Items

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  2020-05

  Food Shortages During a Pandemic

  While most people tried new recipes during the pandemic, what I remember most is the food shortages that forced me to constantly change what I was planning to make and how I made it. I began using grocery pickup before the pandemic, and since I am a full-time caregiver to my mother who is high-risk for COVID, we continued to use grocery pickup as much as possible to limit any exposure to the virus. Unfortunately, this meant that I could not get halfway through the store, realize that I could not make what I was planning due to unavailable items, and put stuff back and try to buy something else. Though I do have the store substitute most items when they can, especially during lockdown sometimes they couldn’t provide any substitutions, which would leave me without one or two crucial ingredients and unable to fix anything to eat. To combat this, I started getting enough food for two separate dishes for every meal, so if plan A didn’t work out, hopefully plan B would. I also started planning for meals that could be used with the same ingredients, except for one or two, and then get both options just in case one was out of stock. Beef and noodles and chicken and noodles would be one example of this, where the main recipe and ingredients are mostly the same, the only difference being the frozen chicken with chicken broth versus prepackaged beef tips with beef bouillon. Due to their minimal ingredients and their easiness to make, these two interchangeable recipes to me most represent the pandemic and what I fixed the most of during the lockdown and food shortages. I have attached the recipe for both.