What do you eat when on your own?

Since my sons left home last year I'm enjoying cooking just what I like for the first time ever. I still have family at weekends. For myself, I cook fish or a chicken piece with new potatoes/lentils/rice and a range of veg or do a stirfry. Always quick to cook and one or two dishes to wash. I love not having to cook red meat, sausages, pies, mash and other heavy meals every day.

I don't understand people who don't bother cooking for themselves. It's much less work and you can choose exactly what you like, not what someone else likes.

I now live alone and I have never enjoyed cooking so tend to batch cook and then freeze into individual portions, spag bol. chilli, casseroles etc. Breakfast tends to be porridge or sometimes just toast (wholemeal bread) although at weekends, it's a full English! I often don't bother with lunch and have dinner around 7.00 pm, last night it was chicken kiev, baby potatoes and broccoli. My main problem is in the evening I get attacks of the munchies which is when I have crisps, chocolate and, of course, a glass of wine!!

Weight Watchers granola with 0% Greek yoghurt and blueberries for breakfast. Fruit or crackers and light Babybel for lunch and something from M &S count on us or balanced for you for dinner. Sometimes I also have a meringue nest with fruit and 0% youghurt.

GrandmaMoira . . . yes, you can eat what you like when you are just one, but the problem is that I find it totally depressing eating on my own. Having a companion to share your table makes all the difference.

DH doesn't eat shellfish and I love it, so when he's away, which isn't often, I eat lots of crab, lobster, langoustines, crayfish and best of all, brown shrimps!
His treat when he's home alone is to have family sized fruit pies with lashings of Ambrosia custard as a meal, nothing savoury, he just indulges his sweet tooth!

I have a very small appetite, so tend to go for some-made veg soup with lovely whole-seed bread, eggs or cheese on toast, a cheese and marmite butty or two, a bacon&egg butty. If I'm feeling starving, I always have a couple of Tesco Wicked ready meals available. All the above have vegetarian/vegan options available, so suit me down to the ground. I generally have a yogurt, fruit or maybe a vegan dessert available to choose from.

I go shopping and get whatever takes my fancy.

I used to manage very well at eating on my own, but my family have become vegan, and have pressured me to do the same.
I know that they are right, and that we should be ethical about our food choices, but I rarely enjoy a meal nowadays.
I was happy to be pescatarian, as I’ve never been overly fond of meat, and now I find myself longing for an egg or some fish, or a milk pudding.
I also have a small appetite, so vast salads and bean dishes are too much for me.
I quite like a good lentil and veg soup, or a nice curry, so that’s mostly what I live on.
I suppose that’s healthy enough as millions of people don’t have anything else, and seem to do well if they can get enough of it!

I love making French toast with bacon and lambs lettuce. Quick and easy

I still cook properly 4 or 5 days a week, even though alone.
Stews, roasts, fish pie, etc... But on the days when my back is bad (I suffer from a annoyingly bad back) then, thank goodness for frozen meals, both bought and my own.
I can't help feeling, sluttygran, that you should be able to eat whatever you want to, no matter how well-meaning your family are.

The only time we eat together is Sunday breakfast if I bake croissants. I have a DH and a DS at home but I mostly eat alone as they are fussy folk and so I usually cook separate meals for DS and I with DS eating around 5pm and I cook and eat around 6pm. DH sorts himself out and eats around 10pm which is far too late for me.

Franbern I agree with you wholeheartedly do the same myself, been a widow for 10 years.

Muesli followed by toast. Light lunch, today, I am always on my own on a Sunday. Salmon with veg plus some Jersey Royals brought back from Jersey on Wednesday. Another quick meal, my friend gave me this, is a chicken breast pan fried and when cooked toss on Soy sauce and a spoon of brown sugar, with steamed veg and baby potatoes.

FIL aged 90 discovered he had to cook after mil died and he’s now quite adept at basic dishes, mince and potatoes, steamed fish, pasta, steak etc. He also buys the 3 for £10 M&S meals for nights when he doesn’t feel like making anything. He’s doing very well for both his age and a man that never cooked!! Today is his treat-big grill up brunch.

GrandmaMoira, my life of minimal cooking is nothing to do with being bothered. It's an absolute choice and preference that I snack on whatever, whenever. As a matter of fact, from tips I've had on this very GN, I've managed to lose weight steadily and painlessly triggered by this method. Certainly not the plan at the outset but a resulting joy. The only cooking I do is always having soup on the go in the Winter and when people come to stay, of course.

I have been on my for 5 years now but still cook very much as I did when DH was alive. Today will be roast chicken with salad & baby potatoes, it should have been a roast with lots of veg but it's too hot.

I make a lot of soup, make my own stock from chicken carcase. I make spag bol, chilli & casseroles. Usually have this 2 days & freeze rest (handy for days when I'm out or CBA . I eat lots of fruit & veg. Jacket potatoes have to be done in the oven, love really crispy skin Yum!

I also do stir fries especially if I have veg to use up. Breakfast is porridge with blueberries & fresh/frozen fruit unless I'm going out when it's wholemeal toast. Lunch is often salad or in winter soup with crusty bread/toast with beans/scrambled egg. Living alone doesn't mean neglecting your diet (in the sense of eating well) I love fish but don't eat much red meat. I also make curry.

Well we are retired but when h was in hospital overnight for pacemaker to be fitted.
I had my usual breakfast went shopping had lunch out and a salad in the evening.
Then went to pick up h from hospital.

Either make some homemade veg soup or spag bol or lasagna eat 2 days in a row and freeze left overs, or else just eat out.

It’s heaven only having to feed yourself. I’ve been doing it for many years now, since the boys left home, and the pleasure of it hasn’t worn off yet. I eat quite simply, and often at rather odd hours, for instance a main meal at 4.30. Cereal, porridge, or sometimes a boiled egg for breakfast, and a typical evening meal would be baked fish, a jacket potato and some green vegetables. I have the occasional good quality ready meal. I’m not very good at thinking of lunches - usually something on toast, or soup.

I have a weakness for puddings, unfortunately. I like yogurt, but I’ve recently discovered Bonne Maman chocolate mousse ?. I will sometimes make a crumble and try to make it last a couple of days. I’m not overweight yet!

My husband recently passed away so was wondering how it would be when I got back into eating as I literally couldn't to begin with. I do still havr our second son at home which helps though he does do alot of his own meals.

I have Greek yogurt and honey for breakfast with fruit so that's easy enough.

Tea I make the same as I would for two of us. Either our lad has some if it's lasagne or the like or I eat the other portion for tea the next day

Gilled salmon once a week with rice and veggies; scrambled egg on toast as a main meal; chick peas in tomato sauce with baby spuds; prawn based stir fry with noodles; mushroom omlette with broccoli; salad with kidney beans; grilled lamb chops at the weekend. Fruit for dessert with two squares of dark chocolate or a yoghurt. If it takes longer than twenty minutes max I dont bother.

sluttygran how incredibly sad that pressure from your family to embrace a vegan diet means you no longer enjoy your meals. Have they no respect for your right to eat as you choose? Nobody has the right to dictate that another family member must go along with someone else's fancy.

I love catering for one! If I've picked up a reduced joint I'll do an indulgent full roast with all the trimmings. I freeze portions of cooked meat, and freeze the rest of the carcass until I have a few to make a big batch of stock which again gets frozen in small portions. A slow-cooker casserole, or steak pie, lasagne or fish pie to last a few days or portion and freeze, a quick salmon fillet or a chop with potatoes and peas, or a day eating mainly cheese or eggs - in omelettes or on toast - I get lots of variety and it's great to be eating whatever I want that day. I grow most of my vegetables, and soft fruit, so I make lots of soup and crumbles. I like baking so there's always bread, cake or biscuits, and if all I want is cereal or pancakes that's ok too!

Liver and bacon with onions and tomato’s ...with mash potatoes. Husband hates liver...so that’s me sorted. Also fried ( in olive oil) mackerel, then add some sliced onions peppers mushrooms ...lovely.

You all eat such healthy food. I was out today with my daughter, who I don’t like very much at the moment and was finding the day stressful plus I have 6 stitches in my mouth after some dental work on Friday. So for lunch today I had a banana split and milkshake.