Feeding a Family in The Time of Coronavirus

My son and I both struggle with asthma which places us both in the "underlying health conditions " category of people that need to be extra careful not to get coronavirus.  So we are really staying away from people and public spaces.  At this point our entire country is being strongly encouraged to do the same.  My family is even staying away from grocery stores as much as possible.

Thanks to all the food storage we have been purchasing and using for a few years now, it is not hard for us to stay away from the grocery store.  For years now, I have been a regular customer of Thrive Life.  I've had a shipment of freeze dried meat, vegetables, fruits, grains, or legumes come automatically, every month.  It's high quality food that I have been using in my regular meal prep for years.  So now that I need to rely on it, it's no big deal.  My family hasn't even noticed the change.

For recipes that require meat or vegetables, I just substitute the freeze dried version and add a little more liquid.  All the meals we've made with our freeze dried food have been delicious.  No one here is suffering and they haven't even noticed.

I find some big advantages to using Thrive Life freeze dried foods.  Here's where I begin promoting them.  Not trying to hide that.  But my motivation is to help people.  I truly find these products helpful and I think you might too. I am technically a consultant with this company and if you want to, you can order things from my consultant website but that is not why I'm sharing this today. You can also talk to your friend who is a consultant or just go to www.thrivelife.com. If you want to get on monthly deliveries, which I recommend, go here.

Here are the things I love about Thrive Life foods

1. High quality, pesticide free.  Tasty and healthy.
2. No washing, peeling, defrosting, chopping or other prepping. 
3. Super-fast to cook with.  Last minute meal prep is the standard. And I don't need to devote hours to meal prep, just a few minutes.
4. Even if I can't get to the store, like now, I can cook with meat and vegetables.  We aren't limited to rice and beans.  (Although we're big fans of rice and beans here).
5. IMHO freeze dried foods and Instant Pots were made for each other.  The steam of the Instant Pot ensures that the food is fully rehydrated.  When I cook in the Instant Pot, every last corner of the food is fully hydrated.  My family is picky.  They wouldn't eat it, if it wasn't good.  The Instant Pot is a miracle all on it's own.  It cooks food so fast!  It makes food delicious!  Put freeze dried food in it and it goes even faster with equally tasty results.  It just couldn't be faster or easier to cook dinner. 

Here is a recipe I adapted with help from my Thrive Life consultant, Debbie Abbot.  I hope this gives you an idea of how to adapt some of your favorite recipes so you can use freeze dried foods with an Instant Pot to make amazing food with food storage.

Dairy-Free Instant Pot “Butter” Chicken
(using freeze dried ingredients)

You can substitute butter and cream for the coconut oil and coconut cream but this recipe really is so good as written. And coconut products are more food-storage friendly. This recipe serves 6-8 people. If your family is small, you could halve this recipe but the leftovers are really good. I say just make it all and get two or more meals out of it!

1. Combine in the IP

• 3 cups tomato dices (freeze-dried or canned)
• 3cups chicken (freeze-dried)
• ½ t ginger powder
• 2 t turmeric
• 1 t cayenne pepper
• 2 t smoked paprika
• 2 t salt
• 2 t garam masala seasoning
• 2 t cumin
• 4 ½ c water (or chicken broth)

2. Put in an Instant Pot Steamer insert like this one (I divide these ingredients between the two parts of the insert. You could also make the rice separately on the stove or in a rice cooker.)

• 4 c rice
• 6 c water or chicken broth
• 2 t salt (if using water)
• 2 T coconut oil (if using water)

3. Set the IP steamer insert in the IP on top of all the other ingredients. Close the IP valve and turn the IP on manual for 15 minutes (It would probably work in as little as 8 minutes but I’m not usually in THAT big a rush and to ensure the rice is totally cooked, I do 15 minutes.

When the IP is done cooking, open the valve for a quick release of the pressure. When the pressure has completely released, remove the IP lid, using an oven mit, lift out the IP steamer insert and check that rice is perfectly steamed. If you have forgotten to put the sealing ring in or something (who would do that?! oh wait, me 😝) and found that things weren’t done cooking, just fix the problem, put the insert back in, put the IP lid back on and set it on manual for another 5-10 minutes. Once the rice is done, the chicken will definitely be done. Take out the IP steamer insert. Stir in the following until all combined.

• 2 t garam masala seasoning
• ½ c freeze-dried cilantro or ¼ c typical dried cilantro
• 1 c coconut oil
• 1 c coconut cream
• Serve the chicken over the rice. Enjoy!

I hope that inspires you to try cooking with freeze-dried foods and maybe even adapt some of your favorite recipes.  Really, all you do is forget all the prep time and add liquid.

If you haven't already,  I highly recommend that you sign up for monthly deliveries from Thrive.  So worth it!  Because this food is useful all the time, not just in a time of crisis, it makes sense to me to buy it regularly.  And then, when there is a crisis, you have more than enough to see you through it and you know how to use it - it really isn't complicated.  I don't know about you but I'm getting the impression this pandemic is going to drag on for awhile and I suspect, even when it is past, we will see more disruptions to life as we knew it.   I think we are finding a new normal.

If you are interested in the business opportunity (which I hear is going quite well right now) talk to my consultant, Debbie Abbott.