Going all-in to double our efforts with staying home to keep people safe, self-isolation, and social distancing are turning folks into quarantine cooking and baking rock stars.

With empty grocery shelves and long lines wrapping around the block to get into a grocery store to grab a few things, more and more folks are looking for easy meals to cook at home.

I’m sharing some of my favorite easy to cook at home meals that will make you think twice about going to the grocery store.

Instead, consider embracing grocery delivery to get your fresh and dry produce so you can spend more time having fun cooking instead of waiting in a checkout line.

Dusting Off Kitchen Appliances

I have found myself dusting off my Kitchenaid appliances, putting them to good use cooking easy meals I have saved over the years in my favorites folder on my laptop gone untouched.

I have plenty of recipe books to explore that can keep me busy for many years.

One thing I kind of miss is running errands, going to the grocery store, and discovering the new items at Trader Joes.

Walking up and down the aisles was therapeutic.

I have decided to stop going to the grocery store because, well I can.

It’s 2020 and unless you don’t have internet access in your home (there are some residences that don’t have broadband), the majority of goods and services can be ordered online.

Now these days, you have to worry about the side hustlers who are embracing the entrepreneurial spirit and taking full advantage of a crisis with price gouging.

A six-pack of shelf stable whole milk I bought two months ago for $9, third party vendors and now asking $20-40.

Thank goodness for plant based barista style milk.

I’m now having fun discovering different brands I can’t find in stores, online.

In-Person & Online Grocery Delivery Shopping

I found myself choosing between standing outside six feet from the person in front or behind me for up to 30 minutes or ordering dry goods and produce online.

Letting someone benefit from a grocery delivery side hustle (after being furloughed), to keep a roof over their head and food on the table, I will hands down choose to support these individuals.

The majority of dry goods I acquire is from shopping in bulk on Nuts.com. The prices are better than what I would get in most popular grocery stores and shipping is fast.

The company dates back to 1922 when Poppy Sol started his own business, the Newark Nut Company.

Love, love, love supporting small businesses, especially mom and pop shops. I recommend checking them out.

Food Processor to the Rescue

Making homemade peanut butter has been on my list to try. A few years back, I bought a KitchenAid 11-cup food processor.

For the life of me that couldn’t get the thing to turn on.

So I gave up on it and let the food processor sit in a time out corner for two years.

Instead, I found a co-op that had a machine that could make peanut and almond butter in less than a minute.

Guidance state, local, governmental, and medical professionals have recommended going to the grocery store when essential.

I have deemed going out to get freshly made peanut butter as non-essential.

I miss my food co-op and can’t wait to visit again.

I loved this service, but I have to admit a little expensive. For the amount of a 1/4 pound of peanut butter, I could buy a pound of unsalted or honey roasted peanuts and make a 1/4 pound batches.

I have since revisited my troubleshooting efforts after coming across a YouTube video that finally filled in the missing pieces on what I was doing wrong.

Knowing how good the KitchenAid brand is, (I have a KitchenAid stand mixer as well), I’m glad I didn’t go with my first instinct and recreate a scene out of Office Space and throw my food processor out the window.

This YouTube video saved my KitchenAid food processor’s life.

Nuts Butters

Using 1-2 ingredients and food processor, in as little as 5-10 minutes, you can have homemade and creamy:

• Peanut Butter

• Almond Butter

• Cashew Butter

Don’t forget about the English muffin or English muffin loaves, which, yes, you can make it at home as well. Who knew?

Pomegranate Molasses

Every couple of weeks I used to buy a couple of bottles of orange, mint, rose water, and pomegranate molasses.

Pomegranate molasses is used in middle eastern cuisine in salad dressings and meat dishes.

I tried it with a salad and didn’t find it appealing, but I find an alternative hack that worked for me.

Drizzle some pomegranate molasses with a combination of dark raspberry balsamic vinegar, pecan oil, maple syrup, and lemon olive oil (2:1 ratio of oil and vinegar).

Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl and make your fruit salad as usual.

The pomegranate molasses give a sweet and sour citrus punch balancing out the raspberry balsamic vinegar and bring out the lemon flavor of the lemon olive oil.

I also use it to tone down the sugary sweetness when making pineapple and coconut bars.

Another use I have found is making fizzy drinks with my soda stream.

When making pineapple and coconut bars, I use the leftover pineapple juice in the can from the pineapple slices along with a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses to make a fizzy and fruity beverage.

Click here for the Pomegranate Molasses recipe from Club Foody.

Fresh Spinach Pasta

Who new it was so easy to make homemade paste. There are many ways to make pasta, by hand, using a hand pasta gadget, or a KitchenAid mixer with a pasta attachment.

Some are of the opinion that your hands are the best kitchen tools.

I have tried all three ways and surprisingly, the most technologically advanced KitchenAid mixer, I struggled the most with, but I’m getting better.

Ever buy a bag of spinach with the urgency to eat through that bag in a couple of days before it goes bad?

The main use of spinach in my household is to make a smoothie 1-2 times a week. That leaves over half a bag of spinach.

One of my favorite pasta dishes I like to make is spinach pasta.

There is something about homemade spinach pasta that makes me smile. It’s filling, nutritious, and goes with any sauce.

You can search and find more recipes for homemade pasta noodles on various YouTube channels.

Got a slow cooker at home?

Instead of fighting over the last rotisserie chicken at your favorite grocery store, why not roll up your sleeves and make your own slow cooker rotisserie chicken?

Here is a brief list of meals you can make with a rotisserie chicken:

• Copycat Subway bacon and chicken ranch wraps

• Chicken salad

• Chicken curry and rice

• Use leftover scraps and bones to make homemade chicken stock

Crispy Oven Baked Fries

I love potatoes and love am a french fry lover. In the past, when I would get a french fry craving, I would run out to a fast-food drive-thru to get my fix of one large fry with no salt.

Then I decided to try and make my own. I would make french fries using a pot and immersing potato slices in peanut oil.

One of my favorite weekend meals to make is fish and chips with a side of mushy peas.

I was never comfortable with this method of using oil once and don’t usually cook anything using peanut oil.

Having to resort to throwing a bottle of used cooking oil away in the trash for it to leak in a landfill (oil should never be dumped down the drain) has never sat well with me.

Luckily, there is another way to enjoy crispy french fries by baking them in the oven. I watched a demonstration on tv watching a weekend cooking show. Who knew it was that easy.

Little waste, easy clean up, and the most important, tasty french fries anytime you get that craving.

Click here for the baked french fries (oven fries) recipe from Spend with Pennies.

More Ways to Prepare Delicious Dishes

Another way to prepare delicious dishes is learning from the cocktail and kitchen pros who work at luxury hotels by bringing recipes to you virtually the form of cooking lessons from their kitchen:

• Italian cuisine cooking class from an executive Chef’s kitchen. Instructions are in Italian, but Google Translate is an excellent tool if your comprehension of Italian is a bit rusty.

• It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, time for a craft cocktail!

• Visit Blue Sky Country without leaving home and learn how to make campfire smores

I hope these recipes ideas are enough for you to plan meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, keep you busy experimenting in the kitchen, and having fun cooking easy meals at home.

For more recipe ideas, check out my post, 8 Must Try Healthy Food Recipes. Pineapple and coconut bars with frothy coffee anyone?

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