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Eating from the Pantry
Your pantry is full. You have a fridge and a freezer full of food. And then you are quarantined (sorry, it's the example that comes to mind as I'm writing this) or have another crisis that means you can't grocery shop for a couple of weeks (or longer).
So what do you do? Sure, there's plenty of food, but do you know how to use it all? Can you come up with breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and drinks for a couple of weeks? Where do you start?
You start by doing a thorough clean out of the pantry, fridge, freezer and anywhere else you store your food.
Why? So you can see what you have, and to make finding that food when you want it easier. Keep like with like if you can i.e. chicken together, mince together, sausages together, freezer meals together, fruit and veggies together, breads together etc.
The next step is to write up a very detailed pantry, fridge and freezer inventory. If you have a veggie garden, fruit trees and herbs growing include those on the inventory. You've just tidied your pantry, fridge and freezer so it should be easy.
Why does it have to be detailed? Because you can write eggs, cheese, weet-bix, peanut butter on your inventory - but do you have enough for the time you need it? It could be you have 3 eggs, 1 slice of cheese, half a box of weet-bix and an almost empty jar of peanut butter - not enough! You want to know exactly how much of each thing you have so you can work with them, and if you can, fill in the gaps.
Now take your inventory and look it over. Make a list of the meals you can prepare with the ingredients you have on hand.
Break the list down to breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks you can make with what you have on hand (now you see why you need the detailed pantry inventory - 3 eggs on hand isn't enough to make omelettes for six).
Try to plan easy meals; you may be stuck at home, but that's no reason to spend hours in the kitchen (unless you really want to in which case, make the meals as challenging as you like). Start with slow cooker or pressure cooker meals. Look for no bake snacks and things you can cook once eat twice; these will be handy if you aren't feeling well.
Look at alternatives using what you have on hand. For example, that half box of weet-bix won't last long, but you may have rolled oats on hand to make porridge, or flour, sugar and milk to make pancakes or scones or damper that you can have instead.
Pasta may be in short supply but you have an abundance of rice so you can serve pasta sauce over rice, use rice instead of pasta in a bake and so on.
Now fill in the gaps. Most homes will have enough ingredients to make some complete meals, but not enough to make all of them. Write up a shopping list of ingredients you don't have but will need, or those things you need to top up (remember the eggs?).
And the last thing to do is start preparing. Remember, we are preparers, not preppers. Get ahead by making some treats and putting them in the cake tin and biscuit barrel. If times are tough, being able to have a little treat lifts the spirits, and no one really notices that something is missing from the pasta sauce or the cauliflower has white sauce over it, not cheese sauce.
So what do you do? Sure, there's plenty of food, but do you know how to use it all? Can you come up with breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and drinks for a couple of weeks? Where do you start?
You start by doing a thorough clean out of the pantry, fridge, freezer and anywhere else you store your food.
Why? So you can see what you have, and to make finding that food when you want it easier. Keep like with like if you can i.e. chicken together, mince together, sausages together, freezer meals together, fruit and veggies together, breads together etc.
The next step is to write up a very detailed pantry, fridge and freezer inventory. If you have a veggie garden, fruit trees and herbs growing include those on the inventory. You've just tidied your pantry, fridge and freezer so it should be easy.
Why does it have to be detailed? Because you can write eggs, cheese, weet-bix, peanut butter on your inventory - but do you have enough for the time you need it? It could be you have 3 eggs, 1 slice of cheese, half a box of weet-bix and an almost empty jar of peanut butter - not enough! You want to know exactly how much of each thing you have so you can work with them, and if you can, fill in the gaps.
Now take your inventory and look it over. Make a list of the meals you can prepare with the ingredients you have on hand.
Break the list down to breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks you can make with what you have on hand (now you see why you need the detailed pantry inventory - 3 eggs on hand isn't enough to make omelettes for six).
Try to plan easy meals; you may be stuck at home, but that's no reason to spend hours in the kitchen (unless you really want to in which case, make the meals as challenging as you like). Start with slow cooker or pressure cooker meals. Look for no bake snacks and things you can cook once eat twice; these will be handy if you aren't feeling well.
Look at alternatives using what you have on hand. For example, that half box of weet-bix won't last long, but you may have rolled oats on hand to make porridge, or flour, sugar and milk to make pancakes or scones or damper that you can have instead.
Pasta may be in short supply but you have an abundance of rice so you can serve pasta sauce over rice, use rice instead of pasta in a bake and so on.
Now fill in the gaps. Most homes will have enough ingredients to make some complete meals, but not enough to make all of them. Write up a shopping list of ingredients you don't have but will need, or those things you need to top up (remember the eggs?).
And the last thing to do is start preparing. Remember, we are preparers, not preppers. Get ahead by making some treats and putting them in the cake tin and biscuit barrel. If times are tough, being able to have a little treat lifts the spirits, and no one really notices that something is missing from the pasta sauce or the cauliflower has white sauce over it, not cheese sauce.