I’ve lost almost 3 lbs this week. There AMAZINGLY have been no ups and downs, and no bingeing during the whole of this experiment and after the first few weeks, there have been no cravings. I am METICUOUSLY recording the data for what I am consuming living on WW2 rations for an adult. The only difference at the moment for me are the following things…
a) I am currently using plant based proteins such as tofu or faux meat (sparingly) instead of meat (as I don’t eat meat or fish). HOWEVER, I will be cutting out the faux meat at the end of the week (a lot of the plant based alternatives are ultra-processed) and will rely on extra beans and legumes as people would have done during the war.
b) I am NOT eating desserts on a daily basis during the week as I want to lose weight. I will save my desserts and baking until the weekends so for instance I may well have “bread and butter pudding and custard” on Saturday and a large slice of “country house cake” on Sunday!
c) I am currently not taking my sweet ration. I know I have a problem with sugar cravings when it comes to my mind and body so for now my sweet ration isn’t forthcoming.
I worked out that if I was having a dessert once a day and was taking my sweet ration, my daily calorie intake would roughly be 1940 kcals which was the recommended minimum caloric intake for a woman of average weight (more if you were in a manual work occupation). Essentially I am now eating in a way now that would sustain a healthy weight in the future.
Below you will find the data for fibre, protein, sugars, fats, saturated fats, salt and carbohydrates last week. To me they look OK although I will have more of a focus on protein rich foods this coming week to bump those levels up a bit.
I thought you might be interested and as this essentially is also an experiment about living on WW2 rations and the impact it has on my health and weight, I am trying really hard to record all the data accurately!
Join me for a chatty and honest update on my WW2 rationing journey where I’m living on authentic 1940s wartime rations to save money, improve my health, and write my very own WW2 Ration Book recipe cookbook from scratch.
By following a traditional wartime diet inspired by British food rationing during World War 2, I’m currently saving £40–£50 per week on groceries, that’s nearly £200 a month while also working towards losing 100lbs naturally by returning to simple, whole foods.
14:10 The WW2 and social history books I’m currently reading
22:28 How Canadian cookbook legend Jean Paré inspired my writing journey
The 1940s rationing system was designed to nourish a nation through hardship and I believe it still has powerful lessons for today’s cost-of-living crisis, food waste, and modern health struggles.
If you’re interested in:
Saving money on food
WWII recipes and ration book cooking
1940s British history
Losing weight naturally
Cutting back on ultra processed foods
Writing and self-publishing a cookbook
…you’re in the right place.
Welcome to my ongoing 1940s social history experiment ❤️
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”?
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.
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)
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”.
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.
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)
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!
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
Wildwood Cottage Diary is currently doing a rationing challenge and I’m really enjoying her updates!
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!
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!
