Coronavirus Quarantine Life: Food Tips

Hey, how is everyone doing out there? It has been such a tough week for most of us, I think? I haven't experienced anything like this in my lifetime, anyway.

I don't know about you, but I have struggled at times to force myself to tune it out, to get off social media (I have mostly failed miserably at this, something I am definitely going to try to get a handle on this weekend), long enough to properly decompress from it all. Between worrying about ourselves, our loved ones (not always in that order), and just the disruption to daily life, along with the fear and confusion of it all, it has been really stressful at times.

It has been tricky for me also as I have been in self isolation/quarantine for a week now, because of a slight cough. It’s fine, but it also has weirdly stayed very minor/persistent without turning into a cold or anything but it’s hard not to wonder “what is going on?”

I’m not suffering much at all so I won’t pester the health service hotlines about it – what is scary is that because I have asthma a lot of my colds do go into my chest, so obviously I am very anxious about the Coronavirus, but I would be very surprised if I got it and it was this mellow (I know some people don’t get it too badly though or aren’t even symptomatic so who knows).

Anyway, the past week things have gotten pretty upended for a lot of us who are trying to stop the spread or self-isolating. Even for people still going to work, the grocery shelves have been emptied a lot of the times when they get off work unfortunately by panic buying (sorry) twats.

I have seen so many videos and photos of medical workers and elderly people confronted with barren supermarket shelves that it is hard not to get very angry and upset with the state of the world right now. Yes there are positive stories, too, but collectively, we could be doing a lot better at not being so selfish that other people have to go without basic foodstuffs.

Anyway, breathe. I/my husband and I are trying to be as prepared as we can, and we are changing a few things “just in case” in how we shop for food and eat. I have been trying to treat this whole situation, without panicking (OR PANIC BUYING) as rationally as possible.

Here are a few changes and ideas for food preparedness that I think might be of use (I apologize if any of these seem obvious or are things people already do, we are a two person household who gets away without much forethought when it comes to food a lot of the time so this whole thing has been a bit of a wake up call for us!).

I appreciate that a lot of this is stuff people with kids or on a tight budget probably already do. It’s just the changes we have made/are making to help us get through this.


- Be prepared: On a basic level, we are used to being able to walk 5 minutes to a store and get most things (within reason) that we need. A random ingredient for dinner. Or you know, dinner. We were very unprepared for how bad things would get so quickly this week, and with me quarantined and David working from home, this has involved him having to go on various scavenger hunts for food, which sucks, as I don’t want him going out any more that he has to.

We have a decent cupboard full of dry ingredients but not much meat or vegetables as those are things I normally buy in person (plus we had planned to be away for three days this weekend for my mother in laws birthday but had to cancel the trip because of everything that is happening/my cough, so we got through some of the food I had planned for this week over the weekend. Bad luck).

So, much of our food buying has unfortunately been a bit reactionary and limited this week. We are FINE, but we are also buying things that are available that we know will come in handy down the line if things really get locked down, as opposed to things we “want”. There was no bread anywhere yesterday, so today we (D.) bought two loaves and a bag of flour. We have a small kitchen and can only stockpile so much (again I wouldn’t be buying tons of stuff even if it was available because that is rude a.f. right now). Luckily we do have a decent sized freezer though, so we froze a loaf of bread (I know other people do this all the time but we are just not normally freeze bread people ok! 😊).

- Make the most of what you’ve got: Take an inventory of the things you do have and try to think outside the box if necessary, of things you can make with them. We are pretty good on beans right now, so I am probably going to try to make bean burgers at some point (not something I would normally do, because the o.h. is a picky-ish eater and our vegetarian options are usually pasta or pasta with cheese or risotto).

He has been much more open minded when we have had a few “outside the box” things this week though; I will give him credit for that! We do just have to suck it up and eat stuff that’s not our favourite if that’s all we have, we have to pull together and try to make our loved ones lives less stressful –lest we chuck one another onto the street to fend for themselves with the seagulls ha ha! (in Aberdeen it would be our beastly gulls, maybe rats elsewhere, but I saw a really freaky scary video of a woman being attacked by seagulls in Italy I think. Nature omg).

Buy Frozen Fruit: (if you can get it) Much tastier than tinned (although honestly I have a weird fondness for tinned fruit), and makes great smoothies. Frozen vegetables too but they are pretty stripped where I live. Also if you can get fresh fruit or vegetables, look into if it’s ok to freeze them (or can? Are we canning now? In middle school I had a friend whose Mom coped with her divorce by filling their entire basement with things she had canned herself; it was impressive! I wish I had thought of it sooner!).

-Buy long life drinks: cow’s milk alternatives: (I need to get on this myself), long life juices, sodas, etc. Stop buying all the water, unless you live somewhere with bad tap water this is just dumb – it's not a hurricane, it’s a virus, dummies!

-Think about shelf life: Here are some cupboard essentials you might want to consider if you don’t normally buy them: Nuts, beans, legumes, tinned fruit and vegetables, tinned fish, peanut butter, oatmeal, dried fruits, cereal or protein bars, jello/”jelly” as they insist on calling it here! (we don’t have Jello pudding in the U.K., sob!).

-Don't forget Health Food stores: (the independent ones, not Whole Foods, which we don’t even have most places in the U.K.). A lot of health food stores are dotted around random spots and while I’m sure people are probably already ON IT, just mentioning it in case anyone is really desperate; they might be an unlikely source of various essential items or have alternate versions of things you can’t find elsewhere (I apologize if I am wrong, my Mom thinks they have probably been ransacked already but I myself haven’t tried yet!). I also read online that a lot of Asian grocery stores are quiet, which is a shame, and stupid, so take advantage if you have one!

-Stock up on herbs, seasonings: (Worcestershire sauce, mustard, spice blends, whatever floats your boat), onion and garlic (again, someone in my house isn’t keen on garlic but desperate times!).

-Stretch out your pasta (or curry, whatever) sauce: we normally don’t use a whole jar anyway to be honest, but it goes a lot further if you stir it through your pasta and freeze some for later.

-Buy flavourful things that can be stretched out more than you would usually: I knew meat was thin on the ground so I told D. to get bacon if possible because I knew I could stretch it out for soups, pasta, whatever.

-Consider vegetable proteins: again, we are limited as my husband can’t eat the main vegetarian protein here (Quorn), but I am hoping to source tofu, soy mince and whatever other non-meat based protein I can find, just to have.

-Try to be less wasteful: If you have leftover pasta or, as we did this week, this baked orzo with eggplant and mozzarella (recipe from Smitten Kitchen), have it as a side dish the second night. We are notoriously bad for throwing away leftovers and this is something we are already changing.

-Get basic baking ingredients (if you can): Flour, raising agents, sugar and oil. Eggs ideally. Butter helps too 😉.

There is a cookbook author called Jack Monroe over here in the U.K. who has a blog/website called Cooking On a Bootstrap (as well as several cook books), a lot of which is based on cooking with cupboard or tinned ingredients. I was aware of her prior to this on Twitter as she is an outspoken social justice advocate, as a single Mom on a tiny budget she came up with all of these recipes out of necessity. I think her recipes all sound so inventive and amazing; I am going to try my best with what I've got to have a go at some of them.

Thinking about this stuff can be stressful/anxious making, but also it can be a nice distraction to try to think about new/random things to cook, as well as trying to be thrifty with it.

For instance, I have always wanted to make pineapple upside down cake, why not now, when store bought treats are a hassle to obtain? I also have some leftover frozen cranberries from Christmas so pretty sure we will be having cranberry bread soon (in March, unheard of!).

On a semi related note, I have seen/heard quite a bit of “Welp it’s the coronapocalypse, I am ditching the diet and eating what I want now, anything goes!”. As well as “I am eating as healthy as possible to up my immune system”. I think we are having a lot of complex feelings about food right now, understandably, with the fear we might run out of some things or we might not have enough of our usual foods.

As someone who tries to practice intuitive eating generally, it’s interesting to see people “allowing themselves” to eat treat food, like it’s suddenly ok now when it wasn’t before. I have also seen a lot of jokes about people “getting fat” during this (hi, you’re being fatphobic saying this stuff actually so maybe don’t) and I just want to say, it’s ok to eat what you want, and it’s also totally normal if you have a past history of eating disorders to be feeling extra stressed and confused and maybe having some not very healthy thoughts right now. I know I have.

I just want say that: it’s ok to feed yourself, it’s ok to comfort eat, and if you are feeling “out of control” around food because you are used to having certain diet restrictions that is totally normal. It is also understandable to feel stressed about food availability right now, but with any luck we will all get through this and hopefully start looking out for each other more along the way.

Maybe read about Intuitive Eating during this weird/uncertain time (admittedly a little trickier to practice right now), but it might be enlightening anyway to think about why we treat food the way we do, giving it “good” or “bad” values, etc.

It might be a good time to reflect on the normal dietary self-imposed restrictions some of us practice which often make us feel deprived of the things we like, which leads to binge eating, a natural response to deprivation.

Maybe we can start to consider the idea that food is nourishment that is vital to life, and the pleasure of it has a greater value than we honor when we are severely restricted, and everything in moderation is something to consider after all of this madness clears up. And to question: why do we choose to live with strict limitations that the body naturally rebels against?

What presumptions do we abide in our lives because of what diet culture tells us is healthy? And how different does it feel now, to have a different, less superficial value placed on food? Just a thought!

I hope everyone is doing ok, please let me know if you have any tips or changes you have made in response to all of this, we are all in this together.

I am essentially a lazy cook with a limited repertoire so it’s challenging times for me, too! I would really love to hear what everyone else is doing with their food prep/cooking too.

Good luck, stay safe and take care. xo

update: I made the Pineapple Upside Down Cake :-) It came out super tasty!