Seven weeks of quarantine and it has been really interesting managing the food, on so many levels, right? First, we had the panic buying to make sure we had more than enough – just in case there were shortages. Don’t want to starve!
Then we binged on all the goodies we included in our “panic-ixety” spree and the guilt – oh, the guilt! Why did I eat all of those Oreos when I know the middle is made with pig lard (just kidding - they changed the recipe in 1997 to sugar, palm and/or canola oil, high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin, and artificial flavor. Much better, right) ? Who ate all the chips? Oh, it was me? Hands off - a quart of ice cream just isn’t enough for the both of us these days.
Working from home or not working at all can make us play all sorts of games with ourselves such as “I worked all morning to get that report done on time, and now I am going to reward myself with….(fill in favorite junk food)”. Or “It’s not fair! Why did this happen to me?” can make us feel that its okay or it does not matter what I eat, or that I don’t exercise. We can justify all of our behaviors anytime, more so in this time.
By now, hopefully we have righted ourselves and gotten into some routines around the “new normal”. Fortunately, some of those practices are walking more, meditation, cooking at home, and yes, feeling less stressed, because we have less to do, and less places to be. More free time has opened up – aaah! I am not saying all of this is happening simultaneously for all of us. However, I do feel we have developed some type of regularity that is making us feel more settled. Anyway, I hope that is the case.
I have not really gone out much because my husband works at a supermarket (and I salute all who work in this industry, because it hasn’t been easy) and I am grateful for that. He brings home items we regularly use however, I have deliberately let our food supply go down to use up what we do have in our cupboards.
It has been a fun and creative challenge to put things together that I ordinarily wouldn’t. I make soups out of whatever is in the fridge or freezer and some of these combinations have been outstanding. A really simple one was a navy bean soup, with ham, in the Instantpot, that took no time at all.
I used 5 ingredients:
RECIPE
Bag of dried navy beans (rinsed, no need to soak)
1 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
6 cups of stock – I used Better than Bouillon vegetable stock
Cubed ham (ham slices that I had in the freezer)
Saute´ the carrot and onion in the Instantpot
Add the cubed ham, 6 cups of stock, and of course, the beans
Change setting from Saute´ to Pressure cook, High, 90 minutes
That’s it. So simple, so delicious and so good for you. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
If you would like a collection of meals that you can make from “found items” in your pantry, contact me at michelle@teeminghealth.com Subject line: FOUND
And if you feel like you need a reset, please join me next Monday, May 11, for G.R.I.T., a 21 -day reset of (3) key areas that will jumpstart your overall health and wellness for the better. I promise you a program you won’t forget. Details here.