How to Shop, Cook and Eat Healthy Foods for One

Individuals working alone face unique nutritional challenges beyond a lack of culinary skills. Cooking and eating alone isn’t all that fun, and there are very few food items in packs. The trick is to get the urge to cook once a week so you can enjoy healthy meals for the next few days.

Since I have to cook for myself, I try to be efficient and spend as little time as possible preparing food , but still have ready meals. The emphasis on efficiency helps to overcome these feelings at night, when I have very little motivation to cook or do anything other than vegetarianism on the couch.

Even cooking once a week seems like a hassle at first. But cooking for a few days in one fell swoop removes many of the obstacles that keep you from eating healthy – time constraints, low energy at the end of the day, 2-to-1 margarita emergencies, and so on. In addition, preparation can help you optimize and maintain good eating habits and help reduce the number of hunger-related decisions during your trip.

Your individual attack plan

Cooking food for a human is not difficult , but it is definitely a skill . You will need to learn how to handle a spatula, cut into cubes without spilling blood, and be able to juggle enough food to keep things from going bad . Here are a few things you should do:

• Plan your meals: know what foods you will eat and gradually increase the number of ready-made recipes. If you’re unsure of where to start, check out these 10+ Meals Everyone Should (at least ultimately ) be able to cook .
• Shop once a week: or twice if you like, instead of shopping every day. Yes, this maneuver can save you time, but it also reduces the likelihood of you picking up your bag of chips for no reason. or pretty much anything you don’t need or can’t finish this week. This is why planning ahead of time is step one.
• Cook in bulk : If I had a highlighter, this part would be bright neon yellow. Bulk cooking saves you time and best of all, turns recipes for a family of 4 into meals for the rest of the week. You really need to set aside a couple of hours once or twice a week (whatever you have the time and energy for) to complete this part. You can always adjust the “bulk” amount accordingly (personally, I rarely cook food for more than a few days, just to have a little variety).
• Stock up on the right kitchen equipment: The right equipment makes cooking and cooking much more efficient and effective. It’s like having a Batman belt in the kitchen: comfortable and cool. But if you don’t have one or many of them, don’t worry. We’ll cover the details shortly.
• Store food for later: Cooking for one means you have a lot of food that you can put in plastic food storage containers and distribute to meals throughout the week.

It is clear that this is a process. Planning your recipes and purchases ahead of time are the most important parts of this plan, and they will go a long way.

Build Your Food Around Foods You Don’t Hate

One of the benefits of living alone is that you don’t have to please the other person’s preferences. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to steal a selection of less-stellar food as no one is looking anyway. When creating healthier foods, include foods that you enjoy and will eat. The healthiest food in the world means squats if you give up after a week. Know your own food preferences and then design healthier meals with them in mind:

• Make sure your diet is balanced: In general, a “balanced diet” means that you are not excluding whole food groups or micronutrients, and you are trying to include a little bit of everything (protein, carbohydrates and fats). You don’t have to love everything you eat, but sometimes there are foods that you know are good for you and that offer something that you usually don’t get in your diet is a nice touch.
• Avoid dichotomous thinking : Don’t label foods as good or bad. Fitness coach Benjamin Tormi advises: “Don’t get hung up on small details taken in isolation. Instead of giving up food, try to exclude from your surroundings what makes you make the wrong food choices. “
• Feel Full and Satisfied with Eating: Portion control is a great concept, but it’s a flawed concept. Sometimes small servings of something (like half a donut instead of a whole) are like the fart in your metabolic hurricane. In addition, you may have a tendency to eat these “small amounts” all the time throughout the day. Include bulky foods like leafy and fibrous vegetables and berries in your diet, just to name a few, that can help fill your stomach without accumulating extra calories.

Let’s put together a sample shopping guide from products you already gravitate towards. These are foods that you can eat almost every day without getting sick with them . Some examples:

• Carbohydrates : Rice, beans, lentils, tortillas, potatoes, pasta, noodles, bread, oats, fruits, and non-leafy green vegetables.
• Proteins : Eggs, protein powder, beef, chicken, fish, tempeh, tofu, beans, lamb, bison, turkey.
• Fats : Vegetable oils, nuts, whole or low-fat dairy products, egg yolks, fatty chunks of protein, avocados.

Start by choosing two or three dishes from each category for each meal — the simpler the better. These foods will become your staples to build your meals around. For example, for breakfast I usually eat oats , eggs, dairy products, and protein powder (to be mixed with oatmeal) . For most lunches and dinners, I base most of my meals on rice with some protein and vegetables added.

In other words, I basically mix one carbohydrate with protein (or two) and fat. Meals can be more varied and mixed if you can prepare foods as separate ingredients rather than mixing them in a complex dish (such as chicken and lemon or lasagna).

When it’s time to shop, it’s a good idea to buy dried foods (like rice, oats, pasta, beans, spices) in bulk, but only buy the protein and foods you need. Frozen vegetables, fruits, and meats are great options, so you don’t have to constantly worry about eating them before they go bad.

For many healthy and satisfying recipes, check out FitMenCook , The Protein Chef , this great collection of recipes for one, and Epicurean Bodybuilder . Pick a few that include your paper clips and keep them as simple as possible. Of course, you are not limited to just these products forever; this is just a starting point for simplification at first.

Once you get the hang of it, you begin to understand what will work and what won’t. The crux of it all is to have recipes that you can rely on in most of your weekly meals, and save more time consuming and generous recipes when you want to try something new or for special occasions. The more you improve, the more creative you get with the same ingredients.

Cook in bulk and use tools that save you time

Pick a day, such as a weekend night, and devote 3-5 hours to shopping and cooking (or you can split tasks, however they fit your schedule). Remember, when you get to work right away, rather than little by little, you have healthier meals ready for the next couple of days (or a week), which takes away the guesswork of what to eat every time and relieves stress. make sure you have something that meets your nutritional goals.

You can still cook these meals even if you don’t know how to cook. Here are some kitchen tools I use to make my cooking process easier (from someone who can’t cook):

• Microwave: The omnipotent microwave is useful for preparing oatmeal ( and even eggs !) In the morning, as well as for preparing severalmicrowave- cooked meals, as well as reheating meals. I also like to take frozen vegetables and grate them if I don’t feel like washing and cooking fresh vegetables. The microwave is your star player here.
• Multicooker: This kid lets you cook without actually cooking . Just throw a bunch of things into the multicooker, put it on and forget it. I usually cook more protein in the multicooker. For example, I add chunks of chicken thighs or breast, red onions, bell peppers, carrots, spices – and boom – in 5-6 hours of incredibly smelling, I get a delicious chicken ready to cook. I haven’t tasted anything bad from the multicooker yet, but Sriracha will cure everything anyway. Plus, you can prepare many dishes from one pot that can be a hearty meal.
• Rice Cooker : A real rice cooker will save you a lot of time. Some even steam vegetables (or potatoes) with rice. If you don’t like rice, you can cook something else like quinoa, beans, or even a giant pancake . Install it and forget (starting the topic see here?).
• Blender: Smoothies are a great meal replacement , but more importantly, blenders are really handy for mixing sauces or cauliflower puree . My fellow Lifehacker will fight me about this, but I think the Magic Bullet is a great little blender for my needs as an individual.
• Food Processor / Scissors: While some have time to dice food like kitchen ninjas, I roughly chop and sometimes even rip the food up and then toss it into the food processor to do the rest of the work. For squirrels or larger foods, I use the larger butcher scissors. Cut, cut, cook, bang, done.
• Shelf for spices : spices are important . They make the same foods taste great.

When I prepare food, I usually eat protein, one or two carbohydrates, and vegetables for the next couple of days. For convenience and efficiency, they are all separated into separate storage containers and placed in the refrigerator. If you have more than a few days to eat, divide the portions that you definitely cannot (or don’t want to force) eat and put them in the freezer .

Now you have food waiting for you when you get home after a long day, or you need to pack lunch for the office , or wherever you are for an extended period of time. Basically, you have little excuse for choosing Hot Pocket over these ready-made meals. When it’s time to calm that nagging bear in your stomach, stack the individual ingredients together to make one dish.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can divide all of your cooked foods into individual portions in different plastic containers or glass jars for portability and convenience . So your food is ready to eat when you need to walk out the door 15 minutes ago.

Making healthy meals for yourself on a regular basis will go a long way towards achieving any long-term health goal, but there’s a big caveat: don’t expect the process to stop right away. Like many other things in fitness, cooking is simply a set of healthier habits and skills to help you improve your skills .

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