By Marci Lutsky
We are living in strange times right now. One thing is for sure. Everyone should stay home and only venture out if necessary. If you are like me and are the primary cook in your house, this may be especially stressful. I took very careful inventory of what I had in my refrigerator, freezer and pantry and over the course of a week, stocked my house with enough food to last for several weeks. As someone who normally goes to the grocery store several days a week, this really forced me to shift my meal planning. Besides the obvious staples, here are some items I stocked up on to help get us through the coming weeks.
We go through a lot of bread in my house, between avocado toast for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. Though I stocked up on a bunch of store-bought loaves that headed to the freezer, I also made sure that I have plenty of flour and yeast. If making your own bread seems daunting, now is the time to learn a new skill, bread making! I plan on perfecting whole wheat sandwich bread in the upcoming weeks.
Another food that goes a long way is dried beans. A bag of dried beans costs about $1 while a can of cooked beans costs about the same and will yield far less. So what exactly can you do with beans? The possibilities are endless. Besides making soups and chili, I use beans in quesadillas, tacos (like cauliflower black bean tacos), hummus and salads. My most used beans are black beans, garbanzo beans and pinto beans. If you are committed to cooking dried beans, I recommend Rancho Gordo as a great online source you can order from.
I make a lot of soup all year round but have been especially busy lately freezing a variety of soups. While normally I use store-bought broth, I’ve come to the realization that I could easily run out of broth so I’ve been making my own with vegetable scraps as well as stocking up on Better Than Bouillon that comes in a jar and can be added to boiling water to create broth. I am lucky to have a family of soup lovers. Our favorites are tomato basil, butternut squash, lentil and split pea.
If you haven’t been thinking of your freezer as a resource in these changing times, now is the time to do so. I have a large supply of butter in my freezer because we plan to do a lot of baking (cookies make the world better). Did you know that cheese can be frozen? I bought extremely large bags of shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheeses and transferred them into smaller bags for freezing. Pizza is always on my menu (with homemade dough) so sauce is a necessity. If you make your own sauce, make double and freeze what you want to save for later. Other foods that freeze well are tortillas, cut up fruit (for smoothies), vegetables (broccoli and spinach are my top two frozen vegetables), fresh herbs and cooked rice.
If you need help figuring out what to make with what you have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer, feel free to visit my blog for recipes or send an email. I’m only a click away and am happy to help in any way I can. Happy cooking and stay safe!
Marci Lutsky is a food blogger at Vegging at the Shore, www.veggingattheshore.com and can be reached at veggingattheshore@gmail.com..
