How to Shop, Cook, and Eat Healthy When Eating for One

Solo folks face unique challenges for eating healthy, beyond a lack of cooking skills.

Its less fun to cook and eat alone, and very little food comes in packs of one.

At first, cooking even once a week sounds like a hassle.

Your Solo Dining Plan of Attack

Preparing meals for one isnt complicated, but itsdefinitely a skill.

Shop once a week:Or twice, if you prefer, instead of shopping every day.

This is also whyplanning ahead of timeis step numero uno.

Cook in bulk: If I had a highlighter, this part would be in bright-ass neon yellow.

Well go over the specifics shortly.

Clearly, this is a process.

Unfortunately, its also easy to sneak in less-than-stellar food choices since nobodys looking anyway.

When building a healthier looking meal, include foods you like and will eat.

Thehealthiest meals in the worldmean squat if you give up eating them after a week.

Feel full and satisfied from your meals:Portion control is a great but flawed concept.

Lets assemblea rough shopping guidefrom the foods you already gravitate to.

These are foods that you’re able to eat almost every daywithout getting sick of them.

These foods will be your staples around which youll build your meals.

lemon chicken versus lasagna).

When its time to shop, its not a bad idea to buy dried goods (e.g.

Choose a few that include your staples and keep them as simple as possible.

As you get the hang of things, youll start to figure out what will work and what wont.

The more you improve, the more creative youll get with the same ingredients, too.

you might still prepare these meals even if you arent a skilled cook.

in the mornings and a bunch ofone-cup microwavable recipes, and reheating meals.

The microwave is your star player here.

Slow cooker:This baby lets youcook without actually cooking.

Just throw a bunch of things into the slow cooker, set it, and forget it.

I generally cook larger amounts of protein in the slow cooker.

Plus, you’ve got the option to make alot of one-pot dishesthat can be a hearty meal.

Rice cooker:A legit rice cooker will save youso muchtime.

Some even steam your veggies (or potatoes) along with cooking the rice.

Set it and forget it (starting to see the theme here?).

With proteins or bigger items, I use heftier meat-cutting scissors.

Snip, snip, cook, bam, done.

Spice rack:Spices go a long way.

They make the same foods taste all sorts of amazing.

Basically, theres little excuse for you to choose a Hot Pocket over those ready-made meals.

Illustration by Nick Criscuolo and based onShutterstock.

Stephanie Lee is a nomadic writer with a Sriracha problem.

Visit her blog athttp://fitngeeky.tv/for her lighter takes on fitness and her shenanigans.

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