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Coronavirus Outbreak: Create healthy meals at home with what's in your pantry

Monday, March 16, 2020

Create health meals at home with food in your pantry

San Francisco Cooking School instructors are asking people to share what they have in their kitchen and creating custom recipes so you don't have to leave your home for a good meal.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- As more closures are announced and shelves are being cleared out at the grocery stores, people are stuck at home with the food they already have.

But a San Francisco-based company is looking to help folks create delicious meals with what's already in their pantry.

"We talked as a team about the kinds of things that we were making at home and it made us realize that there was so much that we could offer people who were stuck at home and stuck with ingredients that have been in their fridge or pantry for a while," San Francisco Cooking School Founder Jodi Liano said.

San Francisco Cooking School took to social media with a simple Instagram post asking for people to share what's in their kitchen.

From there, their team started helping create custom meals that people could make without going to the store.

"We've had a lot of attention and a lot of engagement," Liano said. "There's been a few curveballs, but for the most part people have had some interesting ingredients at home that we've been able to get creative with. It's mostly our lead recreational instructor, Josh, he's been monitoring the Instagram feed and coming up with most of those creative ideas. But, we have a team of teachers here so there are lots of resources to think of new ideas in the event that we start running out at any point."

Liano says that a few food items can really help with creating simple meals.

Rice and beans can be stretched a long way and turned into many great dishes.

Having a few dried spices is another simple tip to take foods and transform them into different meals.

Finally, Liano adds that chicken and ground meat are proteins that can be frozen and used in many ways.

"I think that it's important for people to know that you don't have to be in a mode of running to the store every day," Liano said. "There's a lot of non-perishable things that you can keep on hand and keep over the coming weeks to create healthy and delicious foods and there are some simple kitchen techniques that you can put into practice for one recipe and use for other ingredients that you have so that while you're feeding people at home, you're also learning to do some things that are going to be beneficial for you in the future."

Visit @SFCooking on Instagram for simple recipes and food tips while you're at home.

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