Cooking for One: Surviving Solo in the Kitchen

Turn Cooking for One into a Joy

May 8, 2007 Julie Burtinshaw

Many people find cooking a meal for one is more intimidating than creating a meal for a large crowd, but in reality, cooking for one can be a pleasure.

There are numerous reasons why people end up cooking only for themselves. Whether by choice or by chance, most of us, at some point in our lives, will have to learn to cook and to enjoy solo meals.

Create Yummy Menus for One

So, empty-nesters, university students, travellers or just plain introverts, along with anyone else who finds themselves in this position; don't panic. Instead, learn how to shop and how to create fabulous menus for one.

The first and most important step to a lifetime of pleasure in the solo-kitchen is to begin to think of cooking for one as a privilege and a delight, rather than as a chore to be faced at the end of the day. Once, not so long ago, recipes for one person where difficult to find. Singles had to adjust the portions of ingredients in favourite recipes to suit their individual needs – often resulting in frustration and cuisine disasters.

Use the Internet for Meal Planning

With the advent of the Internet and thousands upon thousands of sites dedicated to a cornucopia of recipes from around the world, catering to both the largest and smallest number of diners, finding recipe for the solo diner is not longer a hurdle. To get started just Google "cooking for one."

Cookbook stores have also realized that cooking for one is no longer a rarity. Instead of searching for menu ideas in the cookbooks that once belonged to your mother, grandmother and aunts, consider cleaning out you bookshelf and purchasing some more updated books that suit the solo cook's lifestyle and needs.

If cooking for one is new to you, shopping for one is probably a bit overwhelming. It's easy to buy too much or too little of what is needed and either way, the results are frustrating. In order to overcome this problem, chose you meal in advance and then take a list of the required ingredients, including amounts to the grocery store with you. Eventually, this step will no longer be necessary as you become more and more familiar with the skill of cooking for one.

Try this healthy, quick and flavorfull snack, the next time you find yourself eating solo:

Bruschetta

• Half a baguette sliced into rounds
• Two small gloves garlic or one large clove diced
• four sprigs of fresh parsley chopped
• One quarter red onion diced
• 1 large or two small tomatoes cut to bite-sized pieces
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil

Lightly toast bread and set aside to cool.

In a bowl, mix together garlic, parsley, onion and tomatoes.

Mix 1/4 cup olive oil with 1tsp balsamic vinegar and pour over other ingredients -- let sit for an hour.

Remove from fridge and spoon over the toasted bread rounds. Enjoy this snack with a glass of your favourite white wine. There won't be any leftovers – it's that good and if you are still hungry, bruchetta is wonderful when eaten with a grilled cheese sandwich or a bowl of soup.

Read Cooking and Hosting a Christmas Dinner for Two

The copyright of the article Cooking for One: Surviving Solo in the Kitchen in Recipes is owned by Julie Burtinshaw. Permission to republish Cooking for One: Surviving Solo in the Kitchen in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

The Joy of Eating for One

Comments

Apr 27, 2008 5:52 PM

Guest :

Cooking for one is new to me. I got a lot of encouragement from the above. I hated cooking and found it a chore. Upon reading this article, I have decided to change my mind and take the first and most important step in cooking, to see it as a priviledge and a delight vs a chore. I used to look in my mother's cookbooks and got discouraged because I don't have a family, wondering what I could do to be able to eat like that.

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