Anne recently lost her husband of 42 years to cancer.

“I just can not cook myself,” she said. ”What can I do cooking is not such an ordeal?”

Anne’s circumstance is typical of many seniors who have lost a spouse or partner. And while it would be easy for her a “cooking for a cookbook that is really not the problem – an undesirable change.

When you are ready for a family of two or more, cooking for one is a lonely business. But a few simple changes can help.

1. Change your cooking environment.

Toss or store those old dishes are so many signals for remembering other times. Replace with a new set for two or four. I found four beautiful dinnerware sets for under $ 50.00 at Crate & Barrel and Kitchen, Tableware, etc. need not be expensive to be fun, and the change will help guide you to the life you now live.

While you’re at it, take a quick trip to your local bookstore. Many of the latest cookbooks feature beautiful color photographs of delicious meals to tempt your taste buds.

2. Change your eating habits.

Change the time you eat your e-mail meal. Change your regular diet to something new and more exciting. Change your eating partner. You may have friends who would enjoy sharing a meal. If not, volunteer or to create new senior centers.

Invite friends, new and old, to come to share a meal. Maybe they enjoy sharing meal preparations as well.

Spend your meals regularly work at a soup kitchen or delivering “Meals-on-Wheels.” It’s hard to be lonely when you give of yourself.

3. Not cooking for one.

It is not difficult to prepare a meal for four than a meal for one – if cooking for four, and freeze the surplus in meal portions. TM Ziplock freezer bags will work well for single servings, but do not use sandwich bags. They are too thin for adequate freeze.

Alternatively, consider a vacuum packaging system. The company promotes its system bags boil-in bags and frozen containers.Vacuum air removal extends the shelf life of frozen foods. I found such a system under $ 40.00 on DmartStores. Replacements bags are about $ 16.00 for three, 66-bag roll.

Do not forget to label bags and flatten, while freezer for easy stacking.

4. Eat what you’ve grown in your garden.

Food you’ve grown yourself feeds your body and your mind. Even the smallest patio has room for a few pots of tomatoes and spicy peppers, and watching the plants mature and produce fruit and vegetables is something to look forward to every day. Freeze excess produce.

5. Proportion of frozen meals with a friend.

Commercial frozen meals with a friend (whom you pre-qualified as a good, or at least acceptable cook). You will both benefit from a change in diet.

6. Eating!

But not just food. While working as a veteran road warrior, I spent many weeks away from friends and family. I often ate in restaurants, but it was never the same as eating with a pleasant companion. So take the initiative – Invite a friend to lunch or dinner.

Remember, cooking for one is not the problem. Loneliness and living in memories, but you can from them and toward enjoying meals again.