Cooking for One
For anyone feeding themselves alone, when cooking for one person stops seeming worth the trouble. It settles on three meals you actually like, shops for four days, keeps the freezer stocked for bad nights, and lets toast be dinner sometimes.
Cooking · Food · Self-Care · Loneliness · 9 items · once a week
The checklist
- Pick three meals you actually like and learn them cold — a short repertoire beats a long list you never cook.
- Shop for four days rather than seven — a fridge you empty costs less than one you clear out.
- Cook the full amount and keep half for tomorrow — the second night is the whole point of cooking once.
- Keep three things in the freezer for the worst nights — a bad evening should not also be a hungry one.
- Eat at the table with the screen off once this week — a meal you sit down to lands differently.
- Put something fresh on the plate each day — one green thing is the whole ambition here.
- Cook for somebody else once a month — feeding a person is a different act from feeding yourself.
- Wash up before you sit down — the kitchen you walk into tomorrow decides whether you cook.
- Let a bad night be toast — cooking for one does not have to be earned every evening.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it once a week, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.