Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2
months, it is apparent that it’s not life as usual. In a perfect world, well we
wouldn’t even have had the novel corona virus 19 or COVID-19 pass from animals
to humans but even in the perfect COVID-19 world, we’d shut down and sequester
everyone for 2 to 3 weeks so that the virus would run its natural course and no
new infections would occur and we’d be back to normal all the while having
every citizen still collecting their paychecks, businesses excused from their
insurance and lease payments and all loan payments put on hold. Of course, the
world we live in is far from perfect and even with mandatory shelter-in-place
orders, you still see citizens gallivanting outside like its life as usual. But
for yours truly, I am in the higher risk population, so sequestration is also essential
for personal survival.
Essential
Workforce
As a health care worker, I have been deemed essential by
both the State of Hawaii and the Federal Government, so I must report to work
every day unless I become one of the COVID-19 statistics. And though it does
seem unnerving encountering multiple patients with surgical masks throughout
the day, I am thankful that I continue to receive a paycheck as many citizens
are forced from “non-essential” vocations and now have to fight the myriad of
endless paperwork to collect unemployment checks. However, whether working or
furloughed, everyone still needs to eat.
Far from Fresh
Unless you have prepped well with a large freezer
stocking bags of assorted frozen vegetables well before the crisis, you’ll have
to make weekly trips to the supermarket exposing yourself to who-knows-what’s-out-there.
The same goes for other perishables like eggs and dairy unless you do not mind
converting your milk to buttermilk then yogurt as the carton sits in your
refrigerator for several weeks. So, it does pay to prepare well in advance with
cupboard essentials such as canned beans, tomatoes and proteins like tuna and
chicken as well as various dried legumes and pasta plus rice and other whole
grains such as farro, quinoa and amaranth. In the 50th, if everyone
adequately prepped for the annual hurricane season which runs from May or June
until late November, last minute stockpiling would not be necessary. And that
includes dry goods such as toilet paper and paper towels. In fact, the only
item needed for those last-minute purchases would be hand sanitizer as that is
the one item usually not included for the annual hurricane season.
You Can Also do
Take-out
I’m still a little conflicted on doing take-out. While it
does help restaurants with a little cash flow while sit-down dining is
prohibited, it still isn’t enough to keep any restaurant going in the long
term. And once this crisis is over and we’re well on the downside of the bell
curve, there still will be many smaller establishments that simply have to
fold. And while take-out does minimize individual exposure to the virus, you
still must multiply exposures over the whole food chain which doesn’t really
help to flatten the curve. The produce grower or farmer is exposed to the
primary buyer who is exposed to the wholesaler who is exposed to the delivery
person who is exposed to the restaurant worker, etc. So even if your own
exposure is only to the restaurant worker, there are many other exposures for
you to get that take-out meal. But I still personally try to help keep our
local restaurants afloat, especially those that purchase locally so that it
helps the bottom line for more than one merchant.
You Have to Cook
So, if you don’t do take-out, that means you have to cook
on your own and you can only consume so much dried ramen before your body
rebels. For starters, on those limited excursions to the supermarket, I
purchase lots of fresh basil and cilantro to make pesto which I use as sandwich
spreads, on homemade pizza and even simply as dips for crackers and crostini.
We also purchase lots of fresh garlic and onions as these last longer than
other fresh vegetables along with root vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes,
potatoes, celery root and parsnips once again due to their extended shelf
lives. And we always have a variety of beans in our cupboard, both canned for
immediate use and dried for cooking on the weekend. We also always have white,
brown and mixed grain rice and usually never have to stockpile at the last
minute as we don’t consume as much rice as we did in days gone by. The only
temporary issue we had during the initial phases of the COVID crisis was flour
and yeast. You see, I never thought of my local neighborhood as being heavily
populated with bakers so while I assumed rice and pasta would be in short
supply, I never envisioned flour and yeast in demand. WRONG! During those
initial phases, my local Safeway had only three bags of whole wheat flour and
no Fleischman’s or Red Star yeast. I had to visit the neighboring community of
Kailua to re-stock our supply of flour and yeast. The only issue with pasta is
that we normally consume the Barilla Protein Plus pasta which has a shorter
shelf life due to the whole grains so you can’t overstock this variety.
So, what can we cook simply using items in our pantry?
How about different takes on jambalaya? Or chili? Or curry? A classic dish in
the 50th uses ground meat instead of cubed beef like Texas chili and
it also features that anathema of Texas chili, beans. Folks in the 50th
love their beans and it is not chili without beans. And chili in the 50th
does need to be served with rice so instead of cooking them separate, how about
chili with beans cooked with the rice? A one pot, one bowl meal that also
reduces after dinner dishes! And all prepared from your pantry to reduce your
chances for COVID-19 exposure!
Chili and Rice
1 & 1/2 cup Uncle Ben’s Converted rice
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chopped tomatoes, drained saving the liquid
1 can tomato sauce
1 can chopped black olives
1 can chopped green chilies (hot or mild depending on
your preference)
4 tbsp dried celery flakes
¼ cup dried diced onions
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried cumin powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried granulated garlic
1 bay leaf
1 cup textured vegetable protein
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