I’ve been watching the 1940s House to get me focused…. click above!

Tomorrow I am stepping back 100% into the 1940s…

As if turning “Vegan” wasn’t hard enough, 30 days into our 60 Day Fitness Challenge at work, the next 30 days will be trying to live on the rationing a Vegan would have had during WWII on the British home front.

This means no longer will I have bananas, granola/museli, ground meat substitute or any of the non-authentic extras that have made the last 30 day journey into Veganism a little easier..

I’ve given this a huge amount of thought… it has been really hard to find any 100% conclusive evidence of what substitutes “Vegans” would have received during WWII. I do know that vegetarians and vegans were given “special” ration books..

Vegetarians were given extra cheese instead of meat but as vegans would not have eaten cheese, meat, eggs or meat I can only conclude from the snippets of information I am reading on the web and in books, that “vegans” would have had extra rations such as nuts, dried fruit, lentils, split peas, dried beans etc to replace dairy, eggs and meat.

I am a busy working mum, financially and time challenged, so I have adapted the rationing allowance to something I feel was fairly accurate making one or two concessions to make things very slightly easier..

Rations + Vegan Rations (adult per week)

Bacon & Ham 4 0z (100g) – Vegan (dried fruit 4 0z)

Meat to the value of 1s and 2d – Vegan ( 1/2 lb of raw nuts + 1/2 lb split peas or lentils)

Butter 2 0z, Margarine 2 0z, Cooking fat 4 oz, cheese 2 oz – Vegan (concession- I will use a soy based vegan spread which tastes just like margarine and hopefully will work in cooking)

Milk 3 pints- Vegan (almond milk- this has been made since the middle ages as a milk substitute. I am presuming vegans would have made almond milk from nut rations they would have received instead of milk. My concession is that I will just buy the almond milk instead of making it)

Sugar 8 oz – Vegan (unrefined raw sugar cane)

Preserves 1lb every 2 months – Vegan no change

Tea 2 0z- Vegan no change

Eggs 1 shell egg a week or 1 packet of dried eggs every 4 weeks- Vegan (no eggs)

Sweets/Candy 12 oz each 4 weeks – Vegan no change

Todays preparation has mostly been reading and making sure I have fresh rations in the fridge and cupboard or at least on a list I can pick up from the store tomorrow… I also am making an eggless fruitcake as we speak. But everything seems to have gone wrong (but I’ll write about that tomorrow)

I will say that in proper 1940s fashion, the top of the cake which attached itself to the mini-cooker heating filament was hacked off with a spoon and served with a cuppa tea… I know this NEVER would have been wasted…

C xxxxxxxxxxxxx