Table for 1
For solo diners, cooking at home has many perks
Food articles often feature gregarious hosts with platters full of crowd-pleasing goodies, recipes to feed six (or more), or elaborate desserts to wow invading relatives. ❚ Not today. ❚ Today, the topic is cooking for one. ❚ Often ignored in the food world is the person living or eating alone, which is silly because chances are you will be solo at the dinner table sometime during your adult life. Might it be best to embrace it?
Eating alone happens on a regular basis no matter your demographic status. Spouses may travel or work opposite shifts. Diets can vary widely among household members requiring separate menus. Children eventually leave home, partners pass away and marriages may break up.
Meanwhile, you still have to eat about every five hours.
Some singles may not want to bother with cooking and instead rely on meals prepared by others found at drive-throughs, restaurants or the ever-growing frozen food aisle in the store.
Still, whatever your life circumstance or cooking ability, preparing meals in your own kitchen just for you can be both rewarding and practical.
One single home cook from Cedar Grove even believes the ability to nourish yourself by cooking at home is almost a survival skill.
“You feel confident that you are able to live alone and survive,” said dietitian Amy Giffin, food blogger at eatrightcooktonight.com and a school nutrition supervisor with the Sheboygan Area School District. “Cooking for yourself is good for your body and mind.”
Skip the greasy spoon
Cooking at home has its perks.
It helps avoid the calorie-laden concoctions assembled by anonymous employees using mysterious ingredients at the local greasy spoon or franchise joint. Reducing trash including bags, straws and plastic containers is also a benefit.
Cooking solo also allows you to evade diet busters, experiment without being a recipe slave and have the freedom to set your own menu.
“You can make foods that you like without any pressure to please anyone else,” Giffin said. “It’s all about your own taste preferences.
“When I experiment with new recipes, I prefer to do it on my own the first time and work out the kinks. If I mess up, oh well.”
Another big reward for cooking at home is the cost savings.
“Eating out at restaurants can be expensive. Even those individually packed frozen meals cost a pretty penny,” she said.
Vicki Brown, a single business analyst for a pharmacy benefits management company, agrees but also thinks cooking lets her exercise her creative side. It allows her the liberty to modify recipes or simply make up her own.
Brown finds empowerment in cooking.
“I find it therapeutic, relaxing and rewarding. Plus, I find it less expensive than eating out all the time,” she said.
She stocks her kitchen with garlic, spinach, shrimp, tomatoes, basil, quinoa, kale, avocados, bell peppers and canned beans, shopping at Metro Market, Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, Aldi and Sendik’s Food Market. Tomatoes, peppers, arugula and herbs also grow in window boxes at her downtown Milwaukee home.
“I control the sodium, fat, fiber, etc., so it’s easier than relying on a restaurant to meet my individual tastes and needs,” she said.
Eat at table, not sink
Brown always eats at the table, using real plates with silverware.
“It’s important to treat yourself with respect,” she said. “That includes not just what you put in your body but how you do it.”
Even twenty-something bachelor Matthew Bender, a Milwaukee east sider with no dishwasher, makes use of his meager four place settings for his home-cooked meals.
“There are multiple benefits to cooking for yourself,” he said. “Reducing fast food and frozen meals is one. The key is to find what you like and give it a try.” Bender said he comes from a “cooking family.” “After college, I had a lot more free time, and it became more of a hobby to me,” he explained. “I had learned as a kid watching my mom every day, but the interest did not hit me until I saw a few episodes of ‘Good Eats.’ How Alton Brown breaks down the science of cooking definitely got me hooked even more.”
Now an engineer, Bender enjoys preparing stews and shredded pork recipes in his slow cooker. He said making meals at home gives him better-quality ingredients and suitable food portioning, and at a lower cost.
The biggest benefit is control.
“If I want a little more seasoning or another ingredient, I can add it with no extra charge,” he explained. “It also allows me to try different cooking methods, grilling vs. cast-iron skillet and many others.”
Like Bender, Giffin said her childhood experiences helped shape her into an adult who cooks, and inspired her to get a food-related degree after high school.
“My mom had her signature dishes . . . my dad also had his favorite dishes, even if they weren’t always crowd pleasers — for example, his pea soup. My grandmother was an avid gardener and also canned her own jams and jellies. She was inspiring.”