UK - Resources for help getting food during quarantine and other supermarket related problems

One of my staple frozen meals is cheese, leek, onion and mash pie. I boil and mash the potatoes, gently fry the leeks and onions in a little milk and butter, grate the cheddar cheese and mix it all up. I sometimes add some finely chopped steamed cabbage or some steamed spinach to the mash mix too and/or a few boiled and mashed sweet potatoes. I make a large saucepan full then portion the mix into lidded Pyrex dishes to freeze. When I take it out I allow it to defrost in the fridge, top it with extra cheese and cook it in the oven for 30-40 minutes.

Personally I like it with baked beans, but it is good on its own. It is a day's worth of energy to make it, but I get about 12 meals from the job so it's well worth it.

 

You can go into your Tesco shopping basket the day/night before delivery is due and add or delete items. This gives a good idea of what is in stock and what items you may need to change. You can also decide which individual items you are happy to have substituted and give specific instructions for the picker (for example, I specify free range eggs only). Mostly I don't allow substitutions unless I particularly need an item that week.

 

I have all of those ingredients, that need using up (other than milk but from the sounds of it not a lot is needed).

I am assuming, as no pastry is mentioned, that it's cottage/fish pie style, with the cheese and leek bit in the bottom topped with mash?

 

Yes, it's a mash pie, but with all the ingredients mixed together in the mash (not layered). You can make it just frying the onions/leeks in butter (do this on a low temperature). If using milk (only needed if you are cooking leeks with the onion) just use a splash or it makes the pie too 'wet'. The butter/milk/cooked leek juice can all go in the mash mix along with the onions and leeks (this adds additional flavour). For the same reason, drain the potatoes/cabbage/spinach well and allow the steam to evaporate off the cooked items after draining, so the mash remains nice and fluffy. Add salt and pepper to your own taste.

You don't need to add a cheese topping, I do this because I love cooked cheese (so I use less cheese in the mash than I would otherwise).

It's a 'posh' version of the cheese, onion and potato mash pie that is (still) served in school dinners.

Edit: The liquid does separate out when the mash is defrosted, but you just need to give it a stir and once it has been cooked in the oven it comes out the same as if it hadn't been frozen.

Edit 2: I tend to use 'Savoy' cabbage as this works the best.

Edit 3: Leave about 8-10 mm at the top of the mash when putting in the Pyrex or oven dish, as it does expand and bubble up in the oven.

 

All this talk of mash has made me think of bubble and squeak I was wondering what I could turn the Morrison’s food box cabbage into

 

These are the sort of containers I use for freezing my homemade meals, because they can go straight in the oven/microwave (minus the lids of course):

 

exactly the same as mine except now I also have a chest freezer they don’t need to be as small. I’m in love with my chest freezer, humming happily away to itself in the corner of my bedroom

ETA: I’m going to use this rare opportunity to defrost my old freezer while the new one is still empty, so I don’t have to rush the job like I normally would

 

turn it off (important but often missed step it seems).

towels, more towels, couple of bowls/pans of boiling water inside, change water every 10 minutes or so - depending on the size of your freezer all the ice should just drop off into the bottom within 20 or so minutes.

No need to scrape, if you position on of the towels on the bottom of the freezer then it should make lifting the ice out easier (ice is slippy, who knew lol)

Once it's clear dry it, thoroughly (any moisture left will turn back to ice), and turn it on when you are happy, it needs to be on for a 'while' to both reach it's operating temp and to ensure that any moisture you didn't catch has frozen and doesn't freeze attached to anything you put in there, which would prevent easy removal due to an ice weld.

I defrosted the freezer in my fridge freezer for the first time a few weeks ago - never, in 54 years, have I deliberately defrosted one (TBH my last 2 were 'frost free' - this one isn't).

Scrapping it wasn't working, defrosting sprays looked expensive, and the reviews weren't great, so I looked up how to do it differently, I was surprised how easy and fast it was (compared with scrapping).

Apologies if you are an expert at this, I wasn't lol

 

Kinda pleased I got the delivery slot; because that government charity food parcel hasn’t arrived today yet

it arrived at 10.30am last Friday.

 

Yeah I’ve done it around 10 times now. On average once a year. Can’t turn it off though as the plugs are behind my fridge and freezer so I just have to turn it to lowest/warmest temp. Usually during rush jobs, I use a combination of pans of boiling water inside combined with hair dryer but I’m going to take my time this time.

 

If it was coming from a food bank type place it will have been 3 days worth, and 'standard procedure' (for food banks) suggests a new application/voucher will need to be submitted to get more.

As it looked like 3 days worth.......it was actually less than the trussell trust say they give in a 3 day food parcel.

But, I have absolutely no idea as to how things are being organised - I do know that that was starvation rations for a week, so they can't possibly expect it to last longer than that.

 

The social worker who organised it said the food parcels get delivered weekly until I inform them that they are no longer needed, or the crisis comes to an end.

Definitely wasn’t a weeks supply of food, I was interested to see what this next one would be like to compare

 

We invested in one of those foodsaver vacuum yokes.

Pre the pandemic we did a big shop every couple of months and portioned fresh meat etc for the freezer. It works really well for that kind of thing.

I have some of these boxes too. Is it just me or do the lids breed and change size in the cupboard? Sometimes all the lids are too small for the box.and I seem to have more lids than boxes.

Of course, in hindsight, a sensible person mightn't have separated lids from boxes, but we are where we are. Sigh.

 

My sister does this, and also cooks and freezes her dog's food this way. But I live on my own, so it's definitely not worth it. I used to use the plastic microwaveable containers for my and the cat's food (I make slow cooked chicken/liver/turkey for them) but I had to use so much washing up liquid on them to get them clean after each use that I decided to invest in the 'freezable' glass containers.

I do have quite a few spare lids now, but that is due to the tremors in my hands causing me to drop a few of the glass bases! I also bought a few sets which came with some silicon lids that you can use in the microwave, they have been very handy for keeping it much cleaner.

 

That’s interesting. Maybe it’s because they’re a local smaller company or literally don’t have enough during this crisis. Here’s hoping there’s no pilfering going on ie. the young volunteer delivery guy. It may be worth sending a photo to the social worker to query it.

I did text her an hour ago asking if she knew when the parcel would be arriving... no reply as of yet

ETA: still no reply. Looks like I’m not getting food off them this week unless it turns up tomorrow.

 

I would think, and I am probably wrong, that there were no organisations doing this, prior to this.

It seems likely that it's being done, either by charities or voluntary organisations, with no prior experience, and very limited supplies.

The only existing model I am aware of in the UK is food banks, so it seems possible that their advice, and thus their procedures, are being used - which may explain the amount of food (it seems perfectly possible that the 'pickers' may have a list, from a food bank, and are just doing their best to fill that list from what they have available, with no knowledge/appreciation that a typical food bank parcel is for 3 days, not 7.

I would send a photo to the social worker, not re pilfering, but just so she is aware of what people are being supplied for a week - as whilst that lot would help avoid starvation it's hardly enough week after week for months (however long this goes one for) if the recipient had literally nothing else as they couldn't get any deliveries (i.e. as I understand it the stated target market).

Anything is better than nothing if no other food is available, but ........

 

I haven't used Sainsbury's home delivery yet - does anyone know if you are able to amend an order once you've done the initial checkout, and if so, how far in advance before delivery is this allowed? Thanks.

 

I could amend as normal on my last order, about a week ago.

You can/could amend up until 11pm on the day before delivery.

Nothing I've seen suggests this has changed.

 

Just checked the Tescos website, and my bread flour became unavailable but have picked a smaller bag substitute. I was checking the priority slots out of curiosity and there’s no more available for the next few weeks so I was bloody lucky it seems to get the one I did.

My government food parcel has gone completely awol It didn’t arrive yesterday. So not only was it barely 3 days supply of food last Friday, the next one didn’t arrive; and the social worker who arranged it for me hasn’t replied to my text yesterday afternoon. If that had been my only food, I would be frantic now. Which means lots of other people are.