How is everyone doing?
This has been quite a week as the urgency surrounding the coronavirus precautions intensified. It was midterms at school, and this week is spring break, which is nice now but was stressful last week as we were all trying to learn, study, and adapt simultaneously.
My dad also flew in for a visit, which started out fun and relaxed and evolved into a hunkered down visit and an early flight home. Now, I’m at home with the kids and looking to keep them relatively engaged. We’ll see how that goes. If anyone finds any resources or activities, please share! Right now, I’m looking to do a bit of reading, a bit of outside time or movement, some baking (the pic above is Will getting involved in a lemon merengue pie I made last week), arts & crafts, and the material on Scholastic’s learn-at-home website.
One of the stressful elements for me was figuring out how to grocery shop and meal plan. I did a decent job of getting some shelf-stable and easy-to-make options (in the event we all or some of us get sick… we won’t want to cook with fatigue and flu-like symptoms). But then I found myself questioning whether and how to get groceries for the current week, right now, or whether to start cooking with what I had on hand.
My sister’s advice cut through my indecision: the two-week stock-up supply is for if you or your family need to quarantine and can’t leave the house for two weeks. Otherwise, meal plan as usual and keep the grocery store runs to a minimum, buying enough to cook several meals at at a time but not depleting the shelves for others coming after you.
So that’s what I’ve done. I’m going to try to start sharing two weeks’ plans below in the hopes more info and seeing everything tied together is helpful.
Here’s what I’ve been reading and cooking this week:
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
Two more ideas for navigating the stay-at-home aspects of social distancing:
1) Ideas to stock your pantry for social distancing.
2) Take a virtual tour of specific museums during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Twitter, @epiellie is a BU Epi professor whose COVID-19 tweets have been both helpful and enjoyable. If you’re looking for grounded but relevant info, I recommend following, too!
This was a fun read from two people I follow somewhat consistently online: Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman talks about her Beauty Uniform with Cup of Jo.
The Work We Do While We Sleep.
Putting this carrot loaf on my baking get-to-do list.
Bracing for second place. Ugh. It’s not OK to co-opt Warren’s ideas and plans and not have her on the top of the ticket.
Joanna Goddard from A Cup of Jo interviews photographer Julie Blackmon.
What I’ve Been Cooking This Week:
Last Week:
Sunday: Broccoli cheddar soup with toast
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Ordered pizza (so busy!)
Wednesday: Spaghetti bolognese, roasted broccoli
Thursday: Salmon with wheat berry salad
Friday: Dinner out (last one for awhile, most likely… although take-out might be a viable way to support restaurants and take some pressure off)
Saturday: Stuffed chicken with kale and cheese
Up Next:
Sunday: Garlic-butter shrimp pasta, roasted cauliflower
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Almost-spring chicken & herb pasta, sautéed green beans
Wednesday: Asparagus & goat cheese quiche
Thursday: Chinese chicken salad
Friday: Turkey meatballs with orzo & whipped feta, cauliflower pilaf
Saturday: Leftovers
Baking: Blueberry-Pear baked oatmeal
Some kind of roasted apple muffins
