Becoming a Widowed Country Cook

On May 13th of this year, my life changed forever. My dearly loved husband of 48 years passed away in his sleep. He’d spent 7 weeks in the hospital before they sent him home. He kept me company for 3 more weeks before passing. I’d had the time and forethought to prepare myself for the many impacts his passing would bring, but I forgot one very important impact. I was suddenly cooking only for one person.

Becoming an “empty nester” is something that all parents face at some point in their lives. Among all the other changes in your lives, you find yourself cooking for just the two of you. So, if you’re at all like me, you start either downsizing your recipes or you look for ones that are already sized for two. You find that the large pans, crockpots, etc., are too big now. So, you downsize your appliances.

Cooking for One now!

I have two different friends who have each lost their spouse in the last few years. Not surprisingly, neither one cooks any more. One woman who lost her spouse just last year, has her son living nearby so they frequently bring meals over to her or invite her to their house. It works well for them.

My second friend lost her husband during COVID pandemic. He’d had Parkinson’s Disease and things just didn’t go well with the isolation. Mona has taken on a number of volunteer activities that she enjoys, including helping in the kitchen for our church’s Christian School. This allows her to bring meals home from work that she can eat later.

Me, I wanted to do something different. I still enjoy cooking, just not every night. To be honest, while my husband was in the hospital, I spent the mornings with him, ran home and threw hamburgers or hot dogs in the Air Fryer and made some kind of frozen potatoes to go with. Dinner would end up being a bowl of salad that I picked up premade from the grocery store. Not exactly healthy or economically sustainable! My doctor had been urging me to change my diet for years so now seems like the best time to do that.

Meal Prepping revisited

My youngest daughter gave me this idea when she came down after her daddy’s passing. She takes one day, and meal preps her dinners for the week. I wanted to do a head slap, why hadn’t I thought of that! I’d previously thought of chopping all the different veggies up and freezing them. So, why not just do that for a week at a time? Duh!

That takes planning, and folks, I can be great at planning. I have a freezer full of meats that have been packaged for two people. So why not start with them?

So, what does all this mean for You?

Going forward from here, you can expect more books that focus on meals for one person, meal prepping for the week, and even some menu planning. I still want to include individual recipes, recipe lists, etc. So, if you find yourself cooking for just one person, hang in there, I’m bring more recipes and ideas for you and me both!