An intro to a single’s guide to eating healthy, well and affordably.

Holidays growing up were a big deal in my family. The excitement of who would be coming over and who was bringing what always meant that my mom would cook up a storm. Growing up I remember eating fairly simple food. The requisite meat and potatoes. The occasional box of macaroni and cheese…. Nothing overly extravagant. Sometimes my mom would go all out and make some of the most memorable dishes, but more often then not it was a healty balanced meal of some of the more simple dishes I already mentioned.

Being from a fairly close knit Jewish family always meant that my when the holidays rolled around  favourite dishes would be served. Things like brisket, kugel ,matzah balls, chopped herring, liver, kichel, geffilte fish,the list goes on and on. Over the years my mom taught me a good number of the recipies, and as my taste in food has changed, she has been accomodating enough to put up with my constant flirtation with being vegetarian or vegan depending on the week. Jewish food to me is comfort food, my heritage is that of Eastern Europe, hence the focus on that type of food in our holiday cooking. It isn’t food that one can eat on a regular basis, unless their stomaches are that of iron, or waistline incapable of expanding.

Taking cues from Jewish comfort food, I have adapted a simplistic approach to my cooking. I also take a huge chunk of my cooking cues from Michael Smith . His one motto is the best recipe is cooking without a recipe, I take that to heart when adapting what he makes to suit my dietary needs. The flirtation with vegetarianism and the fact that I don’t eat pork or shellfish means I have to be creative. Not only that but since most of his recipes are cooking for at least two people, having that much extra food sitting forgotten in my fridge is both a waste of food and money.

That’s when I go back to my days of cooking in the kitchen with my mom, she too cooks with a small idea of a recipe in her head. One major thing she always stressed was that despite there being an actual recipe the best way to cook is through feeling . Given the fact that she generally cooks (the holiday meals) for at least ten other people means that those delicacies I look forward to at specific times of the year are restricted to then, because it would be unrealistic of me to sit and make food that can only truly be prepared in bulk . The same goes for regular family meals, for four.

I’m just one person, those big family meals as great as they are would mean huge amounts of food going to waste in my tiny fridge in my tiny apartment.

I started cooking for myself when I first went away for school. I’m not a fan of packaged convenience food, such as canned soups or microwave dinners. I always found that my highly tuned taste buds (more like finicky with food choices, and the already mentioned dietary restrictions ) meant that I was limited. I also did the math and realized that sometimes as convenient as the food was, it wasn’t always the most affordable, and the food was often full of empty chemicals and calories. I quickly realized that I had to come up with a way to feed myself on a ramen noodle budget without actually eating ramen noodles. It’s been an interesting journey.

Here I am today, a number of years out of school, my budget marginally bigger, with a more adventurous palate. Thanks to the magic of mobile uploads I have been uploading various meals once they are assembled, I generally tweet them and never expected that people actually cared that I got such joy out of sharing what I just made.

As I mentioned my cooking style is a pinch of this, a pinch of that. I will try my best to give as close to realistic measurements as possible, but I say go for it don’t be afraid to experiment with simple comfort food. The kitchen isn’t a scary place when you have a few staple ingredients in the fridge or cupboard.

Welcome to Cooking for One, the single’s guide to eating well, healthy and affordably.

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