After 1001 previous attempts to bring my weight down to a healthy level over the past 20+ years, it’s important to distinguish my 2026 attempt from the others and have a visual goal. Right now, apart from the obvious health benefits of not carrying around an extra 100 + lbs, finally fitting into my much treasured 1940s style “wrap around pinny” while I cook away in the kitchen (and on YouTube) is a good incentive in my humble opinion so “Operation Pinafore” has launched.

What is “Operation Pinafore”?

1. Operation Pinafore will be a once a week short check in on my blog, YouTube and socials specifically about my health and weight living on a WW2 Ration Book diet.
2. I will include a breakdown of what I have eaten, what recipes I’ve created, what calories I’ve consumed, what other things I have done to become healthier (such as walking)
3. Once a month I will do a “long form” video and blog post all about this and include a a monthly “pinafore apron twirl” to show progress on fitting into my wrap around “pinny”.
4. Downloadable WW2 monthly menu sheets for anyone interested in what I’m actually eating.

We never give up…

In the spirit of times of challenges and hardship we kept going, we never gave up, we picked ourselves up, brushed off the dust and started again. We “Kept Calm and Carried On,”. As frustrated as I get about my inability to keep off the weight I’ve lost in the past (when I come off rationing and start introducing Ultra Processed foods again), I won’t let this define me, none of us should.

If anyone laughs at you for yet another attempt…. “LET THEM.”

It’s your body, your life, your battle. Perseverance is admirable.

See you soon,

Much love, C xxxx

PS: I want to be “sixty” not “sickxty!”

There are so many versions of Homity Pie doing the rounds on the internet that it is so hard to find what could have been the original recipe. The nearest I can get is simply an open faced, potato, leek and/or onion pie, with a shortcrust pastry and sprinkled with cheese on the top. The more cheese and butter you can spare the better (I’ve seen recipes using double cream and 1/2 lbs of cheese!) but of course in reality, made in the time of rationing one had to be careful with their fat and cheese ration.

But hang on a moment….lets give this some thought too. This was supposedly a dish created by “Land Army Girls”. Where did Land Army Girls work? On farms of course! There were perks to that role I’m sure like extra butter and cheese so before we think 8oz of cheese on top to feed 4 people is far too extravagant, it might not have been so bad when one was working for the WLA, toiling on a Dairy Farm! And lets not forget too that workers such as the WLA would have been receiving a “Special Civilian Ration”.

Special civilian rations
Persons falling within the following descriptions were allowed 8 oz (230 g) of cheese a week in place of the general ration of 2 oz:

• vegetarians (meat and bacon coupons must be surrendered)
• underground mine workers
• agricultural workers holding unemployment insurance books or cards bearing stamps marked “Agriculture”
• county roadmen
• forestry workers (including fellers and hauliers)
• land drainage workers (including Catchment Board workers)
• members of the Auxiliary Force of the Women’s Land Army[35]
• railway train crews (including crews of shunting engines but not including dining car staffs)
• railway signalmen and permanent way men who have no access to canteen facilities
• certain types of agricultural industry workers (workers employed on threshing machines, tractor workers who are not included in the Agricultural Unemployment Insurance Stamp Scheme, hay pressers and trussers).

I made this slightly altered version of “Homity Pie” and I’m calling it version 2 taking into consideration the small amount of cheese available to regular civilians and scarcity of onions.

Homity Pie Version 2 (feeds 4-6)

• 4 large potatoes
• 2 large leeks
• 1 large apple
• 4 oz cheese
• Couple of knobs of butter or margarine
• Fresh or dried thyme (or herbs of your choosing if available)
• Shortcrust pastry made with 6 oz plain flour and 3 oz of fat (could be a margarine and lard mix)
• Lots of salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Make the shortcrust pastry using plain flour (we used half strong wholemeal and half white) and 3 oz fat (I used 1/2 veg shortening and 1/2 hard margarine). Rub fat into flour to make breadcrumbs and then bind together with a little water to make a pliable dough.
• Roll the dough out into a greased pie dish and place it into oven on 200 c for about 10-15 minutes or so to half cook.
• Leave skins on your potatoes and chop into chunky cubes, place in boiling water and simmer until tender
• Chop up leeks and saute in a pan gently (with butter or margarine) until cooked. Add in plenty of thyme and the chopped apple (small pieces) and toss
• Drain potatoes and mash a little then add to pan of leeks, add more butter or margarine if available and 2oz of the grated cheese and loosely mix, add in lots of salt and pepper until it tastes good!
• Place mixture into the pie dish on top of the pastry, then top with 2 oz of cheese (or more if you have more available in your cheese ration as it completes the pie beautifully), a sprinkle more of thyme and pepper
• Cook in oven at 220C until the top is browned
• Remove and leave to cool a bit before serving

Homity Pie is one of my favourite pies quite honestly. It is tasty hot and cold the next day and one can see, if the story is true, that Land Girls would have loaded up their lunch tins with this delicious pie!

PS: I halved the ingredients in the pictures and made two generous portions but that could stretch to 3 portions with lots of veg and bread and butter on the side!

Much love, C xxxx

Do you have an old, favourite WW2 recipe that you’ve tested and love and would like it to be considered for inclusion in my new “Ration Book recipes” cook book? Many WW2 cook books of the day contained a “Readers Recipes” section where readers would share their ration friendly meals. I’d love to include a chapter devoted to YOUR recipes. You can include your name, country and website or social media channel address too, which will be included. I may not be able to include everyone’s recipes but hope to include lots of them! Thank you, C xxxx

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Please fill in the form below, thanks, C xxx

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Woop, woop, woop! Sensible weight-loss for health reasons is a priority for me right now. I feel like I’ve aged several years since going through the menopause 4 years back when I was 56. Health, physical and mental, is vital for me right now. There have been many warning signs over the past few years where carrying extra weight makes things difficult and painful (arthritis in my knees is horrid) and all sorts of “getting older” pains. My cholesterol is elevated as is my blood pressure so for 4 weeks now I’ve followed a wartime diet to wean myself off the junk/ultra processed foods and prioritise wholefoods and lots of vegetables.

I’m so pleased to share that the scale is heading in the direction I want it too…

• Starting weight: 287 lbs
• Week 1 weight: 276.4 lbs
• Week 2 weight: 272 lbs
• Week 3 weight: 271.2 lbs
• Week 4 weight: 269.6 lbs

Weight-loss week 4: 1.6 lbs

Weight-loss total : 17.4 lbs (1stone 3 lbs) in 4 weeks of wartime rations

My monthly weigh-in takes place on February the 12th.

One of the things I am looking forward to again is more walking. My theory is that the more weight I can lose in the next few months, the less pain I will experience when I go for longer walks. While my knee arthritis pain will always remain, I’m confident that dropping weight, especially a significant amount, will lessen the general pains and allow me to do those walks I once loved to do, out in the countryside, those long hikes.

Much love, C xxxx

Hi everyone! I have a new recipe for you! It’s in the above video I uploaded to YouTube yesterday and you’ll need to skip to 17:50 mins to the recipe segment.

The recipe is for Beans au Gratin from the “Good Eating – Wartime Dishes” created by the Daily Telegraph during WW2 and really is a super simple and economical recipe to create. I didn’t have tinned beans in brine so I used baked beans, rinsing off most of the sauce. During the war, Haricot beans were frequently used in recipes and of course these are the type of beans in our much loved cans of “baked beans” here in the UK!

My can of beans cost me just 27p (and two points from my monthly points allowance) and I used a little over a slice of bread to make the breadcrumbs. You can make the thick white sauce with or without cheese, add plenty of seasoning in though! Total cost of the dish is around 40-60p (depending on whether you use cheese) for two portions that are served with something else.

Beans au Gratin

• Can of beans
• Cheese sauce (or plain sauce if you haven’t any cheese)
• Breadcrumbs
• Dabs of margarine

Method

• Drain the beans (you’ll likely be using haricot beans or similar in a brine but you can use drained baked beans and you can use the discarded sauce in a stew)
• Place in a suitable shallow dish.
• Make the sauce with 1/2 oz margarine and 1/2 oz or more of flour and as much milk as needed to create a thick sauce (see video) and season well adding in mixed herbs too if needed
• Pour over beans and then next add a layer of breadcrumbs. I used a little over 1 slice of bread.
• Dot margarine over the top and place in an oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes adding foil over the top if breadcrumbs become browned before.

C xxxx

Thank you to Mark Norris and Newquay Zoo who kindly donated a wonderful collection of original WW2 newspaper clippings and cookery pamphlets and books to me back in 2022.

Quote: “The World War Zoo Gardens research project, schools workshops and allotment at Newquay Zoo ran from 2009 to 2019 (from the 70th to the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2).”

I’ve always wanted to share more of these, and have done so periodically but now with a little more time to create content, I’d like to share something from this collection once a week going forward.

Most of these books will still be under copyright so I cannot scan all the pages but as someone kindly commented yesterday, sharing some of the pages in a video for educational purposes is “fair use.”

This is a wonderful wartime book if you love vegetables!

Hope you enjoy!

C xxxx

My dresser (that I bought for £30 including delivery when I moved here back in 2020) had become so cluttered and messy over the past few years, I just DIDN’T want to deal with it, especially as I was so busy with my full-time job.

BUT there is a positive side to now working for myself (I quit my job January 1st) in that cleaning and tidying my dresser is now actually part of my work day as I prepare areas of the house where I can start photographing food for my 1st recipe book! I am SOOOO excited to not only find time to clear my junk filled dresser, but it now looks more like I wanted it too before it started to get used as a dumping ground (by me).

I thought I’d film while I cleaned so part 1 of the video is above, hope you enjoy it!

Part 2 will be tackling everything that is crammed in the cupboards underneath so I’ll film that when I get the strength!

I think it looks a lot better now and while it does need some finishing touches, it looks far less cluttered and is making me smile more!

I’d love to perhaps paint it one day but that requires time and effort and I have more pressing matters right now such as writing the book (I can’t believe that I’m doing this, I smile in the morning when I wake up it brings me such joy!)

Am also thrilled to find the time to blog again! It reminds me of the old days when blogging was THE social media of it’s day and fills me with nostalgia.

Much love, C xxxx

Dear all, one has to share the love when you find the latest #RationCore (yep- I just made that hashtag up!) videos that appear on YouTube! I know you’ll love these!

1. Wildwood Cottage Diary is currently doing a rationing challenge and I’m really enjoying her updates!
2. Rebecca at Railway Cottage is one of my favourites in all things slower living and this week she is living on rations! Rebecca has recently moved to an old railway cottage and I love her knitting chit-chats!
3. Life Plus Cindy is a US channel I’ve enjoyed for a couple of years. I really enjoy Cindy’s content as she navigates life. I feel she has an older soul. This week she is living on WW2 rations!

Do you have any rationing channels you recommend?

Lots of love, C xxxx

Hi all,

I’m trying to do more daily updates either on the blog here or on my YouTube channel at http://www.RationBookRecipes.tv – it’s honestly difficult though but I have got to get used to it!

I also wanted to let you know about a few clips I quickly put together from the “Highworth VE Day 2025”. My eldest daughter and I loved visiting this little event as we love Highworth and want to live there one day! It’s very close to Swindon where I currently live and we need to be close by as I want to be close to my parents. There is a lovely sense of community in this small little market town.

I’m now beginning to cook more proper meals again from my rations rather than nibbling through small, light snacks. I’m still going to be mindful not to fill my tummy too much just in case the abdo pain was anything to do with large meals or high-fat meals. I’m trying hard to generally have a high-fibre, low-fat diet right now and keep the meals on the smaller side. As my fear of the pain coming back subsides, my appetite is increasing though so it will be hard work to keep that under control this week but so far, so good and I am honestly loving being back on rations! I’m using the hashtag #rationcore now on my posts as I truly believe all us “rationers” need our own hashtag and recognition for our obsession!

Finally, here is a little video I posted on YouTube this morning with some snippets of some of the food I ate last week. I just LOVE rationing!!!

C xxx

I survived to end of week 3 on wartime rations! AND had a really frugal week too in regards to what I spent on my rationed food as I STILL haven’t used up any points. However, this coming week will be completely different as my supplies are running low!

• Starting weight: 287 lbs
• Week 1 weight: 276.4 lbs
• Week 3 weight: 271.2 lbs
• Weight-loss week 1: 10.6 lbs
• Weight-loss week 2: 4.4 lbs

Weight-loss week 3: 0.8 lbs

Weight-loss total : 15.8 lbs (1stone 1.8 lbs) in 3 weeks of wartime rations

What I’ve eaten and what I’ve spent

Another simple eating week with smaller portions. Here are some of the things I’ve eaten!

• Faux fish with steamed potatoes and kale
• Salads
• Mashed potatoes
• Sausage sandwich
• Stews
• Porridge
• Toast & Jam
• Weetabix
• Apples
• Baked potatoes
• Bread and butter
• Slice of birthday cake (victoria sponge my daughter made for her birthday)

Again, a week where I haven’t spent much but mostly because I haven’t yet to buy any sugar from my main rations and no points needed for the first three weeks either but this week I will need to stock up so it will be more expensive.

My total expenditure on food in week 3 including main rations and extras (which includes buying the faux fish) was £17.70p.

I’ve also been trying to find old photos of families during the war, sitting down to eat as I really want to see what they have on their plates, what size are their plates, what portion sizes, what type of plates they are using? These things fascinate me!

The main photo to the left was the recommended food store to keep in the pantry for one person in 1942. I’m loving that we see coffee there! I am having one cup a day in the morning which makes my day quite frankly!

My ultrasound went well….

I had my ultrasound on Friday (I’ve been having upper right abdo pain) and nothing sinister was found (phew!) so now I’ll be back to the doctor at some stage but it is looking like what they expected which is maybe “post gallbladder removal syndrome”. The main treatment for this is a high fibre, low fat diet with smaller, more frequent meals so trying to achieve this via the rationing!

Much love to all, C xxxx