Shortages - What We're Doing

Finding things at the grocery is still hit or miss.

Several weeks ago, when the pandemic had just started, I had used the last of the chicken in the freezer and headed to Kroger.  No chicken.  AT ALL!  There was SOME pork and beef, but no chicken!  When chicken finally appeared in the meat department, there was a sign on its refrigerated case that said customers were limited to two packages of chicken.

That situation continued until a couple of weeks ago when all the meat cases were consistently full again.  Woo hoo!  Unlimited meat products!

Then some of the meat and poultry processing plants started shutting down because they had sick employees.  And now, the signs are back up.  I went to the store yesterday, and there was some chicken, but no skinless, boneless breasts.

And there is still no flour, sugar, yeast, dried beans, or rice.  There are canned beans, but not much variety.  You can make chili - there are plenty of kidney beans!  Hardly any toilet paper or paper towels - still!  I grab what I can find, and there are those signs - only ONE package of paper goods allowed.  There is bleach on the shelves, but just a few jugs.  At the beginning of all this, it couldn't be found at all.

Frozen vegetables have been hard to find, too, and not just recently.  Almost as soon as the pandemic was acknowledged, frozen vegetables in the stores disappeared.  You can sure tell what people DON'T like - that's what's left - lima beans, for one (yuck!), riced cauliflower, edamame (soy beans), broccoli cuts (which are mostly stems).  No peas, green beans of any kind, broccoli florets, cauliflower, mixed vegetables, corn, mirepoix mix (diced onions, carrots, and celery), or chopped onions.

I've been searching for chopped onions for a couple of weeks because I'm getting low (one package left).  Yesterday, I finally decided it would be a good idea to just buy some onions, chop them up, and freeze them myself.  There weren't many onions in the produce department, either!  But I did get some.  Better than none!

This afternoon, I took out the food processor and got started.  I filled five quart-size freezer bags with onions.  I had to process them in three batches, but I got it DONE.

Nine onions in these bags.

         

One large-ish cucumber.

I figured I already had the machine out, so what else needed processing?

One entire bunch of celery.

Well, cucumbers - why not?  That Man likes them on his salads.  I was on a roll.  And how about celery?  That can go on the salads, too, and some can be frozen for cooking.

So I sliced and chopped my way through a pile of produce.  FUN!!  Except all those onions killed my eyes - ouch.  Better than doing it by hand, though.  I got to play with my sorta new toy, plus I feel like I've accomplished something I needed to do.  Always a good thing.

Anyway, food shopping has become a competitive sport and I'm doing the best I can with what I can find.  I hope you're having luck finding what's on your list!