Anti-crisis Nutrition

The beginning of the quarantine showed that under stress, people do not approach shopping very wisely: remember how the shelves with buckwheat and toilet paper became depleted? Almost everyone has calmed down now, but sales of canned goods and flour are still higher than average. I wonder what year the can of stew bought in April 2020 will be opened? Let's approach the choice of products more responsibly, following some recommendations for those who do not want to buy too much, but at the same time worry that they will forget something important.

Critically evaluate your traditional grocery cart

The first and main advice is not to buy anything based on other people's lists. That is why we will not list: flour, canned tuna, chicken thighs... And if you eat only brisket? Or have you never baked anything at home and don't plan to start?

If you go shopping with a ready -made list of what you need from the Internet, there is a high probability that by the end of the week you will be left with a set of products that are unclear how to cook and who will eat them. And now, when there is no extra money and many people are out of work, you need to approach food shopping as rationally as possible so as not to spend too much on food . Why rely on the diet of your family. Now is the time to sit down and write a personal shopping list. To do this, make several lists : dishes that you usually cook and dishes that your family likes, recipes that you would like to try (you probably have a folder on Instagram or Facebook with saved food posts).

After you have assessed who likes what, estimate the menu for the week. The criteria are simple: it should be easy for you to cook it (or interesting - here are new recipes) and your family will be happy to eat it - we turn to our lists for ideas and inspiration . If you are a working mother, add one more criterion - dishes should be quick and easy to prepare, so you don't have to spend several hours at the stove. If you have a ready-made menu , you can already make a list of products . And everything relevant and useful will definitely be in it.

Buy universal

Now it is important to reduce trips to the store to a minimum ( no one has completely lifted the quarantine yet, and you should not go to buy groceries every day) - and even if you order online, you should still not get carried away and meet couriers every day. So, the shopping list should include universal products : those that can be used to prepare many different dishes and that can be stored for a long time (in the refrigerator and when frozen). Well, if suddenly there is no mood to act according to the plan, it is important to have space for experiments - that is, to cook from the purchased product not what is written on the menu , but something else.

Based on these criteria, you should not buy exotic fruits, unfamiliar vegetables, unusual sauces, or, for example, red fish. How many options for cooking fish can you easily think of - and how many of them do not require additional complex ingredients? And if you buy, for example, minced meat, it will turn out cutlets, meatballs, stew, sauce for pasta and, if desired, even dumplings. And most importantly, it can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Because sweet potatoes, kohlrabi and narsharab are best left for culinary experiments in times of great financial instability. Now it is better to add potatoes, carrots and tomato paste to the basket.

Choose healthy semi-finished products

Homemade food is wonderful. But if you cook breakfasts, lunches, dinners for the whole family on a daily basis for several weeks in a row, you are probably tired. And even cooking for yourself all the time from scratch gets boring. And then semi-finished products or auxiliary products that are prepared quickly and easily come to the rescue (hello, pasta, canned goods and frozen foods !).

Choose cutlets and nuggets based on their composition: make sure they don't have many strange ingredients. If you can't figure out what this supplement means or why you don't need it without Googling, don't take it.

Also pay attention to the content of sugar, saturated fat and salt in semi-finished products. For example, sugar and salt (and sometimes both) are added to most canned goods, although the same corn can easily be found without all of this. Frozen foods - vegetables, berries, fruits and their mixtures - will not be superfluous .

Buy more vegetables and fruits

Spring is the time when hair falls out, skin peels and the body clearly hints at a lack of vitamins. And now we also sit at home more, that is, we visit the fresh air and the sun much less often, and even after the quarantine , we will not immediately return to our usual way of life. Why not help yourself - but not with vitamin complexes (they should not be bought without tests and a doctor's prescription), but with vegetables, fruits and berries.

Experts advise choosing seasonal ones - they are the most useful and rich in vitamins. Now is the season for cabbage, asparagus, radishes, various salads, and spinach. Young radishes begin to appear, a little later - the first strawberries and strawberries, cherries, apricots and greenhouse cucumbers.

A good option is frozen products , which have already been mentioned. Quick-frozen vegetables and fruits retain all useful trace elements - the main thing is that the storage conditions are observed. If you can feel the pieces of ice in the bag, it is better to choose something else.

In such a difficult viral period, it is especially important to monitor your diet to support and strengthen immunity. Food must be healthy and varied. But healthy and diverse does not mean expensive at all. Let's find out what useful products would be rational to add to your diet - they are stored for a long time and are not very expensive, which means that you will not have to go to the store often.