Cooking While Grieving

[mfh]

If you are like me in the early days and not so early days following our losses, preparing meals is a huge challenge. For those who lost a spouse/partner it means cooking alone, eating alone. Who needs it, we might ask ourselves. In our house Bill and I cooked and cleaned up together. So cooking was and still is lonely. One thing we did a lot of was triple recipes and freeze portions so we had meals ready and just had to make a salad or whatever. Today I am making a LOT of chili. I triple the batch and freeze it. I do not mind eating the same thing often so it works for me. I came across this site on a link from "What's Your Grief?" and it suggests cooking once a month and freezing meals. That feels like way too much for me to take on but there are good recipes here so I pass it on. http://onceamonthmeals.com/

Here is the original link: http://www.whatsyourgrief.com/grief-cooking-after-a-death/

At the same time that cooking is difficult and eating alone is worse, it is essential that we eat well. I keep carrot sticks and other cut up veggies in the frig and when I feel I can tackle cooking things like a triple batch of chili, I do that. If my crock pot held more, I would quadruple it.

Keeping yogurt, fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, Healthy Choice (which are not really all that healthy) in the freezer, and other easy to prepare foods will at least get some nourishment in us. I also have a nutribullet and put in almond milk, kelp or other greens, rice based protein powder, almonds, fruit and whatever and create a nutritious, mostly tasty, smoothy. I make a big one and sip it when I feel hungry during the day.

Please take care of yourselves, as challenging as that is. Grief is stressful and exhausting (need I say that?) and we have to compensate for that in order to deal with the pain and heal our bodies.

[MartyT]

This piece may be of help, too: In Grief, The Challenge of Cooking for One

[mfh]

Great piece, Marty, including the links at the bottom.