Hello again WeeAmy,

I occasionally use cookbooks – mainly old vegetarian ones I’ve had for years but they aren’t aimed at single serves.

I also live alone but the only single serve meals I regularly cook are omelettes, grilled meat/fish with veg or salad, or a salad bowl.

I choose meals based on what I feel like and what’s in season and I’m happy to have leftovers. I mostly still make meals that serve 3-4 but also freeze well. (eg soups, stews, curries, casseroles.) This means I have a stock of home cooked meals for when I don’t have the energy or time to cook and I find it more efficient that cooking a new single plate of food every night. This also encourages me to cook some new meals each week and also keep turning over those in the freezer. That way things in the freezer don’t get to old and I get variety each week.

For things that don’t freeze I will make one or more vegetable dishes that will keep well for 3-4 days int he fridge and then add a different protein each night so that I have variety. For example I might do a tray bake of spicy vegetables and then also cook some greens. Each night I’ll cook a piece of chicken, lamb, haloumi, eggs etc and have it with a serve of the reheated veg. Because I’m changing the protein it keeps enough variety so I don’t get bored.

I too find that serving sizes can be a big trap. If you find it hard to reduce the volume then I’d suggest increasing the amount of veg – especially those with a lower starch and sugar content. This will help you feel full but reduce the calorie content of the meal.

I hope this helps.

Hi WeeAmy,
I am another one who lives alone, and cooks for one.

It must be a huge adventure to be stocking your kitchen in a new country. I bet there are so many little things that are new and strange.

As I read your post I did think ‘hooray for 5:2’ because those two fast days give such a wonderful chance to rest and reset eating, and time to gradually get our non fast days into order.

Not knowing more about your experience and circumstances, I am going to write several things I thought of to answer your questions, so excuse anything that is obvious or patronising. I just love your question and have all sorts of things to say.

Eating well does take a lot of work these days when we are bombarded with advertising and all sorts of depictions of huge serves and food that isn’t really nutritious. The Australian Dietary Guidelines are a good resource for portion sizes, sensible guidelines, nutrition info and recipes. But I am going to link the Canadian ones, as they have been recently updated and I think they do a better job. https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

Nutrition studies the world over find the Mediterranean Diet is the best for everyday eating. Again it is guidelines rather than rules. Dr Mosley recommends this too.

You are making new eating habits for the rest of your life that are healthier, but it takes time and persistence to make new habits, and beware that under stress all the old habits come running back, and the unhealthiest foods are the easiest available. So be kind to yourself during this settling in time, and just keep plodding at getting the new habits in place.

I don’t know of any good cook books for cooking for one, I’ve looked, but never found one I loved. ChooseSuzie’s find sounds excellent though!
You will have a local library, maybe several,free to join and may well have recipe books for cooking for one, or others that might be fun to borrow and look through. But the internet may be even better help.

These are the things I have found work for me

Planning is good! Just sitting down and thinking ahead for the week makes me think about how often I will be at home, what cooking things will or won’t work, how to use up what is in the fridge etc, how to be most efficient. Twenty minutes planning can save a whole week of grief!

I usually make a few batch things and then use up the left over veggies etc in dishes for one, usually stirfries come to think of it, or mixing some fresh ingredients with something I have in the fridge, eg a meat and bean stew, and then I cook up veggies to eat with it.

LJoyce’ post above is very much true for me too. I also find the best trick is lots of vegetables.

I found looking up portion sizes was useful, but I have to work out for myself how much makes me satisfied (not as easy as I thought).

My other tricks are to avoid eating between meals, and then to have a good, satisfying, healthy meal. And also to drink lots of water.

Good luck working out what suits you.

Hi Cinque, Well on NFD you are supposed to eat normaly. The thing is what is normal? I think I’ve forgotten. I don’t know what a good balanced diet exactly is. I could quite easily eat 1400 calories of cake but I know that’s not good for you nutritionally. As she is a qualified nutritionalist and her meal plans are broken down in to protien, carbs and fat portions, with recommended portion sizes, I thought that was the best way to go. It doesn’t actually state how many calories you’re eating but with three portions of protien, two of carbs and one of fat, good quality food, it’s not over 1500 at all although I’ve not actually worked it out. Perhaps I will later after swimming.