Prepping for a Pandemic - Thread 16

[Sprayitall]

I don’t know why another thread hasn’t been created yet , so here you go. Now as we prep ourselves to the peak of this pandemic, let’s all face it together and appreciate how fragile our lives are and how we need each other to survive and flourish.

Based on my own experience I'm annoyed I didn't make sure I had in:

Flour - even though I don't bake much there's loads of savoury recipes that require it

Toiletries - I have bad eczema which has flared up all over my body and is causing me considerable itching and soreness. This is mainly as I'm having to use products that aren't my normal ones

Cleaning products - I stupidly dismissed the idea of a disease being a reason for prepping - won't make that mistake again!

@lexloofah @doneaflit bread flour, yeast and pasta is good. Paracetamol yes.
The problem now is we can’t buy anything more than one or two items max in supermarkets. can’t pop in daily to buy them on multiple trips either. So how do you all manage this? I’m asking this because I was allowed only 3 packs of snacks last time in supermarket. So I had to buy walkers multipack instead of dd’s usual ones to be wise and have multiple packs than to run out of her usual single pack one.

@Graphista that reminds me I need to add toiletries and cleaning products to the list too. I am running out of e45 more quickly than expected. I thought having two bottles is more than enough because normally I don’t use them as often as I do now. I am already down one. For cleaning, I think I need some more too. Especially the sprays..

I'm debating when to go to top up our stores. We don't quite need to yet, but within a week, and I'm thinking that once a tighter lockdown is announced there will be a spike in supermarket purchasing (anticipating restricted food shopping as part of this).
My top priorities will be:
Long life milk
Onions to store
Chopped tomatoes / passata
Crisps!

If I can get tomato feed for the plants I'll grab this too. Will probably try and get to a larger Morrison's where they would normally stock this in the 'seasonal' aisle. Haven't actually been to a large supermarket in at least a month, am I in for a shock?

@Graphista from.what I can gather its 80 items in total (max of 3 any one item too) I was a bit worried it was low however I have just about managed 40 items because it keeps taking items out my basket.

@ofwarren I can't get a test either but I'm in no doubt I have it. I feel ok however my lungs feel sore/weird like pressure however it isn't obstructing my breathing.

We have been sort of lucky DH has been bed ridden this past week due to other health issues so we have already been segregated.
We have decided I will wear mask and gloves when making his food and set it outside his room.
He will only leave room to use bathroom when he does he will wear mask, wash hand thoroughly then use hand gel when back in his room.

My current prioritys are similar to everyones else's.
I'm very thankful a local cafe has started to deliver 3 ranges of boxes. Each contains various amounts of milk, bread and eggs, then different amounts of veg and fruit.
We paid 22 including delivery for 4 pints of milk 2 x loaf. Cucumber, tomatos, potatoes, lettuces, onions, bananas.

Very expensive but a useful top up without venturing out.

What we've run very low on is crisps! I'm sure I stocked up quite a few multi packs but we've ripped through them and cordial.
I actually brought it for illness and dc have drunk it all.
Also butter is getting quickly depleted.
I've got a shop coming on Thursday. By sheer fluke I'd nearly given up. I'm topping up on treats, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, razors... E45 cream. I didn't buy any Easter eggs so I shall be getting them too. Barely any chicken though and no joints of meat. I really fancy a roast!

I also couldn't get any self raising flour so I'm hoping to get some.
Cooking chocolate and cornflakes for Easter egg nests.

We've cleared by our back door and in hoping to erect the greenhouses I bought soon and get sowing some tomato seeds, cucumbers etc this week.

I'm very interested in the potato's growing chat on the other thread! Seems very easy.
Overall this week's meals have been carried by eggs.

Omlets, dippy eggs.... Fried eggs... They've been our savour and today, and tomorow, buckwheat pancakes for lunch...

Going forward I'm planning on one-day plain dinner and one day nicer.. With Fridays reserved for even nicer meals and pudding. We all really like homemade chicken snitzel so that's our Friday night treat.

Tiddle I paid 3 quid for small bottle of tomatoe feed and then I saw a massive bottle for the same price in wilkos.

Treats and more treats. Poor DS started hysterically crying this afternoon for no real reason. He’s only three and I think he knows something is happening but obviously doesn’t understand what. It was heartbreaking.

DS is gluten intolerant and I’m so glad I bought his GF stuff for stocks. My friend up the road is coeliac and she can’t get GF plain flour anywhere.

Things I didn’t think I would need to stock up/didn’t have enough - milk, bread, butter. I stupidly assumed I could switch to a milkman but didn’t get round to it in time and now nowhere is accepting new customers.

Oh that’s a really good list I should say @Freshairimportanttoo. I would add some rice and pasta to it along with some tinned soups though. I’m so far lucky to get dairy things but for vegetables and fruits I can’t find anything local yet so have to depend on supermarkets. I also want to get some small organising shelves/peg board &shelves as I need more space to store them properly and want others not to waste food because it’s not reachable or hidden but not sure if it’s safe to buy them now? Where do you even store them all?!

@AlohaMolly in our local group, we are clubbing orders together and whoever have milkman deliveries order some for the ones who don’t. The other person comes and collects while walking and pays them online. So may be you can try local people for the same?

I'm struggling to get pasta, but I'll try rice! I put my limit of 2 pasta in basket and it's always removed, sold.

That’s a really good idea @Sprayitall thank you.

I’ve started to feel quite unwell, headachey, sore chest and feel quite warm. I feel a bit snotty though, so I’m really hoping it’s a cold. I could cry, I feel so scared of it.

@Freshairimportanttoo how are you for flour and potatoes? I made gnocchi with an instagram live thing called Theo Cooks this week and it worked really well and was quite easy. We had ours with bolognese so could be used as normal pasta? I got 55 pieces from the recipe.

I got a food dehydrator a couple of years ago. Just a cheap one. I used it to start with mainly for fruit as I live in a rural area so we get gluts. I expanded to dehydrated meals as we enjoy camping, so discovered that you can dehydrate dahl, hummus, soup etc to make it light to carry. Mushrooms and tomatoes also dry well.
Peppers, herbs...
It's been very useful. You can dry anything you sundtied in India sprayitall

I thought I'd try waiting till midnight to get a delivery slot for Tesco - I usually get a delivery every week from them, I have a delivery saver pass thingy, but been unable to get a slot recently. At midnight, Sunday 19th April popped up, but all delivery slots gone within seconds. Then I managed to get a click and collect slot and started shopping. After about a minute, a queue screen came on. I hadn't been able to check out yet, so my slot was only open for 2 hours. Still in a queue and want to go to sleep.

My dehydrator is a Carew (whoever they are). Second cheapest, good reviews on Amazon.
I may have mentioned it once or twice over the past year

Aloha I've just bumped up stock of it all. 2 x spaghetti and some flour.
Straight onto ocado at 7am!
Also pork joint coming.

These dehydrators sound amazing, I can't believe you can do it to houmous

Aloha, it's awful isn't it, the fear and strain and worry of this virus might be worse than the virus itself.

I've had the loss of taste and smell since last Tuesday. I'm scared when I go to bed each night incase it gets worse.

People on lungs thread say it goes on for weeks and weeks

I find distraction is the best thing... And copious amounts of vitamin c. Every day I have a fizzy vitamin c and every other day to eek them out, a fresh carrot, celery and orange juice... And a vit d tablet

How long does the dehydrator take to dehydrate?? I cannot find the information anywhere and is it very noisy?

It depends what you are drying - 8 to 10 hours for most things. It's not especially noisy

freshhair you make the hummus without oil as fatty things don't dry well. Then add oil and water to rehydrate

@weeds 8 to 10 hours? How I miss roof top sun drying. Atleast I don’t need to worry about noise and it’s free energy from the sun.. the taste is awesome too. But I think I will look into the dehydrator option for now. When all this is over, I think this has given me the push needed to attain my goal of self sustained living. Probably I might move back to be near family, choose only products made in the country I live in even if that means a little higher price than usual and should somehow find a way to buy a self sustained house. My top priorities will be that I think if I survive this.
Dd had bouts of cough at night and even threw up once and it was all phlegmy. It’s very worrying at the moment without knowing what is it. The fear and anxiety of catching it is more stressful than the virus itself. I am trying to calm myself and not allow the anxiety to get over me , though it sounds easy it’s difficult for me to put that into practice. Moments like this makes me feel thankful for every healthy uneventful day we had so far in our lives. I can’t stand the mean comments made by people in the other threads. I know it comes out of fear and anxiety but there is no need for unpleasantness towards anyone at this moment is what I feel and am trying to practice.

Not much chance of rooftop drying here, even on a good day, I'm afraid!

Greetings to all. Been off MN for a while but popping back on to ask a probably silly question. I have found old yeast in the cupboard. BBE March 2018 to March 2019. Can I use it? Don't want to waste good flour if it doesn't work. Possible to test it?

@echo it's probably not great but worth testing a small amount? I would probably chance it and use additional yeast however with flour so scarce it's a bit of a gamble if the resulting bread didn't rise. Maybe you could scale the ratios down and do a tiny loaf to check?!

Use a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in a bit of lukewarm water ( about 1/3 of a mug) add yeast and stand in a warm ace. The sugar will boost it, when nice and frothy use the liquid in your bread