Over the shut down, we managed to not go shopping for 5 months.
Yes. Five months. No deliveries, no curbside, no groceries at all. For humans at least, we did get the pup more food and we did pick up out medicine at the pharmacy.
Now, we had just hit bulk with the idea that we would not be shopping anytime soon, so we had bags of frozen veg in the standing freezer, and eggs, bacon, butter, etc. I had also just come home with two bags full of half price of meat from Aldi’s. And we had beans. Because I love our pulses. And we accidentally purchased a case of lentils when we already had half a case of lentils…
We ate a lot of lentils.
We also planted seeds from the peppers and tomatoes we had, and used clover from the yard and leeks from the garden for fresh food. And we planted a red potato that had sprouted, so we had fresh potatoes soon. And we had been gifted venison.
We make our own bread, and were stocked up on flour and yeast, so all good there.
And this was normal for us. We’ve had a standing fridge our whole relationship, and trips to restaurant supply stores and the farmers market have helped us keep it nicely stocked. Also, we had leftovers from the holidays and from our BBQ, and most people would not have those.
Anyway, here’s a list of basically what we ate over the shutdown. It required a bit of balancing and creativity, but over all we ate well and healthy. There were starches and veg with most meals. I just didn’t always record them…
Let me know if you want a recipe for any of this.
We made gnocci and pierogi and pasties over the shut down, which figure into meals below. And I had bought boxed stuffing as a treat. And bagged stuffing. We had a lot of instant stuffing.
These are NOT in order. I do have a list where I kept what we ate when, but it made no sense for me to type ‘ragu and pasta’ 6 individual times, when I could just type that.
And now you see why I try to do ‘pantry clean outs’ a few times a year. Want to join me in my next one? Oh, who am I kidding- no one is reading this!
Leftover ‘ragu/sauce/gravy/Sunday sauce/ I will not argue about what to call it’
Over pasta 12 times, over gnocci twice, as pizza sauce, made into baked ziti (2 dinners, one lunch), served as subs
Leftover BBQ
Pot pie, with fried corn and couscous, with yellow rice and veg, with bean salad, with potato croquettes, with frozen hash browns, with masa, with plain rice
Pizza
margarita, leftover meat, Sicilian 2x
Battered fried fish and chicken and fries (this was my birthday meal in early April)
Brats in beer, kraut and (instant) potatoes. This was Hex’s birthday dinner. We had it 2x
The kid’s birthday! We had fish cake soup (frozen from Hana Mart) frozen crab cakes and sushi from Aldi, homemade samosas (we made a TON, so lunches et al) and a raspberry (our bushes were bearing) orange-chocolate roll
Fried Rice
Veal cutlet sandwiches (twice) (once with tomatoes and lettuce, once with sauce and cheese) I had just bought a box to try at Aldi. We also had a third meal from the single box, as parmesan.
‘sushi’- made with nori, rice, fake crab sticks, cream cheese
French toast and sausage
Turkey with stuffing (leftover)
Hot Brown (twice)
BLT (with the last of the tomatoes and lettuce)
Bean flautas
Burittos
Kielbasa and pierogi
Brown sugar bacon chicken (planned before the shut down)
Mulligan stew with gnocci and on noodles (two meals)
Ham sliders (with spam and frozen ground turkey meat)
‘haystack’ sandwiches, made with venison
Arancini (multiple lunches from this)
Salmon and quinoa
Fejoda and cabbage
Sheppard’s pie with venison- made twice
Halloumi ‘burgers’
Chicken and stuffing
Cornish hen soup 2x, as we had 2 hens. This was a ‘kit’ from Hana Mart, that has everything in it except a Cornish hen and water.
Fish head soup. We had this several times, as I had just picked up and frozen fish heads for the kid’s oral surgery, and we had several soup worth frozen…
‘candy beans’ and brown bread
Venison liver and oinions.
Crepes with goat cheese and sun dried tomatoes
Chili nachos
Alio olio (had to teach the kid how my people didn’t starve)
Puttenesca twice
Pork sausage risotto – this sounds good. I do not remember it. I think we decided it ‘wasn’t a keeper’.
Sausage with peppers and onions 2x (freezing peppers is great)
Crab cakes with red papper slaw (that used the last of our fresh peppers. I remember that distinctly)
Lamb croquettes (using leftover frozen lamb) twice
Pasta with ham, peas and cream
Lentil burgers several times. We love lentil burgers.
Kielbasa and beans
Dal makhni
Black bean cakes
Lentil soup. Several times
Ham and bean soup
Scotch broth
Tuna melt
Ham and red cabbage
Lentil and rice patties
Crab casserole and foccacia
Bacon and smoked cheddar sandwiches
Veggie burgers
Gyros with pita
Cajun pasta
Take out style ribs
Pork schnitzel and mashed potatoes
Twice fried wings
Burgers with A1 sauce
‘hogbake’ (a vegetarian onion casserole from the Redwall cookbook)
Pierogi poutine x2
Meatballs and squash
Roman burgers and bean salad (We had them twice)
Dal and squash curry
Beet pasta
Cheeseburger roll two times- I was tweaking the recipe
Black bean burgers
Fish in pastry
Sausage and pepper meatloaf
Onion burgers
Pasta with marinara
Mapotofu 2x (had bought 2 packs of tofu)
Sicilian mackerel on cous cous
Meatloaf sandwiches
Bratwurst (these had been 99¢ a pack at Aldi)
Dutch beans
Pot pie
Salmon and stuffing (again, boxed stuffing had been on sale)
Lasagna Verdi and leftovers
General Tso’s chicken
Cubano sandwiches
Maple beans
‘carving ham’
Baked bean casserole
Turkey, stuffing, and sautéed grape leaves (from pruning the vines in the yard)
Chili fries
Cheese patties and knots
Pizza burgers
Biscuits and gravy
Butter chick peas
Chicken Fried Vension
Goose rillettes
Venison stroganoff
Tortellini with pesto (this is what our kid requested for his birthday meal, but we ended up having enough food he got a different one)
Chicken applejack
Turkey sausage and stuffing
Roast beef with garlic rolls and onions
Bhan Mi turkey
Bflo chicken dip and bread (716 day!)
Hamburgers in gravy with noodles
Venison in oyster sauce
Lentil and sausage salad
Sourdough bread and hummus and baba ganoush
Ham loaf
Nachos with beans
Lentil salad
Leftover goose with plum sauce
Meat on Naan
Sardine soufflé and corn fritters
Pork spidini
Pesto
Lentil balls with marinara, satay style, BBQ
Steak, potatoes, carrot salad
Pogaca and lathera (cheese stuffed bread and slow stewed veg. I love this meal)
Spring rolls
steak and liver pie
Tuna pockets x2
Penne with sauce
Ramen
Fish, new potatoes (we harvested them!), peas
Spam and hash browns
Pasta con vodka
Turkey wings and ‘staple’ (A pasta veg mix we love)
sausage and stuffing
Refried bean and yellow rice casserole
Brats and sprouts
And then we shopped…
Lunches
Fish soup
Mixed soup
Assorted leftovers
Lentil spread on bread and crackers
Brie on bread
Pizza 3x (leftovers from dinners)
Pastrami sandwiches
Herring on pumpernickel
Fish cakes
Frozen lunches for Hex that he obviously wasn’t gonna take to work
Quinoa salad 2
Wheat berry salad
Avocado tomato mozzarella salad
Waffles x2
BBQ on rolls (little oinkers)
Jalapeño sausage dip x2
Foccacia with Utica greens
Sambar
Semolina pudding
Tuna salad wraps, sandwiches
Stuffed shells (frozen from Aldi)
Pasties: During the shut down I found three THREE separate packs of chopped beef labled ‘beef for pasties’. They all got made. So we had 3 batches, which made about 9 meals.
Potato pancakes
Lentil soup at least 2 times
Lentils cooked with bbq
Dal makni
Smoked cheddar on pumpernickel
Bean dip
Caponata
Shrimp spring roll
Lentil salad with salsa
Lentils in wraps
Tuna edamame bowl
Hamburger and edamame salad
Fish on crackers
Spanakopita (frozen from Aldi)
PB&J
Meatball wraps
Bean salad
Mac and cheese
Tuna salad
Bean and couscous salad
Ramen and fish soup
Lentil burgers
Salmon pasta salad
Fish balls
Snacks
Lentil spreads, Greek and Indian style
Nimki
Sugar nuts
Peanut brittle
Hard candy
Savory nuts
Chex mix
Bought cookies
Persimmon muffins
Indian pickles
General pickles
Fire and ice pickles
Desserts
Cinnamon rolls x3
Coconut cream pie (my birthday)
Steamed pudding
Strawberry cream cake
Brownie cookies
Donuts: frozen and 3 tests
Roman cherry pie
Gulab jamun
Apple turnovers
Nanaimo bars
Baklava
Paska cheese in cream puffs (this sounds really good! I am glad I am writing these up!)
Chocolate chess pie
Sugar pie
Oatmeal pie
Marguerite cake (Hex’s birthday)
Berries and goat’s cheese
Gingerbread, pears and caramel sauce
Mini éclairs
Pear crumble
Apple tart with dulce de leche
Macaroons
Peach crumble
Bread pudding
Tea bread
Black magic cake (several times)
Peach and coffee granitas
Self saucing fudge cake (several times)
Butter tarts
Raspberry tart with canolli filling.
