Simple healthy food plan for one

Pussinboots61

Hi, I live on my own and have done for twenty years now, I work full time, generally don't have the time or motivation to spend a lot of time cooking. I also suffer with depression and anxiety so when I have bad days I often end up just eating toast for my tea.

I used to virtually live on ready meals but I have stopped that now. I do want short cuts, don't want to chop veg and spend ages in the kitchen. I am however running out of ideas of what to eat. My basic diet is chicken and fish, I don't eat red meat in general but I do like mince.

When I'm in the mood I will batch cook and this is handy but I need to be in the mood to do it in the first place. I will make lasagne, cottage pie or bolognaise. I refuse to reheat chicken as I am paranoid about it so I will only eat chicken straight after its been cooked.

I do eat veg but its Birds Eye Steam Fresh done in the microwave or ready prepped fresh veg.

I have a slow cooker and an air fryer. I only use my oven now to do a dish for batch cooking (like lasagne).

I read things like pasta and potatoes not being good for you as they are carbs, so what are you supposed to eat? To me they seem to make a meal more filling.

Any ideas on a good but simple food plan that I won't get fed up of. My fridge and freezer is almost empty apart from some breaded chicken and fish and sausages.

Mnoee

Carbs aren't good or bad, in my opinion - like every other food group, you just need moderation. You'll find plenty of people who'll say otherwise, but they're usually selling something.

Stir fry is my classic quick and easy meal - every supermarket sells preprepared veg, you can use chicken, pork, prawns, beans (any kind except baked!) or egg for protein, you can add rice or many types of noodles, you can use a sauce from a packet, broth from a packet, a bit of soy and rice wine vinegar, or salt and chilli seasoning....

Basically the concept of 'stir fry' is massive and has so many changeable parts. You can make it cheaper by doing more prep yourself, you can make it healthier by using loads of veg and avoiding the sweet heavy sauces.

It is active cooking, but it's one pan and 15 minutes. 

itsthelittlethings

I bulk cook and freeze three of four portions in Tupperware. Curries, macaroni cheese (ok not super healthy), cottage pie, pasta sauce, whatever you like really. I have a rice cooker which saves energy on cooking rice to go with curries. Nothing wrong with the odd toast for tea. Pasta and roasted tomato pesto is very nice. Jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn and a bit of mayo if you have a microwave. Or bake in the oven at the weekend when you have more time.

Wraithlady

Batch cook a load of sausages and then freeze them - just take out what you need when you need them. 

If you don't want to reheat chicken, how are you on cold chicken? Can be used for pasta salads, salad bowls etc (especially when the weather is hot).

Lastly, couscous - 1 bowl, about 50g couscous, twice the volume of boiling water (and whatever seasonings you want to add) - put a lid on the bowl, leave for 10 minutes, drain and you have your carbs, without even needing to turn the stove on.

An honourable mention for microwave rice as well (get the supermarket own-brand, big brand packs are stupidly overpriced) - you don't even need a microwave, you can just mush it up before opening to separate the grains then add to the pan you're cooking the topping in, heat through for a minute or two and voila - one-pot dinner.

fatbelly

Ready meals are not necessarily bad. Obviously you want variety in your diet but if you're too tired to cook they can be a better option than toast.

I like the Lidl range that is branded Chef Select high protein. They are chilled but I freeze them

KxMx

I am also a single person household, I often have Bannisters Farm microwave baked potatoes, add cheese/tuna mayo/mackerel etc

They are nothing more than a baked potato +olive oil, you are getting fibre plus essential vitamins and minerals from that spud. 

Only downside is no crispy skin!

I keep a stock of eggs, rice, pasta, baked beans, tinned fish, cheese, I portion out meat and freeze.

If carbs concern you then you could always cook less pasta/rice than the packet suggests per person.

I have a rice cooker also a panini press, occasionally having one for dinner a side of raw veg. 

Imogen1

The interesting thing is that by choosing the more healthier options of foods and by this I mean varied plants based foods (basically fruit and veg) you are likely to find that you start to feel a bit better from your depression and anxiety. I throw as many plants based foods into my slow cooker as possible (I call them concoctions) and then freeze them. My freezer is full of them. I never use my oven as I always try to keep costs down. I make my concoctions as varied as I can and I eat one of these most days. The theory is that healthier your gut is then the healthier your brain and mind is. Pesonally I would avoid processed foods due to the massive amounts of ingedients in them that do your body and mind no good at all. If I were you I would have a go at healing your depression and anxiety using the types of foods that the Zoe programme recommends. They have excellent videos on YouTube. I watch them a lot. I hope you feel better soon.

bouicca21

How much  does the budget matter? I have a couple of singleton friends who don’t like cooking.  One buys M&S meals for two and has them over two days. Another lives on frozen meals he buys from Cook ( not cheap but high quality). A third buys ready prepared stir fry veg and adds whatever sauce he fancies.

PipneyJane

I second the suggestion re baked potatoes, but they’re easy to do from scratch at home.  No need to buy a brand.  Just scrub a potato which is about the size of your clenched fist, !!!!!! it with a fork and zap in the microwave for 8-10 minutes.  Then cut an X in the top, squish it and add your favourite filling.  (I zap for 8 minutes, then add a slice of cheddar and zap for a further minute.  Dinner done.) 

Alternatively, you can pre-cook baked potatoes in bulk, in the oven, and freeze them individually for later.  Preheat the oven to 200c.  Prepare as above, place on a flat baking sheet - or directly onto the oven shelve -  and bake for an hour.  If you want, smear olive oil over the potatoes’ skins before baking.  Once cooled, wrap the potatoes individually and freeze.  Zap from frozen for 5-ish minutes.

Incidentally, the healthiest and cheapest “ready meal” is tinned baked beans on a baked potato.

Imogen1 said:

The interesting thing is that by choosing the more healthier options of foods and by this I mean varied plants based foods (basically fruit and veg) you are likely to find that you start to feel a bit better from your depression and anxiety. I throw as many plants based foods into my slow cooker as possible (I call them concoctions) and then freeze them. My freezer is full of them. I never use my oven as I always try to keep costs down. I make my concoctions as varied as I can and I eat one of these most days. The theory is that healthier your gut is then the healthier your brain and mind is. Pesonally I would avoid processed foods due to the massive amounts of ingedients in them that do your body and mind no good at all. If I were you I would have a go at healing your depression and anxiety using the types of foods that the Zoe programme recommends. They have excellent videos on YouTube. I watch them a lot. I hope you feel better soon.

I agree with @Imogen1.  When you have time, make pots of dhal/Cuban black bean stew/any stew that has lots of veg, then freeze in portion sized containers. 

You don’t need a rice cooker or to use microwave rice.  Cooking white/basmati rice is simple.  Boil the kettle.  Put 1/4 cup rice per person into a saucepan, add a pinch of salt, then add twice the quantity of boiling water.  Put the lid on, boil for 2 minutes, and switch off.  Leave for 15 minutes. All the water will be absorbed and your rice is ready to serve. 

To increase the fibre and protein in your diet, instead of rice, do the above Bulgar Wheat.  It’s got 8 times the protein and 4 times the fibre of brown rice.  Use the same proportions i.e. 1 portion rice/Bulgar wheat to 2 portions boiling water.

One of the things that puts people off cooking when they’re tired is the effort needed to prepare the veg.  Virtually every recipe starts “Fry onion with garlic…”, but they’re a pain to peel.  You can get sliced or chopped frozen onions in most larger supermarkets.  To use: add straight from the freezer to your heated oil.  Just shake out from the bag an amount that looks like an onion’s worth.  Oh, and use lazy garlic.

HTH 

- Pip

joedenise

You can also do jacket potatoes in a slow cooker.  Just put in as many as will fit in and cook for 8 hours on low.  Once cooled down wrap in foil individually and freeze.  As @PipneyJane says you can then microwave them for 5 minutes to reheat them.