Cooking for One

I've shared some of the things I've been cooking lately, but I realized that some of you may not know that I'm cooking for one.

I live alone, so I'm not feeding a houseful (I have, in the past.) A lot of the time, recipes simply aren't designed to serve one person. They assume you're feeding four people, and so it can be difficult at times to feel compatible with a given recipe. standuponit rarely experiences that problem. But I do, and perhaps there are readers who are cooking for two, or cooking for one, and

• feel like it's a lot of fuss and waste to get fancy for one person


• hate eating the same thing for days on end


• have limited time to be putting home-cooked on the table


• don't have the budget to get extravagant with meals

I've felt most of those (I have a lot of free time on my hands, though.) but this fall I've been doing a lot of cooking and I've noticed that I've developed some habits and practices that address a lot of these problems.

( what follows is a lengthy explanation for a handful of tips for solo foodies. )

I started doing more cooking because I need to avoid gluten, and cooking things myself is one of the things I need to do because I have an autoimmune disease that reacts to one of the most common foods on the planet, but that necessity has developed into a pleasure. I love good food and I enjoy cooking and I like the self-nurturing that comes of taking this kind of care with feeding myself.

Also

I hear this song and I expect Trent Reznor to start singing any second.

I think I miss Nine Inch Nails.