My husband travels quite a bit. One week a month, he works from home, but other than that, it is meals with just me four nights a week. And at first I really struggled with that and didn’t eat the best (apparently wine and popcorn fills very few food groups, who knew!) But over the last few months I have been making actual meals and maybe enough for leftovers for lunch the next day. And most of all, I make myself eat at the table. I light candles and set the place setting and then sit down to eat. Sometimes, ok, most times, I have a book I read but always at the table.
Growing up we ate most our meals in front of the TV after my parents divorced. I ended up doing quite a bit of the cooking so we could eat when my mother got home from work. And I think we were all just sort of done with the day at that point and chatting was beyond us. But it worked for us then. I have really good memories of M*A*S*H episodes and how that invokes family to me. We could have, however, embraced a little less Crisco and a few more vegetables in our meals.
I do like to cook and I enjoy it when I have the time. I am not that adventurous but I am doing better. I used to be a recipe only type of gal (I know this shocks no one) but I am getting better at a splash of this or a pinch of that and let’s see. I do a fairly decent chicken, veggie, rice thing that I measure NOTHING and it turns out very nice for a meal and then a few lunches.
At the core it comes down to worth. I am worth it to have a nice, warm meal that is relaxing and so are you. You are worth it also. One of the most difficult things for me when my mother was getting older, was seeing how she started to eat so poorly because she felt she wasn’t worth the effort to cook for just one or it was too much trouble. Maybe keep that in mind if there is someone near you in that boat and maybe you just cooked “way too much” and need to share.
kkdonk 