free collection of lamb ribs recipes.

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