Cooking for one - motivation needed

MatyMoo

One thing that has helped me to stay motivated, over and above batch cooking, is to have a small veg box delivered once a week.

I find it fun to work out what to cook based on surprise ingredients and it keeps me out the supermarket! And you are usually eating in season

I also eat a fair amount of pasta based dishes and can knock together a sauce in the time it takes to cook the pasta.

Honeythief

You have got lots of very useful tips here. I will just add a couple of things.

- for breakfast, if you have a mini blender you can have a smoothie or milkshake for breakfast and it only takes a couple of minutes to make, drink, and wash the blender. I use a banana (or sometimes tinned pears or peaches if we are out of bananas), skimmed milk, and some protein powder, and it keeps me full until lunchtime as well as being healthy. I wouldn't bother with a big blender but we have one of those where the blade fits into a plastic mug and then you just drink straight from the mug. We use ours nearly every single day since we got it three years ago.

- for batch freezing, the plastic tubs that takeaways use are wonderful for freezing individual meals, e.g. a portion of curry and rice or a portion of stew in one tub. They stack well, can be microwaved straight from the freezer, and they are slimline so don't take up too much space whether they are full or empty.

- slow cooker meals can be bland if the recipe isn't suitable for that method of cooking. There is a slow cooker thread on here with lots of references to good recipe books. It is a real joy to come home to the smell of a curry or stew just finishing up while you've been at work all day!


Once you get into a routine of batch cooking you'll love how quick and easy it is to feed yourself by reaching in to the fridge or freezer for something healthy and delicious

uk_american

sixtiesgal wrote: »

As regards the cornflakes, I am happy to continue with them, quick and easy in a morning and tasty but my friend says they are not good for you, they too are full of salt.

Check your specific box. I bought multigrain flakes (brand: rude health, was on sale at tesco recently, £2 for a 425 g box), wholegrain barley, corn & spelt with a drizzle of maple syrup and honey. I tried them because they were on sale and they have no dextrose or other chemical sounding ingredients or preservatives, and I'm trying to stick with things that are only 'normal' sounding ingredients.

As far as sodium, per serving it's listed as only a trace. So there are 'cornflake-like' options that are just fine, it depends on what you buy.

PasturesNew

I know how that feels... tonight I came in, opened the cupboards ... then had a packet of instant noodles followed by a bag of crisps

suki1964

I love toast and peanut butter for breakfast, keeps me full till late in the day

I also buy the oh so simple porridge - or similar ( b&m have a brand that's £1 a box). So simple to do and very very healthy

I shop maybe twice a week, usually late in the day to see what bargains are about, I buy fish and meat when it's reduced and if there's big packets of veg really reduced I buy that and that's my soup sorted

One bit of equipment I can't do without is my stick blender, takes up so little room and is used the most, I have one with a whisk attachment so it's used a lot

And they are dead cheap, really worth buying if you are going to cook

Tomorrow I'm going to make pizza dough, going to roll them out, pre cook and freeze the bases for when I want pizza. Toppings will be passata and what ever I have, cheese, sardines, olives chillies (all bits I always have in the house) or even bolognase

Honeythief

suki1964 wrote: »

One bit of equipment I can't do without is my stick blender, takes up so little room and is used the most, I have one with a whisk attachment so it's used a lot

And they are dead cheap, really worth buying if you are going to cook

I was just thinking yesterday about how lost I'd be without my stick blender! Making soup without it would be so much hassle. It's great being able to just put the blender into the soup pot and give it a quick whizz, and very easy to clean too.

scaredy_cat

when i was following slimming world, i'd do grilled bacon and mushrooms on toast, beans and grilled mushrooms, poached/scrambled egg and mushrooms on toast.

the mushrooms sliced in half then each half sliced into 3 or 4 and fried in fry light, only took about 10 mins.

blossomhill_2

Hi OP - do you use facebook? I have a friend who is on her own and she really enjoys taking photos of her meals and posting them, it has encouraged her to make sure they look good, are well balanced etc. At first we laughed but now we give helpful suggestions, swap recipes etc and it has given her an added interest as well as nice meals, and we are all jealous of the lovely meals she sits down to now

suki1964

One other thought, are the friends single as well?
Why not take one night a week each to cook for each other?
Or each of you batch cook a different item and take a portion for each friend for a bit of variety

lostinrates

A lot of commiseration here about the down sides of eating alone but...on the plus side...

You can eat the things you like without upseting someone who hates your favourite veg etc.

You can, as a single adult, eat a little out of balance. E.g. I often just have veg in the evening (steamed broccoli with oyster sauce for example) when my husband is home he would want a proper meal around that.

I now have a resident parent and really miss my singleton meals!