A few cans of canned soup. I don't like canned soup but thought it would be good in a pinch. Working in a store I saw how people panic shopped, so I was worried our distribution center would have problems bringing in stock (toilet paper we couldn't get for weeks because of the hoarders). BUT, I can always donate the canned soup (only a few cans) to my kids or a food bank. Otherwise, I only bought what I normally buy.

We did no stockpiling and got by just fine with what was available. Not always first or second choices but we didn't starve before we figured out sources that could work.

Life is too short to eat canned chili or canned soup.

Kraft Mac N Cheese Deluxe. I used to get it occasionally for a naughty "treat" because I liked the thick, sticky cheese sauce that came in a little can. But now they've changed the recipe and the cheese sauce comes in a pouch and is runny. Has about as much flavour as a slurry of flour and water :-P

I made the canned soup mistake too. And didn't notice what was on the shelf was no sodium, no fat. A little clue....if it has the heart healthy symbol on the label, it's not edible. I hate to give it to the food bank, picturing some unlucky little kid being made to eat it for lunch. My girlfriend has chickens who get free range time and some kitchen scraps, but I don't think she gives them soup.

When this mess was starting, I bought a container of non-dairy coffee creamer and a couple cans of 'veg all'. They were on sale, and seemed like a good idea just in case the disruption to the food supply got worse. I'll use the veg all in a pot pie or soup sometime this winter. The cremora will go to the food bank eventually.

One item I won't buy again ever no matter what is smoked gouda cheese. It tasted like gooey cigarette smoke, yuck! It's rare for me to throw away food but this was horrible.

I could only get peanut butter in a double pack in March and they were 40 oz. jars. I didn't need it that bad but I was anticipating food shortages and starving to death. I usually only buy the 24 oz. jar so I have enough for two years now.

nickel, I bought a canister of coffee creamer, too. I thought, we can get along without milk, but DH and I must have something for our morning coffee! It’s still in the basement pantry.

I bought a gallon jug of liquid hand sanitizer from a neighbor in food service. I think we‘ve used about half a cup. We don’t go out that much, and everywhere has sanitizer anyway, and we wash our hands when we get home.

They were out of Cremora carmel flavored powder. I purchased liquid. YUCK! I donated it to my husbands office coffee bar. Safeway's brand "I Love" canned cat food. Opened it, they hated it, threw it out. Only one can.

I keep a well-stocked pantry & the freezer was full. Didn't buy anything that I don't usually buy and replenished the pantry as I used things, like I always do. In a few cases, items I needed to restock were out of supply. Like spaghetti sauce. So, we don't have spaghetti or, if I really wanted spaghetti, I could make home made sauce with what I had in the pantry.

We regularly buy Nestle Nido Instant Dry Whole Milk Powder, and therefore we never buy fresh milk, as even the smallest containers will go bad before we use it. I think it tastes as good as regular milk, but then I do not drink milk. Kevin uses it in his coffee (which I do not drink either), and I use it when I'm making pancakes or baked items that need milk, such as some breads. I also use it when making desserts, including ice cream, but I make ice cream mostly with cream.

I won't buy buckwheat flour again. I made soba noodles with it and was not impressed with the results. I actually prefer the dried soba noodles. I bought teff flour to make injera, and that did not turn out as good as I expected, but I have not given up on that ... yet. There is a good Ethiopian restaurant less than a mile from my house in L.A., and I can buy injera bread there.

??? I didn't really buy anything that I would not have normally bought. It's currently hurricane season so I am rotating stock and trying to eat up some of the older food, but keeping an eye on having plenty in case of emergency. One of my kids did complain that I had 13 boxes of the Tuna Helper with creamy broccoli. That's one of my weird comfort foods that I keep on hand as a quick meal or emergency food. I don't see me not buying more.

I didn’t really buy anything unusual that we don’t already use. I did probably buy too much flour (only one bag) as I somehow thought I would do more baking. Then I didn’t for various reasons, but I will use the flour so it’s ok.

Haven’t bought anything unusual, we always have Velveeta for grilled cheese sandwiches, and I buy the big double pack of Peanut butter, we use it up pretty quickly. , guess everyone is different, lol.

Susanwv

I did do some stocking up back in February before the hoarding really started. I bought about 3 dozen of various Maruchan Ramen noodle flavors. I've eaten about 30 of them over the course of 6 months but I don't think I will be buying more any time soon.

I also bought a couple pork loins and had the butcher cut them into chops. They don't really compare in taste to bone in chops so I went back to buying those. I've used the pork loin chops in stir fry dishes but still have about half left.

I too bought about 10 cans of evaporated milk to use in a pinch and have been using some when making biscuits and gravy.

If these items are still hanging around next year, donate to a food bank. I think USPS does a food drive (May?).

Can't think of anything right now, but FWIW, evaporated milk makes the best mac & cheese...

Frozen broccoli and cauliflower. I was worried about having enough fresh vegetables, so I stocked up on frozen. Some frozen vegetables, like a bag of mixed things with Lima beans, carrots, and peas are alright in a pinch with some butter, but the cruciferous ones did not turn out properly for me. We like those quite al dente and that was impossible to obtain with frozen; but if we have a hard winter, I'll try again, maybe they would work gratinéed.

Zalco, how did you handle the frozen broccoli and cauliflower? Did you defrost it first or cook from frozen?

Elmer, I defrosted them in a colander in my sink and then steamed them. I have a feeling you are about to tell me I failed to follow directions and I feel like an idiot. As my husband says, read the darned manual.

Oh, thanks for the reminder. I had put one 12 oz. can of evaporated milk in the bottom of the fridge in March. I see that it says, "Use by January 2021".

I bought a can each of store brand peas and corn. We hated the peas, and I pitched the corn without trying it. We never had a shortage of good frozen vegetables.

Two nights ago I defrosted and broiled a T-bone steak that I bought for $16/lb. in late June, during our brief meat shortage. (Choice is now readily available at half that price.) At least it was tasty!

Early last winter I lost track of how much T-paper I was buying. I'd accumulated several coupons and used them when I noticed sales. Just before lockdowns here, I diagnosed my own senility. I had SIXTY rolls of Northern Triple-ply/Triple-roll -- for just two adults! I can put T-paper on my shopping list six months after the evaporated milk expires.

"Elmer, I defrosted them in a colander in my sink and then steamed them. I
have a feeling you are about to tell me I failed to follow directions
and I feel like an idiot."

Non, pas du tout!

There's a saying about food - freeze as fast as possible, thaw as slowly as possible.

When food defrosts too quickly, ice crystals inside can physically damage the texture of the thawing item. This can be easily experienced with frozen shrimp - if quickly thawed, the shrimp gets mushy. When slowly thawed, different story.

With the veggies, try putting the portion you want to cook in the fridge the day before. See if that makes a difference. Maybe not, I can imagine the small broccoli ends may be too small to recover from being frozen. Thicker cauliflower should be firm when thawed.

Or maybe not. We (you and I) can usually find both items fresh here most of the year. Try it if you want with slow thawing, see if it makes a difference.

I bought generic toilet paper which will probably sit on a shelf since now I can get Charmin.

I bought a big box of Glad Tall Kitchen bags with "Odor Shield." The other boxes were labeled "Febreeze" and I didn't want anything scented. It turns out that "Odor Shield" is a strong chemical scent, and it came wafting out when opening the trash bin. It gave me a migraine. I couldn't even go in the kitchen. My husband had to wrap up the box of trash bags and put it in a dumpster.

Frozen broccoli is fine to use in quiches and casseroles, where you want a fairly mushy texture anyway. I imagine frozen cauliflower is similar, but have never had that.

bpath, I used cremora at work for ages for the convenience, but never at home and so never had bought any since retirement. I'm grateful obtaining milk has not been an issue!

chisue, I'm curious, why are you refrigerating canned milk, instead of keeping it on a shelf? And LOL about the TP -- my sister also uses those coupons, especially when she needs a slightly larger dollar purchase to get some other deal. TP never goes bad and you'll use it up eventually. I don't know how large her stash is now, but none of us worried about running out with her around :-)

I bought powdered cheese. I normally make a baked Mac and cheese all from scratch, but I thought I could use it for a stovetop one. Yuck!

Frozen vegetables should not be thawed before cooking. Some can be steamed in the bag in the microwave. If cooked in boiling water, broccoli and cauliflower should not be mushy unless overcooked.

I bought powdered milk and never used it, but I'm going to try Alton Brown's cocoa mix recipe linked to above ( thanks, Rob ! )

nickel -- I put the canned milk in the fridge so I wouldn't *forget* it. And that's just what I did until reading this thread. Ha-ha! My supply of canned anything is half a shelf under a kitchen counter -- baked beans, a few tins of tuna and chicken, black olives...hmm...I should go take a look. I know there are some jars of Bonne Maman, languishing because we've seldom had toast or English muffins lately, and because we're working on DGS's honey. (His bees diecamped over last winter, but left behind their 'rent deposit'.)

" Some can be steamed in the bag in the microwave. If cooked in boiling
water, broccoli and cauliflower should not be mushy unless overcooked."

Here are different preferences on display. There are many, I suspect true for Zalco and I'm in this camp too, who don't "cook" in a microwave and who would never allow hot or cooking food to be in contact with plastic. Also in the same camp are those who prefer to steam veggies (as Zalco said, I do too) and not boil them.

I always have the Nido powdered milk on hand, but I bought several extra cans when milk was in short supply when the s#it hit the fan. The can I usually have in the pantry is used solely for Alton Brown's awesome hot cocoa recipe. DH loves cocoa, but if I made a pot of cocoa, he'd feel obligated to drink it all very quickly, LOL. With Alton's mix, he can make a mug at a time. I believe that if I keep the extra dry milk in the fridge until opened, that will extend their "best by" date, so no loss for me.

frozen chicken enchiladas from Aldi's

I didn't purchase or stock up on anything I didn't use with regularity before the pandemic so no odd things hanging around waiting to be used :-) I did need to restock some TP and seriously dislike the off brands they had available at the time so will not be buying more of those!

I have been pretty good about using what I have on hand and really have only needed to shop for perishables. But it is time to do a major restock again, as I am very short or completely out of all kinds of staples. And I also worry about how conditions will be as we move into winter and feel the need to be prepared.

But I don't plan to get anything I would not ordinarily buy anyway.

Re: Powdered Milk. My hairdresser is one of five daughters. She thought her family was 'special' because, while a friend's mother put a carton of milk on the dinner table, HER mother served milk in a glass pitcher! (She was a teen before realizing ther mother stretched the budget with powdered milk.)

powdered milk -- I grew up on it, loved it, and yup probably Mom stretched it with extra water too. When visiting friends or family who drank 'real' milk I was grossed out by the white scum it left on the glass -- my powdered milk left the glass nice and clear!

chisue - thanks for the answer about refrigerating canned milk. I was wondering if you only liked the taste when it was cold! I don't keep as many canned items on hand as we had growing up -- the fresh food supply has improved considerably over the decades. So most of my cupboards are for pots, pans, dishes, and baking goods -- way different than I remember mom's kitchen.

I would sure like to be able to buy low fat cream soups for recipes...please quit hoarding!!! The paranoia has got to STOP!!! I'll never buy dryer sheets ever again as I discovered an skin allergy two years ago.

Costco riced cauliflower in a pouch. They add some weird kind of acid I guess as a preservative which gives it a tart taste I don't like.

I didn't really buy too much extra but my answer would be off brand TP unless that's the only thing available oh and also off brand paper towels. So inferior to brand name!

I've been trying several different dried vegetables, and some are quite good while others not so much. I like them because they are easy to store, and I have limited space in my freezer. I do not buy frozen broccoli or cauliflower, but I did buy some dried broccoli and did not like it - it was a bit too fibrous.

I normally cook vegetables with rice, and if they are fresh or frozen, I add them to the rice when the rice is almost done, but if they are dried, I add them to the rice at the beginning of cooking. This method worked well until I used dried broccoli.

My favorite dried vegetable is cabbage. For some reason, it rehydrates well. Of course I also have a good selection of dried mushrooms and chilies, and many of these I have dehydrated myself.

I used to buy those Yakisoba Teriyaki dried meal packages--dried noodles in a tray & separate packets of dried vegtables and seasoning. Loved them. The dried cabbage does rehydrate so nicely--my favorite part of the soup, actually. Had to give them up because of gluten in the noodles.

Now that I think about it, I think I'll get a package & substitute rice noodles for the noodles in the package. Trial run.

Elmer, I don't "cook" in the microwave either, but I am aware that steam-in-the-bag vegetables are available. I'm quite sure that such common food doesn't exist in your perfect, rarified world

I dislike most frozen vegetables served as-is. IMO, they are always mushy and somewhat tasteless. But I do use them as ingredients in other dishes, like casseroles, quiches, pot pies, etc. Add frozen, without thawing or any cooking before addition.

What's the problem with cooking vegetables in the microwave? I put mine in a Corningware pot w/lid.

Everyone has different preferences. We've found that cooking vegetables in a microwave oven adversely changes the texture. It's hard to cook to a stage of al dente, which we prefer and as zalco said she does too. It's too easy to overcook. Sometimes stuff gets too hot or cooks unevenly.

We prefer steaming. Easy, predictable, relatively quick, easy to control. Just as a quick example, there's nothing better than steamed artichokes. Nothing worse than microwaved ones - ones we've had at friends' homes seem to too easily get overcooked and fall apart.

Another fan of Nido dry milk, I go though a lot of it in baking and casseroles.

I bought a bag of frozen meatballs, but I don't think I will do that again because they were not nearly as good as the ones I make myself.

When my cousin's daughter was little, she was very sensitive and had health problems that were eventually traced to heating food in a microwave in plastic deli containers. I heat and re-heat things in a microwave, but never in plastic or with plastic touching the food. If it is "steam in pouch," I will dump it in a bowl and cover with a paper towel before microwaving. Also, I've found that a great way to re-heat rice is in the microwave, in a bowl, covered with a wet paper towel.

@terilyn, I saw a video on FB where they were washing masks in a salad spinner. That might be an idea for you to wash masks.

One-ply toilet paper, if I can help it. Also bought some cauliflower crackers at Aldi's, not good at all.

Tonight it was Shearers Butter Corn Puffs......terrible. I was trying to think of what they smelled like until finally I got it - pork rinds. And they are so salty. I kept thinking they'd get better....they didn't. I threw them away. Hope I don't get sick.

Elmer, thank you for explaining what I did wrong with the frozen vegetables.

Anything chicken precooked, prebaked, heat and serve and or preshaped. I've tried several varieties from organic, all breast meat to conventional patties, tenders, fun shapes etc. and just cannot eat it.

Either tasteless, dry, too salty or just weird texture and mouth feel.

Back to buying either breasts, thighs or whole leg quarters and preparing them myself. The only exception is the Costco rotisserie chicken.

zalco, I don't know if it will make a difference with everything but it certainly does with meat and seafood. I've learned from experience (and from checking into it with credible sources) that quickly defrosting anything can have an adverse effect on texture. Maybe things like broccoli with such thin parts is going to get funky after being defrosted anyway.