Month: September 2011

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Pondering….

Good morning!

I am off to work in a moment and today I will be thinking about a nice 1940s meal I can prepare tonight….something with potatoes in!

The fitness challenge is going well and I have walked for 40 minutes everyday and eating vegan is going well too although I really am missing my cheese and the other morning it would have been so nice to have a bacon buttie!

During the 1940s, because of rationing, most family meals consisted of a high proportion of vegetables. As I LOVE vegetables this is not a problem for me. The problem lies in ensuring, that as a vegan, my nutritional needs are filled. I am taking my milk, cheese, egg and meat ration and having instead some raw nuts and extra beans and pulses.

As eggs were srictly rationed during the war there are many authentic eggless recipes I can use so that will be no problem.

Now it’s time to start moving my current vegan diet over to a vegan wartime diet so please check back or offer any thoughts or suggestions as I try and do so authentically as possible.

Thanks so much for all the comments and input and I am looking forward to responding shortly..

Have a lovely day!

C xxxxx

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60 days fitness challenge

Hi all…

I will be sitting down this weekend and working out all the recipes I can adapt to Veganism… for those who have just found my blog I’ll be starting a health and exercise challenge at work (I do no exercise- not even walking at the moment) for
8 weeks and part of that challenge is a vegan diet and walking for 40 minutes each day (6 days a week).

During WWII there were vegetarians and vegans… infect the word VEGAN and the Vegan Society were created in Great Britain in 1944.

I have read that vegetarians and vegans were given special ration books… vegetarians received extra cheese instead of meat and I believe that vegans were given extra rations in raw nuts. I have yet to find out conclusively but I will keep trying.

Just because I am going vegan for 8 weeks doesn’t mean I will be leaving out re-creating meat dishes during this period of time. My daughter Em is usually pretty keen to try out my 1940s food so I will make some recipes for her…

I’ve been running my blog for two years on and off…. when I’ve stuck to rationing 100% I’ve seen my weight drop off steadily. The biggest struggle I face is
temptation and sometimes I give up, fall down, feel sorry for myself and get disheartened. BUT
I always get back up again and just keep going…

In my heart I KNOW that as humans, we become a healthier species by reducing meat and dairy to a fraction of what we normally are used to eating, avoid processed, junk and fast foods and eat large quantities of fruit and vegetables.

My obesity is caused by exactly that… I know what to do, I just got to keep on
doing it! I don’t want HUGE FAT ARSE KNICKERS for ever!

Thanks again for all the comments and questions you have left on my blog and on my Facebook page…. I’ll make sure to answer all of them over the next few days.

Thank you!!!! xxxxxxx

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1/4 million visitors – thank you!

I was shocked to see, that yesterday, there had been nearly 1500 visitors to my blog and investigating a little further 1/4 of a million visitors since it began!

The most popular page is my wartime 1940s recipes page… and I promise to continue cooking and photographing authentic wartime recipes for everyone (meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans)

Thank you to everyone who drops by for a read or leaves a comment. It means a lot to me!!!

C xxxxxxxxxxxx

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Lunch time at work

So I’m eating lots of veggies!

It’s my lunch break at work and I had an Oslo Meal without the cheese and milk! (I guess it isn’t an Oslo Meal then)… but just so I don’t go into shock with not having dairy (until I find my feet on eating vegan on 1940s rations) I did have some Almond milk in place of regular milk.

The good news is I found out that Vegans (as well as vegetarians) were given “special” ration books during the war and vegans were given “nuts” instead of cheese so I’ve had some walnuts with my salad too!

A pretty nutritious meal if I say so myself!

Catcha Later!

C xxxxxx

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I wanna be a Land Girl!

I think if I had been a young woman during WWII I would have wanted to be a Land Girl… Of course that is wishful thinking because at 45 I’m 20 years past it and the best I could hope for would be to be a Land Lady.. (and I’m not always a lady!)

Today I was thinking of my favourite WWII movies.. “Hope and Glory” is one of them and another is “The Land Girls”… it’s the domestic side of wartime that interests me.

If you come across “The Land Girls” on your travels, I’d recommend buying a copy (although it is rather hard to find)…

Here is a brief review from IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119494/

Land Girls is about a British program during World War II that trained women from all over the country to work on farms while the men were at war. Stella, Ag and Prue are three young women from different areas and different classes who go to work on an old farm in south-coastal England. But this isn’t a “fish out of water” kind of film – the women adjust reasonably quickly and become part of the family. There is a the crotchety farmer, helpful farmer’s wife and good looking son who plans to join the RAF. The war feels generally a bit remote – the young women can see bombing from a hilltop, but aren’t in the middle of the fighting.
The movie focuses on Stella, who’s engaged to a young man at a nearby naval station. Prue is the somewhat adventurous hair stylist-turned-cow milker, and Ag is a university student off to help her country. Strongly recommended for folks who enjoy realistic settings and anything about World War II home life.

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Getting to grips..

Trying to find out information about veganism during the 1940s & WWII is proving to be quite difficult.

I’ve actually stopped eating meat, fish, milk and cheese etc now and using the next few weeks to prepare before my 8 week 100% vegan challenge. But information on the rationing system for VEGANS is pretty non- existent. During WWII vegetarians received extra rations of cheese instead of meat but what about the vegans?

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Lili, Mary, Beti and Tempewytch who left comments on my last post…. I will be taking Lili up on her offer of more recipes for vegans during the 1940s and I have spent a lot of time reading up about the origins of Veganism thanks to Mary. It even seems more fitting that I should incorporate a veganism challenge into my 1940s Experiment as the word Vegan and the vegan movement was conceived in 1944 and therefore was very much a lifestyle that many embraced during the war years.

Here is a very interesting interview with Donald Watson who founded the Vegan Society and created the word Vegan  http://www.foodsforlife.org.uk/people/Donald-Watson-Vegan/Donald-Watson.html

At the moment I am preparing for the challenge… it’s difficult. Incorporating it into my 1940’s Experiment is not on my mind at the moment. I am simply trying to get to grips with it full stop..

Today I cooked a wonderful Vegan Tofu Stir Fry – CLICK HERE FOR RECIPE AND PHOTOS however they didn’t have Tofu in the 1940s (not that I am aware of anyway)

So my challenge is two-fold. Get to grips with turning vegan and get to grips with finding out more about veganism during the 1940s ….

PS Do you think vegans were given extra nuts?

PPS If anyone can help me out with any information they may have I’d be so grateful!!

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Veganism in the 1940’s

My 22 year old daughter gave me THE TALK last night…

Last time she gave me the talk was when she was 4 and I was 27… she expressed her concern about losing her Mummy to cancer if I continued to smoke. Seeing how much this concerned my oh so young daughter I did the only thing any parent would do and I immediately gave up smoking. 18 years later I have never once had another cigarette…

Jess has expressed her concern about my weight before, on and off, but last night as we sat and talked, I could see in her eyes just how much this was distressing her. She asked me how my weight loss was going… how was I sticking to my 1940s Experiment. I truthfully told her, it comes and goes. I’ll have good days and bad days… On the good days I’m motivated and follow everything 100% according to my various 1940s recipes from books and from what I have collected over the years. On bad days I’ll eat a good breakfast and a healthy lunch and then it will all go to pot and I’ll grab the crisps (chips) from the gas station or stuff my face with Green and Blacks Maya Organic Chocolate or just graze on mindless calories here at work (my weakness is organic raisins and almonds)……

I’m not really very focused am I…..

If truth be known I am very scared… very scared of something awful happening that will leave my children without a mother. And then I feel so very angry at myself when improving my health is not a priority in my mind… it is some days but not always.

This should be a priority ….

Her talk sealed some deep thinking I had been doing over the past couple of weeks about life, about health, about our short existence on our beautiful planet.

I LOVE life… I love the way our experiences shape us. Even the bad and sad experiences we can learn from… that’s the way I look at things. I am an eternal optimist. If life throws shit at me then hey shit can be cleaned up, it may take a while but with persistence you can see through the window again and the view is truly beautiful.

And over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about Veganism… I’ve started doing research of Vegetarians and Vegans during WWII.

The ethics of factory farming have always bothered me so partially this lead me to doing research of Veganism but mostly the research I am doing absolutely points to a well balanced Vegan diet being extremely good for your health, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and above all feeling at peace with ones self over the choices you make.

On October 1st I’ll be doing an 8 week health challenge and part of that challenge will be to stick to a 100% vegan diet…  it will be very interesting creating 1940’s vegan recipes!

I think it’s important to experience things in life …

I want to keep living it!

C xxxxxx
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Bloody war!

More poems at http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2nd_WW.html

Bloody War  –  The Cause

Tom Walker, served in the Royal Navy in World War Two. He wrote many poems and is particularly proud of this one since few war poems address the causes of war.

When greed sups with the devil
And principles are shed
When power is corrupted
And truth stands on its head
When fear pervades the confused mind
And fools are easy led
When reason is a prisoner
The bell tolls for the dead.

Tom Walker

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Marmite Mushrooms (a modern recipe)

I love Marmite, I love mushrooms..

But it’s been well over a year since I’ve bought myself mushrooms. They are about $3 for a small container and nobody else likes mushrooms in the Hobbit house so I’ve drooled over them and walked away, knowing that my $3 needs to be spent on something for everyone. That’s the reality of living on one income..

Today I thought SOD IT! The mushrooms in my local store beckoned me and I grasped them before I could change my mind..

Driving home I began to pathetically salivate like some rabid zombie with buggered up taste buds… the imaginary smells of browning mushrooms totally driving me to distraction (I find this to be the case with food and thoughts of nookie)

Throwing aside my cat and several shoes to get to the frying pan it was time to lovingly clean the mushrooms with a bit of kitchen roll and drop a generous blob of my favourite organic butter into the pan.. followed by the sliced mushrooms, some chopped broccoli and a teaspoon of Marmite…

Here is the recipe (inspired by a recent recipe on Marmite’s Facebook Page) that is guaranteed to make you emit sounds several times like…mmmmmm and ahhhhh and ohhhhh 🙁 (when it’s all gone).

Marmite Mushrooms

  • Small punnet of mushrooms
  • Marmite
  • A few florets of broccoli
  • A blob of butter
  • Toast

Method

Wipe clean the mushrooms and slice
Heat up frying pan and add a generous blob of butter
Chop up some florets of broccoli
Throw ingredients in the pan
When the mushrooms start to brown add in the rounded teaspoon of Marmite
Continue frying until mushrooms are browned sufficiently
Serve on top of toast
Top with a little grated cheddar cheese and pepper for extra taste!