Hello, my name is Henriette
I hold a bachelor's degree in nutrition from the University of Bergen, and I plan the week's dinners for people who would like to eat better but are done thinking about it.
My grandfather ate the same food for eleven years
Fish cakes on Monday. Meatballs on Tuesday. Porridge on Wednesday. And then the week started again.
It was not because he did not know better. He read the health pages in the newspaper as though it were homework, and knew the dietary advice better than most. But he lived alone, he cooked for one, and every time he tried something new he was left with half a bag of coriander and a bottle of sesame oil he never used up. So he went back to the three dishes he knew.
For a long time I thought he needed more knowledge. That was part of why I started studying nutrition in Bergen.
Then I discovered he knew more than half my year group.
It is not knowledge people lack
I met the same thing again and again. People in their sixties and seventies who knew the advice by heart, and who still ate the same food every week.
A week of dinners takes around fifteen decisions. What shall it be, how much should you buy, what do you do with the rest of the bag, will you have time, and can you face thinking of something at four o'clock. That is where it breaks down. Never on the knowledge.
So I stopped explaining and started deciding instead. Every Monday I send you seven dinners, a shopping list that adds up, and recipes that say exactly what to do. You are not meant to learn anything. You are meant to be spared it.
Who I cook for
Most people who use Henriettehagen are over 55. Many cook for one or two. Some have recently found themselves alone and discovered how little you want to cook dinner just for yourself. Others cooked for a family for thirty years and are simply tired of it.
None of them wants a project. They do not want to log meals or embark on a journey. They want to eat a little better without it taking up so much room.
That seems to me a reasonable thing to want.
How I work
Ordinary food
Meatballs, fish gratin, oven-baked salmon. Things you recognise, made a little better.
Nothing banned
Coffee and cake on a Sunday was never the problem. I do not pretend that it was.
Small changes
What lasts ten years is worth more than what lasts three weeks.
I see the plans before they go out
Every plan is checked against your allergies, and I read through the ones that call for a judgement.
Education
BSc in Nutrition
University of Bergen
For the record: I am not a clinical nutritionist. That is a protected title in Norway which requires a master's degree and authorisation from the Norwegian Directorate of Health. Henriettehagen is dietary guidance, not healthcare, and it does not replace treatment by a doctor. If you have a condition that requires a special diet, talk to your doctor first, and I will build the plans around it.
If any of this sounded familiar, I would be glad to make next week's dinners for you.
Henriette Hagen
Bachelor i ernæring, Universitetet i Bergen