The height of storm season is coming. Is your home pantry prepared?

The time for tropical systems is now. Are you prepared?

Yes, COVID-19 has kept us at home, eating through our stash of pantry staples. Now, the height of hurricane season is nearly here, and the cupboard looks like Mother Hubbard’s – bare.

Readers, do you still do weekly grocery shopping trips? If so, congratulations to you. COVID has changed routines for some. Groceries are delivered to the house or picked up in a drive-up car line. Someone else is doing the shopping, but often not like home cooks normally would do. Never would they pick up a head of lettuce with brown leaves on the bottom.

Those who are no stranger to tropical systems or hurricanes usually try to keep their pantries stocked. Now the pantries have been raided by folks staying home or youngsters who have been home since late March.

It’s time to restock. It’s time to go grocery shopping to have the right items on hand. Some know the hurricane grocery checklists by heart: canned foods, including meat, vegetables and fruits; fresh fruits that keep well, such as apples; plenty of water; pet foods; paper products; and cleaning supplies.

One extended trip to the supermarket can save hours in the kitchen and offer up a healthy storm or anytime pantry.

Let’s take stock of the pantry and what meals can come from there.

How many of you have been binge eating during COVID? Or indulging on foods you shouldn’t? Dietitians say every healthy, emphasis on healthy, pantry should have oats, lentils, brown rice, canned fish and broth, according to the experts at www.myrecipes.com.

Oats can be used for breakfast, in smoothies and baked goods if electricity is still on during a storm. Home cooks can even do some baking ahead. Blueberry muffins with oats make for a good breakfast or snack.

Pull out those old cookbooks for recipes for canned fish. Now, I don’t do salmon in any form, so salmon patties are out. However, I love tuna in tuna salad and pasta salads. I don’t do plain canned tuna, but my daughter does. Granddaughter will not touch it any way it is fixed.

Another idea might be to make tuna cakes instead of crab cakes or a tonnato sauce over pasta.

A storm, like COVID, can wipe out a pantry quickly. Other easy items to have on hand are a variety of pasta sauces that can be used with chicken breasts or thighs or for homemade pizza. Purchase a package of refrigerated pizza dough. Even if the power goes out, the canned pizza dough can be stored in an ice chest.

Beans, beans and more beans are great to have on hand. Chickpeas can be roasted for a crunchy health snack or smashed or blended to make hummus with garlic, olive oil and tahini. Some items like tahini keep well in the fridge, so you can make hummus in smaller batches. While my granddaughter will not eat tuna, she will scarf down hummus and Triscuits or pita bread.

Beef or chicken broth can be turned into a delish soup. Simply add any fresh or canned potatoes, leftover chicken, beef or pork and canned or fresh veggies and seasonings and you have a healthy, hearty soup that will keep in the fridge.

Put those cans of beans to use with a multi-bean or pea soup with seasoning and perhaps ham or sausage,

Here are more basics for seasoning and cooking:

• A variety of canned goods, beans (black, kidney and others), broths (chicken, beef and vegetable), tomatoes (stewed and diced), two cans of tuna and canned, white-meal only chicken.
• Dried beans or peas
• Assorted pastas of different shapes and flavors.
• Quick-cooking rice.
• Assorted oils and vinegars.
• Herbs and spices, such as chili powder, garlic powder, ground cumin, thyme, imported curry, oregano, salt, onion flakes, cayenne pepper, hot pepper flakes and black pepper.
• Frozen or canned vegetables.
• Stewed tomatoes (Mexican-style, Italian-style and Cajun-style); Del Monte brand.
• Chopped green chilies.
• Salsa.
• Fresh onions.

This recipe is an easy way to use dried peas, carrots and milk.

Creamy black-eyed pea soup

1 cup dried black-eyed peas

2 quarts water

1 garlic clove, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 bay leaf

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup diced, cooked carrots

1 quart milk

3/4 pound bulk sausage

Chopped parsley

Wash peas and soak in water for 2 hours. Add garlic, onion, bay leaf and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender. Add salt and pepper. Mash peas with a potato masher. Add carrots and milk. Shape sausage into tiny balls and fry slowly until well done. (Can bake sausage balls in oven to cut the fat.) Sprinkle soup with parsley and sausage balls. Yield: 2 1/2 quarts.

Andrea Yeager can be reached at ayeager51@cableone.net/ and Cooks Exchange, 205 DeBuys Road, Biloxi, MS 39535-4567.