OPINION: I still like to cook

As we grow older, sometimes our appetite wanes or we lose some of our sense of taste. I definitely have less capacity for food, but I always like to eat and, surprisingly, I still like to cook.

It’s not unusual for people living alone, especially older people, to lose their enthusiasm for preparing meals. Those who never particularly liked cooking find it especially difficult fixing meals just for themselves once their spouse is gone. When it was necessary to prepare food for two of them, they regularly put three meals on the table out of a sense of duty.

We don’t always feel that same sense of duty to ourselves.

If they’re able, older people may eat out more often, but there are many living alone, unable to drive and have few or no family members calling on them. They must depend on themselves to prepare enough food to stay healthy, and it’s difficult if they don’t like to cook.

Cooking for my family is still very enjoyable for me. We all gathered last weekend to have a garage sale in order to get the last of my furniture and household items out of storage. It was also an opportunity to celebrate my birthday with my great-grandson who was two years old a few days before. Of course, my family did all the work for the sale, but my job was to have plenty of food for everyone.

Even with less strength that requires me to mostly sit while cooking, I’m able to fix most of the things I’ve always prepared for family gatherings. The main goal is to have plenty of all the things everybody likes.

This is a comfortable role for me now. I prepare the dishes, then sit back and let the rest of the family take charge of serving. I never have to put leftovers away either, or clean up the kitchen anymore. I guess I’m now the chief cook and they are the bottle washers.

Speaking of leftovers, our custom – like with many families, I’m certain – is for the younger ones to come prepared with containers for the leftovers. That’s the reason I always prepare extra. Periodically at other times, I also prepare their favorites – spaghetti and meatballs, chicken and noodles, mac and cheese, beef stew, etc., and separate them into containers for granddaughters to take back to their apartments.

After many years of babysitting, driving them to and from school and sports practices, I’m not needed much anymore, but I can still help stretch their food budgets.

Like everyone else, I’m far less ambitious cooking only for myself, but my daughters shop for me and both are great at following my lists and supplying everything I need.

The thing about living alone is there’s little need for scheduled meals. If I want to eat yogurt and blueberries at 5 a.m., it bothers no one. I can eat a sandwich mid-morning if it suits me, as “the noon hour” doesn’t apply anymore. I’ve found as I grow older, I feel better eating earlier rather than later. I’m hungry in the morning, eat well during the day and not so hungry in the evening.

Like most older folks, I don’t have the capacity anymore for large meals, so eating less more often works much better.

For decades, I was accustomed to organizing meals around meat. Raised on the farm and living several years as a homemaker, meat was always available. We raised our own beef, pork and chicken, and earlier when I was a kid at home, I remember a side of beef hanging in the unheated attic during the winter for our use. As soon as we had electricity, our freezer was always well-stocked with our own meat.

I have finally learned to be a little more creative. Instead of depending on fresh or frozen meat, I often use canned white chicken or packaged tuna to make a range of meals. By combining them with a variety of fresh and frozen vegetables and favorite kinds of pasta, good, nutritious meals can be prepared in minutes rather than hours. If I get hungry for an old-fashioned meal of meat, potatoes and gravy, there are many already prepared meals available.

It’s very possible for someone living alone to still eat well, even if we don’t like to cook.