by Sharlene

Meals under a week of lockdown #WeekendCooking

And so yes, I went on a panic buy. Just for a few extra things after I heard that our county in the Bay Area was one of the six announcing “shelter in place” that would begin 1201am Tuesday. I learnt of the news just after lunch on Monday (the schools had announced closure the Friday before) and immediately the husband went to Trader Joe’s to grab milk, more fruits, bread. When he returned, I popped into our closest Asian supermarket for noodles, some frozen bao, fresh vegetables. I was hoping to also get some tofu and chicken but none was to be found. I was worried about the lines getting longer – and also staying out too long with possible COVID-19 carriers – so I didn’t want to wait at the seafood or fresh meat counter.

Anyway, we do have supplies at home like rice, flour and other staples. It’s more like the fresh produce that may require a trip to the supermarket next week. But for now we are doing ok. Hope you are too.

But with four people at home for all meals plus snacks, I am thankful that my kids are the kind who are happy to have sandwiches for lunch several days in a row!

Here are some of the meals I’ve made over the lockdown week so far:

 

 

Noodles with chicken, bean sprouts, prawns and enoki mushrooms.

 

 

 

Pizza with asparagus and bacon

 

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Over the weekend, I’m thinking of making a baked Mac and cheese to freeze. Maybe make some more pizza dough to pop into the freezer. I don’t have any tortillas at the moment, but I was thinking of making some freezer burritos, either breakfast style with scrambled eggs, bacon and potatoes, or regular with black beans, rice, and cheese.

Another thought I had was to make some wonton or dumplings to freeze.

What meals do you make ahead to freeze? I always make extra bolognese sauce to freeze, and whenever I make waffles at home, I always triple the batch to have extra to freeze. I also like to have homemade pizza rolls in the freezer which are a quick school lunch idea. And when I make bread, I tend to make two loaves at a time, and stick one in the freezer. Otherwise, I’m not quite sure that the Chinese-style food that we cook is all that freezer-friendly.

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend Cooking at Beth Fish Reads is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, beer, wine, photographs

20 Comments

  2. I made baked broccoli mac and cheese last night! but we’re having it for two dinners and then probably a lunch. I know I’m going to be baking before next week is out. We managed to buy some bread to freeze, but I’m sure I’ll have to make some before this is over.

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  3. Looks like your house is eating well! We’ve been in self isolation since Sunday night, when my parents returned from the US (anyone returning to Canada from abroad has been asked to self isolate for 2 weeks) so I did A LOT of shopping last week in preparation for that. The vegetable selection is definitely going to start to dwindle as we head into the next week.

    We’ve been cooking lots of soups, stews, and dals for the freezer so even when the fresh vegetables are used up we’ll have good things waiting. And because my father is such an enthusiastic fisherman and hunter, our freezer is full of fish and game so no worries about that. I do have all the ingredients ready for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies later in the week – always good to have something fun to look forward to.

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  4. More homecooked food this last week than my husband knows what to do with! we bought (not panicked bought! just our normal grocery run) canned goods, fruit and veggies, eggs. No chicken to be found here in any store either, but we were able to get some ground beef and pork loin.

    I made pear scones and chickpea tabbouli today, and we had apple cinnamon pancakes for dinner. I have some canned fish, so going to make freezable quinoa and fish cakes tomorrow. Bread has been hard to find, i bought a jar of yeast, and we always have flour and other staples in the house. It’s the bottled water, fresh fruit and veggies that requires trips to the store every three to four days! We can’t drink the tap water here, we used to do the refillable gallon jugs for about 50 cents a gallon, but last time we were at the store, they had shut down the refill machine. that sucked.

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    1. Trips to the supermarket are still ok but as we are trying to minimise contact with strangers and possibly germy surfaces, we are hoping to not go to the store too much!

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  6. Are you starting to find it difficult to buy flour though? Luckily I have plenty of it because I like to have stocks to satisfy sudden baking needs.

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    1. Yeah my husband checked a couple of stores over the weekend. One was out of flour and the other only allowed one per customer. Small bag too

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    1. Good to hear that you got your order! People here have been saying it’s hard to get groceries delivered, that you have to check time slots early in the morning.

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