BE PREPARED

Most single people like the freedom they have of not having to care for someone else, and that includes cooking. If you only have to feed yourself, you could easily get away with a sandwich every day of the week. Of course, you can, and many singles do, go to a restaurant when you want a more fancy dish, but how wonderful it could be to invite someone over and enjoy something that you have cooked!

This blog will bring easy recipes and cooking tips, designed for single lifestyle. It will provide you with ideas what to cook for a dinner date, what to pack for a picnic date, how to throw a successful singles’ party, and it will also give you information on how to be more effective in the kitchen, how to organize cooking for a few days, how to store food etc.

I would love to get your feedback, suggestions, and ideas. What challenges are you facing in the kitchen? What kind of food would you like to cook? How to move from junk food to a healthy diet? etc. Please tell me what you would like to find here.

So let's begin. Get these three small appliances if you don't have them yet, as they will help you a lot.

•         Microwave
•         Toaster oven
•         Small grill (such as the small square Foreman grill)

The microwave can be used not just for warming food but also for cooking, and it takes minutes. Consider baked potatoes. You need at least 45 minutes to bake potatoes in a conventional oven, depending on your oven, the number of potatoes and their cut size. Baking in the microwave will take 3-5 minutes! Surely there is a difference in texture, but some dishes require just a simple cooking, and if you want a crispy finish, just stick then in the toaster oven for a few more minutes.
Find below a quick recipe for excellent baked potatoes in the microwave!

The toaster oven shortens baking time since you work with smaller quantities (you don’t want to use a conventional oven to bake two potatoes or roast one red pepper). Naturally, it will save electricity costs too. It also works in great harmony with the microwave. 

A small grill is very useful for a single person, and you don’t need much space to store it. There’s a variety of things you can cook on a grill, not just meats.


One of the things most efficient cooks have in common is they try to prepare ahead of time whatever is possible. Being prepared will make you feel in control of cooking, and therefore will increase your confidence, and this in turn will make you a more adventurous cook who is not afraid to try a new recipe.

This is just like in Dating... Your want to regain control on what's going on in your love life. Your goal is to meet that special person, but to do that you need first to be attractive to the opposite gender. You need to manifest a certain level of confidence. Confidence is built on knowledge and clarity. You learn how to do things right, and that’s how you get the results you want. Just like in cooking, have I said that already?😉

To feel you're making the right moves along the dating process, you need to prepare yourself for various dating situations. You’ve got to rethink and decide about your approach to dating: how you would like to be treated, courted and pursued; and how you intend to treat the other person. You need to build your dating integrity. Surely, such a value system is assembled over time, but you can advance faster by preparing yourself through learning and self-awareness. Once you understand what is right for you, dating situations will be less confusing and more fun. Furthermore, you will not have regrets that maybe you should have acted differently, since your behaviour would reflect your new awareness and new skills, and your planned-in-advance action.

Let’s look at this dating situation. You’re out at a bar or at a party or at a singles’ event, and there is a guy who fetches your attention. This guy chats with you, asks you for a dance or two, and shows interest in you, but, to your dismay, has not asked for your phone number…

Now what some women might do in this situation, is take initiative and give the guy their phone number; other women might flirt, hoping that the guy would eventually make a move on them; and still other women won’t do anything and hope to have another opportunity to meet this guy again at the same place or in a similar event.

It always works better to determine ahead of time what you would do in a certain situation. If you don’t, you’d be left to make a last-minute decision and you’ll most likely be triggered to act based on some previous pattern that has been ruling your dating life but hasn’t proved successful.

Getting prepared to find your match means reflecting on the options and finding out what would suit you. Getting in touch with your inner voice will help you identify what is right for you. Realizing that this is how you would like things to be will give you clarity, and clarity is a confidence builder (and therefore an attraction booster!). More importantly, you will become free to be who you are, and this in itself is an aphrodisiac to the opposite gender (authenticity is a strong attraction booster). If, for example, you know that you’re not going to ask a guy for his phone number, or offer him yours, your interaction with him will be more relaxed and confident. You may be nice to the guy, you may flirt with him, but you know that you will only respond to his advances and not initiate your own.

By building your dating integrity you are freeing yourself from being obsessed with what other people think or do, and from stumbling upon a number of obstacles. From now on things will seem clearer, and it will be easier for you to make a decision based on what you truly want. You will most likely be able to enjoy the dating process more than you did up to now.

Now let’s look at another scenario. Let’s say that the guy did ask for your phone number and you have given it to him. Two weeks have passed, and you have not heard from him. A few weeks later you bump into him again, at another singles’ event, or at the same bar. He seems to be happy to meet you, and so are you. Now here many women may be inclined to become more active and pursuing, fearing to miss a second chance to get together with the guy. Or, if the guy offers his phone number, they may jump at the opportunity. 

What should you do?

The answer is simple, if you have already reflected about such a situation before, and have identified what would work for you. For example, you have decided ahead of time that you were not going to take a guy's phone number, because you prefer that he takes initiative and be the one to call first. Now you know what to do, and you can act with ease and confidence. You can just say casually that you prefer to give him your phone number instead. No explanations are needed; you just do what feels right for you, after you have thought about it.

Microwave baked potatoes

You will need:

• A glass baking pan (cover with a microwave plastic cover, or paper napkin). 
• 4 medium potatoes
• Salt, pepper, paprika, chilli if you like it a bit spicy
• Herbs such as: parsley, thyme, coriander, chives, oregano, basil etc. 
• 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil

How to make it:

1. In a bowl mix all spices and herbs (finely chopped) with the olive oil. 
2. Peel the potatoes, and wash them.
3. Cut into your preferred shape: squares or slices. This matters mostly for presentation purposes, and whether you want to use them for as leftovers for another recipe. 
4. Add the potatoes to the herb mix and rub them well all around. You could also shake them in a closed bowl or in a plastic bag.
5. Pour into the glass baking pan, and bake on highest heat for 6 minutes. The smaller the pieces and the thinner the slices, the faster it will cook. Note also, not all microwaves have the same power capacity, so check your potatoes after 5 min to make sure they are not overcooked, and if needed add 1-2 minutes if they are not soft enough.  

Before

5 minutes later...

Wishing you a great week and happy cooking :)

💗💛💗

If you're single and interested in dating tips and advice check the following:

https://singlescommunity.blogspot.com/ 

Singles Community provide an opportunity for you to get to know yourself better, build your dating integrity, and prepare for various dating situations by making your decisions ahead of time.

You may also find interest in this website: http://www.TheSingleOption.com 

©2018 by Irene Yarkoni. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse please contact

TheSingleOption@gmail.com

Cooking and Romance

There's an old saying that the road to a man's heart passes through his stomach...
Today, regrettably, some women may take offense at this idea,
and we also witness many men venturing into the kitchen,
making their way into a woman's heart...


It can be great fun, cooking together with your date or partner. A friend once told me that a good sign of future harmony with his new date is if they can cook together in his small kitchen. And what if she's not the cooking type?...

Cooking type or not, everyone can not only enjoy cooking with their date, but also indulge in some great cooking for themselves, and even entertain with grace and taste. Dating, too, is a form of entertaining, and the secret to both successful entertaining and dating is: "Be Prepared!". If you prepare ahead of time you will be amazed by the results!

Consider this, guys: being a great host increases your confidence, and the gals love it -- self confidence is the best aphrodisiac. And ladies, cooking can be so creative and rewarding! If you have ignored it for a while, come here regularly to remember what a contribution a great meal and a beautiful table setting can make to a relationship (and for this matter, not only a romantic relationship; your kid/s will love it, and your girlfriend will treat you back at her place!). Entertaining can open a whole world of socializing as well as dating opportunities, as you will see in this blog.

Here I will show you some simple yet pretty ways to set a dinner table, prepare a meal for two, organize a little singles' party, and especially I'd like to share with you some great dishes that you can easily make for yourself, because you deserve it!

And while we're cooking I'll throw in some dating tips so you won't be bored, if cooking is not exciting enough for you! If you are a single parent some stuff here will be of great use to you too. There is something in this blog for every single person, so I hope you visit often, and drop me a line every now and then. You might even meet someone here and cook together happily ever after :)