veganism

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What can a vegan or vegetarian eat on wartime rations?

Up until now I have been consuming no meat, cheese or dairy and instead using almond milk and taking a small nut ration and extra haricot beans to replace the meat and cheese. I did e-mail THE VEGAN SOCIETY regarding what vegans were given instead of milk, cheese and meat but as yet they have not replied. The Vegan Society formed in 1944..

Vegetarians received an extra ration of cheese instead of meat.

The only problem I am having during the 1940s Experiment, as a vegan, is that I cannot recreate some of the recipes. I could when I attempted to live on wartime rations in 2006 and again when I started this blog in 2009 but in this latest attempt at living 100% on wartime rations,  I have become vegan.

Of course, we are now, in 2012,  lucky to have many meat and cheese alternatives available to use, so I have decided to alleviate my culinary frustration and use some of the alternatives as part of my rations, for the next few months.

I’d like to share with you some of the alternatives I am or will be using as part of my “wartime rationing” allowance to allow me more wartime culinary creativity in my humble, messy, kitchen..

Weekly Vegan Alternatives

Margarine/Butter 6 oz/ 150 g (less than half a tub)
Organic Earth Balance– Soy, GMO free, margarine

Cooking Fat 4 oz/ 100 g
Earth Balance– Soy, GMO free

Cheese 4 oz/ 100 g (cheese ration varied from between 2 oz and 8 oz)
Daiya (the ONLY cheese tasting vegan cheese in my humble opinion- delicious! )

Milk 3 pints/ 1800 ml (sometimes dropping to 2 pints)
Almond Milk– Organic

Meat to the value of 1shilling and sixpence (today that would be like buying 1/2 lb of minced beef)
Yves– vegan minced beef alternative

Bacon & Ham 4 oz/ 100 g
Yves- Vegan bacon rashers

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I am not a processed foods lover even though the ingredients in most of these products are very natural, it is unlikely I will stick with the meat alternatives for very long HOWEVER it will be good to be able to start to re-create some of the dishes that used bacon or beef. The cheese and dairy alternatives though are a completely different kettle of fish.. I can see nothing in their ingredients list that alarms me infact all are pretty much organic and GMO  free. The DAIYA CHEDDAR CHEESE is particularly VERY IMPRESSIVE. It is the only hard or shredded vegan cheese I have ever tasted that tastes good! AND it actually melts just like the real thing. So thank you to my friend TONY LANTZ for putting me onto this vegan alternative.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it was yesterday to have my first cheese sandwich in 6 months..

Oh cheese- how I have missed you

C xxxx
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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