Any single people eating healthy?
fastfoodietofitcutie
Posts: 522 Member
Do you cook every day? I’m finding it really difficult to come up with dinner ideas. I wind up eating out most of the time. I really don’t enjoy cooking and kind of find it depressing to make a meal for one.
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Replies
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Could you do bulk cooking? When I was single I'd mostly cook on like a Sunday and make enough for several meals and reheat.8
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I'm married now but last time I lost weight I was single. I basically never ate out unless it was for a special event (so much cheaper and healthier to eat my own cooking). Lots of cooking in bulk and eating leftovers. I actually think it's easier unless you have a partner who will cook for you and is prepared to track calories etc. You only have yourself to please.
Random aside. I never liked cooking until I became vegetarian. That forced me to get more creative (before then basically every meal just revolved around meat). No need to become vegetarian unless you want to but perhaps branch out into some more interesting meals.6 -
For sure. I do meal prep every Sunday. That way all you have to do for packing your lunch and cooking dinner is portion stuff out. Just make stuff you like and rotate, and you won't get tired of it.2
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Stock up on pasta, rice and couscous. Then cook in bulk, eat one portion and freeze the rest in containers or bags, until you have some variety to choose from. I cook pasta or potatoes as needed, but much of what I'm eating comes out of the freezer and just needs to be reheated either in the oven or the microwave.
Pre-Covid, I'd eat out at least twice a week. However, when lockdown started, I did a proper inventory of what was in my two freezers. Lots of bolognese, chilli con carne, lamb tagine, different curries, stirfries, fish pie, shepherd's pie, pasta bakes, stews, lentil raghu - all in portion-sized bags or containers - as well as chicken breasts, joints of meat, pork loin steaks, lamb leg steaks, salmon fillets, cod fillets, prawns, packs of minced beef and minced lamb. I also cook rice in bulk and had multiple portions of that too. I decided that it would be a good idea to start eating what I have. Almost four months later, I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking about what I'd like to restock my freezers with. I've roasted two of the joints (several sliced up portions went back in the freezer in bags), have made things with some of the ingredients and I've bought fresh veg and potatoes, but I haven't bought any meat or fish since March and I haven't eaten the same meal in any two week period.1 -
I work 24 hour shifts 1-4 days at a time then I'm home for full days on my off time. I plan the menu for the week on Wednesday, check my pantry and figure out what I'll have left, then I update and tweak on Saturday.
I base my meals based on my work schedule, off days I try to cook and make stuff I like each day. Then my work days are pretty simple: oatmeal, yogurt and fruit, sandwiches, and prepped leftovers. I shop on my way home from work usually on mondays or use a curbside pickup if I'm by a grocery store that offer it. I feel having a fixed plan and only buying what's on the menu helps keep me focused.
For recipe ideas/meal planning/calorie allocation; I use a meal plan generator it gives some really good recipe ideas... and some not so good ones lol, but it's easy enough to put your own recipes in or swap whatever foods you like. I use one called eat this much but there's a bunch out there. It has a mobile app but for the bulk of my planning day I use my computer the websites a little more friendly.3 -
About every 2-3 months, I spend an entire weekend cooking. I wrap up individual servings of what I make and freeze them. Then all I have to do is pull something out the freezer and heat it up to have a single serving, home cooked meal.3
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I very rarely eat out, I always bring a packed lunch to work when we’re not WFH and will only go out for a meal for special occasions.
Like others have said I tend to bulk cook. I don’t meal prep a whole week but any recipe I make I always do the full 4-5 servings and eat for the next few days. For food I’m reheating in my own home I’ll make fresh pasta/rice whatever.
I have different recipes for lunch and dinner but don’t mind eating the same thing for a few days. YMMV - I also eat the same breakfast every day.2 -
I usually cook for two days, occasionally for more and a few portions go into the freezer. Sometimes I cook for one day only but that's rare. Well, it's more that freshly cooked tastes better in some cases, thus it's still two days the same. My cooking usually doesn't take longer than 30 minutes, thus it's not a lot of time spent in the kitchen.3
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Eating healthier than before, not necessarily healthy. Getting there. I used to eat out all the time too - lockdown forced me to start cooking again. I don't enjoy cooking, I just enjoy eating, but it turns out I enjoy eating my own cooking, so I'm compromising with myself.
The freezer always has things in it I can heat up for when I really can't bear to cook, and I try to make something real a couple of times a week too.
If I make a healthy meal from scratch, I work with a four-day calorie allowance, then portion it and freeze three portions. It only really works because I like what I've made. My advice is to think of something you actually really want to eat, the look at a way of making it in a healthier way, and cook at least two portions' worth of it.
Pasta and soup freeze well and can be made in bulk easily. Soup can be exceedingly healthy (just keep an eye on the extra salt from certain stock) and pasta again can be healthy (watch your portion sizes, especially if using meat).
Another tip is to learn to love eggs, assuming that's something you can eat. They're the original fast food for the lazy/reluctant cook. There's nothing quicker, easier or more adaptable than scrambled eggs.2 -
I'm single, and yes I do cook for myself most days (sometimes I cook twice the amount on purpose so that I can have leftovers for the following day). I eat out once a week, at most.
I find it much easier to cook just for myself than if I had to cook for others and attend to their likes and dislikes. This way, I cook what I want, how I want, and when I want. Besides, I believe I'm worthy of cooking for myself.
OP, there is nothing wrong with cooking simple food that you may enjoy. If you don't like cooking, don't make it more difficult than it needs to be. It doesn't have to be something time-consuming or "Instagramable".3 -
I find it is easier to stay in shape when single. In Relationships, men tempt me with treats and like to eat richer foods.3
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It varies for me, I usually make a batch of beans/legumes for my lunch salads in the Instant Pot and make salads each day and add them to it. Meals I usually make double servings. I try to do one new recipe a week, aside of that I do pretty easy stuff. Tonight I mixed soy sauce and honey Dijon mustard and brushed on salmon with herbs, then tossed potatoes and zucchini in the air fryer. If I have company I'll make something more complicated, otherwise it's pretty easy stuff. Last night was a tofu veggie scramble with potatoes (my farmer's market box has 10 potatoes in it a week, I love veggies but all these potatoes is nuts as a single person!).0
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I never cook anymore. I get all of my groceries from Trader Joe's, where I can buy a huge variety of things I just need to pop in the oven or maybe just throw a few things together. Discovering that store was a huge lifesaver for me. Honestly I don't know that I would have stuck to my weight loss goals this long without it.
I know how to cook and I'm decent at it, but I always felt it was a waste of time as a single person- often spending an hour plus, and then cleanup, only to be done eating in 10-15 minutes. I often really liked what I made the first night I had it, but I hate leftovers. Nothing ever tastes the same the next day, and since it's just me if I made a "regular sized" recipe, it wasn't uncommon to end up with 6 servings of something. I definitely don't want to eat something 6 meals in a row! Freezing didn't work too well for me either. My food seemed to get freezer burn quickly and even if didn't, again the food just didn't taste the same reheated.
With my Trader Joe's stuff I rarely end up with more than 2 servings of something. I enjoy everything I eat, I easily find things to fit into my calorie day, and I don't waste my time cooking and cleaning up cooking messes. It's also helped me cut way down on take out, since I know I can have something ready to eat pretty quickly after getting home from work, and I can't make excuses about getting take out because I'm too tired to cook.
With the whole pandemic thing I wondered if I should try cooking again just for something to do, but I've found even with tons of extra time available I still don't want to spend my time on cooking
. And I really like what I'm eating now and doing a good job of sticking to my calorie goal, so why mess with it? 2 -
thelastnightingale wrote: »Pasta and soup freeze well and can be made in bulk easily. Soup can be exceedingly healthy (just keep an eye on the extra salt from certain stock) and pasta again can be healthy (watch your portion sizes, especially if using meat).
Another tip is to learn to love eggs, assuming that's something you can eat. They're the original fast food for the lazy/reluctant cook. There's nothing quicker, easier or more adaptable than scrambled eggs.
I second the suggestion of soup! During fall winter I eat homemade soup for dinner almost every day. My favourite is Thai butternut squash which is easy to cook, low kcal and crazy full of vitamins.
The immersion blender is my best friend since I don’t really like bits in my soup. On the other hand I love a topping like fried veggies, seeds or perhaps an egg.
My go-to egg options are either boiled (usually on an avocado-rye sandwich) or as an omelette using whatever veg is available. Both are good when I need quick evening meal.1 -
swimmchick87 wrote: »I never cook anymore. I get all of my groceries from Trader Joe's, where I can buy a huge variety of things I just need to pop in the oven or maybe just throw a few things together. Discovering that store was a huge lifesaver for me. Honestly I don't know that I would have stuck to my weight loss goals this long without it.
I know how to cook and I'm decent at it, but I always felt it was a waste of time as a single person- often spending an hour plus, and then cleanup, only to be done eating in 10-15 minutes. I often really liked what I made the first night I had it, but I hate leftovers. Nothing ever tastes the same the next day, and since it's just me if I made a "regular sized" recipe, it wasn't uncommon to end up with 6 servings of something. I definitely don't want to eat something 6 meals in a row! Freezing didn't work too well for me either. My food seemed to get freezer burn quickly and even if didn't, again the food just didn't taste the same reheated.
With my Trader Joe's stuff I rarely end up with more than 2 servings of something. I enjoy everything I eat, I easily find things to fit into my calorie day, and I don't waste my time cooking and cleaning up cooking messes. It's also helped me cut way down on take out, since I know I can have something ready to eat pretty quickly after getting home from work, and I can't make excuses about getting take out because I'm too tired to cook.
With the whole pandemic thing I wondered if I should try cooking again just for something to do, but I've found even with tons of extra time available I still don't want to spend my time on cooking . And I really like what I'm eating now and doing a good job of sticking to my calorie goal, so why mess with it?
This is exactly how I feel! I haven’t been to Trader Joe’s in a long time, what’s good there?0 -
Generally speaking I eat healthy. I cook meals every few days, eating leftovers when I don't want to cook or I bring them to work. I don't mind cooking. I hate cleaning, especially dishes, so I see no reason to dirty a ton of dishes every day. It's no harder to make 4 servings if something than 1.0
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Healthy is debatable since I do like my drinks, especially now that it's summer and I'm on vacation.
I cook twice a week, once in the weekend and one weekday depending on my work schedule, make three days worth of dinner at a time leaving me with one "free" day to go out or cook something special (or order takeout if I'm feeling lazy and antisocial).
Sandwiches (at work) or a few eggs with bread (at home) are fine for lunch and take ~5 minutes to prepare.1 -
swimmchick87 wrote: »I never cook anymore. I get all of my groceries from Trader Joe's, where I can buy a huge variety of things I just need to pop in the oven or maybe just throw a few things together. Discovering that store was a huge lifesaver for me. Honestly I don't know that I would have stuck to my weight loss goals this long without it.
I know how to cook and I'm decent at it, but I always felt it was a waste of time as a single person- often spending an hour plus, and then cleanup, only to be done eating in 10-15 minutes. I often really liked what I made the first night I had it, but I hate leftovers. Nothing ever tastes the same the next day, and since it's just me if I made a "regular sized" recipe, it wasn't uncommon to end up with 6 servings of something. I definitely don't want to eat something 6 meals in a row! Freezing didn't work too well for me either. My food seemed to get freezer burn quickly and even if didn't, again the food just didn't taste the same reheated.
With my Trader Joe's stuff I rarely end up with more than 2 servings of something. I enjoy everything I eat, I easily find things to fit into my calorie day, and I don't waste my time cooking and cleaning up cooking messes. It's also helped me cut way down on take out, since I know I can have something ready to eat pretty quickly after getting home from work, and I can't make excuses about getting take out because I'm too tired to cook.
With the whole pandemic thing I wondered if I should try cooking again just for something to do, but I've found even with tons of extra time available I still don't want to spend my time on cooking . And I really like what I'm eating now and doing a good job of sticking to my calorie goal, so why mess with it?
Isn't this massively expensive? Just curious as my dinners hardly ever cost more than 1.50 Euro. Cooking... today it took I don't even know how long. Peeled a big potato, cut into pieces, cooked, put half French smoked sausage into another pan, and did something else in the meantime. When nearly done I drained the water, smashed potatoes and added milk, sauerkraut and raisins. Put sausage on plate, mash into pan for a short moment, served. So I guess effective cooking was not even 10 minutes. Dishes go into dishwasher, which I'll put on when full.1 -
just_Tomek wrote: »Single people cooking and eating at home??? WTF?? Whats next?
🤣
Define healthy?🤔0 -
I cook for myself as a single person. Usually I keep it pretty simple. Eggs, salads, tacos, or sandwiches, or something similar that requires mostly assembling rather than cooking. I'll usually eat the same thing for dinner for a week, then change it up. Eating out is too expensive for me, and it's harder for me to control what's in the food. I can usually enjoy a similar food at home for less calories.1
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