How To Eat Healthy For One or Two People

How to eat healthy for one or two people gets harder as we age or for students going to college. I have to tell you a funny story because you’ll then understand where I’m coming from today. I live in a mostly retired community with a few younger families as well. Mark and I went to an “empty nester’s” dinner in the neighborhood a few years ago where each couple attending was asked to bring something to share. My friend, Kathleen who you’ve heard me talk about before, fixed her yummy enchiladas. I made a huge spinach salad with fresh strawberries, candied pecans, and freshly chopped apples, topped with my homemade poppy seed dressing. I hope you can picture this and not take it as if I’m being mean. We walked into the party with the enchiladas and the spinach salad and placed them on the kitchen counter alongside about 20 microwaved frozen dinners with the lids removed. We used to call these TV dinners. Now they all have fancy names on the frozen boxes, but to me, they are TV dinners. You know it was a potluck dinner and everyone brings a dish to share. It still makes me giggle in a good way to this day thinking about that potluck dinner.

My gut tells me that most older people are too tired to cook a healthy meal. Also, they are living on limited budgets, most of the time. I have watched a beautiful granddaughter struggle to buy groceries as a college student living off-campus. She is very independent because her parents have taught her well. No entitlement there, let’s leave it at that. As a grandma, I slip her a few small gift cards to grocery stores, when I can. I send her some food storage occasionally because I want her to have some food and water if a disaster were to hit where she lives. She is paying for school herself so this is a little way I can help her. She works part-time at a job near her apartment. That part-time job money she earns is her food budget. With her busy schedule, these would make great smoothies and give her some of the nutrients she needs.

Here’s the deal, if you have someone in your family or a neighbor who you think may need help with meals, please take a small plate of dinner over to them if you can. If you are like me there is always extra food for one or two people. If you have a paper plate filled with one meal to take to them that’s perfect because they won’t need to return a dish. If you have a garden take them a few tomatoes, they will love it!

I have another idea as well. One of my sponsors, North Bay Trading Company (they advertise with me), has a variety of food storage items you should check out. I must tell you, I LOVE LOVE LOVE their products. When I wrote my book: Prepare Your Family for Survival: How to Be Ready for Any Emergency or Disaster Situation I made mention of their products because they have the highest quality of food in small, short-term food storage packages. I call them the Nordstrom’s of food storage. The prices are great, the customer service is awesome and the quality is superior. They are a family-owned business and sell several Kosher and organic products as well. I’m thinking that a great gift to any older couple, or a single person if they have a blender, they could make smoothies easily with the following products because they would not have to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables from any store. They could have the items listed below in their pantry ready to make a healthy smoothie anytime. They won’t have to wash, peel or chop any one of them because they are ready to use right from the package. I realize not everyone can afford a fancy blender that can crush ice cubes, but this one works very well: Ninja Professional Blender 1000 (BL610) according to the reviews.

Eat Healthy With These Items:

These are just a few of the items I purchase to make smoothies because it saves me time and there is no waste. All you do is add your favorite milk of choice, fruit juice, or water with some ice cubes. You’ll notice I only choose freeze-dried fruits and vegetables because they do not have to be cooked like dehydrated vegetables. Remember, some of these are powders so you a little goes a long way.

Please stay healthy by trying to eat better and keep your body strong! Thanks for being prepared for the unexpected.