More people than ever before are living alone, and when it comes to meal preparation, they face a number of challenges. As a result, many resort to a diet of canned food, commercially precooked frozen dinners, fast food, takeouts or they eat out, all of which leads to a great deal of expense and misery.

When consumed on a frequent basis, these types of meals contribute significantly to serious health problems, among them cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia, allergies, the list goes on. Such foods inflict a double whammy on your well-being: First, they are mostly overprocessed, cooked to death and devoid of any meaningful nutrition which your body must have in order to function properly.

Second, these “convenience foods” are replete with high amounts of unhealthy fats, salt, sugar and numerous harmful additives.

“Why bother to cook just for me?” is a question often asked. By asking this question you are implying that you are not worth the effort. Please discard that idea into your wastebasket pronto – good, done! Not only are you worth it, on the contrary, because you must rely primarily on yourself for taking loving care of your well-being, preparing nutritious, home-cooked meals is particularly important.

What can also seem as an added challenge for the cook-for-one is the fact that cookbooks, magazines and similar sources don’t generally offer recipes for a single serving.

Taking the time to cook for yourself, is fun, relaxing and makes you feel loved. Preparing meals at home is one of the joys and necessities of life. It also allows you to control the quality of your meals, take charge of your health and enjoy much better tasting food prepared from fresh, minimally processed ingredients at a greatly reduced cost.

When you eat healthy, you feel happier, more energetic and are less prone to chronic disease. Such a diet also helps you better manage existing health conditions.

The following are examples of the many simple strategies you can implement to make meal preparation easy, quick, budget-friendly and fun:

•Going food-shopping once a week saves tons of time and dough. Before you go, make a list so you can stock your kitchen with the healthful ingredients you will need for the week.

•You don’t have to cook from scratch every day. Make double or even quadruple batches, portion them and freeze a couple of the “leftovers” for use a week later. Refrigerate the remaining portions for meals in the next few days.

•If you cook larger quantities of basic ingredients, such as whole wheat pasta, dried beans or brown rice, for example, they can form the basis for a variety of different dishes. Larger amounts of soups or stews also allow you to enjoy on-demand wholesome comfort food as needed.

•Add sliced or diced cooked chicken to sandwiches, soups, salads, cooked pasta or rice.

•Steaming your veggies is the fastest cooking method which also best preserves their nutrients.

•Nutritious sandwiches, coupled with a delicious bowl of home-cooked soup offer another option that allows you to quickly and easily assemble a nourishing meal.

•Wash salad vegetables for several days, divide into portions and refrigerate them in air tight containers or sealed plastic bags. At mealtime, making a salad will take only five minutes.

• You can slightly change each leftover on the day it is used. This adds variety so you don’t have to eat exactly the same meal several times in a short span of time.

•Combining different food groups into a one-dish meal can save work.

•Start each day with a nutritious breakfast. Mix and match two to three options per breakfast as follows: cooked Old-Fashioned style oats (oatmeal) or quality whole grain cold cereal topped with reduced fat milk or soy milk; fresh fruit; quality plain low-fat yogurt (read labels) add chopped fresh fruit and/or nuts; one hard cooked egg (cook several eggs in advance for more than one breakfast); ½ cup low-fat cottage cheese; a bowl of leftover brown rice topped with milk and sliced half a banana and so forth.

While you are cooking, enjoy the aromas wafting from the food purring in your pots, listen to relaxing music – it’s your special time for taking loving care of yourself.

Judy E. Buss is a syndicated eating-for-health columnist and blogger, speaker and nutritional cooking instructor.