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

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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.

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.@SFCooking's Lead Recreational Instructor Josh has been running the responses to the recipe requests on the school's Instagram page. Here's a few simple recipes that you Liano suggests if you are cooking at home. #Coronavirus https://t.co/4BmMorGiz1 pic.twitter.com/456hdKjh0P
— Dustin Dorsey (@DustinABC7) March 16, 2020

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.

If you do find yourself heading to the store for essentials, you may also want to pick up a few food items that can last you a long time and allow you to make a bunch of different healthy/yummy meals along the way. @SFCooking #Coronavirus https://t.co/4BmMorGiz1 pic.twitter.com/X5fIoIyOOw
— Dustin Dorsey (@DustinABC7) March 16, 2020

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.

RELATED: Coronavirus: Oakland Unified distributes free meals to students during school closures due to COVID-19

"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.

I caught up with @sfcooking founder Jodi Liano over Facetime today to talk about the school's Instagram initiative to help people cook. She said that time in the kitchen is something that can not only help hunger, but mental health as well. #Coronavirus https://t.co/4BmMorGiz1 pic.twitter.com/M9h9nUBZux
— Dustin Dorsey (@DustinABC7) March 16, 2020

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