What we ate in our second week of COVID-19 isolation

Well that escalated quickly. 

Last week our family was voluntarily self-isolating as much as possible to help contain COVID-19. This week the New Zealand government instituted a nation-wide lockdown. Even though I'd been expecting it, it still came as a shock. How does that work?

Are you feeling as strange about the lockdown as I am? It was definitely the right call, but it's still going to take some getting use to, even for us, who already homeschool. I can't imagine how different it must be for peeps who are used to heading out to work and school every day. 

The girls and I were at their private music lessons on Monday when we heard the news, so we made a quick stop into Countdown on our way home and bought a few more things to see us through. I elected to buy items that I could use to make more foods with, out of my store of dry goods. Things like tahini and bottled roast capsicum, which I can mix with the chickpeas I already own to make hummus. 

I know that the grocery stores are staying open, so we can still buy food if we run out, but I'd love it if my family could properly manage to isolate for a couple of weeks at least, if not longer. The sooner we kick this virus in the butt, the sooner we can lift this nation-wide lockdown. 

Here's what we ate in our second week of "self-isolation." (I put "self-isolation" in speech marks, because I still went out in public twice before the lockdown was enforced, to get ready for it.) 

Sunday

Breakfast - Cereal for the kids; Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding for me

Lunch - Sandwiches and mini salami

Snack - Trim Healthy Mama seed crackers (from the original book)

Dinner - Steak, rice, cumin sautéed cabbage, vegetable crudités.

Monday

Breakfast - Cereal for the kids; I intermittent fasted

Lunch - Trim Healthy Mama seed crackers with tomato and basil pesto

Snack - Orchard apples, orchard grapes. We stopped in at the orchard shop and bought two cases of freshly picked apples, as well as a bunch of fresh grapes. It was all so crisp and sweet. I still had a bowl of older apples at home, so I peeled and sliced those and threw them in the dehydrator to make a shelf-stable snack.

Dinner - Teriyaki chicken on rice with a side of raw vegetables. I bought the teriyaki chicken from a sushi shop that had reduced its boxes at the end of the day to sell. The shop was next to Countdown, and since we were out later than normal getting groceries, I thought it would help to have a pre-made dinner so I wouldn't have to cook.

Tuesday

Breakfast - Cereal for the kids; I intermittent fasted.

Lunch - Sausage rolls and fruit platters for the kids; Quick Keto Toast with basil pesto and tomatoes for me (pictured above). (One of the food items I bought this week was a carton of egg whites, so I could do lots of keto baking while we're in isolation.)

Snack - Dehydrated apple slices. Seriously, everybody loved these. They devoured most of them in the first day, kind of defeating the point of me making a shelf-stable food item.

Dinner - Chicken pasta bake that I pulled out of the freezer, served with steamed broccoli. That was the last of the broccoli until our garden starts producing it again.

Wednesday

Breakfast - The girls made baked beans on toast for the kids; I ate strawberry chia seed pudding that I had prepared the night before. (This was similar to my Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding recipe, except I used strawberry Kids Good Stuff and strawberry Avalanche sugar-free drinking mix to flavour my base of chia seeds, coconut cream, water and collagen/protein powder. I also chopped in a few frozen strawberries for more strawberry goodness.

Lunch - Miss L prepared salami, cheese, cucumber, tomato and lettuce sandwiches for the kids; I ate leftover Chicken and Tarragon Pie.

Snack - Dehydrated apple slices.

Dinner - Spaghetti bolognese, with a side of sliced pear and apple (pictured above). I added pureed pumpkin and shredded zucchini from our garden to the bolognese sauce, as well as red lentils to bulk it out, so that I could freeze the excess for another meal.

Thursday

Breakfast - Strawberry Smoothies for all, and a couple of the kids also had cereal.

Lunch - A grazing platter of salami, crackers, cucumber, apple and peanut butter for the kids; Quick Keto Toast with basil pesto and tomatoes for me.

Snack - Raspberry and White Chocolate muesli bars (store-bought).

Dinner - Enchiladas with a side of apple slices and cherry tomatoes (pictured above). I used my homegrown zucchini in the enchiladas, but the rest of the ingredients were store-bought.

Friday

Breakfast - Paul cooked pancakes for the kids and him; I intermittent-fasted.

Lunch - Overnight bread topped with butter, salami and cucumber.

Snack - Raspberry and White Chocolate muesli bars (store-bought), apples, pretzels.

Dinner - Steak, mashed potatoes, beans and peas (pictured above).

Saturday

Breakfast - Paul cooked pancakes again, which he and the younger two ate. Miss L made a feijoa smoothie for me and her. I also had Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding, which I had prepped the night before.

Lunch - Chicken nuggets for the kids, with a platter of apple, pear and cucumber slices, as well as New Zealand cranberries picked fresh from our garden. I ate Quick Keto Toast with homemade basil pesto and tomatoes from my garden.

Snack - I don't think anyone snacked, unless it was on apples.

Dinner - Homemade gnocchi with pasta sauce and cheese. The kids loved last week's gnocchi so much, they've been begging to have it again. I made sure I saved one cup of mashed potatoes from Friday night's dinner so I could make the gnocchi. Miss S helped me knead, roll and cut the dough this time.


What have you been eating during week one of New Zealand's pandemic lockdown? Have you been able to find what you need in the stores, or are you living on what you already had in the house?