Cheap & Cheerful Suppers While Rationing Our Supplies

We're in week 3 of living off of February's stock-up. We're beginning to run out of some of the fruit that I bought, but otherwise, I think we're doing pretty well so far. As we've talked a bit about, here, I've been trying to use both the exciting and not-so-exciting foods in the meals that I prepare. So, some rice and bean meals as well as meat or cheese meals.

I haven't posted what we've had for weekly meals in a while, so in no particular order or with dates attached, here's what we've been eating since early in the month.

rice, vegetables, and beans mexi-style
 topped with cheese

cheesy tuna and tofu noodle casserole

fried homemade tortilla and bean tostado ,
 slaw on the side

potato and veggie curry topped with cheese,
green beans on the side

homemade flour tortilla chips, carrot sticks,
bean dip

frozen pizza (bought by daughter a while ago),
carrots and green beans

meatloaf and rice smothered with
tomato gravy and carrots

bean burgers topped with gravy made with
meatloaf drippings,
brown rice, frozen spinach and onions --
I began eating right away, I was so hungry!

bean and veggie tostado, green beans

lentil salad on Romaine leaves,
pasta and marinara, carrots

tuna, tofu, veggie, noodle casserole,
sweet & sour slaw

beans 'n' greens with brown rice, sweet & sour slaw

We're eating well, or so it feels. At dinner last night, my husband commented that the kitchen is well stocked. I told him to hold that thought for another 3 weeks and we'll see just how well stocked we are. Although these meals mostly look vegetarian, we do have meat in the freezer. We're just trying to ration it all out. 

I'm excited for this year's garden! I picked a bunch of watercress and sorrel from the garden yesterday. Watercress is the green from last night's dinner. I'll use the sorrel in a pesto for tonight's dinner. I also used garden kale this past week (not shown -- a veggie and lentil soup). I've been working in the garden preparing a larger spot for planting potatoes. The rhubarb is up, but it is so, so tiny still. I'm planning on making a lot of rhubarb jello this spring, as that's such a palatable, reduced-sugar way to use rhubarb. I planted the snow peas on Wednesday and covered that patch with a plastic tunnel row cover. I'm hoping the row cover will help heat the soil and give us snow peas earlier than usual. We shall see.

That's about it for recent meals. What's been on your menu? Are you going to try limiting grocery shopping during this pandemic, or do you feel comfortable with your usual shopping routine right now? While the virus is now in every US state and I think every Canadian province, I understand that this will affect each of us slightly differently. I pray for health and safety for all of us.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Using Grocery Delivery Services

Our neighborhood roads have become eerily quiet in this last week, with the exception of delivery vehicles. If you feel that you are at risk to go out to grocery stores, then delivery is a viable option. Ill share my own experience.

As February was ending, it became to feel less and less safe in my area. I knew of a few people who had been sick for a while with flu-like symptoms. The flu season has hit hard for us, in addition to COVID19. I was also watching international news and the future for the US didn't look good. Anyways, I was apprehensive about going to my last 2 shopping venues. So, I chose to do delivery service for both of them. I used 2 different services, Shipt and Instacart.

I used Shipt for a Target grocery delivery. Shipt has a 4-week free trial. You have to call to cancel the membership before the 4-week end, or you will be charged $99 -- just beware. And I anticipate the phone lines will be busy in another 3 to 4 weeks. So, it may be wise to try canceling at your 3-week mark, instead of waiting till the last minute.

Okay, so for my Target Shipt delivery
Target has pretty good prices on their store-brands, for both non-food and food items. And the quality for those brands is very good. Our Target stores get a lot of business over the weekends and shelves can be quite bare of the basics by the end of Sunday. For that reason, I scheduled my delivery for late Tuesday afternoon. (If I do it again, I'll choose Wednesday mid-morning.) The other advantage to selecting a mid-week delivery is you're much more likely to get a time-slot. I was just checking weekend time slots this past weekend and they were all booked up, here.

My delivery person said she'd shopped for someone's order on Monday afternoon and said the milk had been completely cleaned out. By Tuesday afternoon, the milk had been restocked. However, the frozen orange juice that I'd wanted was completely wiped out by Tuesday afternoon.

When my shopper experienced no or not enough stock of one of my items, she texted me and asked if I'd like a substitute (giving me alternatives at the same time). The substitutes were not always the same price. So you may want to ask about the price difference on substitutions, if that isn't offered.

I was informed via text when my shopper was finished and would be leaving for my house. I readied my end by finding gloves, disinfecting wipes, and opening the garage. When my deliverer arrived, I took delivery in an open area of the garage. She put everything on the floor and I handed her a tip. Shipt does allow for an in-app tip, and in the future I will do that. I stood 6 to 10 feet away from her while she was bringing the items in, but did have to get within close proximity to give a tip. If I were sick, this would be too close for her safety and if she were sick, it could potentially risk infection for me.

After she drove off, while wearing heavy duty latex gloves, I wiped down every package with homemade bleach wipes. I placed items that needed refrigeration or freezing in the garage fridge and freezer. nothing came into the house at that point. I allowed the rest to sit in the garage for several hours, so the bleach could do its thing. After several hours, I brought the items inside (if you remember, we had a bit of a mouse problem last year, including in the garage), but I placed them all in a spot in the house where we don't go often. We just left those items in this spot for several days. When I did finally need to use some of the delivered items, I washed plastic packaging under running water before opening and produce with a bit of liquid dish soap and lots of water before using. After the fact, my son and DIL told me they had done something very similar after using delivery for groceries -- disinfecting, then washing well. My DIL is very conscious of household cleanliness, so I knew I was on the right track for safety, here.

For my Instacart experience
The other delivery service I used was instacart. Instacart serves many grocery stores in my area, but also Cash & Carry SmartFood Service (the restaurant supply). Instacart has a first-time free trial, nothing to cancel later. There is a service fee that is not waived. It looks like it's about 5%. In addition, a small amount is added to the price of each item compared to the store's usual price. Still, for many items, it was still less expensive for me to use Instacart for Cash & Carry than any other delivery option, because Cash & Carry's price per unit is so outstanding for institutional sizes on many items. The default for tipping on Instacart is in-app, so unless you waive the tip, you will be charged a tip of about 5%. For the service of having someone shop for my groceries and take the risk of being in public for me, a tip is an expense that is well-worth it to me.

My experience with the Instacart shopper is much like the one with Target's shipt. I used Instacart on a Wednesday morning. The shopper texted me as he shopped. I also received in-app chat messages. I had the app open on my laptop the entire time he was shopping and I could "see" when he picked up an item. In the case of needing substitutions, I was notified of possibilities by the app, which I could then approve. For the one item that I had not selected a substitution, the shopper messaged me with a photo of a possibility, along with price. I was able to approve that substitution via chat message.

Again, I took delivery in my garage and mentioned to the driver that I'd tipped in-app. I followed my disinfecting  and storage procedure for all of the items.

For both services, my receipts were emailed to me.

The one-time service charge for Shipt is about $10 (if I recall correctly). According to the Shipt website, you can also subscribe for just one month, for $14, unlimited deliveries in that one month. Shipt also marks up the cost of each item. Their website indicates that this mark-up ends up being about $5 for every $35 spent.

Is the shopping fees for someone else to do my shopping worth the expense? For certain circumstances, the expense is worth it. In my region, people over 60 and/or with medical vulnerabilities (or members of their household with the same conditions) are being asked to stay at home as much as possible. Having groceries delivered is another way to minimize exposure to coronavirus.

There are ways to minimize the service and delivery fees. There are coupon codes and/or offers for free trials. Bundling your shopping into one trip for a month reduces flat rates that may be assessed, such as Instacart's regular delivery fee (I think that's a $3.99 flat rate). 

If you schedule well in advance, you can avoid extra "busy delivery times" fees. Instacart does have a surcharge for extra busy periods. However, the customer is notified of this surcharge during the order placement. 

In addition, you can reduce service and delivery fees by just buying basic food items or ingredients for scratch cooking. As your overall grocery budget will be lowered by shopping this way, so will your percentage-based delivery fees. Buy only the foods or supplies that you cannot buy through a place like Amazon or other web store, such as fresh produce, meat, or frozen items. By making a minimum purchase through a web store, you can often get the shipping charge waived.

Key points on using grocery delivery services

• Disinfect as if these items could have been exposed to the virus. The Target items were delivered in plastic bags. I threw those bags out immediately. Cash & Carry doesn't have bags, as many items are extra large. I wore heavy duty gloves when going through all of our items and I used homemade bleach wipes to wipe absolutely everything down. I, then, left it all in the garage for several hours before bringing items into the house.
• Maintain distance from the delivery person, or opt for contactless delivery. Instacart offers contactless delivery as an option. With other delivery services, you can request the delivery be left at your door in the comment/special request section when placing the order.
• The shopper gets paid for their service. However, under our current circumstances, a 5% tip was greatly appreciated by the personal shoppers I used. Tip in-app to eliminate physical contact between yourself and your shopper.
• If you order from a web store and receive delivery via UPS, USPS, or FedEx, obviously there is no tipping, and in many cases, no shipping charge with a minimum purchase. Bonus -- with most deliveries through these organizations, it seems to be standard practice to leave packages at the door with no interaction between the driver/delivery person and resident. 
• Just like regular grocery shopping, comparing prices between stores and services can save a lot of money.
• Amazon Prime subscribers can use Amazon's grocery delivery (which includes both Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods), depending on area.

Have you used grocery delivery services before? What have been your experiences?

Birthday Eats

hot dog cook-out

homemade buns

some homemade condiments

veggie plate

dip made with plain yogurt, onion powder,
garlic powder, salt, and herbs

peas

Kool-Aid

s'mores fixins'

for the tea table

fresh-baked scones

tomato-basil soup

sandwiches and fruit cup

watermelon pickles

peppermint-dark chocolate patties

punch made with Kool-Aid and orange juice

Planning a Tea Using What I Have on Hand

I told you yesterday that one daughter wanted a cook-out for a birthday meal. The other daughter chose a tea. In addition to baking hot dog buns and graham crackers, I have been preparing foods that would work for a tea. Here's our menu:

cup of tomato-basil soup

scratch scones

banana bread and cream cheese sandwiches

egg salad and watercress sandwiches on homemade white bread

watermelon rind pickles

fruit salad

chocolate mint patties
tea and punch

I made the tomato-basil soup from canned tomato paste and frozen basil. The scones are an easy, but good, scratch recipe. I baked a loaf each of banana bread and white bread from scratch. Watercress is growing in our garden right now. The watermelon rind pickles are from last summer's canning. The fruit salad was made with a banana, an orange, and an apple. And the chocolate mint patties were made with melted dark chocolate chips with a couple of drops of peppermint oil stirred in to flavor.

With twins sharing  birthday, it's been a balancing act trying to met each of their expectations. Dividing up the meals and allowing each to choose what they wanted seemed like a good way to go for our current circumstances.

Happy birthday to my darling daughters! And for the rest of us -- happy St. Patrick's Day!

Be Resourceful

In these challenging weeks to come, I have realized that I'll need to be more resourceful than usual.

Here's an example. My daughters' birthday is tomorrow. As we are not going out for any sort of celebration until after this virus has lessened in my community (could be many, many weeks), I told each daughter to choose 1 meal on Tuesday, and I would prepare it. So, one daughter chose a cook-out, complete with s'mores. S'mores require marshmallows (check), chocolate (check), and graham crackers (not checked).

To ensure this daughter has her s'mores, I dug out my recipe for graham crackers and made a batch over the weekend. Here's how they turned out. 

I snatched one, you know -- for quality control. These are good! And they're part whole grain and egg-free. 

What ways are you finding to be resourceful these days?

By not going out to a store just to buy graham crackers for this cook-out, not only did I not risk exposure to a virus that could sicken me or any of my household members, but I also prevented an instance where I could become a mode of transmission for COVID-19. I am treating this as not just self-preservation, but looking out for someone whose health might be more fragile than my own. 


Great challenges produce great faith.

How I Determined What to Buy to Stock-Up for the Next Several Weeks

In mid-February, I began to see that the US might be hit hard with the coronavirus, too. I made my grocery list for the month of March and planned to buy as much as I could from that list by the end of February. As March neared, it began to look like we'd need as much as a 6 or 8-week supply. That's when I made the decision to use April's money as well as March's. So how does a person make a grocery list that covers 8 weeks?

This is how I approached it. I divided the foods that we eat into 6 categories: 1) fruits and vegetables, 2) meats and other proteins (includes eggs, nuts, and bean products), 3) grains and starches, 4) dairy products, 5) fats, and 6) extras. Then I inventoried everything that we had within those categories, guestimated amounts that we use in a month and multiplied by 2, then I decided how much was needed to fill out each group to get us through 8 weeks. If you've ever worked in a restaurant, you may remember taking inventory and placing orders to reach your "fill-to" amounts of each ingredient. This is a lot like how I approached making this shopping list.

For fruits and vegetables, I took into consideration that I have a garden that begins to produce as early as mid-March. With that in mind, I inventoried all of our canned, frozen, dried, and fresh produce. Raisins and juice count.

For meats and other proteins, I could see that I have a lot of dried beans, a whole ham, a few cans of tuna fish, a bit of chicken, and a few dozen eggs. If need be, we could get by for a few months on the dried beans as protein, but I knew we'd want some variety as well as the nutrients that meat provides.

With the grains and starches, I knew that we had several pounds each of rolled oats, steel cut oats, barley, corn meal, all-purpose flour, and whole wheat flour. I would want to add some potatoes and brown rice to our starchy foods.

Although dairy products contribute protein to meals, I put them into a separate category, as dairy products contribute to calcium and vitamin D at levels that many other foods do not. I still had a couple of gallons of milk in the freezer and a couple of pounds of cheese. I knew I'd need to add significantly to the dairy supply in our house.

With regards to fats, I considered vegetable/olive oil, butter, solid shortening, and saved meat fat. I could see that our vegetable oil would run low, so that went on my list.

The extras included sugar (definitely a necessity when thinking about how to prepare garden-grown rhubarb, which may be our only fruit for a couple of weeks in late April/early May), spices, baking ingredients (like baking soda), vinegar, soy sauce and gelatin.

To determine amounts, I calculated and counted. I know that our family goes through about 1 gallon of vegetable oil every 4 or 5 weeks, so buying one more gallon would get us through 8 weeks. However, I don't buy oil by the gallon, but in large 35-lb boxes (about 7 gallons). So that's what I bought. 

I added 1 bag of potatoes and a 50-lb bag of brown rice for our starchy foods. (Remember, I buy food in institutional sizes to get the lowest price per pound. 50 pounds of rice will last 6 months for us.) 

For meat, I bought a 10-lb chub of 80/20 ground beef, a 10-lb bag of chicken leg quarters, and 4 dozen chicken hot dogs. There's not a lot of variety in the cuts of meat, but I can vary how it's prepared to add interest. I also bought a 5-dozen box of eggs for protein. 

The fruits and vegetables are perhaps the hardest category for me to estimate need. I thought about what amounts of fresh, frozen, dried, canned, and juiced produce we could possibly use in a month and doubled it. So I bought a lot of frozen juice concentrate (orange, apple, grape) as frozen juice concentrate takes up very little freezer storage space, keeps much longer than fresh fruit, but delivers more vitamin C than most canned or dried fruit. I also bought about 11 pounds of fresh apples, 2 dozen bananas, and some cans of pineapple chunks for fruit. For vegetables, I tried to hit the various nutrients that vegetables can provide, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, beta carotene, indoles (cancer fighters found in cabbage family), lycopene, sulfur compounds, and lutein. I also wanted to focus on long-keepers. I bought several heads of cabbage, a jumbo bag of carrots, several bunches of celery, jumbo bag of onions, a few heads of garlic, 6 pounds of frozen spinach, and 10 pounds of frozen peas. I already had about a dozen cans each of green beans and corn, a couple of #10 cans of whole tomatoes and tomato paste, and about a dozen cans of pumpkin. If this sounds like a lot of produce, I admit, my family plows through fruits and vegetables like you wouldn't believe. 

The one "extra" ingredient that I knew we'd run out of was sugar. So, I bought sugar as I normally do, in a 50-lb sack.

I spent all of March's and April's grocery budget plus all of Easter's special grocery allowance. 

I know, hot dogs are not the greatest food. However, to keep our spirits up and make the isolation feel less confining, we plan on having cookouts whenever the weather is nice. We also have my daughters' birthday this month and two other birthdays next month to celebrate. We'll do cookouts or burgers for each of those occasions.

As you already know, I tend to cook from scratch, making fairly basic meals. I actually think it is less daunting to put together a list of basic ingredients to last 8 weeks than to think of the individual meals that I would make for 8 weeks and form a shopping list from that 8-week menu plan. But that's just how I shop and cook.

Anyways, we're prepared, here. And if the virus is mediated well-enough and all of my preparations aren't needed, then I don't need to grocery shop for at least 2 months. 

Making Chicken Soup

Among other things, I bought a 10-lb bag of chicken leg quarters at Walmart to use in March. My primary thought was to use these for homemade chicken soup. A 10-lb bag contains between 8 and 9 chicken leg quarters, in my experience. 

I use 1 leg quarter per large pot of soup (about 1.25 gallons once everything is added). I prefer leg quarters for chicken soup because they are the least expensive chicken parts I can buy and dark meat poultry has more zinc than light meat. Zinc is often recommended for supporting the immune system. The extra fat in dark meat is a bonus, as I can use it to saute the vegetables as I put the soup together.

How I make chicken soup

For years, I hated making soup using bone-in meat. I disliked handling the slimy-feeling, warm poultry part just out of the hot broth, as I pulled meat off of the bones. Then I discovered that I could make chicken soup over 2 days and deal with the chicken meat, chilled, on day 2.

So, this is how I make it. I heat a large stockpot over Medium. I sprinkle a bit of salt  in the bottom of the pot (my mom always did this to prevent fatty meat, like burger patties or skin-on chicken parts from sticking to the pan). Then, I place the chicken leg quarter skin side down in the pot and brown on both sides. Once both sides are just barely golden, I cover with about a gallon of water, bring to a boil, cover, and allow to simmer for about 3 hours. 

After the stock has cooled for about 15 minutes, I remove the chicken from the stock, place in a glass dish, cover and refrigerate. Next, I pour the warm stock into a large container for the fridge and chill it over night, too.

The next day, I skim the fat off of the stock and use it to saute 2 diced onions, 3 to 5 diced large carrots, 2 or 3 chopped sticks of celery with leaves, and 1 clove of garlic, minced. If there wasn't much chicken fat, I add a little oil as well. While they saute, I pulled the chilled chicken meat off of the bones and chop. I add the chicken to the vegetables and pour all of the stock over it all. 

At this point, I decide if we want traditional chicken noodle soup, or a chicken, barley, and lentil soup, or an Italian minestrone type of soup. If chicken noodle, I add some crushed sage to the cooking soup, a bit of pepper, and salt to taste. In the last 6 or 7 minutes, I add broken spaghetti noodles to the soup.

If I'm making the barley and lentil version, I add a half cup each of dry barley and lentils to the soup just after adding the stock. I season it similarly to chicken noodle soup. The lentils add extra protein and the barley adds some carbs.

If I decide we want a minestrone-type soup, I substitute some crushed oregano for the sage, add some extra garlic, and some dry lentils. In the last 10 minutes of cooking, I add a cup of any shape pasta plus some diced canned tomatoes and their liquid.

The chicken soups have been pretty popular with my family these last 10 days. I plan on making a large pot at least once per week. I freeze a quart or two of each batch, so we can homemade soup most days of the week.

Making the soup over 2 days has made the job seem less of a chore for me. I think we all have to find ways to make our work a little easier. I just thought I'd share this about the chicken soup in case it helps anyone else.

Thermometers for this Virus

Last month, when I was shopping for March, I bought a new thermometer for our household. The one in the photo on the right is our old, digital, under-the-tongue thermometer. It's very reliable and accurate, but it takes time and effort (needs thorough cleaning after each use) to use. I thought we'd want a non-invasive thermometer so that we could quickly check our temps.

I am currently 12 days into staying at home all of the time. My husband is 8 days in. And my daughters are 5 days in to this home isolation. I knew we'd want some sort of thermometer for routine temperature checks during the initial 14 days for each of us. As far as we know, none of us has been exposed. But our immediate area has been particularly hard-hit with this virus, and no one can be certain of their exposure. 

The thermometer on the left is a digital temporal thermometer. After depressing the button, you place it against your temple, between your eyebrow and hairline. Temporal temperatures have the lowest rate of accuracy, as your skin can be warm from being in a very warm room (like the kitchen when cooking) or when wearing a hat, or your skin can be cooler than your internal temperature when you first come in from very cold outdoor temperatures. However, I do like this thermometer for quick checks, as they are completely non-invasive and the reading only takes seconds. When someone in our family has registered as being "hot" we follow that reading up with the old, digital under-the-tongue thermometer. The combination of the two thermometers has given us the best of both types.

Do You Know What This Is?

These are our leafy greens for May and June! Yep, I planted curly kale, Lacinato kale, and Romaine lettuce in soil-filled cells under a light about a week ago. Still no sign of the tomato sprouts, but I'll give those another few days.

It may still be very chilly here, but my indoor starter garden is doing well. I keep the light fixture and planting cells on top of the dryer, where they get a lot of bottom-heat. I think that helps the tiny plants grow.

Making Disinfecting Wipes

I've got 2 types of disinfecting/sanitizing wipes that I make myself: alcohol wipes and bleach/water wipes. Both are super simple to make, each having its own purpose. 

The alcohol wipes are great for wiping down electronic devices, such as keyboards, touch screens, and remote controls. 

And I like the bleach and water wipes for wiping down the handle, lid, seat, and rim of toilets, faucet handles at sinks, the handles, knobs and buttons on kitchen appliances, the telephone handset, and the inside and outside of door knobs.

I use those select-a-size paper towels, torn to the smallest rectangle for the bleach wipes, and cut in half for alcohol wipes. I tend to use smaller wipes when using the alcohol ones, due to often cleaning smaller areas with alcohol.

To make a dozen alcohol wipes, you need a small container with tight-fitting lid, 6 sheets of select-a-size paper towels, 70% ethyl alcohol, and scissors. Simply cut each sheet of paper towel in half and stack inside the plastic container. Pour the alcohol over the towels until saturated. Cover tightly.

To make about 10 bleach wipes, you need 10 select-a-size paper towels, each folded over once, some household chlorine bleach, water, and a plastic, lidded container. Stack the folded paper towels inside the plastic container and pour about 1 cup of a bleach and water solution (see below) over to saturate. Cover tightly. Wear gloves when handling the bleach wipes.

For a bleach and water solution, I follow the guidelines of the CDC for using bleach and water as a disinfectant against COVID-10 found here in the section How to Clean and Disinfect: Surfaces. I make 1 cup at a time and only make about 10 wipes at a time, so that I use them soon after making and the bleach does not lose any potency. It's important to use bleach that has not expired. Yeah, right -- who knew that beach could expire? Also, I mark the top of my containers as to which kind of wipe is which.

Part of my daily routine, now, is to wipe down high-touch areas, such as doorknobs, handles, touch screens, remote controls, and light switches. I do this once per day, hoping we can keep the germs to a minimum where ever our hands may go.

Starting Seeds for My Garden, Because Life Goes On

I may be preoccupied with coronavirus right now, but garden-planting time will come around whether I'm prepared or not. This year, I don't know if I'll be able to get out to stores to buy my tomato plants in time to plant (I plant them around April 15-20 under plastic covers), or if plants will even be available in abundance in my area. There are too many unknowns at this point. So, I found a packet of tomato seeds from 3 years ago, tucked in my seed stash. 

They may have lost some viability, but I believe that some of the seeds will germinate. I planted several seeds in each cell of this 6-pack. I am hoping for 4 to 6 healthy plants. Planting seeds this late means the plants will be smaller, but I'm hoping I'll make up for that with more plants. (I planted 3 large commercially-grown plants last year.)

Life does go on. 

How Much Hand Sanitizer My Family of 4 Is Using

I opened this bottle of hand sanitizer about 10 days ago and placed it on the kitchen table. I would guess that most of our use of this bottle has occurred in the last 7 days. We are primarily using soap and water for hand-washing and backing that up a few times (5 or so) per day, each, with the hand sanitizer.

We've had 2 very mild viruses in the house in the past week, so I'd guess that our usage has been moderate. For moderate use, it appears that we are going through about 1/3 of an 8-ounce bottle every week to 10 days. (The black pen line on the bottle is the actual level.) 

At this rate (should no one become more ill than minor viruses) an 8-ounce bottle should last my family about 3 weeks to 1 month. Should we increase our usage, due to major illness in the family or visitors (not likely), we would probably use the hand sanitizer at almost double the current rate, or an 8-ounce bottle every 2 weeks. I bought three 8-ounce bottles in February, so we have enough here for between 6 weeks and 3 months, depending on need. Six weeks brings us to about April 10, and 3 months brings us to about May 22. 

I understand that our local Target was completely cleaned out of hand sanitizer a week ago, before the terrible news of this past weekend. I don't know if they've been restocked since. Even if I couldn't find hand sanitizer in my local stores this week, I do believe that I will be able to find some by early April, at the very latest. The current, regional hand sanitizer shortage is not indefinite. Store shelves and websites will have it again in a matter of weeks.

I just wanted to share our usage so that if you've only been about to find a small amount of hand sanitizer, you would have an idea of how much this family of 4, who also is using soap and water, is using under our current circumstances. And, if you're thinking you need to buy several gallons, this might help you understand that not only would that be more than average families might need, but it would hoard quantities that others can't find. Also, it doesn't keep forever (so would just be a waste of money). Hand sanitizer has an expiration date on the bottle because it does lose effectiveness over time.

If you can't find any hand sanitizer at all, there are alternatives. Ethyl alcohol is the active ingredient in most bottled gel hand sanitizers. Some folks pour ethyl alcohol into a small spray bottle (think purse-size spray bottles that you can get from places like Amazon and fill with your favorite perfume) and spritz their hands, rubbing together well. 

Sanitizing Dishes if You Don't Have a Dishwasher

I believe that this first tip comes from Kris (here in the comments) from some time ago. I wanted to share this for anyone who is concerned that they don't have an easy way to sanitize dishes without a dishwasher.

If you have a plastic-coated dish drainer that fits in your sink, after you wash and rinse all of your dishes, put them in the drainer in the sink. Then bring a tea kettle of water to a boil and pour the contents completely over your washed dishes.

Alternatively, you can plug your sink, place all of the cleaned dishes in the sink, and pour the boiling water over all to immerse the dishes. This may take a couple of kettles of water. Allow to soak for at least 30 seconds. the temperature of the water would need to be at or above 170 degrees F for the duration of the soak. (source:http://stopfoodborneillness.org/news-from-stop-clean-sanitize-disinfect/)

The website Stop Food Borne Illness also recommends a bleach/water solution for sanitizing dishes. When I volunteered for kitchen duty for fund-raisers at our church, we were instructed to add a small amount of liquid bleach to a sanitizing water after dishes had been washed and rinsed. 1 tablespoon of liquid bleach to 1 gallon of cool water (hot water stops the sanitizing effect of the bleach). Allow dishes to sit in this solution for at least 1 minute. Wear gloves when handling dishes.

What I've always heard is that it is better to allow dishes to air-dry, as opposed to towel drying. So, don't feel like you're being lazy when you let the dishes dry on their own! One less chore!

Anyway, check out that website linked to above. If one member of your household does become ill (with any virus), these instructions could help prevent infection with the rest of the family members.

If you do have an automatic dishwasher
My family does have a dishwasher and we've begun washing on a higher temperature setting than usual. This may cost a bit more in electricity, but worth the expense for peace of mind and perhaps keeping us all healthier in cold and flu season.

Let the News Motivate You, but Not Control You

I haven't talked much about the coronavirus, here, in part because I don't want to be a source of worry for anyone else. Also, for my own self, talking about it brings my own fears and worries to the surface. Today, I am ready to talk about what I've been doing to prepare.


Prayer and Preparation

I did almost all of my March shopping in February. What I didn't do, I ordered online to be delivered later this week. I am taking this one day at a time. Tuesday (this morning as this is posted), is Senior shopping day at Fred Meyer. We have a handful of confirmed cases right in my area, near enough to the Fred Meyer where I usually shop, so I've decided not to shop Senior Discount Day this month. We have enough in our fridge, freezer, and pantry right now to get through the entire month of March and beyond. I'm starting my vegetable garden indoors under lights this week for some early greens. We'll live on what we have with maybe another online order of non-perishables for delivery from Target a little later. Through all of this, I am keeping my prayer life very active.

When You've Done Everything Else, Make Chicken Soup

I made a large pot of chicken soup last Friday. We had that for dinner that night and lunches all weekend long. I made another large pot of chicken soup on Monday. This soup is in part for snacks and lunches right now, but part of it is going into the freezer as emergency "illness" food. One of the foods that I bought in February for March was a 10-lb bag of chicken leg quarters. I'll be making a lot of chicken soup, some for eating presently, and the rest for freezing. If you saw in the news, the team in Nebraska was serving homemade chicken soup to some of the coronavirus patients.

Budget Preparedness

If your budget is not very big and can't include a lot of convenience foods, make some of your own right now and store them in the fridge or freezer. Casseroles and soups freeze well. If you want to stock water, you can fill empty plastic or glass beverage bottles (soda, cider, wine, juice) with tap water and store in your fridge. I'm not sure why bottled water is one of the suggested items on many stock-up lists for this virus. But it can't hurt to be prepared, if you have some empty bottles anyway.

When you do need to go to the stores to buy foods, medicines, hygiene items, and cleaning supplies, the best tips I've read are to wear gloves while shopping, shop very early in the morning (if that is a time when stores are least crowded), shop midweek/avoid crowded weekends, go to stores where there seems to be less traffic, and when you come home, wash your hands well. Consider having groceries delivered to your house. Stores like Target offer free delivery in my area with a $35 purchase.

Organize the supplies that you do have. I pulled all of my disinfecting supplies together. I included items that we might not think of as a disinfectant, such as hydrogen peroxide, but they are. I've got a Lysol-type spray, 70% and 91% alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, hand sanitizer, liquid bleach, and some Lysol-type cleaning wipes, as well as lots of soap. I've put these together in a cabinet in the laundry room. After doing some reading, I discovered that some are more effective than others against coronavirus. However, I believe they will all be useful for my household. These items have differing properties that make some more useful for particular surfaces than others. 

Be Aware, but Take a Break From the News From Time to Time

At the present, for many of us, the threat of this virus is not on our doorstep. There is no need for us to scare ourselves silly. Stress lowers the immune response. So, if you find yourself overstressed, take a break from the news and do something very relaxing, such as listening to calming music, or watching light-hearted comedies on youtube or dailymotion.com. The unknowns are the source of most of my fears. I am a woman of faith. So, I have been reminding myself that although I don't know things, He knows it all.

Still, the news can be addicting. So, it's good to force yourself to break away from the news for a few hours a day. Remember, the news agencies make money by getting you to read or watch, so their headlines often contain worrisome words and phrases, like "cases jump." Be aware, but take breaks from worry. Just keep doing those good health practices -- wash, wash, and wash some more, get good sleep, eat healthy, take time to relax each day.

One of the things that I do each night that brings me peace is I tell myself that I'm still well. I survived the day. My family is doing fine. I'm in His hands. I only have to do this one day at a time.

I've got a lot more to say, but this is long enough for today. I hope everyone is exceptionally well right now.

Harbingers of Spring?

When I find the first daffodils in my yard, I feel as if they are blowing their trumpets to announce the imminent arrival of spring. In addition to daffodils, on Sunday afternoon I found other flowers and vegetables/herbs peeking out to say hello.

the earliest of the daffodils -- a petite daffodil

grape hyacinths just barely peeking up through the dirt

a larger patch of the purple primroses (and lots of moss)

heath

yellow primroses that seem to be lunch for the slugs

snow crocus -- earlier and shorter/smaller than giant crocus

the garlic is just now up and could be used for garlic chives/greens

sorrel -- a pot of cream of sorrel soup is in order, I think

the chives could be cut now, too

While it's still pretty chilly outside, seeing these beauties does make me hopeful for warmer temperatures to come.

Did you realize that March 1 is considered to be the first day of meteorological spring? This is based on the annual temperature cycle and not Earth's position in relation to the Sun.

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: When Trying Something New, I Baby-Step My Way In -- My Carob-Chocolate Brownies

Kris touched on this a little the other day in the comments about trying to decide how much pureed pumpkin to use in a recipe as a substitute for oil/butter in a batch of pumpkin bread. She suggested to try a little bit to start and see how the final product turned out. Then, the next time, use a bit more and see what the results are like.

This is exactly how I approach this sort of situation. If I'm just baby-stepping my way with a recipe, trying a small amount of the "new" ingredient, there's less chance it will turn out horrible and a greater chance we will still like the end result. My "usual" formula is to try using 1/4 of the new ingredient to use as a substitute. 

This month when I was cleaning the baking cupboard, I came across a baggie of carob powder. I used to love carob, so when I saw it again I thought I'd enjoy it as a substitute in hot cocoa. for my own taste, it was too fruity and lacked the bitterness that I enjoy in cocoa powder. so the baggie just sat in the cupboard until I found it in my cabinetry excavations.

Yesterday, I was wanting to make some brownies, but we're very low on cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is not a necessity (I could hear several gasps through the internet just now), so it's not high on my grocery priority list. (The best price on cocoa powder is a 20-30 minute drive from my house. I'll pick some up when I'm down that way again.) Anyway, I wanted to make brownies, yet also wanted to spare some of the cocoa powder. Remembering the baggie of carob powder, I decided to substitute 1/4 of the called-for cocoa powder with carob. The brownies came out delicious and absolutely no one knew any different.

Trying just a little at a time is also a good strategy for using up less desirable foodstuffs. I occasionally will get this wild idea to buy a package of seaweed, even though I know I don't like the taste of the stuff. When I come across a lingering package of seaweed in the pantry, I use it up in tiny, tiny amounts added to something like tuna casserole, or chicken soup, or stir fry. The first time i will try a small square of the seaweed torn into tiny bits. The next time, I'll add a bit more, and so on, until it's just too flavorful for me. 

Baby steps. I risk less while trying something new.