It's the beginning of April, 2020. Less than a month ago, my family's daily routines changed dramatically - like countless others around the world - due to Covid-19. It has taken me many weeks to feel more at ease with the [temporary] changes.
One of the biggest adjustments has been shopping and feeding our family efficiently. My initial questions after the UK went into lockdown was "How do I get the food we need, without any/multiple trips to the shops?" and "How to we make the most of the food we have in the house?"
We have been lucky to get a grocery delivery from our preferred supermarket once a week. However, we receive nearly 25 alternative products to those we ordered; and several products have simply been unavailable. To complicate matters, we can no longer return undesirable substitutes, for fear of contamination with the Corinavirus on the packaging. I can request a refund, but we must keep the items.
An example of this week's substitutes:
- A large bag of grated cheddar (rather than mozzarella). Once opened we will need to eat this quickly.
- 1kg low fat yogurt (instead of our usual Greek Style yogurt). This is more challenging because neither I or my children like the sourness.
- Unsalted butter was swapped for our usual salted butter; and 1 tin 400g chopped tomatoes was delivered instead of a 4 pack x 400g chopped tomatoes.
- Unavailable items included plain flour, rye flour, olive oil and eggs (three of these four food would be staples in many households, I'm sure!)
We have enough groceries to last the week, provided we're careful. The second question still remains: how will I make the most of what we have available? I want us to eat as healthily as possible and waste as little food as we can.
My humble kitchen, has now also become a flexible kitchen. The first challenge is to make use of the 1kg low fat yogurt....