Cooking healthy for one- on a budget- Is it possible?

[Joan]

With my sister, brother-in-law and my niece having just moved away, at the house it is now just me and my parents, all with different eating habits and work schedules, which means for a lot of meals it is fend for yourself.

When it is usually just the three of us, my dad gets supermarket rotisserie chickens, frozen veggies and cans of beans for himself, my mom goes for fast-food and frozen dinners,with leaves me to fend for myself, which, for me, usually means crackers, cookies,and candy bars for dinner.

I have been eating like this to long, and I can tell my body is starting to not like it. I'm trying to think of things that I can have for meals or snacks that are a bit healthier then the junk food that I have been living on for the past several years.

Here are the issues that I find myself running into: In the hot weather the oven if off limits, the the freezer is broken, and will not keep things frozen, and there are very few foods that I do like, When I've listed out what I do like by and look at it does not help me come up with meal plans, especially when I have to consider cost, time for prep and cleanup for only one meal, with no real way of storing leftovers.

When I am out with friends, I do try new things, but have found that there are so few things that I like that I don't all ready eat.

One other issue I have, is if I don't have either snack food are ready to eat food at the house, I have a habit of not eating, even if I have plenty of food that I could prepare. (Which is something I do need to work on)

[Barbara]

I read your post shortly after you posted. I was hoping someone that is a good cook could have given you some answers but I think for most of us reading this there are a lot of limitations. Do you like fruit? Do you like vegetables? Would your dad be willing to share some of his chicken? If so the chicken could be cut up and put over a salad. You could make chicken salad.

One other issue I have, is if I don't have either snack food are ready to eat food at the house, I have a habit of not eating, even if I have plenty of food that I could prepare. (Which is something I do need to work on)

To help with this issue you might need to make yourself prepare your food the day before. After you eat, you would prepare your meal for the next day.

In the next week or so all my children will be gone during the day. This will be the first time I will be making lunches just for myself. Maybe I will have some other ideas by then.

[vicki]

Yes to what Barbara says.

In fact, you might want to make various meals ahead of time and freeze them--even for one. I find it is difficult to cook with healthy ingredients on a low budget. Good, healthy foods (wheat pasta vs regular pasta, whole wheat bread vs cotton white junk, etc.) do cost more.

[workn mom]

I find it difficult to make healthy food for one, as well. I try to keep some turkey breast and good bread on hand, so I can throw together a turkey sandwich. I know you can't live on turkey sandwiches, but I do eat one a couple of times a week. I also cut up turkey breast and throw it on a salad if I'm in a hurry.

[Barbara]

Here are the issues that I find myself running into: In the hot weather the oven if off limits, the the freezer is broken, and will not keep things frozen, and there are very few foods that I do like, When I've listed out what I do like by and look at it does not help me come up with meal plans, especially when I have to consider cost, time for prep and cleanup for only one meal, with no real way of storing leftovers.

As a reminder I have pulled out her limitations. Vicki, you mentioned freezing things. She doesn't have a freezer.

[vicki]

Oops--yes, I see that. It wouldn't be very good to make much ahead of time.

I actually found some pre-made meals from Healthy Choice and some other companies--I was impressed with the relatively smaller amount of sodium they have (like 600 mg, as opposed to the 1200 I've seen in other meals). 600 is fine if you have very little sodium the rest of the day. I get those for David to eat sometimes when he is at work, because of his needs and because they are easy to heat.

[seanda]

As a college student my diet was monotonous but healthy because I cooked on the weekend and ate leftovers for 3-4 days in a row. Exciting? No. Healthier than junk? Yes. So I might cook up a bunch of chicken.. then season some for tacos and some italian style. The next session might be ground beef.. brown up 1 pound, add taco seasoning to it and eat a mix of tacos and taco salads for days. Then I would have a bag of salad and vary it up. In short, make your cooking work for you. I also often baked a bunch of baked potatoes.. and ate them throughout the week. Topped simply, or with canned turkey chili, or with broccoli and cheese, etc. You can do this.. with even minimal cooking but it may not always be exciting... still better than crackers.

And I second the healthy choice shelf meals.. really not bad options. Canned soups and chili also are decent options.

[workn mom]

You could make quesadillas with flour tortillas, chicken breast (or taco meat), cheese, and salsa. Easy and delicious.

[Joan]

Thank you all for your replies, I have looked them over, and am still working on actually eating something besides flavor-blasted cheddar goldfish crackers, candy bars and zero-calorie powerade.

I did end up making dinner for everyone here on Monday, which turned out pretty well for my first time roasting a chicken, even if it was a little bland. (I even made chicken soup today with the leftovers, which I did not end up liking, but my dad loves it, so it won't go to waste)

Hopefully I will be able to stick with this for more then a day at a time. My longest streak at trying to eat healthy lasted only 2 days before I was in my old habits.