How are foodies really coping during quarantine?

One thing we’ve all had to accept during lockdown is that there’s no more eating out 😩

But that doesn’t mean that we still can’t experience our favourite dining hotspots in a slightly different way... 💡

Social media has been BUZZING with fake-away recipes, restaurant deliveries and scroll-stopping meals that have had us all drooling over our phones! 🤤

My new normal? Well, I’m currently locked down in the middle of the British countryside, and it’s safe to say that “we’re not in London any more....” 😯

So naturally, I’ve been missing date nights, bottomless brunches with the girls, spontaneous late night visits to the takeaway. As I’m sure most people have.

I decided to make food “my thing” during quarantine 🥒🍳🥩🧆🥙🌮🌯

There’s not much that any of us can be certain of right now, but one thing we can control is what ingredients we have in our fridge, and what meals we can whip up!

Here’s a few of my favourite meals so far that I’ve had without leaving the house:

Salt and chilli chicken

Chinese takeaway is one of my FAVOURITE treats, but I don’t have it very often. One of my friends has a food page on Instagram, and I always want to try her recipes, but never ‘have the time’. Well now there’s no excuse so I finally had the opportunity to get my hands dirty with her salt and chilli chicken recipe!! (https://instagram.com/justjessfood)

It was absolutely delicious 😋 If you want to try it for yourself, you can find her recipe here;

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xRPN8h3_u

Homemade Nando’s

To be honest, it’s been a while since I had a ‘Cheeky Nando’s’ even before the global pandemic swept in. But the second that they closed their doors and I was no longer ABLE to go, I craved it like mad!

So I did a homemade version. Medium spice of course, and it actually wasn’t that far off! I’ll have to make Nando’s more often.

Anti Pasti Platter

I’m completely in my element endlessly grazing on platters of cold meats, cheeses and chutneys. A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to create a mini picnic. So we pulled out the big guns, baked some Camembert and filled the chopping board with Italian meats and crackers and dived in.

Homemade pizza

Pizza Pilgrims is a quirky chain of pizzerias in London, and they’re one of the restaurants that are offering a DIY home-cooking experience with their ingredients 😋 (https://www.pizzainthepost.co.uk)

Their pizza kit comes with everything you need to make a delicious margarita pizza. (We added some salami, chilli and rocket to top it off)

I cannot put my excitement into words of when we took the pizzas out of the oven! The cheese bubbled on top, and the smell of freshly baked pizza filled the kitchen. They tasted incredible and I was even impressed with how they looked. Would highly recommend!!

Homemade mac and cheese

I’m a sucker for macaroni cheese, but I hardly ever cook it. Mainly because it’s a milky, cheesy, buttery, calorific heaven and my fat ass doesn’t know when to stop 😂 But quarantine got me in the kitchen whipping up the good stuff. I made a huge tray of it and baked layers of more cheese, breadcrumbs and Parmesan on top. Cheese-lovers, this ones for you!

Steak “pub lunch”

Daniel has an adorable little cottage pub at the end of his street - and it’s some of the best pub food I’ve ever tasted! Obviously it’s closed, but seeing it everyday inspired us to cook our own version of their steak dinner.

Sainsbury’s had an offer on their rump steaks and in the packet it had a generous blob of garlic butter. We then grabbed some baby corn, snap peas and plum tomatoes, and chucked it all on the grill pan. We seasoned the steaks with salt pepper, garlic, chilli and paprika and let it sizzle away until it was medium. Served with some sweet potato fries and voila 😋

Oreo Balls

My sweet tooth struck big! I love cooking, but when it comes to baking and sweet treats, that’s not my strong point. So for me to pull these off, just goes to show how simple they are to make!

This recipe was was verbally handed down to me by my friends Laura and Nat about 6 years ago, and every now and then I pull it out of the bag.

They’re like little Oreo truffles and they’re out of this world!

Dirty Loaded Nachos

I’d love to take the credit for this masterpiece, but my boyfriend actually whipped this up as a treat. Too good not to drool over, I’ll have to him to do another plate!

Overall, cooking and spending more time recreating my favourite things in the kitchen has been such a fun and delicious experience. I’m sure theres plenty more weeks and months ahead of us to get creative!

What have you been cooking during lockdown?