Dear Reader,
Canberra has entered its second week of lockdown, and I have mixed feelings about lockdown life.
On the one hand, lockdown life has not been too difficult because I’ve kept my routines. On the other hand, I do miss seeing work friends in real life. I have missed attending our church bible study as well as attending church itself.
My routines include my morning walk, morning devotion time, making coffee, cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening devotion time.
Last Sunday, I attended my first Sunday morning church service by Zoom. It was good. While online church service isn’t the same as being with others, it is COVID-19 safe. It was a bit weird singing, praying, and listening to a sermon online.
Ingredients
- Corned beef
- Lentils
- Shallot
- Red onion
- White onion
- Yellow capsicum
- Red capsicum
- Mushrooms
- Red wine
- Cooking sherry
- Worcestershire sauce
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Slice the shallot, onions, and capsicum and put them into a slow cooker with the mushrooms.
- Add a few good slugs of olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, and cooking sherry.
- Cook slowly for six hours.
- Remove the vegetables from the slow cooker and put them into a skillet, and add a can of washed lentils.
- Cook and combine everything thoroughly.
- Remove about two-thirds of the vegetables and lentils and put them into a container for use later in the week.
- Add a small tin of corned beef to the skillet and cook with the vegetables and lentils.
- Cook until the corned meat starts to caramelise.
- Serve with vegetables of your choosing.
- Give thanks to the Lord for the job to be able to buy food, the skills to prepare and cook food, ask that He nourish my body and mind, and make me a better disciple.
Final thoughts
- Have you experienced lockdown?
- How did you find the experience?
- Do you have any tips?
Capsicums, onions, and mushrooms. Saturday lockdown dinner. Corned beef, lentils, slow cooker vegetables, with Brussels sprouts, and roast pumpkin.
Keeping a routine is a great idea, I think. We are not in lockdown here, but schools are having to shut down because so many children and teachers are getting Covid because the younger children can’t have the vaccine yet. It’s a bit scary–so even without lockdown, I find a routine comforting, and we wear masks and limit our activities out.
It’s a new way of life we all have to get used to for a while at least.
I really do love brussel sprouts Gary – you cook some lovely vegetables…when is your next totally vegetarian meal? I look forward to seeing it.
Hi Sue, thanks. I like Brussels sprouts too. I never used to but now I like them a lot.
I had a meat free lunch today of kale sprouts, capsicum (yellow, green, and red), cherry tomatoes, and cucumber.
I don’t even know what week we’re in now. We must be going on 2 months and it’s hard. I cannot wait for it to be over but I’m so frustrated at people who don’t seem to believe in vaccines and keep protesting. I really would like to send them to a separate island where you can be “free” and we can get on with it.
Hi Lorraine, I feel your frustration. I understand people deal with uncertainty differently and while no doctor is perfect, when the collective wisdom of the profession recommends ways to avoid infection, it makes sense to follow the advice.
Nothing is perfect, the the advice we’ve been providing to the political leaders and to the people of Australia is the best advice available.
We don’t get purple brussel sprouts here! My Oculus Quest VR gear is great. I’ll see if I can have a virtual walk around Lake Ginnaderra with you (at least in spirit).
The purple Brussels sprouts were nice! Wow I didn’t realise with VR technology you could do that! That’s pretty amazing.
Hi Gaz, here in my part of the world, we were in lockdown for months, though it varied in severity. Routines are good, and Zoom much as I will say a not-fond farewell to it when this is all over, is great. As you probably know, food planning and prepping is pretty meditative. My family and I always ended our Zoom catch-ups with questions about what everyone was having for dinner.
Thanks, Emma. That sounds similar to what I do when I FaceTime with my daughters. I always ask what their going to be eating for dinner 🙂