Going solo: Cooking for one can be fun

Living alone makes for interesting meals. Dinner can be a bowl of cereal and milk, last night's leftovers, drive-through fast food, or a home-cooked, three-course meal. There's no one eating style that fits everyone.

"I love to cook, but I've about given up on cooking for just myself anymore," said Carol MacArthur of Logan. "I will cook extra for myself when I take in meals to friends or neighbors. Mostly I dislike the cleanup, because I don't have a dishwasher. Michelina (the frozen entrees) and I are pretty good buds these days, and there's a pretty good takeout just a few blocks away. I figure that by the time I spend the money fixing meals for myself, I can usually buy already prepared food for not too much more."

"I hate to waste food, probably due to being raised by parents who survived the Depression," said Kathleen Nielsen of Ogden. "So I have mostly dry goods, frozen items and fresh produce. My fridge is kind of bare except for the produce. I base my meals around the grain and starch group, then add some protein and lots of veggies. I'll cook a potato in the microwave and top it with fat-free cottage cheese and seasoning. Add some veggies and it's a complete meal."

Frozen chicken breasts, a George Foreman grill and Cajun seasoning are survival strategies for Eric Bunderson, a prosecutor for West Valley City. He often lunches on rice mixed with a can of black beans spiked with a little Cajun seasoning or hot sauce.

"When you're single, you don't want to eat out all the time, but you don't want to spend a lot of time preparing dinner," he said. "Any recipe you get makes enough food for three or four people."

When she makes a family-size recipe, Tracie Edwards divides the leftovers and stores them in the fridge for lunches that week.

"I usually like to make things that can be made in one pot, and nothing really intricate or time-consuming," she said. "I end up eating a lot of popcorn and sandwiches, though."

Alina Smith of Salt Lake City prefers cooking one meal at a time.

"Some people will make a big pot of soup and have it for a week, but my attention span isn't long enough," she said. "I like to shop just before I cook, so everything is fresh. I cook when I feel like it, and when I have the time and money. I actually find that eating out is comparable in price to cooking for yourself, but I think the value of cooking is much greater because you know what your body's getting. I eat out strictly for convenience's sake."

Smith got some of her recipes from a cookbook called, "Healthy Cooking for Two, or Just You," by Frances Price. "And I've taken a lot of recipes from my mom and just whittled them down to one or two servings."

There are advantages to being the captain of your own one-person culinary ship. You can decide what to cook and when. If you're just buying a few stalks, you don't fret over buying asparagus when it's $3.99 a pound.

And you get to choose the ingredients -- no need to pick out the mushrooms.

"It allows you the luxury to experiment," writes Joyce Goldstein in her book, "Solo Suppers." "Sometimes dinner is my play, and I love the adventure of seeing what I can come up with, given what I have on hand and my ability to recognize my true culinary desires for the evening."

In her book, Goldstein takes issue with the assumption that the single's way of life should be "cook fast, eat fast and get it over with." As a professional chef, she encourages singles to take time to enjoy cooking for themselves.

But cooking for one has its challenges. The solutions depend on the person's lifestyle, what they like to eat and how much time they want to spend cooking.

It's tempting to "graze" rather than cooking and sitting down to a meal.

"People who graze tend to eat more calories," said Pauline Williams, a home economist with the Utah State University Extension Service. "You're never quite satisfied, and so you keep looking for just the right food and end up eating more food than if you had dinner."

Solutions:

-- Plan meals -- even if it's as few as two dinners a week, said Williams. You'll know what's for dinner so you're not tempted to stop for fast food or snacks. Make out a shopping list so you'll have the needed ingredients on hand, rather than rummaging through the cupboards to see what's there.

Sometimes people just don't think about all their options, said Becky Low, a home economist for the Utah Dairy Council. Some years back, she helped her widowed father learn to cook and eat on his own, and compiled her strategies into a program for senior citizens.

She made meals with her dad and divided them into single servings. Then she posted a list of those entrees on the outside of the fridge so he could easily see what his options were. He erased each item from the board as he ate it.

"Over the years as I've taught people about cooking, a lot of times it's just that we can't think of what to prepare, and you forget about dishes that you could do," she said. "I encourage people to make a list of about 20 dishes that you can prepare easily. Use it as a shopping list rather than wandering up and down the aisles at the grocery store. If you like beef stroganoff, then you know you should keep some stewing beef, sour cream and pasta on hand."