Dinner For One Alternative - Recipe - Healthy Beef Stew

I remember the loneliest food item I ever saw — I was visiting my father for one of ‘his’ weekends and I must have been no more than 10 years old. I stood in his kitchen, a very masculine kitchen with rich wood cabinets and faux brick floors (it was the early eighties). He had heavy wood Venetian blinds and a microwave about the size of Oklahoma. It was a warm place, a place where pancakes were made.

My Dad had a way with many culinary delights including steak au poivre, chef salad with the most perfect pinwheels of roast beef, turkey, Virginia ham and gruyere, and, of course, his signature vanilla bean ice cream with amaretto and fresh strawberries. Still, as I peered into his cupboard, I could not help the huge wave of sadness that washed over me. There it was, all alone on the second shelf, the loneliest food item ever created: Campbell’s Soup for One. It stood there sort of half turned to the right as if it were somehow ashamed of itself, stunted-looking at half the size of the normal Campbell’s and with no sign of the joyous illustration that graced the full-size cans. I couldn’t help asking my father about it. He explained that he really only cooked when my brother and I were with him, or if friends came by. He never really cooked for himself because he did not see the sense in it as a single father who mostly dined with clients or the lady du jour.

Just tonight I saw the second loneliest thing ever. A man -- he could not have been more than 28 — stood in the back aisle freezer section at the Duane Reade. I had a creeping suspicion he was plucking his dinner from the frozen food case, choosing between Hot Pockets and Lean Cuisine. I thought to myself – is this all there is for him? Where is the love in a Hot Pocket? The answer is simple: There is no love in a Hot Pocket and for sure there is no love in the frozen food aisle at the Duane Reade.

And so it goes, my mission, to help young single men everywhere find the love in their dinners. To free themselves from culinary lifelessness. To once and for all take charge of their gustatory bliss. To embrace the possibility of nourishing themselves with such fervor that life has new meaning and each day brings about the promises of many new adventures.

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