One is the loneliest number?

Like many people in the UK, eating and cooking alone is something I am doing more than ever before.  Due to shifting work patterns, time pressures, differing likes and dislikes and the breakdown of the traditional family unit, this is becoming more common.

I never used to understand how people could struggle to find time or effort to cook for one.  When I was at university, I relished the challenge of cooking alone.  Although my Mum taught me how to cook, trying things out without worrying about someone else not liking it was how I developed my cooking style and love for food.

Now, (a few too many) years later, I find cooking for myself sometimes difficult, sometimes a chore.  It's another thing on my list of 'to do's.  One day, after cooking a tray of oven chips with mayonnaise for my tea (yes, really), I had a word with myself.  I used to have a blog, devising recipes for my young son and found it a great way to expand the food he liked to eat.  I love cooking for others and it's the way I show my love.  I realised, in a moment, that I needed to eat like I loved myself.  Would I cook oven chips and mayo for my son?  No.  Is it a nutritiously balanced meal?  No.  Does it even taste all that nice?  Not really.  I like mayo and all but there are better foods in the world.  So if it's not good enough for someone I love, it's not good enough for me.

So that day, I went to the supermarket on my way home and bought some fantastically reduced steak, fried it and had it with salad.  A meal in 10 minutes at the most and a great source of iron and vitamin C.  What's more, I ate it and felt good about my body and good about my soul.

So my blog, my new blog, is all about you, you know who you are.  The person who doesn't have time to cook.  You, the person who doesn't take care of themselves, who will slave for hours over a child's birthday cake to grab a disappointing sandwich later.  You, the person who eats your child's leftovers.  You, the person who works till 9pm at night then grabs a McDonalds on the way home because it feels like it's too late to cook.  Let's just love ourselves a bit more?  We are worth so much more than that.

My manifesto is Eat Like You Love Yourself. Come and join me...