Cooking for one

 

Yesterday my cousin Ruth came for lunch.  Pork, apple sauce, new potatoes, ratatouille, peas, cauliflower cheese, roast parsnips.  She's struggling a bit at the moment as her husband has Alzheimer's disease and has recently moved into a care home.  This is devastating for Ruth, as I am sure you can imagine.  Quite apart from her grief for her husband's condition, she is now struggling with living alone for the first time in her life.  

One of the hardest things for her is learning how to cook for one.  Actually, many of my friends have had the same difficulty.  There is less motivation to cook a proper meal, it's difficult to buy suitable small quantities, a meal is no longer an occasion to be shared with someone special.

So, yesterday we shared Sunday lunch and she said it was the best meal she'd had in ages and we talked about how to improve her own food routines.  She noticed I have a meal plan on the fridge door.  I explained that I have to plan how to use things which are not available in small enough packs.  Sometimes they can be frozen but sometimes I need to plan when to eat them.  

She rather enjoyed the ratatouille which I served, so I talked to her about bulk cooking and freezing.  I mentioned the range of soups lurking in my freezer

She loves cauli cheese so I showed her the bag of frozen cauli coated in cheese sauce from which I had taken a small quantity, plonked it in a dish, covered with grated cheddar and bunged in the oven with the pork.  No way would I prep cauli cheese for one, but this way I can cook just as much as I need.

She was impressed by the home cooked parsnips so I mentioned bulk preparation so they can just tossed in oil and cooked in the oven or air fryer but they can also be bought ready prepped.  I mentioned the huge variety of commercially frozen vegetables which could improve her diet.

And I suggested she use a proper butcher so she can get just as much meat as she needs rather than rely on the supermarket.

We talked everything through over some fresh fruit salad which she agreed which much more interesting than a a banana or yoghurt, and proper coffee for which I showed her a small cafetiere although I used a big one. And she has decided she will invite me to go for a meal.

Cooking for one has always been the usual thing for me.  What other tips and wrinkled would you add to my list?