Since I have no one to cook FOR ME, yes, I cook for myself. I cook every night, as I always have, but now, I have no one to please but myself. A normal dinner for me is whatever suits me at the moment. I rarely eat fast food, so 'old fashioned' food is what I prepare. I prepare a cheeseburger and a veggie or chips for dinner if I am especially tired, but sometimes I fix potato soup or chili or an egg mcmuffin - just depends on the mood I'm in.

I tend to do easy prep meals for my lunches, and a lot of my dinners during the work week but always make a point to make a feast on the weekend....I do a roast and slice up for sandwiches or grill a steak with potatoes wrapped in foil and corn on the cob outside, unless it's too nasty out....I go out to grab fast food maybe once every 2 weeks

Am I to believe the rest of you don't cook for yourselves? Come on folks - who does the cooking at your house? Tell us - inquiring minds need ideas - LOL - who will be NEXT to reveal some of their culinary secrets? After many years of cooking the same old foods, I would welcome some new ideas and some neat tips and tricks - come on - tell us - what do YOU do to satisfy your hunger?

Not an exotic recipe, but tonight I planned to grill a couple burgers, got home later than I planned and came up with plan B...I had hamburger helper in the cabinet (mac and cheese style) but detest the bland taste of it....tonight, I cooked it up, added a package of Liptons Beef and Mushroom soup and topped it off with a dollop of sour cream....very good for a change of pace....all it takes is a little imagination to change dull to yummy

There is no more thankless task than cooking for yourself. After decades of cooking to please everyone else, then suddenly finding myself alone, I went more than 2 years without cooking so much as a slice of toast. I joined one of those 'diet' places, where all meals were delivered, and lived on that. After a while, everything started to taste the same, so I started on simple things like sandwiches, or fried or scrambled eggs on toast, occasionally. Now I'll make myself a simple pasta dish of some sort, or just microwave a large bowl of nothing but assorted vegetables. I'll break the monotony occasionally with a proper meat-and-3-veg meal, and a couple of times I've made a full roast dinner with all the trimmings - it usually lasts me several meals, by which time I'm heartily sick of it!

Now and then I'll make up a rice pudding, and with fruit to go with it, that will be my entire meal for a couple of days. I do a lot of grazing, so I make sure to have cheese slices and fruit of some sort on hand to satisfy the snack attack.

I like to grow a few veg in my little garden, mostly in pots. Cucumbers, tomatoes, beetroot, lettuce, peas, capsicum etc. So I tend to eat whatever is fruiting at any given time - rarely do I get a variety until a particular crop has finished, and it's time to start on the next crop!

I'm not all that keen on cooking, but I do like to enjoy what I eat. I like the kudos, so I usually cook something special for other people on birthdays, at Christmas, and so on. That satisfies what creativity I have left, and the taste-buds!

yes I cook! I like to eat ~smile~ and as many here have said, I only have myself to please. My cookng for one skills come in handy at work. Being able to cook one portion means I can serve a different meal each day. I can chicken fry one steak and mash one potato with ease. cooking a small portion of vegetables just requires a small pan. Cleanup is easy compared to cookng for a crowd.

I love summer when I can pick and cook a meal from the garden. my dream house (the one in my head) has a porch off the kitchen with a gas grill.

well I am home alone and lonesome and I don't know where you all are....

I just took the lid off a skillet full of brccolli, cauliflower and shrimp. lots of butter and garlic (who cares?) and of course I ate it out of the skillet while I sorted the mail that I have not looked at in a week. I am spoiled. I am not sure I could get used to sitting at the table to eat again.

I was tired but I am ready to go back to work tomorrow.

I found a new internet site that pairs up vegetarians. Yes I eat meat but I am usually politically compatible with vegetarians. I will have to remember not to order steak until I am sure he is in love.

you all come on now and start talking before this forum dies again. I was enjoying my lurking.

jc

I could never do the vegetarian thing myself....raised up in the middle of cattle country where all the good ole boys have a bumper sticker that says "I love animals!!!...they make good gravy"

First of all I like jessiecarole's honesty about being alone and lonesome. There's a lot of us around. New topics do seem short lived don't they. I hope I get a reply(s). Anyway, I'm a widower and will be 70 soon. I don't like to cook. There's too much involved in the process. I've picked up 15-20 pounds since being alone (now around 200) and I feel like I weigh a ton. I don't necessarily like to eat out and will definitely not go by myself. I look around in stores for ultra simple things to have. I don't like food out of cans. I like vegetables but they seem labor intensive. Yes, I know you are thinking I should hire a cook. Anyway, has anyone run across something at the grocer you might suggest and how to prepare it. I don't like to use anything than cannot go into the dishwasher, either . Thanks.

Hi Candler,

I don't generally enjoy cooking for myself, but like to cook when I have company. A few easy things that I like to eat that are also relatively healthy are:

Amy's Organic frozen dinners. They sell them at my grocery store for about $4, I stick them in the microwave for about 5 minutes, and that is it. For frozen dinners, they are pretty health and taste good too.

Pasta with tomato sauce. The sauce can be jar sauce, or, just use a can of stewed tomatoes, and maybe chop up some fresh basil, onion, garlic, or anything else you like.

Sometimes, usually for company, but it would work to make a batch and have it for a few days, I make a Chinese vegetable stir fry or an Indian Curry. Both are simple to make, but chopping vegetables takes some time. Not good to start a more time consuming meal when you are hungry. Who can wait an hour or two to eat when you're hungry NOW!?!

Best to you,

CarrieB

Yes I cook for me - like simple prep food, but don't really mind the chopping and the slicing and all that - I can always pretend I am a famous Chef cooking for the Food-Channel - laughing - I like fresh foods, specially sea-food, cook Mediterranian style a lot, pasta, couscous as side-dish. I also like to experiement with Asian food or do "cross-ethnic".
I keep a lot of different condiments and sauces on hand, because each one will make the standard food a new taste experience.
When I serve the food, I lay down a place-mat, always have flowers or some other fresh material from the garden, a candle, turn on some music and enjoy my food, along with a glass of wine.
I suppose I am a "Foodie"

Thanks for the replies, C and L. You have good and helpful thoughts. I left out in my original note that I tend to be impatient but only toward myself. I want to get things done quickly which naturally leads to my sorry eating habits. I thought it would be fun building a log house on one of our Western North Carolina mountains. I will have been working on it a year in May and it's taken it's toll. I use it as a scapegoat for not eating properly let alone cooking. I like to hear how others who are alone handle the food thing and life in general. I don't think I'm doing a very good job of either. Thanks, again.

well don't go away, Candler. You are an interestng addition to this forum. How do you cook/heat your house-in-progress? I sometimes feel the same as you, about the way I am handling "life in general", ~smile~ but food, I can do.

Start a thread and tell us about your house building experiences.

I want to add that I don't mind saying when I am lonesome because I don't think it is because I am single, or that single people are more lonesome than others. Being part of a bad relationship can be grimly lonesome. I do miss having neighbors and friends.

jc

Thanks for the reply, jc. As for food at the log house site it's whatever I take there which is usually cheese crackers, cookies, and a Pepsi. The drywall was started today and shouldn't take long since they do interior walls, only. Once finished I can do the kitchen and bath floor surfaces with luan in preparation for whatever surface I'll use which will probably be vinyl. This digresses from the food topic. I hope it's okay to try sending you a direct email with a few more details. I noticed we're almost neighbors .

I would like that neighbor

Hello, jc. I'm on Juno and have one heck of an e-mail problem. Juno constantly downloads ads that will show up on the computer whenever. Right now someone is trying to download to my system data that would fill twenty seven 1.2MB floppies. That's a bit much, huh? Anyway, there's an email letter ready to go to you whenever the Juno ISP does whatever they are doing. I would contact them but they only have support by email. Funny! They do have a technical service that charges $1.95 per minute. I'll not win the battle or war but Mark Goldston is their CEO. He's in Westlake Village, CA. I'll write him just to know someone will be irritated besides me. Regards.

Hi CANDLER....Juno can be frustrating....I had it for a while when I lived in Texas and you need to constantly clean out the "ads" folder to keep it running smoothly....the best option I found was to log on with Juno, use it to send mail and then minimize the Juno window and open internet explorer and surf with it...much faster loading of pages for me anyway

Candler, get yourself a crockpot. It has changed my life. Unless you don't like soup or stew. But if you do, get a recipe book and try a few simple things. The principle of crockpot life is you put the ingredients in the pot at the beginning of the day, (this is great on the weekends, but if you're really well organized you can do it before you go to work) and then you have a nice hot meal at the end of the day and you don't have to do another thing to it in between. It really works, really, really. Then get some freezer containers, they have lots of brands nowdays, and freeze half of your crockpot meals for later. That and a microwave and you are on your way to a better way of eating. You don't have to be able to "cook" or have patience for fancy prep to use a crockpot. All you have to do is read the recipe and put the stuff in the pot. Slow cooking makes it yummy. Also, buy lots of the kinds of breads you like and put them in the freezer. You can thaw them in the microwave and then pop them in a toaster oven or just plain toaster.

what time is supper?

Jessie - I'm in TN too, where do you live? I live in La Vergne, just outside of Nashville. Maybe we're neighbors? I've seen you on the compost forum I'm pretty sure.

ginger

no no not me

I never compost

everything goes right into the trash

and when I say everything, I mean just the regular stuff. nothing unusual. no sirree bob. that wasn't me.

but thank you for asking.

Compost? We don't have any of that here. This here's the singles' site. No compost here. No composters here. That's just the way it is. Compost is compost and single folks is single folks. Period. End of conversation.

Ginger, we are just teasing you. I thought I posted this earlier, but I can't find it. I think we are about 50 miles apart. Do you ever come to Nashville?

Jessie - sorry I forgot to check back here! I actually come to Nashville every day! I work on West End. Do you live in Nashville?

I did the breakfast burrito thingy today superbatch style....so quick and easy and I have meals for the next couple of weeks.....ground sausage and some diced onion with a dash of red pepper in one skillet and texas hash browns with bell pepper in the big skillet and then scrambled a dozen eggs (with onion and red pepper)and mixed up....rolled in tortillas and wrapped in aluminum foil...I am covered...delicious...yummm....try it sometime and adjust the spices accordingly

I haven't checked this forum for quite a while. Ginger, you work on West End? So do I. I work at Vanderbilt University.
I know someone named Ginger who also works at Vanderbilt but I guess that's not you, is it?

As for cooking, I used to love to cook and love to make up my own recipies. I don't have much time to cook anymore but sometimes make a spaghetti sauce that I really like over angel hair pasta or rice. Also, I like to make various kinds of soups. Things that I can have for 2 or more days. Soups are easy, just put in the things I like and let it simmer. I need to get out my crockpot and start using it again. I forgot that I had one. Judith

Hey Judith! No, I don't work at Vanderbilt, but I'm not too far from there - I'm just off 440 at West End and Murphy Road - the building w/ the curved front - we should meet for lunch someday! I knew you were in TN too, but I was thinking east TN for some reason. Talk to you later.

ginger

Sounds Great, Ginger, we really will have to do lunch some day soon. For most of my time at Vanderbilt (37 years) I worked in Kirkland Hall (the building off of West End with the tower and the clock). Our office moved to the Baker Building at 21st and West End in August of 2002. A big improvement for us.

Judith

Yes, mostly simple things, I do use a crockpot,in the winter, I will also make a huge pot of soup from time to time on the stovetop. A single friend and I do an informal soup exchange too. I do rely on a mix of frozen foods you just nuke, and I like the Amy's dinners too. If it's been a long day, lots of driving, I am more apt to nuke something than to broil a piece of fish, make a salad, have a veggie-and top it off with desert. I would like to cook more if I could just get motivated.

I just had to say, my girlfriends cook for me. You may know them. They are really busy. My personal favorite though is Marie Calendar. My aunt Jamima (spelling?) does good with syrup. My Moma Celeste is pretty good to me to. Only complaint with most of my girls though is the small portion of vegies. The best part of dinner though is when Miss kenmore steps in to do dishes. I love her the most.

That's funny! At least your girlfriends cook for you. I keep hoping that Mr. Clean and the Brawny paper towel guy will clean the house for me while I'm at work.

Note that the cooking forum is my favorite.

Cook most everything myself. Grilled chicken, some nice steaks, fancy burritos, homemade choclit cookies, were the most memorable things I've cooked this week. Baked a whole turkey last week with twice baked taters and the works.

Don't care for food in a box so I have to make my own. Nothing makes my workday better then a sandwich on homemade bread made with lean meat and a good cheese packed in my lunch. Machine food is so depressing, expensive, and plain yucky.

: )
michael