It has been awhile since we have checked in about grocery shopping! Partly it’s because there’s been less to report. Supplies have seemed steadier overall, with a few persistent exceptions: usual bread still not available, usual pizza sauce still not available, disinfecting wipes/sprays and my usual disinfectant cleaning spritzes still not available, still only a few kinds of chicken nuggets, still very little yeast, still only unfamiliar-brand hand sanitizer in what looks like water bottles. Frozen fruit is still patchy, but better. Vegetarian meat-equivalents have been VERY patchy, but I’ve been able to find enough to get by.
I don’t think anything at my grocery store is currently limited to a certain number of items per customer: not the meat, not the flour, not the sugar, not even the toilet paper or paper towels. In fact, the paper products aisle is STUFFED FULL, with extra paper towels taking up space in the still-depleted cleaning-supply section.
I’m noticing a LOT of store-brand merchandise, including for products that didn’t used to have a store brand (or perhaps I just hadn’t noticed the store brand, and/or it wasn’t so prominent before). I’d heard online that soy sauce was hard to find, so I checked for it, and on the shelf was one single extra-large bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce, and the rest of TWO ENTIRE SHELVES was filled with store-brand soy sauce. And they were out of our usual pasta sauce, and that area of the shelf was filled with a store-brand equivalent I don’t remember ever seeing before. Most of the abundance of paper towels and toilet paper are the store-brand.
Eggs have been oddly small. We’ve had some dozens where some of the eggs are regular size but maybe half of them are so small I use three eggs as the equivalent of two.
Flour variety is still patchy. Last week I went to the smaller branch of our grocery store that’s nearer to us (during the pandemic I’ve been going more often to the larger branch further away, because they have better supplies and wider aisles), and they had only two kinds of flour, and also I noticed they were charging SEVEN FORTY-NINE for it. I know such things vary regionally, so for comparison this was for the more-expensive-brand flour that is usually right around four dollars at that exact store. I wonder how long I might have been paying $7.49 without noticing? I am normally a price-noticer, but the last few months I have not had the available neurons for that—and also, with some products out of stock and others filling in the gaps, it can be hard to even find the price. Today I went to the larger branch, and they had MANY more kinds of flour (even the unbleached version of one brand), and they were charging normal prices for it. But it makes me wonder if the reason our grocery bill has been high is not just that I’m buying more per trip, but also that things have been priced higher than usual without me noticing.
I have been craving coleslaw, so I bought another bag of the pre-shredded cabbage blend to make it with, and when I got home I noticed it said “Use by July 28” on it. (Today is July 31.) Not even “sell by,” but USE by. (Checking expiration dates is another task I don’t have the available neurons for.) It didn’t seem slimy, just extra cabbage-fragrant; I made coleslaw out of it anyway. Do you want my coleslaw recipe? It’s based on my dad’s recipe, but he uses Miracle Whip so I changed it to accommodate mayonnaise. Here’s my dad’s recipe, if you use Miracle Whip:
Swistle’s Dad’s Coleslaw Recipe (Miracle Whip)
1 lb. shredded coleslaw mix
3/4 c. Miracle Whip
1.5 T. sugar
1.5 T. vinegar
Mix all ingredients together. Refrigerate awhile to allow flavors to blend.
We used to use Miracle Whip, too, but then I was on keto so we switched to mayonnaise and we haven’t switched back, at least not yet. I looked up how to substitute mayonnaise for Miracle Whip, and found several LONG and INVOLVED recipes, including one that wanted me to COOK the mayonnaise with the additional ingredients (honey, no), but looking at a bunch of different recipes it seemed as if the gist was that if I used mayonnaise I should add some vinegar, sugar, and salt. Since my dad’s recipe already calls for vinegar and sugar, I just used more. I also added salt. And then I impulsively shook in a little bottled lemon juice. So here’s my recipe, if you use mayonnaise:
Swistle’s Coleslaw Recipe (Mayonnaise)
1 lb shredded coleslaw mix
3/4 c. mayonnaise
2 T. sugar
2.5 T. vinegar
a good pinch of salt
like a teaspoon or so of lemon juice
None of that seems like it has to be super precise. I put in more like 1.5 T. of sugar when I made it today, because 2 T. just seemed like kind of a lot; we’ll see if it makes a difference. [Update: It made a difference. Not a good difference. I added more sugar. I like non-sweet coleslaw recipes, too, but this is a sweet/tart one and it needs the sweet to balance the tart.] I like to mix everything except the bag of shreddies in a big plastic bowl, then add the shredded stuff and stir it, then spatula it into a 1.5-quart lidded glass bowl. I know that makes for an extra bowl to clean, but I don’t like to have to be careful when I’m stirring, and coleslaw is fun to stir, and the extra bowl is quick to wash.
For the past FOUR trips (remember we’re still talking about grocery shopping), the store has been out of the Gardein Beefless Ground I use for the vegetarians in our household. We have tried other brands, and none of the ones we’ve tried have been anywhere near as good. This time they FINALLY had it back in stock, and I bought three bags—but now they’re out of the Morning Star faux-chicken patties and nuggets.
I am still doing the shopping before my daily shower, so that afterward I can shower off the real and imaginary germs without feeling as if perhaps I am going a bit far with this. Also, I am much more tolerant of being hot/sweaty if I know I’ll be showering soon, and it’s always hot and humid now. Also, because of the heat/humidity, I need to get the groceries inside and put away QUICKLY, which means I end up even hotter and sweatier and stressier. A nice cool shower is a good reset button. (And I count the shopping and putting-away as my exercise for the day.)
Speaking of the heat and humidity, I was explaining to Elizabeth that I would not be able to successfully purchase the Klondike bars she was hoping for: the grocery store I was planning to go to is 20 minutes away, and I don’t like to count on the ice cream making it that long in summer. She suggested bringing an insulated bag, and I reminded her that the store is not currently allowing customers to bring in their own bags. “…But you can still use it in the car,” she explained gently. My goodness, imagine having all those fresh youthful brain cells!
So I DID bring the insulated bag, with several ice packs in it. Normally (normally during a pandemic, I mean), when I come out to the car after shopping I triage the groceries a little, putting things that don’t mind the heat so much (toilet paper, flour, cereal, canned stuff) into the trunk, and the rest of the stuff into the air-conditioned interior (this helps me prioritize things to bring in / put away soonest when I get home, too); and this time I added the extra step of putting some of the frozen stuff (the Klondike bars, the frozen fruit) into the insulated bag. It was GREAT. I have added “insulated bag and ice packs” to my pre-grocery-shopping checklist. I might purchase MORE insulated bags.
How has your grocery shopping been going lately? Do you have a coleslaw recipe you like?
My mom keeps a cooler bag in the trunk for this reason! It never comes into the store or into the house; it’s just to hold the cold stuff on the way home. (She buys store ice, so she doesn’t need to use ice packs. A 5 lb bag of ice cubes keeps everything else frozen just fine).
Oooh, I need to get me a youth who will correct a gap in my thinking as kindly as Elizabeth. Mine comes with more eye-rolling and incredulity.
But thank god for the youths! I still STILL laugh at how I used to call home to ask our nanny to find me some paper and read what it said, and how gobsmacked and mortified I was when she….just sent me a picture of said document in a text. I mean, of COURSE that is the better way! My Olde Brain was stuck on my Olde Tricks. LOLLLLLLLLLLLllll
This was exactly my thought! Swistle your parenting methodology has been validated right here, possibly for the rest of time, by the fact that Elizabeth pointed this out gently. WAY TO GO BOTH OF YOU, and perhaps I myself can take a note from Elizabeth on this :-/
This is SUCH a good distraction from… *gestures widely*.
I too have no remaining neurons to devote to pricing. I go to the store. I get what I need (and then some) and I completely disregard price, unless it is something really frivolous and silly. It seems that my grocery store is putting far fewer things on sale, too, so that’s been contributing to the price increase. My daughter and I eat a lot of pepperoni and I am now paying $5.49 per 6 oz bag of it. It’s absolutely RIDICULOUS but I am not going into Target anymore, where it’s a less costly commodity for some reason, so I have to take what I can get. And my daughter is SO resistant to protein that I take ALL available opportunities to get her to eat SOMETHING with protein, even if it is ridiculously expensive and not particularly healthy.
This also reminds me that I really wish my local grocery store would implement one-way aisles. It seems like such a good way to remind people to keep their distance. Well. Probably people would still crowd me when I’m looking at honey varieties (what is the difference between clover and wildflower honey and do I need to care????).
Favorite parts:
“including one that wanted me to COOK the mayonnaise with the additional ingredients (honey, no)”
“(remember we’re still talking about grocery shopping)”
“My goodness, imagine having all those fresh youthful brain cells!”
I just found out that you can order pepperoni from target! I added it to the school supplies I ordered last week. Such a happy surprise.
WHAT. They had definitely NOT been doing this, but I know they have been adding new items to the curbside pickup list. I will CHECK IT OUT THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Regarding the flour situation, around us everything has been in stock, except the King Arthur Bread flour, although I managed to find it at a grocery store I don’t normally frequent this week. It was $5.19, which seems like a regular price for that product at the Food Lion (cheaper, but awol at the neighborhood market). Store brand unbleached all-purpose is $1.30ish in the stores. Whole Wheat between $2 and $5 depending on storebrand or king arthur. $7+ seems outrageously high, but maybe prices really are cheaper in VA? I don’t know, I always felt like prices are higher here than other places I’ve lived.
Also, yes to the insulated bags. We live in the country and the nearest store is 30 minutes away. I keep a stash in the car at all times and bring ice when I am doing my weekly shop.
Here we’re going through another cycle of no replacement CO2 canisters available for my soda stream. I realize this is an extremely small issue in the scheme of, well ALL THIS, but bubbly water is one small thing making my life better so this is a bummer. We went through this same cycle a few months ago and then it corrected because ?? I’m just waiting for this one to get figured out again.
I too have had no brain space for pricing since March which is very unlike me. But I’m not going to go to multiple stores and I need what I need when I’m at the one store I’m at because I’m not going back for another week. The upshot is that I just put the things in the cart and hand over my credit card and don’t look at the total because I’m just not up for the alternatives right now. On the other hand, my likely astronomical grocery bills are offset by the fact that we don’t really do anything else these days. We order take out occasionally but we’re saving so much money on restaurant food from what we used to do that I’m hoping it all evens out in the end.
I get my canisters directly through their website. It looks like they have them but limit 2 per order.
I recently paid 10 bucks for a 5lb bag of flour. It was that or nothing and we have been making our own bread and tortillas so it still was cheaper than buying the processed versions of those items. Prices for many things have gone up but that seems really high.
I have not been able to get the CO2 since this all started!!! I’ve had to resort to buying seltzer at the store like a heathen! So. many. returnables. I even broke down and ordered a thing online to ship back my empty co2 containers and get replacements and the package was delayed. (It’s been almost 2 weeks now!) Gah!
Nooooo! It is shocking how many cans of seltzer my family will go through so not having the CO2 replacements just stinks!
If you like a cabbage based sides, may I recommend curtido? It’s a Mexican slaw with a sweet vinegar brine, great in a burrito bowl or tacos or similar. It can be even simpler than that recipe, I often use just cabbage and onion, and no carrot or jalapeno, or I sub in red pepper flakes (my five year old calls them “pepper flanks”). Just watch out for the vinegar vapors when you heat the brine. That stuff is pungent.
I’m just jumping in to endorse the insulated bags. The Husband carries them with him when he goes “into town” (about twenty minutes, depending) rather than the two grocery stores within five minutes from us, he swears by it.
Someone on my town Facebook page suggested keeping our reusable bags in the car, putting groceries straight back into the cart (especially if it is not a large amount) after they are scanned. Then you can unpack them into your reusable bags when you get to the car.
It was like a lightbulb went off!
Also, I would love to read a post about mealtimes with vegetarian and meat eaters. I’m in the same boat and would love to know what others do.
Yes! I was just about to suggest this. I have to carry my groceries up three flights of stairs, which is much easier with canvas bags than with paper bags from the store. The grocery stores in my area have been very good about putting items back in the cart, and I put the items into my reusable bags when I get to the car. That makes it easy to put frozen/refrigerated items straight into insulated bags.
Oooh, going to try the curtido, love all things vinegary and cabbagey.
Our grocery store up here in Canada has almost everything back to normal, but yeast is still hit or miss. Also for a week or two now I cannot find grape jelly anywhere. I would buy any brand! But nothing! Son who likes a PBJ every day is displeased, but not desperate enough to try a different jelly or a jam.
EVERY week for…19 weeks now? my semi-elderly mom writes “Lysol spray and lysol disinfectant laundry detergent” on her grocery list and every week I disappoint her. Once I found a single lysol spray and I wanted to gift wrap it. This week I stalked target online, waited in line early in the morning and bought the elusive laundry detergent. I don’t even know if it works, but she shares a washing machine and it makes her feel better. Triumph!
Good tip on the insulated bags! I also started seeing different/new to me brands in the stores. At one point, the only TP to be found was pink scented TP from Mexico. I bought it.
I live in a neighborhood where I can never ever get everything on my list in the same place, and I don’t have a car, so I feel like I’m at a grocery store all the time. I have been getting better at strategizing but I really miss the big stores near my parents (and their car). The thrill of the lockdown was stumbling across a grocery store in a part of the neighborhood where I hadn’t spent much time before! It has some things my usual store doesn’t.
Today I found everything I wanted except onion flakes, spinach, and a new swiffer (the handle on the one I’ve had for 10ish years just broke). And I will have to make a trip to another store for nuts but I haven’t run out of those yet so it can wait for a week.
Super interesting comment, I know. :)
IT GENUINELY IS
Here in TX we also went through a scented TP from Mexico phase! It was manzanilla (chamomile), and it was not popular.
I keep an esky (ice bin/chilly bin/whatever america calls the hard carriers that keep beer on ice :) in the boot of my car permanently. It comes in really handy for lots of things. When I get out of the shops I put the frozen things in with the meat/ice cream and everything stays cold. I also use it when we go out to keep our water and packed lunches cold.
My coleslaw recipe:
Shredded cabbage, carrot, green onions, celery and capsicum
half a carton of sour cream
Big spoon full of mayo
salt % pepper
We call them “coolers,” but “chilly bin” is adorable :)
Agreed! I believe I will start calling them “chilly bins” from now on.
I went to Kroger on Thursday night after picking up our CSA share, and lo and behold the TP aisle was empty again for the first time in several times. I did not need to buy any, but just that sight prompted unwelcome thoughts about how maybe people in my neck of the woods were starting to panic (and panic hoard) again.
I should make coleslaw because we have so much cabbage from the CSA right now! I probably have four heads in the fridge. I’ve made sauteed cabbage (served over pasta with parmesan cheese) and a layered tortilla bake thing with roasted cabbage and mushrooms. But somehow not coleslaw yet.
I think we are going to be the same boat, where people are going to start panicking again. Our new cases are skyrocketing, they are closing restaurants again as of today. My husband felt certain that a second wave of panic buying was coming-so while we weren’t hoarding, over the last few months he would buy extra of essentials. I’m very glad he did that.
My coleslaw recipe:
2 bags of cabbage mix
1 bottle of Marie’s Coleslaw dressing
I’m kind of picky about coleslaw, and I love this! Mix it all up in a ziplock bag several hours before eating, and toss whenever you think of it, to get good coverage.
I don’t mean to give unasked for advice but awhile back we had a ton of cabbage as well and I found that quick pickled cabbage went really well with fish tacos. Also found a recipe for thai peanut sauce covered cabbage with tofu.
Ha! I am all ears about potential uses for my cabbage surfeit.
I don’t do fish at my house, but I like the suggestion of Thai peanut cabbage/tofu. :) Thanks.
Here is the recipe I use. It doesn’t call for tofu, but I dry fry a brick and throw it in there and it takes on the flavor of the thai peanut sauce. The dry frying the tofu is what takes the longest, when I can find the bag of shredded cabbage it really is a 10 minute recipe
https://www.thekitchn.com/chopped-thai-salad-22906195#post-recipe-13983
It’s not really roasting weather, but I’ve been meaning to try Smitten Kitchen’s roast chicken with schmaltzy cabbage recipe: https://smittenkitchen.com/2020/04/roast-chicken-with-schmaltzy-cabbage/
If you make it, let us know how it turns out!
Re: Lysol spray. I have friends all over US and NO ONE has been able to find it anywhere. Is it all going to hospitals/health care facilities now? The wipes/sanitizers are plentiful at Target/Big Box stores. Of course, it’s always about timing – you might go in the morning and they will not have it because their shipment is not restocked until the afternoon, etc. I was even able to score a bunch of the travel packets of wipes (great to have have in purse). Target even had Purell on sale! They will not ship those items those, you have to go in-store for that (or maybe curbside??)
THIS IS GREAT TO KNOW!! I haven’t been able to buy clorox wipes since March, and like you say no online site even offers them as an option any more. My local Giant doesn’t even have a spot for them on the shelf anymore. I’ll try Target!
For reals?! Because I can find the occasional spray, but I truly have not seen a canister of bleach wipes since early March. Near Houston, TX
The same person is my checkout clerk every time I go to the grocery store (early morning Saturday shift.) She doesn’t really believe that the pandemic is that big a deal and she makes it known each and every time I come through the line, whether it’s complaining about masks, complaining about restrictions on gatherings, wondering when “they” will tell us this is all over, or something else. Today it was telling me it was a shame I wasn’t letting my kids see their friends, on the grounds that Covid “isn’t the number one killer.”
Sigh.
This isn’t exactly a story about groceries, but it’s not NOT a story about groceries.
What has been making me a little crazy is that my grocery store (and several other big stores) no longer have stuff in the normal places. I think what has happened is that when stuff ran out they stocked an area with something else so the shelves were not empty, then when that item came back the store had to put it somewhere else. So it takes longer to shop because now the baby wipes are in the other side of the isle and peanut butter is around the corner from where it normally is. I get to the normal spot and wonder is it not available or just somewhere new?
I always bring reusable bags and use insulated bags for my cold items. At the beginning of the pandemic the clerks informed me they couldn’t touch them, so for a few trips I accepted the flimsy store bags. It was not fun. Then I figured out that I can bag my own, either with a checker or in self checkout. Things are going much better.
The tp aisle looks back to pre-pandemic normal. Still can’t find disinfectant wipes. Pizza and some meat items are hard to find.
I am still trying to buy (hoard) Clorox wipes. I use them every day and am a teacher so might need them at school. I actually went to Walmart (!) because I heard they had them. I got one. Then yesterday at HyVee they had them! With no limit on number- I checked. I bought 2 because I am not a hoarder…..but I might check again tomorrow. Grocery store problems: lack of Campbells soup and salsa. I have finally found a Chicken with Stars for my son…but Cream of Chicken and Cream of a Mushroom are tricky. Plus, Chicken Tortilla.
All those casseroles people are making now! I hope you can find some Cream of soups! They’re a staple!
I have been waiting for another grocery shopping post, because I went this week, and it was odd to see shelves still with gaps. Also, I have milk insecurity after the early pandemic days, and find milk buying to be the most stressful part of grocery shopping. I still don’t like to buy too much at one store, and I only buy milk in opaque cartons, which for the past several years has basically meant I only buy organic milk. Most stores keep far less organic milk in stock than regular, and what I’ve been able to find varies wildly every time I shop. So I found myself buying one gallon and one 1/2 gallon (two different brands!) at our smallish, Whole Foods knock-off (sooo expensive for milk, but well stocked with everything I needed otherwise) because I was afraid Target (where organic milk is much cheaper) would be out, or would have nothing but 1%. This time, Target was NOT out of any of the milk I needed, but because I’d already bought 1.5 gallons, I only bought another 1.5 gallons, while wishing I had a crystal ball with a direct line into Target so I could SEE what was on the shelves before I spent a fortune on milk somewhere else. Anyway.
Target was still out of all disinfectant everything (wipes, spray, etc), although they’ve been stocking these very suspicious looking “cleaning wipes” in some strange, off-brand, which, after all the hand sanitizer recall news, I’ve decided to steer clear of. Target did have plenty of hand sanitizer, in similarly strange, never-heard-of-before brands (I bought two bottles from Raw Sugar a couple of weeks ago, the scent of which made both my husband and me sick on separate occasions, him with a headache, me with nausea, so if you are a person sensitive to weird smells, there’s a data point for you), and they also finally had bottles back in stock of GermX, which I recall being a more standard brand pre-pandemic.
Canned soup, flour, and other baking supplies were still showing gaps, but the truly surprising thing was that after a summer of mostly acceptable supplies of soap, almost everything was gone this week. Refill bottles, gone. Method soap, gone. Those cheap “smells like a meadow” Target brand bottles, all gone except one, which I snatched up with a quickness. Just totally empty soap shelves, but for a handful of the more expensive, fancy brands. Our Target tends to stock hand soap in both the beauty supply aisles AND the cleaning supply aisles, and I had better luck finding a couple bottles with the cleaning supplies, but I still had to buy a brand I’d never tried before, that was more expensive than what I usually pick, and that I could not smell beforehand. So. Grocery stopping still an adventure, I guess.
We seem to be having a small hand soap shortage here as well. Tried to get our usual on a grocery pick up like we usually do and they didn’t have it or any replacement options for two weeks. Yesterday I tried Target and Fred Meyer and could find only one small bottle of the kind we like – not the refill pouch. It was a little unnerving.
I have a question! How big are those bags of flour? The reason I ask is here I buy the 10kg bags, which would be, I guess, about 25 pounds. For those bags I pay about $12 Cdn, which would be about $9 USD. I am trying to figure out the difference in costs from here and the US, because $4 seems like a steal! But then, maybe the bags are smaller? Please help, I am dying of curiosity.
They’re 5-pound bags—roughly 2.25 kg.
We are still having problems finding Coke Zero fridge packs. Although one grocery store had Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero fridge packs. They looked a little beat up so I wondered if they had been “lost” in the back for a while and someone just discovered them. The refillable water stations are open. My husband is all set to use them again but I’m still a bit leery. I know the water coming out gets filtered, UV rayed, etc. but… Another odd shortage was/is store brand canned peas at the main store I shop at. They were back on the shelf this week after not being available for 2 or 3 weeks. The large local grocery retailer did one of their most popular sales this week and last week (10/$10 with the 11th for free). I thought that was a good sign that *they* felt their supply chains were more solid. Paper towel and toilet paper are basically back to normal except, of course, for our preferred brand of toilet paper. They will have smaller packs (with larger rolls) rather than the really big packs. We have some lysol and clorox disinfecting sprays — the kind that you pull the trigger to release the spray. We don’t have the lysol spray that comes in the can. Disinfecting wipes are hit or miss. We are almost through the large pack we got from Sam’s Club way back before the pandemic became a thing. I found a couple of large canisters of lysol wipes a few months ago but they have a “scrubbing” side. I’ll use those around the house. A couple of weeks ago I managed to grab a small canister of Clorox wipes that we will use in the car. Rice and pasta also seem to come and go. One week the shelves will be filled with many varieties and then the next week, it will all be very picked over or the shelves will have just a few varieties but many boxes of those. Oh, and this week I noticed the frozen pizza shelves were almost empty. Maybe the college kids are back in town?
I also wanted to comment that your dad’s cole slaw dressing is the same as my mom’s. She used store brand salad dressing (instead of Miracle Whip). I have not made cole slaw at home since I am the only one who likes it. But it never would have occurred to me that I would need to add extra vinegar or sugar if I wanted to make my own dressing since we use mayonnaise. So that’s filed away for future use.
The main thing (aside from Clorox wipes) that I’ve noticed has remained unstocked here is 7th Generation laundry detergent, which previously was the brand I used exclusively due to skin & scent sensitivities in my household. But after weeks of that spot on the shelf being bare, I gave up and bought Tide.
I too have noticed a WHOLE HECKUVA LOT more store brand everything.
(I also love these posts and read them with great interest, along with every single comment)
Out of curiosity as a Tide Avoider (I do… very badly… with their “original” scent), were your skin & scent sensitive people okay with Tide Free & Clear (I assume you got Tide Free & Clear)?
I’ve been happily using Arm & Hammer Free & Clear for over a decade, but want to be aware of other acceptable options because of the previously-noted spotty supply chain things…
I just went to the store over the weekend and not much has changed in my neck of the woods. Baked beans are back, after having been gone for ages, rice pilaf and other rice mixes are still gone, although there were a few flavored couscous boxes kicking around. There were paper towels and TP, although only two brands/kinds of each (Brawny and Scott for the paper towels, Scott and Cottonelle for the TP). Dish soap is back, although hand soap is still ENTIRELY out and has been since March. No wipes, or cleansing sprays of any kind yet, whether trigger or aerosol, although I did notice a stock of that Tub and Tile spray that hadn’t been there before. Frozen fruit was decimated, but had been fine last week. Canned soups were much fuller than they have been, but it seems to be an optical illusion since there were many less flavor options than I remember. And packaged ramen had both the Shrimp and Soy flavors, instead of just the Soy (I’m a Roast Chicken girl, myself).
A few months ago when husband was still doing all the grocery shopping, they only had 25 kg bags of flour. I agreed to the purchase when he texted me, not quite realizing how big it actually was. Thankfully, I had a big plastic container that fit about half of it in, and the other half is in my freezer. I actually like keeping the flour in a container with a wide top and may keep that up.
As for coleslaw, can I suggest apple cider vinegar instead of white? That’s what I use. I also don’t use sugar because I hate sweet coleslaw, so my recipe is mayo, AC vinegar, garlic, and salt.
We accidentally left an empty laundry basket in the trunk and forgot about it. Several days later the guy who loaded our groceries put all the bags in there. It was so handy to carry them into the house in the basket! We’ve started doing it on purpose. #AccidentalLifeHack
Hand soap is hard to find at the grocery store, and the pharmacy has mostly weird brands with weird smells. I bought something that said lavender but when I got it home it was hospital scent. I’ve gagged my way through the bottle. I had to go to three stores to find one bottle of Method (at grocery) and one bottle of Mrs. Meyers (at pharmacy) for my neighbor. My neighbor requested Softsoap but there was none to be found.
Reporting from Georgia, I can’t find Lysol/Clorox wipes anywhere, not Target, not Publix (forgot to check when I went to WalMart). And my Publix seems to be having a problem stocking rice, including Minute Rice, which we use. They have the giant, 10-lb bulk bags, but nothing else. (My daughter thinks it’s hilarious to pick up one of those bags and heave it into my cart. I like rice, but I’m not buying that.) Publix still allows reusable bags, thank goodness; Kroger does not, unless you bag your own groceries (they won’t touch your dirty bags!), which I find annoying. Meat seems to be in stock as normal, and there’s some TP on the shelves but it’s really hit or miss. Flour still seems to be somewhat scarce here, as well.
The one-way aisles do not seem to help at all, imho. People either don’t see the floor signs or refuse to follow the rules. It makes me so mad. Until I mistakenly go up a “down” aisle and then feel terrible.
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/coleslaw/
This is my favorite coleslaw recipe!! It’s so good and super easy. I am on team Swistle here – I would never cook anything to make coleslaw :)
Apparently a lot of the US goes back to school much earlier than we do here (normally Labour Day, i.e. the day after the first Monday in September), but if you haven’t already gotten school supplies, I’ve heard that it may become difficult to order them online this year as school draws near.
Of course in my case, first I have to figure out if my kids are going in person or doing remote learning so I know what sort of supplies would be most useful, but our school board hasn’t told us yet what in-person school would look like, other than masks mandatory from Grade 4 upwards, and full-class 5-day in-person for up to grade 8, but 50% in-person and 50% remote for high schools. But no idea on what the distancing will look like, how many kids will actually be in class, what the protocols are for when a person in the class tests positive, what the bussing will look like, whether there will be staggered starts, breaks, etc. If I had a kid in grade 4 or under though, where masks aren’t mandatory, that kid would be staying home for sure, and I live in a city with relatively few cases.