Hey everyone! I hope you’re all doing alright. I’m still sort of adjusting to virtual learning and being at home more often…

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is no joke. In a matter of a a couple weeks, we’ve gone from leading a normal everyday life to only being able to go out of the house for things that we really need. I know, it’s going to pretty tough to not be able to eat at your favorite restaurant for while or just live a normal life, but I do think that it’s not as bad as the “panic” seems. I’d say that with the right approach, your food life isn’t going to be changed as much as you thought. So, without further ado, here are, hopefully, some helpful tips that’ll assuage your concerns about this pandemic and show that it’s going to be ok. Eating normally during the coronavirus? Here we come:

1. Help your friends! It’s easy to fall into your own bubble at home during these few weeks. However, there’s no better place to amp up your social life than at dinner. My family has been doing these cool group calls with at least five people each time. It’s not perfect, but it still somewhat creates the atmosphere of a group dinner. In addition, instead of having each of your friends go to the store, why not set up a grocery “carpool” and take turns? It’ll save time and also decrease exposure.
2. Ordering food online: I’m sure many of you have heard of Instacart or DoorDash. These are two very popular services right now that employ people to pick up food and deliver it right to your doorstep. Here’s the problem: the coronavirus spreads mainly through touch and though many of these workers are doing their best to keep the food as safe as possible, who knows where those billions of germ molecules are? I would recommend, when receiving any sort of meal/groceries, that you opt out of utensils, choose “no contact”, wipe everything down before touching, and make special requests for the drivers to not step inside of your house.
3. Gift card support: Right now, there are tens of millions of workers out there that are doing there job, just so this country doesn’t go crazy. Be it factory workers or meal deliverers, they’re all risking their health just to get us the things that we need. Sadly, the coronavirus is taking a toll on a lot of these businesses. People don’t want to eat out anymore, and for places that don’t have delivery services, they might just go out of business because of this unfortunate event. They need to pay their staff workers, most importantly. One thing you could do is go and buy “gift cards” from some of these stores. That way they won’t be in any or as much debt and still provide the food that you love. In the future when the virus stops spreading, you’ll be able to go in and get a bunch of free meals from these various locations. I believe it’s just a nice thing to do. They do say that your favorite foods taste better if you haven’t had them in a while!
4. Heat it up: If you haven’t heard this before, you should know that enough heat will kill most germs. They just can’t live in that sort of climate. With that being said, I would advise everyone to, if possible, heat up all of your takeout meals one more time after getting them delivered (only do it if makes sense, i.e don’t heat up a salad). I’m usually lazy with takeout food and just eat it as it is, but now with the virus, I can kill two birds with one stone by a) getting a hot meal and b) killing all of those germs. I’d say that store bought ingredients are pretty safe, but to further decrease your chances of getting the coronavirus, you could alter your meal plan to feature mainly cooked dishes. We all love sandwiches and soba noodles, but during this time, they’re not as safe as a hot meal. Lastly, heating up food on the stove is likely your best option because often, a microwave won’t reach the bottom of your food, thus increasing the chances that germs will survive down there.
5. Go from 3 to 2: I want to give a shoutout to Aunty Polly for thinking of this. What if instead of three meals a day, we only had to worry about two? Brunch and dinner. Especially for those of you who aren’t used to your family members actually being present during some of these meals (my sister and I aren’t at home for lunch during the weekdays, my dad occasionally isn’t here to eat dinner), this could be a good idea. Worrying about what to eat for one less meal could be huge, really.
6. Shop early, but maybe not too early: Throughout the day, who knows how many people have touched the item that you’re holding. If you arrive early at the supermarket, chances are that less people will be in the building. It might also help to select products that are fresh (imported that morning). Lastly, you should probably note that a lot of stores are dedicating their first hour or two to the elderly, as they need to be away from other people as much as possible when outside of their homes.

In conclusion, I hope that everyone at feels a little more confident about their food life after reading that post. I know that my tips aren’t actual “cures”, but I do think that they’ll make you feel a little more safe, going into these next few weeks. Additionally, if any of you had other tips that you’d want to share with the community, please post them in the comments section. We’d love to hear them. To top this thing off, I wish you all good health and hope you still have a nice time during these next few weeks.

Here is a recipe from my dad’s doctor. It’s supposed to help you get the coronavirus (or the normal flu) out of your body system more easily. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think that the fact that I don’t usually eat most of those ingredients means that it’s really healthy…

Immune Soup Recipe