Aibu to think that normally we are very spoilt for choice in our food shopping?

[Bluewavescrashing]

Usually we can pop to the supermarket and choose from thousands of different foods to buy. Obviously some are on tighter budgets than others.

I think we will have to accept that for the time being there might be some odd meal combinations going on.

Also (dons hard hat) a lot of Brits, me included, would benefit from losing a bit of weight with smaller portions.

Those who are struggling to get food, and have nothing in your homes, I sympathise. But the rest of us need to be a bit more open minded with cooking for the time being.

Use up fresh veg for soups. Bulk out with lentils. Cook vegetarian meals if meat is scarce. Maybe we could share recipes below?

Our dinner tonight--sausage and chorizo bake. Should serve 8 people with 6 sausages and small amount of chorizo.

Half an onion
1 can tinned toms
1 beef stock cube
Half a pack green beans
1 carrot
2 sweet potatoes

Bake the sausages in the oven with chopped sweet potato and carrot in a tray with a spritz of oil. Make a tomato sauce using chopped onion, Tinned tomatoes and stock. Add chopped green beans to sauce to cook. After the sausages have browned, add the tomato sauce to the tray. Pop chopped chorizo on top. Cook for a further 15 mins and serve with rice.

I know Tinned tomatoes are hard to find but we had some from weeks ago, luckily.

I've often thought this, thinking back to when I was a child - the only supermarkets available in town were those which have now been turned into 'Metro' or 'Express' stores and the range of food was much narrower and much less international - a Vesta curry was about as exotic as it got (it was probably different in big cities).

Yes, DD and I watched Back in Time for the weekend on BBC iplayer and she was shocked how little choice there was in the 70s.

Forgot to say I stashed some crusts from sandwiches in the fridge earlier. Just made them into breadcrumbs to top the sausage bake. I wouldn't have bothered before.

A pandemic is never something to be celebrated, no matter what its fallout. Geezus if you need to lose weight then by all means stop eating so much and move more. PLENTY of people cannot get hold of food!

No, my point is that many of us can afford weight wise to have smaller portions so no need to panic.

There was never anything stopping you from doing that if you're overweight, doesn't take a pandemic with thousands of people dead or to teach people lessons about being spoilt. There's no silver lining to that. It's horrible.

I’m already underweight and need more food. We can’t get tin toms, lentils, chickpeas, beans etc, or rice. No tinned food at all. No bread or pasta or flour. We are veggie and don’t eat meat anyway. There are no sausages or chorizo.. Your suggested meal is completely out of reach. We can get some veg and fruit. The supermarket is stripped bare. Even getting there at opening time.

Tinned Toms...I remember when you could actually buy them! 😭

Of course we were spoilt for choice but that’s how it should be in England, not like it is currently

There was never anything stopping you from doing that if you're overweight, doesn't take a pandemic with thousands of people dead or to teach people lessons about being spoilt. There's no silver lining to that. It's horrible.

Absolutely correct, it is horrible. But if I need to prioritise my children's portions due to shortages in the future, I will be healthy and OK as I'm carrying a bit of extra weight. That is a blessing.

Nothing about the current situation is positive. I won't be celebrating weight loss as a result. But the stark truth is, most of us eat too much day to day and we will be OK on smaller portions

That was my last tin of tomatoes so tomorrow I will be cooking something else.

Jesus OP, you're getting quite the hit on here!

I totally understand what you mean.

You are not dismissing the enormity of the situation at all, simply saying that we are used to being able to eat a huge variety of things on demand, whereas now we may have to be a bit more imaginative with food

Absolutely. I read that a supermarket usually has 60 types of sausage, they’re cutting that to 6 or 8. Similar with pasta. The normal range is huge compared to the 80s, when I was a child.

When they had rationing during WW2, people complained about not being allowed many eggs and not being able to get bananas, but they wouldn’t have been used to the vast range of food we’re used to.

of course we were spoilt for choice but that’s how it should be in England, not like it is currently

We don't NEED all the choice though. We will be perfectly fine if we have to eat slightly different things for a while. Maybe this will open our eyes to what people in other places have to do. I'm happy that my family all have full bellies tonight tbh.

Yes I was wondering if we will start to feel that we don’t actually need 47 different varieties of KitKat.

*Jesus OP, you're getting quite the hit on here!

I totally understand what you mean.*

Thank you. Meh, I'm not that sensitive, I'll be OK 🙂

My point is that it's no hardship to have no bread for a while if you have rice instead. Or substitute with veg. Or if there's no meat, be veggie for a few days. Excepting those who need food banks and have been hit hard by loss of jobs etc, we will be fine.

YANBU. The ability to go into a warm, well stocked and safe shop will hopefully remain after all of this, but the vast array of different brands largely selling the same thing is frivolous and could afford to be cut down. It wouldn't even take away any choices really, some are almost identical.

I completely agree. Plus people need to be less fussy. Where l live then there is food is shops but not much choice and no chopped tomatoes. People will have to learn to eat what they can find

I agree we're usually spoilt for choice, but around here people are bulk buying everything including fresh fruit and veg, which won't even keep for long enough to use in vast amounts!!

My grandmother says that even in 50s/60s USSR she always had a few connections to buy staples that were scarce, but we're all really at a loss at the minute, even she's struggling to make meals from the few things she's got.

Years ago my sister lived in Sydney. She would come back to the UK and marvel at all the different types of shampoo etc!

Very much yanbu. I find it strange people losing their minds over not being able to get bread and pasta for a while when the supermarket has plenty of other foods. The way people carry on you’d think we were out of food full stop. But every shop I’ve been in has been filled to the brim with it, just not certain items that we can live without.

Also, people we ith limited diets due to a llergies, intolerances etc will struggle more. I feel lucky we can eat anything

DCs have been told they will eat what's dished up or go hungry. Leftovers are used the next day. We have milk and fruit available for now and will prioritise them over us adults if we go short.

The amount of food waste that this country throws away on a daily basis both in homes and in store is shocking. Personally I value food more now. We didn't waste much previously but I'm even more careful now

I know what you mean, OP. The potential for food scarcity is a situation that many of us aren't used to, or haven't been for a very long time. I don't think it's that trivial actually!

It’s not being fussy... it’s walking in to a supermarket and the tin shelves empty ( No baked beans, kidney beans, butter beans, chickpeas, mixed beans, tom purée, chopped tomatoes) No fresh veg here Thursday in Tesco or Sainsbury’s (admittedly I got broccoli, carrots and green beans, bananas etc in M&S but some can’t afford them prices)

Things that are normally affordable for everyone to eat from people that earn £££ to people on low incomes like soup, you can’t get the ingredients for. That IS NOT being fussy, the items are not on the shelves

Rice instead of bread 😂 and how will that work with my creature of habit toddler dc breakfast? Me and dh will eat most things and can have whatever but for little ones you need to be realist change for them is going to take a while. The poor little ones can’t go out so they need some normal things

I appreciate food so much more.
I wasn't particularly wasteful, but took it for granted.

Every Monday I would make a vat of Ratatouille using tinned toms (am veggie). It would last me all week, used on either a jacket or pasta.

And now, everybody's buying my staple - tinned toms!

Rice instead of bread 😂 and how will that work with my creature of habit toddler dc breakfast?

But your toddler won't starve. That's my point.