What does your 10 day isolation store cupboard /meal plan look like

[InTheLongGrass]

Very late to the party here.
We have generally decently stocked cupboards, and a small freezer.
A 10 day isolation, starting just before I did a supermarket shop was decidedly random and not particularly balanced!

So, who has actually thought this through, and has a 10 day cupboard meal plan (3 meals a day, 2 adults, 2 kids who eat pretty adult meals) they would be prepared to share? Better still if they have the shopping list!!

We had to isolate when DS had a cough but we were well stocked anyhow (shielding for several months previously) and had deliveries (supermarket, veg, fish, bread).

We barely noticed the difference foodwise.

We have remnants of the Christmas stock still in. (I had also wondered whether there would be problems with Brexit.)

We have lots of tins and flour, also part baked baguettes that keep for several weeks and tins of beans. The kids have discover they like lentil and vegetable soup made with chicken stock.

We also found that cheese and chorizo toasties go down very well with tomato soup.

Nigella has a recipe for marmite spaghetti that was useful in isolation.

Full chest freezer and full pantry. Has been since February as I prepped for the pandemic, but am generally well prepared anyway as you never know when bad weather or illness will strike. Occasionally gaps appear or I realise we don't have something, but apart from lack of fresh fruit and veg, depending on when the 10 days fell in relation to a full food shop, we'd be fine.

Carbs: Pasta, rice and noodles. Tinned potatoes. Frozen chips and hash browns. Part bake baguettes.

Meat: Frozen mince, chicken, joints of meat and usually some 'freezer food' like Kievs, burgers, fish. Tinned corned beef, a few jars of bratwurst. Tinned soups, tins of chilli and curry in case we are too unwell to properly cook

Veg: Frozen veg including chopped onions and garlic. Tins of beans, tomatoes, tomato puree, pulses, carrots.

Jars of sauces, pasta sauce, instant noodles, tins of coconut milk, UHT milk, cans of condensed and evaporated milk, flours, sugars, dried fruits, oats, cereals.

Stores are running down a bit as I've not shopped since before Christmas, but I could still make:

Bolognese/lasagne, chili, curry, shepherds pie (have a few potatoes left), pasta bakes, burgers, pulled pork, roast chicken...
Could bake a few cakes, some bread, flapjacks etc.

It's really irresponsible not to have a few weeks food in at the moment, (unless you've been incredibly tight on funds, obviously) as we've had long enough to get used to the idea of having to isolate at short notice. I've plenty of people who could drop shopping off, but I'd rather they didn't have to.

For milk, I keep a couple of tines of Nestle Nido powder in, i use it in the bread maker also and it takes up less room than uht cartons for emergencies

Sorry, forgot lunches and breakfasts.

Freezer always has at least 5 loaves of bread (we're lucky to have a chest freezer in the garage that we got for £20 second hand about a decade ago). Butter and cheese I always have a few spares in the fridge or freezer.

Breakfasts: toast, porridge, cereal (frozen fresh milk or UHT), sandwiches, no eggs though (usually have at least a dozen in, but they'd run out fast so I'd save them for baking).

Lunches: noodles, tinned soup, cheese and crackers, toasties, tuna melts, sandwiches, pasta and sauce.

When shopping and meal planning just think of what you normally eat and anything that won't keep either substitute for tinned or keep it frozen.

I have got supermarket deliveries booked weekly until the end of the month. I book them as they become available. This way I know that, should we have to self isolate, we will have recently had a delivery or have one due soon.

@TheAlphaandtheOmega

For milk, I keep a couple of tines of Nestle Nido powder in, i use it in the bread maker also and it takes up less room than uht cartons for emergencies

I'd completely forgotten about powdered milk! Thank you. I really dislike UHT but always have some in, it doesn't keep as long as you'd think though and it does take up room.

Late on 31 December DS started with symptoms so we had to isolate until his results came back (negative) on 2 Jan.

Obviously had to look to see what we had in - realised we are fortunate to have enough meat/fish/couple batch cooked meals in freezer, plenty of tins tomatoes/beans, some pasta/rice etc, some tinned and frozen fruit, carton of UHT milk/fruit juice, snacks

Realised we would need fresh veg but are lucky to have good neighbours and friends who we could ask. We have helped friends and neighbours who have needed it.
We had two lined up to do some fruit and veg shopping for us today if DS test had been positive

It has made me realise we need to keep a bit of frozen veg in freezer as other than peas we don’t have any. Also an extra pack of cereal in house so DS can live off that, snacks, fruit, yoghurts etc (and pizza deliveries!) for a couple of days if me and DH are particularly ill at any point

We have lots of fishfingers, home made veggie ready meals, nice jarred pasta sauces, risotto and pizza.
I get a milk delivery too so I can add fresh fruit and veg to that.

We can't do takeaways due to allergies.

Is there talk of the supermarkets closing ?

We had to isolate earlier in the year (14 days).
I thought I was well prepared - and we had enough food - but eventually ran out of bread and milk and fresh fruit and vegetables.
So tea without milk, porridge made with water, sweet corn and peas on the side of every meal for the last few days.

Since then, I have added a few different types of frozen veg (green beans, spinach) and a few frozen portioned meals (mostly vegetable curries) to the freezer, and some sachets of ready-cooked rice, and jars of pasta sauce to the cupboard (I'd normally make my own). Plus some microwaveable sponge puddings.

Just because when you are ill, you don't always want to cook anything, so stuff that can just zip into the microwave is perfect.

@userxx

Is there talk of the supermarkets closing ?

No, this is for isolation or if you got Covid as it would be 10 days, 2 weeks, whatever and it can be difficult to get a delivery slot if you are not a regular.

I’m lucky that my boys mainly eat dry cereal
For breakfast... so there’s a box of that and no milk needed, I’ve got a loaf of frozen bread and some pitta breads, for the youngest I tend to batch cook so he would have defrosted meals daily; I would happily eat pasta most eves, I would hope if desperate a friend would drop over something I needed... like wine, as we’ve gone dry Jan; but if we have to stay home I may stop that!!

@userxx

Is there talk of the supermarkets closing ?

Did you read the OP? Nothing to do with supermarkets closing. People are making sure they are prepared in case they have to isolate. They won't be able to go to teh supermarket and delivery is not available everywhere, even in places that you can get home delivery there may not be slots for several days.

Enough for at least 5 days as I recently bought a chest freezer for the garage. Pasta, ramen noodles, various tins of veg and soup. Big box Cheerios. Few Cook meals that can be microwaved.
To be honest, I’d be asking the milkman for bread etc.... if we were isolating, and friends/neighbours to do a drop of fresh produce. We have done that for neighbours.
I’ve lived in countries where we needed to plan for hurricanes, grab bags, prep etc.... and do try to stay well-stocked, but I got frustrated at our reserves going out of date before we remembered to eat them. So I try to not hoard too much.

We have a brexit stockpile, so could have done the whole of lickdown from our cupboards. Would have run out of chocolate earlier than anticipated.

We’ve had this in place since March in case we needed to isolate. It would be a lot of cereal, beans, soup and pasta but wanted it quite simple in case dh or I were ill. We also have a fortnightly supermarket delivery booked just in case

Tinned fruit and veg is brilliant if you have a small freezer.

We live rurally so I’ve always got a full larder of dried and tinned food, plus bread flour and also baking stuff.

We get a weekly veg box delivered and have UHT milk and tins stashed. I'd be ready to bake bread if necessary. We have a couple of ready made meals in case we'd not feel up to cooking. Looking at the list of dinners I would likely need to ask a friend to drop some onions at our doorstep since we would need more that we usually have in. Except from that all the other ingredients are cupboard staples.

Breakfast:

• Porridge with milk or water topped with honey or jam

Lunch:

• Veg soups
• Sandwiches
• Fried eggs
• Houmous
• Joghurt

Dinners:
1: Lentil & beans curry with rice
2: Bolognese with pasta
3: Potato goulash
4: Tofu curry with coconut milk
5: Quinoa salad
6: Spinach paneer (ready made) with bread
7: Dhal (ready made) with rice
8: Korma (ready made) with potatoes
9: Chickpea curry (ready made)
10: Rosti (ready made)

DH and I were in iso just before xmas. We had one big shop from a friend on the first day and lived off it.
Breakfasts and lunches were kept simple-toast, porridge, soup.
Snacks were cupboard bits and fresh fruit for as long as it lasted.
Desserts were homemade cake for a few days, then just custard creams and tea!
Dinners (I record what we eat)
Sunday-Roast Chicken, veggies, roast potatoes, yorkshire puds
Monday-Chicken noodle soup, carrots and leak with crusty bread
Tuesday-Salmon with veggie cous cous
Wednesday- SanFran style garlic spaghetti with salad and garlic bread
Thursday- Steak, chips, frozen peas
Friday- Frozen pizza
Saturday- Chicken caesar salad
Sunday- Sausage, mash, frozen veg
Monday- mushroom wellington, roast potatoes
Tuesday-Spag bol
Wednesday-Nigella's chicken, potato, chorizo bake.

The fruit and veg ran out fast but I always freeze what we don't use so we had plenty from previous shops. We keep plenty of baking ingredients so I made bread, cakes, pastry. Potatoes saved us though, we got 2 big bags and I batch cooked on the first day of isolation in case we were going to get ill and unable to cook. Thankfully we had negative tests, but were able to isolate for 10 days as a precaution. (I know this isn't necessary, but we were happy and able to and wouldn't want to risk a false negative)

Yes I always have at least 20 tins of tomatoes in the larder!!.

Also porridge oats, lentils, couscous, red kidney beans, chickpeas, baked beans, a couple of tins of potatoes, powdered mash, uht milk, pasta and tuna. We could last a fair while if we had too. I naturally stock much more these days than I used to.

That said I managed to get weekly delivery slots all bar two weeks last time and have three weeks worth lined up at one time. I even managed to get a massive bag of plain flour which I'm only just using up now.

@rainbowunicorn I'd get someone to do the shopping for me, no need to panic 🤷‍♂️.

Actually our local taxi service does an offer. They will go and do your shop for you for the price of the taxi fare. We would do that the if stuck.

I've got a couple of Pot Noodles

I have 2 adults and 2 DDs (9yo & 16yo) I have the following:

5 x tins soup
3 x 500g bags pasta
1 x 1kg rice
1 x pesto
3 x pasta sauce
2 x curry sauces
4 x baked beans
2 x spicy beans
1 x 500g lentils
2 x cream crackers
2 x biscuits
2 x Jaffa cakes
1 x blackcurrent squash
3 x orange juice
1 x 500g porridge oats
Taco shells
6 x part baked baguettes
2 x uht milk
4 x tinned pears
4x tinned oranges
4x Super noodles
Assorted chocs and sweets
Large box cat biscuits
1 box cat wet food pouches

Frozen
sweet corn/ green beans/ beans
1 loaf of bread
6 bagels
2 x 1 pint milk (for porridge)
Chopped onions and peppers
2 kg Diced chicken breast
2kg mince beef
Jacket potatoes
Chips
Nuggets
12 sausages
Fish fingers
Batched cooked chilli con carne

Not nutritionally fabulous and maybe not enough for 10 days but it’s all we can store. My local co op is offering some kind of delivery service so would use that as no local family or ability to secure a delivery slot.

We would also have several takeaways delivered I think

I have heaving store cupboards, it drives my mum crackers as she thinks you should run down what you have before buying anything new. We had to go three weeks in March and April last year when a delivery was cancelled and I didn't fancy going to the shops and was VERY happy to have those heaving cupboards!!

I always have on hand:
UHT milk
Crackers and crisp breads
Part baked bread rolls
Tins: tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans, coconut milk
Dried: beans, lentils, chickpeas
Pasta, noodles, rice, polenta
Olive oil
Tetra Pak boxes of tofu

A distressingly comprehensive range of spices, condiments, and ingredients like preserved lemons, harissa and tins of anchovies, to jazz up any store-cupboard meal

Frozen: bread, butter, cheese, breadcrumbs, spinach, peas, broad beans, berries, Parmesan rinds, a few carcasses of chicken or turkey waiting to turn into soup

Fresh stuff that lasts a while: Parmesan, pesto, chorizo, lardons, eggs, yoghurt, little gem lettuce (this lasts weeks and weeks in the drawer of the fridge)