If you live alone, do you bother to cook/eat properly?

[Saxalt]

And if so, can I ask what sort of meals you cook?

For the first time in 30 years I've started living on my own this year. I'm struggling to bother cooking properly - even easy stuff. I'd quite happily live off sandwiches or cereal or whatever my current obsession is (at the minute, pistachios and frozen Greek yogurt). But there comes a time (sadly) when you have to be sensible ...

Also, and I don't know how to explain this properly, but I don't feel like I live in the house or use it in the same way as I did when I had family living with me. Things like I won't bother lighting a candle because it's "only me", or putting the tv on because it's "only me". One of my dc came to stay recently and it struck me how he used the house as a home much more than I ever do.

I know I haven't explained that very well or articulated what I mean, but I don't know how to express it!

I understand. I eat cereal.

pre-prepped stir fry is the best I can do

I get ya. My relationship finished after 25 year. My DD left and had own family. I was a bit meh at cooking for myself initially.... I was a big cook too...and baker..so i had to plan really because i hate food waste...so id cook batch pastry..do couple quiches for example...cut in portions and freeze. Same with chilli, bolognese sauce etc. freezer is your friend. Batch cook and freeze.
But i still have bowl porridge or beans on toast at times ..or a week where its very quick n simple food.

I know what you mean too.. candles etc..im a candle junkie... but thought it a waste to burn without others being there, but now i think differently... I have my meal, a bath or shower, put lamp on, get in pyjamas, light a candle and read a book or watch a film... because we deserve to enjoy too..we have catered for everyone's comfort in the past and find it difficult to do us...but you need to xx

Thank you for the understanding, and Loubelle I'm sorry about your relationship ending.

I know how to cook - I just can't be bothered. I think I'm all cooked out after years of doing it, and now that it's just me, it's almost like I'm not worth it 🤷‍♀️.

Oh I cross posted with your last message Loubelle! You're so right about us deserving to enjoy too - I just need to get into a different headspace.

You are worth it , cook something nice🤗

I would stock up on healthy ready meals and as it's just you if you've got a bit of extra cash nice gain salads from M&S, some sliced meat to go with it etc.

Yip me!

I don’t really enjoy cooking anyway, doesn’t inspire me at all. (I’m more of a baker)
But just don’t see the point in cooking for one, it’s not worth the effort. I’m feeling really down and trying to work through some stuff at the moment so I’m worse than normal.

I live alone, I batch cook so I can eat a meal and stick the rest in the freezer.

it's a lot different from cooking for a family, but you can eat what you like, when you like without worrying about some one else.

It's quite liberating, give it a try.

Widowed 3 years ago. I eat 'properly' - every single meal. My idea of a cheat meal would be lunch today - some cream crackers (gasp) with peanut butter and marmite (not on the same cracker...) with a dish of home grown cucumber, tomatoes and carrot sticks on the side.

Doesn't mean a lot of effort - I can get a healthy home prepared meal on the table in minutes if I want to .

Sounds weird but after 20+ happy years of living with somebody else, I just love not having to discuss/negotiate what I'm doing/eating/etc. with anyone else. It's a freedom I never expected to feel during my wife's illness.

Yep i was like that too but i had to make effort tbh .im a foodie and it is part of me and when i didn't i felt a bit lost, nm feeling really unhealthy with quick food choices so i forced myself to cook in batches, I enjoyed it ... No one in and out kitchen, hovering over what im doing lol ..so i put radio on in kitchen and cook meals for freezer. Xxx

Sometimes I feel like I live on toast. 🙄

This is exactly how I feel - just don't see the point. I don't have a very big appetite (unless chocolate is involved - then I guarantee I could out-eat anyone!) and food doesn't really interest me. But I'm getting older so need to be sensible. I'm sorry you're going through a bad time - if we can help, please feel free to tell us? If not, I hope things improve for you.

I'm sorry for your loss :(. I'm widowed too but 7 years ago now. I want to be like you, you sound very sorted!

I'm widowed, and once the kids left home, I found cooking completely unrewarding.

I eat a lot better than I did in the early days, but I use a lot of semi prepared stuff (think Waitrose or Tesco easy cook stuff, or yellow labeled Finest meals) and just stick veg in my steamer pans.

When I have people round, I enjoy cooking more intricate or time consuming stuff, but when it's just me, by the time I've made things like that, I've lost interest and my appetite.

I just eat salads and stifrys and throw different things in

Nope I’m terrible when I’m in my own. Going through a shit time with partner (sort of partner who knows) when he’s not about I buy food and don’t cook it I have zero motivation. The other day I had a small tin of spaghetti hoops and some slices of bacon 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ partial to a cheese sandwich for my tea, which is a bit of a running joke with him as used to always eat that when he was away with work. Pot noodles which I don’t particularly like. Zero veggies honestly i know it’s not good but I’m just not in the headspace to think about food

I live alone and don't really like cooking. I've been through long phases of just eating toast and hummus, or porridge, or snacking cheese at the fridge. It didn't do my health much good.

Now I do cook, but it's something that takes no more than 15 minutes and I make enough for 2 days. I fry steak or chicken, and put some mushrooms and peppers in the same frying pan, and boil something like broccoli. I might add a pack of that ready cooked rice, or some potatoes.

I usually skip either lunch or dinner and have a smoothie with avocado, spinach, kefir flax and fruit, which takes about 3 minutes to make. Snack on fruit, nuts and dark chocolate.

One of the pleasures of living alone (to me) is not having to cook if I don’t feel like it. However … experience tells me that this can lead to some poor food choices, crackers and cream cheese is fine (and delicious!) occasionally but not great if you eat it five nights a week.

So yes, I meal plan, try to cook once and eat twice, and buy good quality ingredients. I make my own muffins for quick breakfasts, freeze pizza dough for future meals etc. Tonight I grated about half a bag of carrots, had some as homemade coleslaw and the rest will go in salads for the next few days.

I much prefer cooking for others, and sometimes I motivate myself by thinking ‘would I serve this to a guest?’

The key is that you ARE worth it! Light those candles, defrost the smoked salmon, treat yourself as you’d treat a visitor!

This will be me in a couple of months time after 40 years of thinking of others. I'm thinking of maybe getting a couple of HF or Gusto parcels for at least 3 meals a week, maybe a couple of ready meals and add microwave veg bags to it, then a couple of lazy beans on toast type days.

I'm hoping by doing that I will still be eating reasonably healthily.

This will be me soon too. Both DDs will be at uni and I'm kind of separated I have never really enjoyed cooking but always have and made sure we all ate well.

But my kind of 'meal' is currently chopping up some veg and stir frying some prawns and having some toast with it!

As a pp said, it's quite liberating.

When DH died I had a few weeks of eating total crap, but soon got sick of that.
Now I eat simply, but well, I think.
I will happily make a steak and salad, risotto, curry, chilli, jacket spud with numerous different fillings.
I dont eat the same as a single person, I do eat what and when I fancy though.
I'm campervanning at the moment and just had an omelette. It's lovely to just have yourself to think of when preparing food.

Unfortunately I don't.
I mainly eat ready meals, noodles, and random crisps/cheese.
I'm actually a great cook, I just don't cook for myself.

Yes this!

Totally liberating not to have to cater to anyone else's tastes- I've become much more adventurous- yes I had to get a freezer as it makes sense to batch cook/ bake - but it means there's always a selection of tasty meals and treats which I can pop in the microwave if I don't fancy making anything.

The irony is the adult dc raid the fridge when they come and often end up with a bag full of goodies to take home. Now that they have more adult tastes we actually like the same kind of foods.

I love food. Some people don't, and they're entitled to eat whatever is nutritious in whatever form pleases them.

The pleasing is the important factor, though! Because I love food, I've always cooked properly for myself whether single or attached. XH2 would've been perfectly happy with a kebab or pizza every night, but I made him share my dinners.

This evening I made myself roast duck breasts with peppers, tomatoes and potatoes in a vaguely oriental-style orange and ginger sauce, with fresh salad. It turned out really well!