Many of my fellow readers have been quarantined already. A virus by the name of Covid_19 has turned the world upside down. Many countries confine their people, only allowing

• supermarket runs,
• doctors’ visits or
• getting medical supply and medication from the pharmacy.

Despite supermarket runs still being legal, it’s advisable for your health and the health of everyone around you, to go shopping as little as somehow possible. That’s because

• Every trip outside is a risk of catching and spreading the virus.
• Protection gear is scarce almost anywhere. Little explanation is needed that touching anything while grocery shopping is impossible. Shopping cart, products, your wallet, your bags, your car keys…
• The products you buy might be contaminated making a good scrub at home necessary. For every product on display it’s safe to assume that it’s been handled by at least 10 people.

If you feel a trip to the store is needed, I suggest calling the store you’d like to visit before you leave, both to inquire about the wait and what’s in stock.

So, mabye delivery service are the solution to all of the above. Well… they’re not.

• While they do eliminate the trip outside your house, they require a good amount of other people to do it for you. Since it’s their job to do exactly what they do for many customers, it’s actually even worse than getting out yourself.
• It remains unchanged that protection gear is scarce almost anywhere. Little explanation is needed that touching anything while grocery shopping is impossible. Shopping cart, products, your wallet, your bags, your car keys…
• The same applies for the product contamination making a good scrub at home necessary.

How to reduce your supermarket runs

• Buy smart, buy in bulk. The more provisions and staple food you have, the less you need to go out.
• Buy fruit & veg that’s not ripe yet but can continue to ripen at home. Those include:
  • Avocado
  • Tomatoes
  • Peaches
  • Strawberries
  • Papaya
  • Kiwi
  • Persimmons
  • Plums
  • Pear
  • Mango
• Plan your meals wisely. Incorporate fruit & veg into your meals of the next 1-2 days that is usually picked when ripe for consumption. Here is a list to help you do that:
  • Berries (such as strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
  • Cherries
  • Citrus (such as oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit)
  • Cucumber
  • Eggplant
  • Figs
  • Grapes
  • Olives
  • Peppers
  • Pineapple
  • Pomegranate
  • Summer Squash
  • Watermelon
• Buy frozen vegetables and berries. A spacious freezer will come in handy for that one.
• Check out general ideas on meal planning here.
• Many fruit & veg can be frozen. Learn more about freezer hacks here.

Corona Crisis for Vegans

Coronavirus, Coronavirus, Coronavirus

If you’re anything like me, you’ve heard the word Coronavirus way to many times in the media lately. My favorite newspaper puts it quite eloquently: What we know and what we don’t know about Coronavirus … Followed by a long list of things, we don’t know (apparently).

I do know one thing and that is that I know a person who was put in quarantine for two weeks. Her co-worker got Coronavirus. And that was when it hit me and I went to the grocery store with lots of empty bags and bought a lot pantry preps.

Vegan Coronavirus Crisis Shopping

If you’re preparing for food supply shortages or a local lockdown, the good news is that it’s remarkably easy for vegans. The most convenient, inexpensive, and imperishable pantry items are nearly all vegan.

Stocking up on grocery is the way to go. First, it ensures you’ll have enough to eat if panic-buying leaves your local supermarket’s shelves bare. Second, it keeps you from making repeated visits to supermarkets, and thereby dramatically cuts your risk catching the virus. Government may not shut down supermarkets during a lockdown (when they should imho) to avoid widespread panic among their citizens. While food orders online save you the trip to the supermarket, they still mean that someone needs to pack and deliver your food. For the sake of everyone’s health, the least people engaged in any sort of business activity, the better.

When COVID-19 started to outbreak in Asia, I decided to buy a couple weeks’s worth of food for the family so I could keep clear of grocery stores. I aimed for lots calories and as much protein as cheaply as possible, using foods that don’t require refrigeration.

1. It’s not the worst idea to be prepared for the possibility of a COVID-19 outbreak in your community.
2. I find my Vegan Meal Prepper Pantry List sums of the food part perfectly.
3. Just make sure to double or even triple staple foods you go through quickly. For our house, I got a couple of extra loads of
   1. millet, rice, spelt flour, wheat flours, oats
   2. nuts, nuts, nuts and some more nuts. Keep in mind that nuts are amazingly versatile. You can grind them and have things like garbanzo flour or almond meal, too.
4. Seeds are awesome to make your own milk. They don’t take up less space than nuts and are also less expensive. If we were to stay in quarantine, we would drink sesame milk and sunflower seed milk everyday.
5. Get beans & legumes cooked in cans or jars. While we normally prefer to soak and cook dried beans and legumes, we opted for the cooked version this time. While for Coronavirus crisis it shouldn’t matter, it’s recommended to have already cooked staple foods for emergency situations. Imagine no electricity for days or poisoned tap water and dried beans will not help you feed your family.
6. Vegetables in jars and cans. Not my favorite items but if I wasn’t allowed to leave my house anymore, you would find new recipes on here using canned beetroot, corn, green beans, peas, artichokes and carrots on the blog soon.
7. Canned bread was a thing when I was little, but it looks like it ceased to exist. I stocked up my freezer with lots of these Sunflower Seed Toasties as well as bread from the bakery.
8. Food remedies. Stock up on whatever your sickbed foods are.
   1. (Dried) ginger, dried curcuma, vegetable broth for colds and the flu.
   2. Psyllium husk fibre, chia seeds, flaxseed for constipation.
   3. Spirulina for iron deficiency (especially important if you’re pregnant)
9. Make sure you get all the important vitamins for vegans.
   1. Stock up on vitamin B12 pills/toothpaste – whatever you typically use
   2. Get Vitamin D drops/pills. Vitamin D is the sunlight vitamin. If you’re stuck in quarantine for god know how ever long, you might fall short on Vitamin D.
   3. Vegemite is an excellent source of B-vitamins and a great bread spread that doesn’t spoil fast.

What about fresh produce?

I jammed my own fridge with fresh produce to last for the next couple of days. Moreover, I did an excessive session of Smoothie Pack Prepping.

And for the rest, I really hope the Coronavirus doesn’t hit my community or yours!

Stay safe everyone! Happy Prepping!