Cooking for one....

Cooking for one...

I loved to cook...and with  four children, I cooked a lot...big breakfasts,
 easier lunches and sit down dinners  every night. When we got into sports, crockpot meals were more imperative, otherwise it was fast food on the way home every night,which was far too expensive.....

My children, attended christian schools most of the time, so their hot,lunch programs varied from place to place..so lunches were either brought from home or from time to time, they could.purchase their lunches. At one school, I prepared hot lunch once a week for the whole school until I enlisted other willing parents to help,with the job...at another school,  another parent and I prepared a hot lunch once a week as well from a tiny little kitchen...

Later, as each child left home, the meal prep and meals got less and less..until for several years, it was just cooking for two...I had a hard time paring down the recipes to two though...and now it is just me, one.....harder still...I break the packages down to one serving, but I think it is more the ambiance of the family meal...the fellowship around the table, the jokes, the stories, the excitement, the teasing,  the daily news, rather than the cooking I miss....I have never been down to one until now....there was always family meals with other people to visit with...I find myself eating more and more "TV dinners" rather than "cooking".  We used to have many meals with a multitude of people around the table or tables...gatherings of friends and family...fun, fun, fun...

There are cookbooks for "cooking for one" and they are great...but it doesn't replace the fellowship, camaraderie of people...around the table...and even going to a restaurant as one is really not fun...

I am working on buying less and less food, but there is still waste when the end of the week comes around, no more big  pots of soup-"week in review" as my husband would call it..now I may make a pot of soup and eat it all week..adding various accompanying side dishes...

Contentment..may be the key here...being content in ALL circumstances...with many and In solitude..Thank YOU for Your presence through all the changes, even in the meal times for one.....

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,
Psalm 95:6-7 NIV

 Philippians 4:11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Philippians 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”