Author: Pauline O Grady Noonan

Cooking for One

In a world of isolating and cocooning, many people find themselves in the predicament of having to cook for themselves. While cooking for one is often a pleasure (you can make whatever you want to eat), it can also be a challenge.  Cooking for small numbers is more of a way of thinking and planning over specific recipes, while certain recipes obviously suit small batches better, which a little thought and planning, you will find you can still cook whatever you enjoy. A few things to consider are:

Buying: When you are buying, it is best to get familiar with pay by weight ingredients, deli counter options and butcher or fishmonger counters, while you may pay a little extra on the price per kilo over pre-packaged goods, unless you know you will use all of the prepacked, chances are it is better value to buy exactly what you need. Buying your vegetables individually is especially beneficial as they tend to be the most perishable and we are all guilty of throwing far too many fruits and vegetables away no matter how good we try to be to use them up. Try not to overbuy quantities.

Leftovers: Between freezing leftovers for another day, or reinventing leftovers into something else, this is a real key to cooking for one, some of use cooking for one may not be used to it, It might just be engrained in ours minds to always have that bit extra on, just in case. Before you throw any leftovers away, consider what can be done with them, there is very little in the kitchen that can’t be reused one way or another. If you are struggling for inspiration, google some options of what to do with your items, for example leftover potatoes can be used for soups, mash, fish cakes, baking, pasta etc. or leftover meats can be incorporated to any dish in place of raw. Leftovers can be raw produce or a prepared meal, be sure to cool, store and label prepared foods properly.

For more on food safety see: https://www.fsai.ie/faqs/temperature_control.html  and https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/food_safety/food_safety_in_the_home.html#

Cookware: If you are struggling to lower your quantities when cooking out of habit, try using smaller versions of cookware. Use an omelette pan (20cm) instead of a larger frying pan, invest in a small cast iron casserole dish, use smaller saucepans over the bigger ones. Also consider checking average serving sizes of foods.

Don’t overthink the recipes: you can cook anything you enjoy; it doesn’t have to be specific recipes for one. Just consider the buying and use of the leftovers and you will never go too far wrong.

Yoga via Zoom: A unique style of Yoga from the comfort of your own home with Mallow Community Health Project. Chair Yoga with the addition of Standing Yoga finishing with a short meditation. Yoga commencing Thursday the 19th November, 10 am via Zoom, for 4 weeks, finishing on Thursday the 3rd December.

To register please contact Pauline, Community Health Worker at : 087- 4335047 or Email at : chp@lecheilefrc.ie

Mallow Community Health Project in collaboration Le Cheile Family Resource Centre, are commencing an initiative , this Tuesday evening , the 10th November at 7 pm, live on Facebook “Cooking For One”. Following the last Lockdown, the Community Health Project , got a lot of queries about cooking for one, eating well and making the meal interesting and nutritious. In a world of isolating and cocooning, many people find themselves in the predicament of having to cook for themselves. While cooking for one is often a pleasure (you can make whatever you want to eat), it can also be a challenge. Cooking for small numbers is more of a way of thinking and planning over specific recipes, while certain recipes obviously suit small batches better, with a little thought and planning, you will find you can still cook whatever you enjoy! Click here for the link to the Facebook page!

Mallow Health Week 2018 was held from the 1st to the 5th of October. The week of activities included offering free access to gyms and exercise classes as well as mindfulness sessions. Throughout the week it was possible to get health checks with the public health nurses and get informed on cancer prevention with the Marie Keating Foundation.

 

The main event was held on Thursday the 4th. Leaving from Le Cheile Family Resource Centre, Pat Kerrigan of the Red Hot Chilli Steppers Walking Group led a group of over 80 walkers through Mallow. Walkers from walking groups in the city and county arrived down by the bus loads and joined the locals for a walk through Mallow Town.

 

The walk finished up at Mallow Social Services where the walkers were given a healthy dinner, served up by volunteers from the CDYS, who did an amazing job.

 

Dinner was followed by a session of laughing yoga with Debbie McCann. Hearing 80 people laughing out loud was something else!

 

The night finished up everyone getting free Healthy Ireland goodies and a few pieces of fruit (courtesy of Dano’s Supervalu) for the way home!

 

 

Mallow Community Health Project organised a Yoga at the Castle event in Mallow this summer and it proved to be a wonderful success.

The classes ran from June to August, overall. A total of 667 people attended over the course of the summer, with an average of over 50 people per class.

The Le Cheile Mallow Men’s Shed volunteered to steward the event and they did an amazing job.

The classes raised over €1650 in donation for the Men’s Shed, which is very much needed as they build their new meeting space in Le Cheile Community Garden (see below).

The project would like to extend a big thank you to all of who came out and donated.