With the sizes of the families shrinking and work life demanding more time than ever before, cooking for one has become a daily reality. And, when you are compelled to cook for just you, chances are that you seek the easy way to soothe the hunger pangs rather than cater to health requirements. Because, let's face it, it’s no fun cooking for the lone diner... or is it?

If you go by the cookbook written by Chefs Mark and Lisa Erickson in association with The Culinary Institute of America, you'll find that cooking for one can be fun, easy and satisfying. The book ‘Cooking For One',  has a collection of easy recipes and techniques for the lone home cook to plan and create interesting meals. The book addresses the three essential needs for cooking for one – a healthy food lifestyle, sensibility and practicality. The authors affirm that developing a food lifestyle, where you take time out to cook and eat, is an important element in cooking for just yourself. Equally important are sensible ways of cooking where you include fresh flavors, interesting textures and a variety of ingredients and the approaches to cut down time and money like advanced preparation and storage.

What's more, the recipes in the book are categorized by season to take advantage of maximum benefits of seasonal fruits and vegetables. Thus, spring recipes feature asparagus and strawberries, summer recipes have eggplant, zucchini and raspberry and fall and winter recipes highlight veggies like blackberries, prunes and apples. The authors also give plenty of options to the home cook in terms of ingredients while cooking one dish. For example, the Fig and Raspberry Gratin would essentially call for fig and raspberry to be the prime ingredients. But the authors give other options like plums and peaches to replace them depending on availability. Almost all the recipes are very easy to do. The Fig and Raspberry Gratin itself would take less than thirty minutes to prepare and can be done in three easy steps. They also talk about each ingredient and give tips on where to procure them and how to store them. In a recipe for Honey Lavender Semifreddo, Lisa engages in a chit-chat about where to buy lavender blossoms from and how to store semifreddo for later use.

Another interesting aspect of the cookbook is that the authors Mark and Lisa have added their own individual approach to each dish. So there are separate strategies available to help both ‘him’ and ‘her’. Peppered with anecdotes, comments and engaging arguments by the authors, this cookbook makes cooking for the lone diner flavorful, interesting and healthy. Cooking for one is an inevitable addition to every food lovers’ collection.

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