Cooking for One: Finding Your Way Back to the Kitchen After Loss
There's a particular kind of grief that shows up around 6pm.
It's not the big, obvious kind.
Not the one that hits you at the funeral or in the quiet of the first empty morning. It's smaller than that, and somehow just as heavy: standing in front of an open fridge, not sure what to make, because the person you used to cook for isn't there anymore. The person you used to cook with isn’t there anymore.
Related:Get the Cooking for One: 5 Simple Dinners to Get You Through FREE recipe cards
Maybe you spent years learning their favorites, planning meals around their schedule, their appetite, their preferences. Maybe cooking was never really about you at all. It was more of an act of love for your person. And now that the person it was aimed at is gone, the whole ritual can feel, well, pointless! I know it did for me after my husband passed away. I didn’t care about meals anymore. Nor did I have the energy to prepare them!
The recipes that I used to make, the ones built for four or more people, seemed to mock me from the counter.
For many widows, the grocery store feels like a maze with no clear path. Some avoid it altogether.
And on many nights, cereal for dinner becomes the answer. It’s all they can muster.
If that's where you are, you're not doing grief wrong!
Cooking after loss isn't just a logistics problem. It's relearning how to care for yourself when the reason you used to do it has changed.
It's grieving in the produce aisle. It’s walking out of the store with an empty cart and tears in your eyes.
It's realizing your body still needs to eat, even when nothing in you wants to make that happen.
Here's the good news: you don't need to relearn everything at once. You don't need elaborate meals or a full pantry overhaul. You need permission to keep it small. Simplify. Keep it easy. Keep a few go-to ideas that don't ask much of you on the hard days.
That's the whole idea behind cooking for one right now: lower the bar, my friends!
Fewer ingredients. Fewer decisions. Meals that come together in the time it takes to feel too tired to bother.
Below are 20 simple meal ideas, each with six ingredients or less. No fuss, no big grocery trips, no six servings of leftovers staring back at you all week. Just something warm, something real, for a table of one.
20 Simple Meals (6 Ingredients or Less)
Grilled cheese + tomato soup — bread, butter, cheese, canned soup
Egg fried rice — leftover rice, eggs, soy sauce, frozen peas
Quesadillas — tortillas, cheese, optional shredded chicken
Baked salmon with lemon — salmon, olive oil, lemon, salt, pepper
One-pot chili — ground beef, canned beans, canned tomatoes, chili powder
Spaghetti aglio e olio — pasta, garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes
Black bean tacos — canned black beans, tortillas, cheese, salsa
Chicken and rice bowl — rotisserie chicken, rice, frozen veggies, soy sauce
Caprese pasta salad — pasta, tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, balsamic
Sheet pan sausage and veggies — sausage, potatoes, peppers, olive oil
Tuna melt — canned tuna, mayo, bread, cheese
Baked sweet potato with toppings — sweet potato, butter, black beans, cheese
Peanut butter noodles — noodles, peanut butter, soy sauce, garlic
Omelet with toast — eggs, cheese, butter, bread
Turkey and cheese roll-ups — deli turkey, cheese, mustard, lettuce
Simple soup + crusty bread — canned soup, bread, butter
Avocado toast with egg — bread, avocado, egg, salt, chili flakes
Grilled chicken salad — pre-cooked chicken, greens, dressing, cheese
Beans and rice with salsa — canned beans, rice, salsa, cheese
Yogurt bowl with granola and fruit — yogurt, granola, fruit, honey
You don't have to cook something impressive tonight. You just have to eat!
And if you can find five minutes of comfort in doing it, that's enough.
One small meal, one small step, at a time.
You're allowed to take care of yourself here too.
You’ve got this!
We put together something for YOU! Cooking For One — five ridiculously simple dinners, turned into printable recipe cards, made for cooking after loss. No fancy ingredients. No six servings you'll be eating all week. Just simple, doable meals for the nights you want to take care of yourself, because you need to take care of yourself.
It's completely free, and it's our way of saying: you don't have to figure this out alone.
Grab your five recipe cards HERE!
With hope, Jen
