Back to Rationing: Week 1 full meal plan

I have my first week back to rationing fully planned! I’ve got a blank menu planner page for you to download too if it would be useful!

So as you will see from my plan below, anything I spend time cooking will have enough leftovers for the next day. It can be difficult after a full day at work to make yourself spend an hour baking a pie and cleaning up afterwards so I want to make sure I get at least another meal out of it when I do!

I have been mentioning that to make my rationing plan sustainable in the long term, I will modify basic rations on occasions! I simply cannot imagine a year or two without bananas or avocados again or some of the delicious vegetables and fruits we are so very lucky to have available to us these days. This long term plan is all about health so there will be times when I will enjoy these things and NOT feel guilty!

My plan at the moment is to enjoy a non-1940s off ration meal, once a week on a Saturday night. I will likely have the avocado or bananas then and also enjoy creating some of Broccoli Mums delicious looking vegan recipes! I enjoy a movie night with my eldest daughter on Saturday nights so it’s important to me to enjoy some modern recipe creativity too!

I’m so looking forward to making my old favourite Lord Woolton Pie again but adding in new recipes next week which include Carrot Flan, Parsnip Pie, Leek Tart and Potato and Pea Cakes. I’ll be sure to photograph these and share the recipes on my blog as well as work out the cost of each of these dishes.

I’m hoping that returning to rationing will help me get my household food budget under control again too so I’ll breakdown my full weeks expenditure!

Here is the printable meal plan sheet if you wanted to download and use it. C xxx

11 thoughts on “Back to Rationing: Week 1 full meal plan


  1. I live alone and I couldn’t survive without leftovers! I don’t enjoy cooking at the best of times but cooking for one’s self is really boring, so leftovers it is for me.


  2. think you are doing a great job at rationing. We aren’t living in the 1940s. Would we have some of these food if rationing was going on today? I think so. for me bananas and avocado’s are cheaper than some of the food they had available in the 1940’s. You do what you need to do to make yourself healthy and your daily meals sustainable in the long term. 🙂


  3. Nothing wrong with imaginatively using left-overs and scraps. It gave rise to the idea of the classic Bubble & Squeak.

    A handy tip, is to put all your (washed) fresh vegetable peelings, top & tails etc into an old ice cream tub, and store in the freezer. When it’s absolutely full to the brim, use it to make a really useful veg stock.

    Believe it or not, about a year after the outbreak of war, the government passed a law called the Waste of Food Order, which actually made it illegal to waste food. How many people (if any) ended up in front of a Magistrate as a result I don’t know.

    I simply call it ‘good kitchen management’ myself, and can save a few pennies if funds are tight.


  4. I like your planned meals….this is something I’m yet to do but I have 2 ‘British restaurant’ meals Friday & Saturday then I should be good for a while.

  5. Pingback: Parsnip Pie - Recipe No. 221 - The 1940's Experiment


  6. I’m interested in the Potato and Pea Cakes! I almost always have potatoes in my kitchen and I’ve lots of tinned peas in the cupboard.

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