It’s likely in our future, due to the Iran War, we will see prices on our shelves rise. For those of us on a limited income, stretching our pennies further and being resilient during challenging times has to be our way of life.
I’d like to share with you my basic weekly food expenses based on an adults “Weekly Standard Ration” during 1942. Living on rations helps me keep my weekly food bill to way under £20 per week and I honestly don’t feel deprived. I still manage nutritious meals and a nice dessert at the weekends too. For some people eating this way would be a nightmare (and boring) as it is honestly very basic but it’s getting me through some economically challenging times right now while I write my book!
Wartime Plum Crumbletop from the Good Eating Cook Book printed in the 1940s is absolutely delicious. Quite frankly you could get away with using less sugar but it was a super sweet hit to the palate and as I am having just one dessert per week (on a Sunday) then I wasn’t complaining!
The word “crumble” just wasn’t really widely used or recognised in 1940s cook books so I was DELIGHTED to find this readers recipe for Plum Crumbletop that validated my own personal thoughts that surely people made “crumbles” during WW2 as they were quicker and more economical as you could add oats and breadcrumbs to the mix.
Plus like me I am sure you love the word “crumbletop” – it sounds positively medieval!
Much love, C xxx
Plum Crumbletop Recipe
1lb ripe plums
1 teacup of self raising flour
margarine the size of an egg,
3/4 teacupful of sugar (I used half these ingredients to make a smaller dessert)
Method
Place raw plums sliced up in a pie dish with a little water. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over, put flour in basin, rub in margarine, add rest of sugar. The dry mixture, which should look crumbly, is sprinkled evenly and thickly on top of sliced plums. Bake in moderate oven for 30 minutes. Top with custard.
I made this soup yesterday. It was delicious and filling with a hunk of bread!
I find that I’m being super frugal as I’m really getting into the “1940s Experiment” this time around. I’m 7 weeks in now and ALL my cravings have gone! I mentioned a few months ago that back in 2024 I was really struggling with my mental health in regards to my obsessive thoughts and cravings around food – the thoughts got so bad there were a few days where I honestly thought I just simply couldn’t go on (they were fleeting thoughts but they scared me). Out of desperation to make the “food noise” stop I started taking a GLP-1 medication (August 2024) and took myself off for a long weekend to the “Corrugated Cottage” near Glastonbury for a reset.
It worked. I felt it rescued me. The thoughts stopped, I lost some weight, relaxed, and it gave me room for other thoughts. After 9 months of taking the medication, I knew that no matter how grateful I was for the respite, I just couldn’t afford to take it anymore and was keen to return to normality. I slowly reduced my weekly injection to a minimal amount and came off the injections in August 2025. I had been slowly regaining weight again and that immediately leaped up a bit after coming off the medication but miraculously, the “food noise” only increased a little.
And now I’m back living on WW2 rations, I’m realising just how similar living without junk food and filling up on simple wholefoods, mimics the GLP-1 medications. It takes away the intense cravings and the preoccupation with getting one’s next FIX of junk food.
I feel like I am now back to thinking of food in a healthy way. I’m so relieved.
Carrot Cream Soup Recipe
Ingredients
1lb carrots
1 onion
1/2 pint of vegetable stock
pint of milk
tablespoon of minced parsley
Method
Scrub carrots and steam until tender. Chop the onion and stew separately in a little milk. Add to the carrots and push through a sieve (or modern blender to make life easier). Add the rest of the milk and vegetable stock and stir. Heat through until hot. Just before serving, add the parsley. Use less milk and more stock if milk rations are short. Serves 3 with bread!
