Single people - what do you eat??

[Lonelylockdown22]

I need to lose about two stone but I find cooking for one person so hard. If you live on your own what do you eat most of the time? And what do you take to work?

Oh my god i have been thinking how easy it would be to slim down living alone! You could have no food but meal replacements or no carbs whatsoever or junk in the house, no booze or bread to tempt you. You are in full control!

Honestly I think it's harder because there's no one to judge you!

You are making me think back to uni days when I made a lasagne and ate it for 4 days running!

I would suggest buying some of those little individual casserole dishes (we bought some pate in one at Christmas so use that!) and making 4 stews, fish pies, lasagne, cottage pies etc in them. You can then chuck them in the freezer and take them out when needed.

Bag up individual sausages. Put soup in pots. Bolognese in pots.

Batch cooking for one!

When I properly learned how to cook, I was at uni. It was excellent. I’d make a meal and spend a week eating it.

When I was single I had 2 eggs for breakfast, salad for lunch and convent garden soup for supper - My DH never eats eggs, soup or salad.

What is convent garden soup?

Pretty normal food I think. I don't cook roasts but that's about it. I batch cook and freeze

Lunches
Sandwiches/wraps/bagels with anything and everything
Salads - cous cous, feta, cucumber, tomatoes etc or chicken Caesar
Left overs

Tea
Cottage pie
Stir fry
Beef stew with veg
Omelettes
Salads
Soup

Eggs on toast
Marmite on toast
Peanut butter on toast
Cheese on toast...
Small lamb shank cooked with tomatoes garlic chilli etc....served with rice.
Salad.
Tbh after a lamb shank day I live on toast for several days after....
Boil in bag fish in sauce.
Apples.

i recommend fasting e.g. all day fasting then just one meal a day but a really nice one. Great for losing weight and for finding cooking time. because you have to cook just once you have more time to make it nice. Make a batch of hummus and it can last a few days, as a side dish. a big salad to last a couple of days. a main course and freeze small portions for other days. make some bean burgers and you can freeze the remaining ones and cook when you need them. Because you have more time to make food, you cook less often and you spend more time making food you actually like!

Yes homemade hummus is brilliant.
And home made pizza...

I tend to batch cook and portion up dinners, and then cereal. I started intermittent fasting and that is helping too.

I used to have frozen salmon fillets, salad and potato salad a lot.

I found the best way to lose weight was two starvation days and give normal days. You still need to eat on starvation days just not much.
I lost loads of weight mind you I also got an overactive thyroid so not sure if was the diet or the illness tbh.

I've lived alone for the last year.... I try and avoid carbs, because that works for me

So I try and have my main meal each day made of veg and protein plus flavours that I love... it helps that I really like this sort of food and feel that I have made something 'special' for me, (rather than grazing on cheese and Twiglets). You'd need to adapt it to suit your tastes, but it feeling special and like a proper meal has been key for me.

These are my simplest things, ingredients pretty much all available from Lidl:
All in one pan with a glug of olive oil
-Salmon (either a fresh fillet, or a hot smoked one) with asparagus (i.e stick the asparagus in the same pan as the salmon once the salmon is well underway) and some mayonnaise to dip it in
-Venison steak with garlicky mushrooms
-Halloumi and tomatoes
-Chicken sprinkled with sumac with broadbeans (frozen) and yoghurt with more sumac to dip it in
-Lamb leg steak/chop/cutlet with (uncooked) watercress and tzatsiki
-Big bowl of broccoli with toasted sesame seeds and a sprinkle of sesame oil at the end.. with or without protein
-Turkey meat balls and cavolo nero or any cabbage/spring greens with teriyaki sauce from a bottle and a slug of fish sauce/white rice vinegar/ lemon juice, whatever you have

I vary this with occasional batch cooking for the freezer and then defrost in the microwave before sticking in a pan to heat properly
-Dhall with cauliflower (and sometimes chicken), I have this with garlicky spinach which I also freeze (and rice when the low-carb is weak)
-Hot and Sour soup - especially good when you crave comfort, but want to remain virtuous
-pretty much any tomato based curry - I like rice so I ignore the low carb effort for this

• any sort of soup that you like, even in the Summer it can fill that 'I'm hungry and it's nearly bedtime' gap

Obviously I am no perfectionist... but this works when I am feeling determined and not living on Toast and Marmite...

Five normal days

I will make a roast chicken, potatoes, veg and use the leftovers creatively over a few days - fajitas, stir fry, curries. I will make potato salad or chop up the leftover potatoes to fry with salmon, sea bass, cooked breakfast. Add roast veg to a large pasta bake etc.

I make soup and freeze in takeway containers.

Aubergine bolognaise is a favourite and portions freeze well - just cook fresh pasta.

Lots of salads with avocado, nuts, parma ham, halloumi, croutons from bread about to be chucked, leftover salmon, chicken, steak etc (not all together!) - lots of leftovers can go quite well in a salad, especially if you make a nice dressing - honey and mustard my favourite. There are probably quite good for losing weight as not much carbs.

Lot of this stuff is easy to take into work in microwavable containers- salads, soups, reheatable pasta and stiry fries. Sometimes I take leftover roast meat, potatoes, veg, chopped into bite size pieces and sprinked with gravy granules on top - i add a dash of water before microwaving and stir it a couple of times during heating - delicious! But probably quite fatty!

I know the food I make is quite high fat and often high sugar but I just have smaller portions.

Oh suggestionsplease, I roast a chicken sometimes, spatchcocked so the whole skin is crispy and it is worth it just for that! If I have the oven on I roast peppers and onions in greater quantities than immediately needed, they freeze brilliantly, I also roast whole baking trays full of garlic and freeze in wee blocks... both of the latter make for delicious additions to stir fries almost everything!

I like cooking so if I lived alone I'd cook for 2/4 and freeze the leftovers.

Different flavoured Seasoned chicken breasts.
Sweet Chili prawn stir fry,
Teriyaki chicken with rice and pac Choi.
Couscous is so easy to make,
Oh and can't forget the odd pot noodle 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

Oh and if you have the need for salty, tasty, crunchy, crispy sorts of snacks, then roast chickpeas (there are a thousand recipes on line, with all sorts of flavours) do the job brilliantly. They might not be low-carb, but are so good for you and so much more virtuous than Pringles!

I would honestly get ready meals and then I know exactly how many calories are in them. You can get healthy ones otherwise there is too much sugar

Maddy68 I guess it depends on whether you like cooking, and if Lonelylockdown22 lives up to her user name, then I think she might need something to feel good about... if you have a full and active social life then your approach could work... if you are lonely and bored, then maybe thinking about making something lovely and exactly to your taste might keep a person from 'bored snacking'

phonelock
www.newcoventgardensoup.com/#

I have a very old Delia Smith book called "One is Fun". It has some great recipes for the solo cook. If I was alone now I would live off salad or roast veg with chicken or fish. In the winter I'd eat stew and casseroles and give up trying to diet.

Oh covent garden soup, thought it was going to be some wholesome organic stuff from the local nunnery.