The pantry challenge has ended. Although we are still working through many things in our cupboard, we had groceries delivered via instacart on Saturday. I was missing fresh produce and I needed flour for my sourdough starter. I think we will wait until May 1st to grocery shop again though. The president announced over the weekend that we are to continue practicing social distancing until the end of April. I hope things peak and are on the mend by then so we can go back to some sort of normalcy, although I am sure we will be under some sort of caution until a vaccine is ready. Either way our trip to Boulder at the end of May has been cancelled. We are able to use our flight fee toward another trip for another 12 months.
Here is what we have been making at home:
Wednesday night we had a video chat with our 5 couple group of friends. All the kids were on too. While we chatted, I made cauliflower soup. Earlier that day I made pumpkin muffins so we had those as well. The cauliflower soup was delicious and I just completely winged it as I made it. I roasted the frozen cauliflower in the oven, sauteed onions and garlic. Then I added the cauliflower to the onions and garlic and boiled in chicken stock for awhile. I added some salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, the rest of our cashews and blended it all together in our vitamix. M thought it tasted sort of like white gravy. I hate white gravy so I disagree, but it was thick and savory.
Thursday, I had pumpkin muffins and cauliflower soup for lunch. M took of his asian chicken and green beans that he prepared on Tuesday for lunch. That night, I made oven baked breaded chicken breasts with chickpea noodles and marinara. M had virtual class (he is working toward his MBA right now through U of I). I brought him his dinner and he barely touched it. I also, made brownies with some grapeseed oil that I order and paid too much for on Amazon. He ate some of those too.
Friday, I had leftovers for lunch and had a work virtual happy hour. What an awkward mess that was, it only lasted 30 minutes because there were too many people and it didn’t work well. For dinner, we had take out from a restaurant in West Des Moines that is doing take out tacos and margarita mix right now. It was so good! G and I had to go pick it up because M was working late. M got home when G was going to bed, so we ate Mexican together like a date and then we went our separate ways because I had a virtual girl’s night planned. Oh, also we finished off the brownies. Those things don’t make it long around here.
Saturday, we ate some leftover rice with onions, cilantro, and black beans from the Friday’s dinner for lunch. Then, I decided to just order some groceries because Instacart was finally had delivery times again and I figured I would rather have people delivering now rather than when thousands of Iowan’s are sick. So, we ordered a long list of things. I am going to eat some of the fresh produce this week, but I am also planning to continue whittling away at the odds and ends that are in our cupboard before we dig into the new frozen stuff. For dinner, I thawed our our 2 pork chops from a boar that M’s dad hunted. We seared the outside in a cast iron skillet and then baked them. We also roasted some potatoes and made some green beans. Then, I had another virtual hang out with a friend. I had some more margaritas from Friday and M made me some more sour mix.
Sunday, we had a virtual brunch with M’s family (his sister, cousin’s wife, and his grandpa). We made eggs, potatoes O’Brien, and toast. A friend of mine dropped off some homemade jam on our porch Saturday night, so that was a nice addition to the toast. For dinner we had a frozen pizza with a salad.
Yesterday, I had a smoothie, some walnuts and cashews, raisins, green apple, and some other random things for lunch. M had leftover sides from Saturday with some sausages. I made lentil soup, fed my sourdough starter and made a loaf of sourdough to go with the soup for dinner. G and I took our pup for a long walk. G slept the whole time, but it is so nice that the weather is getting better.
Today, I will most likely have soup for lunch with salad. I am not sure what M will have. He keeps stopping home because are having some gas line and a garage heater installed today. I am sure M will stop in to eat at some point. Tonight I am making a farro risotto to use up our farro. I am not sure what I will serve with that. We only have chicken breasts, sausages, and tuna for meat. Sausages will probably go best with it.
I think we will be doing this for another 30 days at least. Fingers crossed that life will approach something close to normal after that. Even if I could just take G to daycare again, that would be nice.
Suburban Sprout 