What’s your food situation?

[GreyishDays]

Just wondering how everyone is doing.

We had a good start with a Brexit stash. Have had a couple of click and collects and one normal supermarket shop. DH has been checking regularly for stock though. Our supermarket has been up and down in terms of stock.
We have most stuff, couldn’t get cornflakes last week and can’t get tinned tomatoes. Trying to cook with potatoes as much as we can as pasta is sometimes not available. Loo roll arrived as normal last week in the clock and collect.

I think we’ve been quite lucky and fortunate to be able to stock up in advance.

How’s everyone else doing? Missing major stuff and having to eat odd combinations or fairly complete now.

[monkeytennis97]

I prepped from February and had some pre booked deliveries until 8th April. We've got more than we normally would (although only me and DH at home) and we are both on diets anyway so we are fine for another month or so

[LuluJakey1]

replying even @Natsku

[LuluJakey1]

@Natsku Thanks for relying - I am not sure my baking skills are up to that level of 'freedom'. I rely on recipes. My attempts at 'personalisation' are usually a disaster and have to be rescued with icing, cream or decorations

[Natsku]

@LuluJakey1 well I used the good food banana bread recipe, www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bananabread_85720 substituting applesauce for the bananas, adding cinnamon and cardamom, and about 100g grated marzipan. Dotted some small lumps of marzipan on the top. Then baked for about 45 minutes, or until it was nearly done, took it out of the oven and turned the oven up to 200. Made the tosca (almond toffee) topping by mixing butter, sliced almonds, sugar and cream in a saucepan and boiling it together for about a minute. I just guessed at the amounts but there's a recipe here www.dlc.fi/~marian1/gourmet/14_10.htm just skip to the bit about almond tosca topping. Poured the topping on top, make sure there's a tray underneath because a fair amount came over the edges and dripped down, then stuck it back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Most of my recipes are me making it up as I go along!

[LuluJakey1]

@Natsku That cake sounds absolutely delicious. Could you possibly give us the recipe?

[Natsku]

Keeping busy is good, less time to dwell on things.

Luckily no shortage of flour here as I've been baking lots, which I don't usually do but now I want cake all the time. Yesterday made an applesauce and marzipan cake with an almond toffee topping.

[OneTooManyBathtimes]

@Natsku I'm doing well, struggling with mental health but getting better I think which is good. Trying to keep myself busy.

I forgot to add that flour seems to be hard to come by still. As someone who does frequent baking this is a problem but just trying to adapt I guess.

[Natsku]

Oh hello @OneTooManyBathtimes hope all is well with you.

[OneTooManyBathtimes]

Hey, @Natsku glad to hear your daughter is being looked after. (I was on the HG threads under a diff name in 2017)

We've been lucky as we always have food storage here, just annoyed we can't top up our pasta supply. Having to dip in to our rice storage (I struggle to eat rice due to texture) but it's not been too bad. I'm baking a lot, lost some weight which is great, and managed to get most things I want or need. Stocked up on nappies as got 2 children in them, and toilet roll. Had to be lucky as went to Aldi 2 weeks ago and the only loo roll they had was coconut oil ones and I'm allergic to coconut. By pure chance I saw an opened pack of regular, where the packaging was damaged, all loo rolls accounted for. Took that one. Thankfully this week they were back to having normal stuff in so picked up some more of those.

[ToftyAC]

We’re good. But we do have 2 major supermarkets 5 mins walk away and a superstore on the far side of our medium size market town - together with 3 B&Ms (one is huuuuge) and a Home Bargains.

[bluechameleon]

We are doing fine. We had a decent Brexit stash and always keep the cupboards and freezer pretty full so we've got plenty of basics still. We've added yoghurts, cheese and bread to our milk delivery, and fruit to our veg box, so if we had to self-isolate for a fortnight we would be fine for fresh food apart from meat, and we can live without that.

[TheStarryNight]

@Star8181 Doves Farm have started doing coeliac boxes for home delivery

www.dovesfarm.co.uk/products/freee/gluten-free-food-box

[Natsku]

They really have been, so glad to live where I am.

[T0tallyFuckedUpFamily]

That’s brilliant, Natsku, your council and school have been brilliant, haven’t they. I never thought about the fact that some school overheads would come down, because they had to close.

[Natsku]

What an absolutely lovely thing for them to do. Well done to all the school staff and to those that donate the food

It was so lovely, they even put gluten free pasta and flour in DD's bags as she has coeliac disease. I honestly didn't expect that and would have just passed on the normal stuff to my neighbours. Not donated food though, our municipality decided its their duty to provide for the children as usually they would all have lunch at school so the council paid.

[T0tallyFuckedUpFamily]

DD's school gave out two shopping bags of food per student today so now I have too much food. I had forgotten about it when I made my shopping order. Going to see if the neighbours need anything.

What an absolutely lovely thing for them to do. Well done to all the school staff and to those that donate the food.

[lyralalala]

We’re doing ok because I always have a heavily stocked freezer and cupboards. Making us go hungry was one of my father’s abuse tactics so I’ve always had a fear of lack of food. First time in my life it’s stood me in good stead.

We are a big family, and have 3 extras as SIL’s kids are with us while she works, so we’ve been carefully shopping to replenish bits of what we use.

I’m just glad we already had a milk delivery as the local supermarket has mainly had one pint cartons, and limited to two per customer, which wouldn’t even last a day here.

We have a musclefoods delivery due tomorrow so hopefully that’s as decent as the people who rave about it say. With that and a fruit/veg delivery we’ll be fine for another couple of weeks

[Natsku]

DD's school gave out two shopping bags of food per student today so now I have too much food. I had forgotten about it when I made my shopping order. Going to see if the neighbours need anything.

[Barney60]

My freezers always full once a month or so I cook pretty much from scratch and freeze. (allergic to garlic, youd be surprised whats its in now) I always have milk and bread in freezer too.ive shopped once in last 3 weeks, got everything I needed, supermarkets here all well stocked. I never use on line dont like substitutes so prefer to go buy myself, I rarely eat takeaways.

[turnandfacethenamechange]

Enigma variations of beans, tofu, tomatoes, spinach, rice and pasta. peanutbutterpeanutbutterpeanutbutter Rinse and repeat.

[RaptorInaPorkPieHat]

Fine, we still had a little bit of a Brexit stash and it all kicked off after our payday so I'd done our monthly shop.

No supermarket delivery slots to be had (and TBH we don't need it so wont be booking) but we have a lot of independent shops in town (old school butchers/bakers/grocers) that have all taken to doing deliveries so it's all OK. Co-op doesn't seem to have to got on top of it yet and it's still got pretty empty shelves but Morrisons is almost back up to normal apart from pasta/baked beans/loo rolls. I'm steering clear of Tescos and ALDIs for the duration. I went online for the pet food (not unusual as the cat farts like the devil if you give her the wrong biscuits and you can't always get them in town) so we've got enough in for her highness.

I'm meal planning and batch cooking and I go shopping with a list now (because I'm only going once a week) so there's a lot less waste. The only thing is, it's brought into sharp focus the amount of crisps/pop we get through in a week. It's not so bad when you just nip out for a bottle of coke, but when you have to buy it all in one go it's rather shocking.

[MaitlandGirl]

We’re ok for food but spending twice our usual amount for the same volume of food. Our cupboard, fridge and freezer have got at least 2 weeks worth of food.

Aldi has massive queues outside (I can’t stand for long periods of time) so that’s out for me which leaves the more expensive supermarkets (which are crazy busy) or the local village shop/butcher/fruit & veg shops which are really expensive.

With 5 adults at home it’s getting difficult to afford everything but I’m fairly easy to feed. DW is awkward but she’ll just have to learn to deal.

[MummyMayo1988]

We are much the same OP.
My DH works in the city and doesn't usually get home until around 8PM. So I usually feed the kiddies and we eat later. Now hes working from home and I'm cooking for all of us. The biggest problem I have is being creative enough for proper home cooked meals that we can all enjoy. Plus a 1yr old baby that is also now very interested in what we're eating. Feeding him has been a nightmare bc initially we couldn't get jars of baby food. So hes having whatever we have.
I've done all the usuals;
Pasta (when I can get it)
Roast.
Lasagne.
Spaghetti.
Mashed potatoes and veg.
Pies.

I'm rapidly running out of ideas tho. Even when I think of something; I cant always get everything I need to make it.

I'll be soo happy when the whole aftermath of panic buying is over and shopping goes back to normal.

[Blankscreen]

I've been going to m and s which has had absolutely everything.

It's a bit more expensive but if you are careful with what you buy it's not too bad.

[Shockers]

We have eaten better than usual. I’m trying to be more creative with meals, just to have something to do- and I’m baking most days too. I had a very well stocked freezer because I buy yellow stickered stuff a lot and freeze it for later. I also find I’m wasting much less- I freeze leftovers to make other dishes. I’ve planted veg, but I’m hoping that we’ll be out of lockdown before I harvest it!

I’m swapping recipe ideas with my dad, which gives us lots to chat about on the phone .