Was just browsing some “Ministry of Food” leaflets and came across these three simple recipes/ideas that I’m going to try this week. I’m not sure about mashed potato and cocoa powder but I’ll give most things a go once!
Just thought I’d share!
C xxxx
I have a 6.5 litre slow cooker that has been put through its paces this week. Consequently, my daily meals have mostly been bowlfuls of stew bursting with vegetables and plant based protein as I’ve used lots of dried pulses and legumes and soya mince. Thank goodness for the weekends where I can bake and make pastry, I’ve been craving pastry all week!
I can’t imagine a life without bread, potatoes and porridge oats right now. They definitely are a regular part of my daily diet as well as lots and lots of vegetables. I especially am loving cabbage and leeks right now and tonight I also enjoyed a bowl of lettuce in bed (after I ate my sliced apple).
How are my rations holding up at the end of week 2?
My rations are holding out rather well this week. I reduced my tea to two teaspoonfuls in a teapot which holds 1 litre AND later on I top it up with water and get another mug out of it. So I’m getting 4 or 5 mugfuls of tea from 2 teaspoons of loose leaf!
I’m still only halfway through week 1’s ration of sugar, I’m only using a teaspoon a day in my morning porridge and this week I’ve not made any bread and butter pudding so have used very little. I am absolutely sure in the 1940s household, some sugar would have been set aside every week for use in the summer to make preserves or set aside for celebrations! I have also read that at harvest time, the sugar ration was increased so people could makes their own jams.
My cheese, all 2 oz of it got used up pretty quick. Some tiny sprinkles went in a couple of sandwiches and on top of a stew or two, then that was it, all gone! I’m getting through my milk as I use nearly ½ pint a day in my tea and in my porridge.
All in all, it’s been a good week for rationing, I’ve not even thought about modern food. I haven’t even taken my sweet ration yet as I think it will be easier for me NOT to have sweets in my cupboard right now. There will be plenty of time for eating sweets during the year when I feel ready introducing them back in. I know if I was to do that now it would be a slippery slope!
What have I spent on food this week?
£12.95 in Asda! That’s it!! My food all week has cost so little but that is probably because I haven’t had to buy things like Marmite and milk yet! In the months and weeks leading up to rationing my food bill was around £45 plus per week but additionally I was getting into the habit of buying junk food via Deliveroo (the evils of big town living!) or ordering pizza so add another £25 to that!
How am I feeling?
This is where I get emotional. It’s been less than 2 weeks since I started living on WW2 rations 100% for a full year. No cheating, no sneaking an extra ounce of cheese or butter, 3 square meals a day and something to nibble on in bed. I’ve really gone back to basics but tried hard to incorporate nutritionally rich foods that are cost effective, lots of greens, pulses, legumes and also wholemeal bread, potatoes and porridge. Someone who was trying to fill a belly during the war wouldn’t have been worried about carbs, in fact the addition of potatoes every day was highly recommended. I never worried about my daily potatoes or porridge and toast for breakfast as a youngster, at those times I was a healthy weight, carefree and active. I’m hoping those days will return. I want the health noise we are bombarded with in the media to dissipate.
I’ve been monitoring my health data on my FitBit to see if any noticeable changes have taken place. My resting heart rate has dropped from around 70 beats per minute to 55 beats per minute, my night time oxygen sats levels have risen, my breaths per minute during the night have dropped, my pulse rate climbing the stairs has dropped from 130 beats per minute to 95 beats per minute and this week I managed to walk to work and back twice. And today as I write this, I managed to climb the steep hill (very slowly) to the post office and stand in the queue for 20 minutes (although it hurt standing). Yes I still have the crushing back pain BUT it is less severe than two weeks ago! I do believe I am losing weight, will soon find out at my monthly weigh in on February 9th!
Psychologically, I’m beginning to feel a bit brighter. The fog is beginning to lift and I hope over the coming weeks and months to get part of my old self back again.
Bring on week 3!
C xxxx
PS: Thank you for the shout out on your blog post today Angela! http://angalmond.blogspot.com/2023/01/flower-power.html
I remembered to charge my camera and despite the awfully dirty windows, I was able to get some photos of the some of my garden birds feeding off my homemade fat blocks. According to my memory and to my “Collins Gem Mini Book of Garden Birds” that my daughter Jess got me for Christmas, I’m confident of three species, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Marsh Tit BUT in one photo there appears to be a couple of birds perched on top of the arms of the black feeding pole that I am unsure of. Could they be Long Tailed Tits? What do you think? C xxxx
***Comment by Sue: Yes definitely Long Tailed Tits. I did a whole post about them earlier in the week. https://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/2023/01/long-tailed-tits.html
It seems like the bird above isn’t a Marsh Tit but likely a “Black Cap”. Thanks to my friends Paul and Allan over on my Facebook page!
I uploaded a video on some thoughts about going back to living on WW2 Rations for a full year last night. In addition to my day to day journal/diary I’m keeping a more in depth diary about the weight-loss side so thought I’d share this video and a page from my second diary.
I’m really interested to see how this whole year will also impact on my health. I’m having bloods/cholesterol levels done on February 10th and I also have some older blood tests from last year too and at the end of the year it will be very interesting to see what has changed, hopefully for the better.
I’m not counting calories, and if I do start trying to in my head and remind myself to stop it immediately! Ultimately I don’t want to live my life counting my calories. I want a carefree existence, free from obesity, where I enjoy all sorts of food and not feel guilty about it. It’s getting the balance right and during this year I hope to work towards that.
The only time I can remember truly feeling that way was when I was around 10 years old. Every generous meal that was served at the table was enjoyed greedily and without guilt. Three substantial meals and a light supper. No eating between meals. Scones and rock cakes, apple pie and custard were devoured on a Sunday along with a smashing roast dinner and occasionally Dad would take us along to the shop when he got his newspaper on a Saturday morning, and my brother and I would have a small bag of sweets from the penny tray! In those days I gambolled around in the countryside, enjoyed walking and getting up to no good and of course pony riding.
In those days I never thought about my body shape, never fretted about what I ate, never ate until I thought I was going to be sick. Food was something to look forward to but it wasn’t an obsession, it gave me energy to get back up and go and play outside, running around the garden, pretending I was “National Velvet“.
I really want those carefree days back again….
C xxxx
And here are the winners of the notebooks/journals! One copy of the journal will be sent to each winner so please drop a comment below and I’ll make contact with you, congratulations and thank you for entering everyone! C xxxx
This is such a quick, economical and tasty recipe. Even as a non meat eater I was able to create this using soya mince and it worked really well! I only used half the ingredients listed below and it made 6 slices so enough for dinner and enough for sandwiches tomorrow!
Ingredients
Method
Serves 4
What a busy day! My house is so messy, must deal with it tomorrow now I have the weekend off. I cooked a vegetable & oatmeal goulash for dinner this evening and was craving something sweet but didn’t want to put the oven on and bake something so did a 2 slice bread and butter pudding in the microwave and it hit the spot!
With the cost of energy and the cost of living, modern appliances and quick ways of doing things, are going to be embraced this year!
C xxxx
Day 4’s Thoughts below!
It’s late afternoon and I’ve just got out of bed. I had a nasty attack of vertigo around 11pm last night, such a horrible and scary feeling, and it continued to persist into the afternoon but its slowly calming down and I’ve just got out of bed with a soft neck brace on to make a sandwich on rations! I was HUNGRY!
Last night, before everything went spinny and I couldn’t stand up, I edited a video from my birthday with some thoughts on starting WW2 rationing for a full year and thought you might be interested. I will be sharing some factual rationing information throughout the year too as well as recipes, am really looking forward to that. There are some fantastic recreated recipes in our Facebook group too, some fantastic cooks sharing their rationing dishes! Our group is here..
Apologies too, I am a little behind answering any lovely messages or comments plus the draw for the journals but hopefully I can catch up with these soon but not today as I’m heading back to bed as my head is still a bit spinny if I don’t keep it absolutely still! I’ll probably do a bit of journaling and reading if I feel OK.
Hugs, C xxx
PS: Please don’t be concerned. I do know it’s a positional type of vertigo as it has been checked out in A & E before! I tend to get it maybe a couple of times a year, mostly it is something I can go to sleep on and it is Ok in the morning but occasionally it can be more severe where it lasts a few days and I literally can only sit in bed or in a chair and not move my head at all!
Victory! Only another 364 days to go but my first full day of rationing has been successfully completed. I’m not too hungry, and I’m on my 2nd flask of tea made out of 5 teaspoons of loose tea so I can’t complain at all. Ask me again in a few weeks….
I’ve kept it really simple today and I’ve decided going forward that during the week I will make quick recipes such as stew that I can throw into one pot and enjoy with bread and weekends will be for baking pies and puddings and trying out new recipes.
Today I had porridge made with water and oat milk for breakfast, I had two slices of bread with margarine, a tiny sprinkling of cheese, and some salad leaves made into a sandwich and had an apple and a carrot on the side for lunch. This evening I had a huge vegetable stew (two bowlfuls) with leek, onion, carrot, courgette, 1 large potato, celery, cauliflower, and some lentils and split peas. to this I added lots of seasoning and some dried herbs and thickened the stew with good old-fashioned Bisto powder. I also had a slice of bread with butter.
Breaking the ingredients down todays food cost me around about £1. Not bad…
Talking about cost, I started logging all my unbudgeted for expenses today. I carry around a simple expenses book with me now (which I put together myself and is available on Amazon – shameless plug there) and anything I spend above and beyond my monthly bills, direct debits and grocery allowance etc, I am now writing it down. Today for instance, because of the weight I have put on and the side effects of it right now, I had to drive to work and park which was £3.30. I’m hoping that in a week or two of rationing, my weight will begin to drop and my back pain will start to ease and I can start walking the mile to work and the mile back from work again. The pain is horrible, all my own doing of course. I’ve had enough.
This year “bare bones spending” and “making do and mending” are something I want to achieve so I may want to lose 100 lbs in a year but I also want to gain £100 a month and top up my emergency or “rainy day” fund again so I feel “safe”.
I’m not sure what I’m going to have tomorrow. The day will likely start off with porridge again and maybe even another salad sandwich with fruit and veg on the side for lunch but I’ve seen a WW2 recipe called “Lobscouse” that looks simple and fairly quick so I may try that out tomorrow night.
Much love and good luck to all, C xxxxx
Well here it is folks. In all my 299 lb (21st 3lbs) of glory. Determined and at last ready to give this another go. I bought this dress several years ago, it’s never fit me properly but it’s just stretched beyond belief in this video. I so want to wear it this a 40’s event of sorts but want to feel comfortable and it to fit properly.
Just thought I’d be brave and share the video.
Much love, C xxxx
The 1940's Experiment 