Being alone in front of your plate is not always easy. How to keep the desire to cook and the pleasure of eating without letting go? Our tips and tricks for one-on-one with yourself that preserve balance.
Ten million French people, men and women, live and eat alone on a daily basis, lunchtimes and/or evenings, weekdays and/or weekends. This lack of companionship and sharing (eating remains a convivial act) can complicate eating, making the pleasures of the table (and conversation) disappear, making meals boring, sometimes even restrictive, trying or experienced as a punishment, especially those that it sends back to a feeling of loneliness, exclusion, guilt, lack of relationships or sadness.
Absence of desire, inspiration, motivation, courage do not favor a balanced diet either, on the contrary: “Meals are destructured, or become frankly monotonous, are sloppy and get caught in a hurry on a corner of the table or standing in the kitchen, like a chore that must be got rid of”, explains Charles Brumauld, dietician. We dined on a cardboard soup and a yogurt (then we nibbled on sweets), we cooked less and less (what’s the point?), we fed on prepared meals in individual portions (which abound in supermarkets, the market for “solos” being expanding), which you quickly heat up in the microwave and which you swallow even faster in front of a screen to quickly move on to something else.
Result, overweight for some, nutritional deficiencies in others (fibre, vitamins, magnesium, good fatty acids…), loss of energy and increased fatigue… And if we really integrated that Eating alone is neither a chore, nor a failure or a shame, but, on the contrary, that it can remain day after day a real pleasure, synonymous with food balance and health, but also with joy for the taste buds?
What if you started batch cooking?
The principle of batch cooking? Extremely simple: you do your shopping when you have time (weekends for example), buying what you like, and you cook immediately, in 1 to 2 hours, at least 4 complete dishes and foods to combine which allow, during the week, to prepare to eat quickly, while having the choice every evening. Only investment, airtight storage boxes! Adapt your dishes according to seasonal products:
- vegetable soups: chestnuts, pumpkin, celeriac, carrots, leeks…
- quiches or savory pies: mushrooms, zucchini, peppers, asparagus, leeks, ham, cheese, onions…
- quinoa (or semolina, rice, pasta with seasonal vegetables, to eat afterwards with chicken fillet, fish, ham or eggs
- gratins: cauliflower, endives, broccoli…
- legumes with or without meat, lentil sausages or coral lentil dhal, chili…
- curries: potatoes, cauliflower, eggplant, chickpeas
- meats in sauce: chicken with lemon or basquaise, beef with carrots…
Do not hesitate to look for recipes on the Internet, to search through books and magazines, to ask friends for their ideas. Remember to prepare some green salad and raw vegetables (as well as vinaigrette in a jar, for the week), and even a sweet (compote, rice pudding, vanilla or caramel cream…) that will avoid cracking on industrial desserts that are too sweet and greasy.
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