But even though the shelves of my usual grocery store are still bare, and waits to get into the other chain grocery and department stores are an hour or more long, and the only way to get a grocery delivery window - IF the stores have the items you want - is to stay awake all night constantly hitting the refresh button, I am so glad that Harmony House (and Amazon, of course) exists! Spinach, broccoli, celery, onions, carrots, mushrooms, white potatoes both diced and slices, sweet potatoes, peppers, lentils and pinto beans, blueberries, mixed vegetables by way of a vegetable soup mix, peas, cabbage, jalepeno peppers - and probably a few others I missed - are all lined up on the shelves in the hallway outside our apartment door and squeezed into a few places in the apartment. I had to moves piles of books around to find room for them inside, but I really should read those books then donate them, anyway.
Thanks to Amazon and its vendors I have almost 50 pounds of beans around the place, too. And over 100 pounds of rice, mostly brown but a bunch of white bought locally, too, because it doesn't go rancid like the brown.
We're starting to have trouble finding canned tomatoes lately. C-Town has plenty of diced and stewed, but none are no-salt added, so when something calls for 2 cans of tomatoes, I use one unsalted and one salted to stretch the healthier ones out a bit longer. Forget about suggesting making from fresh - tomatoes have been lousy for a while now and not just pale pink to white inside but pretty much tasteless. It's been that way for years. I already mentioned a few times how scarce frozen veggies have been.
My current menu is made up of mostly soup meals, a few rice, bean, and veggies ones, and when we don't feel like either of those, pasta meals(Over 20 pounds of pasta in here, too). All of those can easily be made from the stash of food I already have in the apartment.
Last night I made up the Sweet Potato and Yellow Split Pea Soup made from this recipe. I used 1 cup of dehydrated sweet potatoes soaked in 2 cups of water for about a half hour; for the mirepoix veggies I used a half cup each of dehydrated onions, celery, and carrots and added an extra 3 cups of water to the Instant Pot. I tossed about 1/2 cup of dehydrated spinach, too, because we love it and it makes the soup a wee bit healthier. For the liquid smoke I used hickory. And oops, I just realized I forgot to add the tablespoon of no-salt seasoning (usually Mrs. Dash Table Blend). It wasn't missed. Instead of cooking it on the stovetop I tossed it all into the Instant Pot and cooked it for 8 minutes, the time I've made other lentil and pea soup recipes. Even after I let it sit with the heat off until the pressure sensor dropped down and then at least another half hour, it was still red hot when I opened the lid and served it.
The soup was as thick and delicious as it always was when I made it with fresh veggies. My husband said if he didn't help me carry those gallon containers of veggies from the front hall he would never have known I used them. I forgot to take a photo of it in the pot or bowl, but here's some of the leftovers in their container, waiting for me to eat them for lunch:
Tonight I'm making the Bob's Red Mill Veggie Soup, but unlike when I made it here, I'll be using the dehydrated onions because I only have one bag left in the freezer and one raw and I'm saving them for a special occasion meal. Dehydrated spinach, too. I have none of that left and C-Town hasn't had it in almost a month. It's a good thing I just got a 5 pound box of it (and 20 pounds of carrots) delivered from Harmony House over the weekend! Now I'm debating whether or not to also buy the box of onions.
As I said, I have enough food in the house that we can do without shopping in person for quite a while. I won't be making anything fancy, just good, simple foods. Dr. and Mary McDougall would be proud of me!
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