Solitude and the Art of Cooking for One

I intentionally spend time alone (a few hours or a whole day) usually once per week - I call the one day, morning, or evening Heidi Day. Lately my Heidi Days have been filled with both planning and relaxation. I find myself thinking about what direction I want my life to go in. You have to be facing the direction you want to go in. I'm not yet sure, even at 30, what my future is about. I do know a few things: I want to live my life always trying to improve, be debt free someday, continue to pursue music, be a good friend... The list goes on. I think about things like this when I purposely spend time alone. It's important to get some solitude in your time diet. 

Next week will be a month on this journey of restaurantlessness ... That's a new word I've created. Someone asked me what the last food item was that I ate at a restaurant: it was an everything bagel at Panera, sliced and toasted with butter and it was lovely. 

Before I go any further in this post, let me say I'm not saying that restaurant food is bad. There are at least semi-healthy options at most places. The issue I normally run in to is portion sizes and my own inability to ask for a to-go box before digging in to a 4 person portion.  Grocery shopping for one is sometimes a challenge but I've been doing it for so long, I think I've mastered the single persons cuisine. The trick is to break meat items up into single portions if they're not already separated. You can buy tilapia and other fish individually packaged. I buy ground turkey instead of beef, and divide each pound into 4 portions. Easy peasy. I take advantage of freezer space and throw a lot of stuff in there. When it's a turkey burger kind of night, I just take one out and cook it. 

Home cooking has its benefits beyond cost effectiveness and health consciousness. You can choose your own portion sizes and you know what spices have been added. "Is there butter in this? MSG? Is this cooked in olive oil? Did anyone back there kick this steak across the floor before putting on the grill?" Yada, yada. You can control every bit of that if you cook at home without having to wonder if it wasn't cooked the way you really want it done based on either preferences or dietary needs.