Grief: Changing cooking habits for a new life stage

I’ve been feeling a bit guilty lately. And I’m not into guilt feelings. It wasn’t part of my growing up.

We were just taught to be honest and study and try to do our best — to do the right thing.

But lately I have been feeling guilty about wasting food. This really started nagging me after the recent holidays. I threw away lots of food. Just cooked too much to eat.

As many know, I like to cook. But when I cook for just one, there are huge leftovers.

When Baheej was here, this wasn’t a problem. Baheej enjoyed good meals and my cooking, and we entertained a lot. And we would send some of the leftovers home with guests.

But now, I always have too many leftovers. Of course parts can be frozen, but there is still lots of waste. Eventually it goes into the garbage. Waste.

I’ve decided I must change my ways, change the way I am cooking meals. And certainly tone down holiday cooking!

Many of my friends have said that it’s very difficult cooking for one. I always said that I just freeze the leftovers.

But now that I think about it, I really cook too much and create too much wasted food. This is because I never changed my cooking habits; I cook the same as I did with many eaters in the house. I never learned to cook for one.

Now I realize I need to change. Cooking too much is a waste of time, effort, money and food.

So the point is: Every stage in this wonderful life deserves its own plans and traditions.

There are many alternatives to “what we’ve always done.” So I’ve decided to change some of my ways. For the next big holiday, if I’m alone, I will cook for only one! Or I’ll simply go out for a special dinner, something I don’t usually cook myself. No more wasting food. Waste not, want not.

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@aol.com.