Meal Planning during grocery shortages

This right here is SAVING me. Our local schools are offering breakfast and lunch to all kids in the county, whether they attend public schools or not. Knowing that I at least will have breakfast and lunch covered for the boys is a HUGE weight off my shoulders. Thanks, Hamilton County Dept. of Education!

It's been several weeks now since grocery store shelves around Chattanooga started looking empty and I had to adjust how I feed my family. I'll admit that the first couple of weeks caused me a bit - ok A LOT - of anxiety. As someone who is used to feeding a large family in a particular way, having that system shut down was stressful to say the least. Dietary restrictions make matters even more difficult, but I think we are finally settling in to a routine. 

Since I'm starting to get a handle on "cooking during the apocalypse," I thought I'd share what's been working. 

Online grocery ordering is no longer the simple process it used to be. For years I sat down on a particular afternoon, with my meal plan in hand, searched for the ingredients I wanted, added them to my cart, and picked them up within a few hours. Ah, the good old days. I now grab a pickup time days in advance and add items to my cart a little at a time as they become available, knowing that what I order may not be available on the day I pick up. I order simple things as much as possible - meat, veggies, fruit, and pantry staples - so that I have options when I pick up the groceries and only get half of what I ordered. Think: chicken, broccoli, gluten free flour; not chorizo, fresh garlic, and cassava. 

Once I pick up my groceries I look at what I have and plan our meals from there - the opposite of what I've done most of my adult life. Yeesh. 

This week, I created a Google doc and added a table, listing proteins, veggies/sides, etc. Then I simply combined a protein with a couple of sides to come up with meals for the week. Here's what I came up with!

Dinners: 

• Spaghetti
• Bbq chicken with baked beans and mashed potatoes
• Roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans
• Hawaiian chicken (with pineapple), steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, baked potatoes
• Pizza
• Ground beef nachos
• Buffalo chicken stuffed potatoes
• Chicken parmesan, steamed veggies
• Buffalo chicken sandwiches with chips and fruit
  
  
  It's not exactly what I would've planned if I'd been able to do all this the other way around, but it's certainly better than I was doing when this all started! How are you doing with menu planning? Grocery shopping? Life in general? Give me your best tips (or just vent about how hard things are!!) in the comments.