is this supposed to be summer ?

Well the last few days have been seriously wintery - lots of driving rain and dark skies.

food wise - it has not been as manageable. Last night we had friends for dinner and my husband used about  2 weeks meat ration to feed 8 of us. It was surprising but we as a family had much smaller appetites than usual and found it all a bit rich.

What has become clear is how hard it is to replicate the actual food conditions - we have so much choice in the supermarket , as well as the ability to freeze left over food. This has meant we have little stale bread/ ingredients. We still seem to have a large amount of food - admittedly we are eating many more vegetables and loads of potatoes !!! It has made the experience easier than it would have been in 1940. Although we have given up oranges today i bought some bananas as a treat. Food buying would have been such a major exercise - a daily not weekly chore which took far longer than today.

I watched "The 1940's  house " again today - and reminded the children that other items such as soap and shampoo were rationed. Although they are getting fed up of the idea of rationing , the older two have both agreed that it has made them more aware of just how much they have ( of all things). a definite  improvement in their moods has also been noticed - no meal feat with 1 teenager and 1 pre-teen!.

 i went to the supermarket today and bought some different cuts - as our meat ration was used up we had to look for offal and sausages neither of which were rationed. I bought a small amount of liver and some oxtail to casserole. My daughter was horrified as, although we have eaten these before she had never seen them in the raw as it were !!!!

Cooking rice pudding as dessert i modified the recipe - i initially cooked the rice and milk as they were - adding the sugar at the end. I found that the amount of sugar required to make it sweet enough was actually less than 1/3 of the recipe amount.

todays meals :

bacon and potatoes- we are getting a little bored of this so i need to look for some more creative breakfast dishes.

split pea soup with bread

oxtail stew, mash and green vegetable
rice pudding

i have enough oxtail left for another 2 meals for the children ( or one for us all ) , plenty of boiled potatoes and vegetables. Tomorrow morning i may use the potatoes and some of the eggs for a frittata. It is the egg situation which makes me most anxious - 6 for the week does not go very far if you 2-3 in a dish. Last week i saved them and made cake but i may end up using recipes from the eggless dishes this week.

School begins again next week - this will reduce the amount of food being eaten so i may reduce the ration - however as canteens and school meals were all a part of 1940's life I may keep things the same. Watch this space.

End of week 1

well this week has certainly been interesting !!!

Had a surprising amount of food left over, vegetables and fat ration - so much so that i went back and rechecked the amounts. They are correct so i used my eggs and fat to make cakes for this week.
One that worked particularly well was the "weight of an egg" . Basically , weigh an egg in its shell ( for example mine was 2oz) and then use the corresponding amount of sugar, fat and flour. This made 6 fairy cakes which the children enjoyed.

Another surprising thing ... I have lost 3lbs in weight. Now this was not intended ( i need to lose some but wasn't thinking about it right now) but i was very pleased.
I am finding lunch time difficult. I think looking at my books that most people ate a hot meal at lunch and at dinner. I am also finding that the amount of time needed to prepare the food has increased , and also that you really need to be very good at planning. I sis better earlier in the week , when i prepared soup which lasted for lunch over a couple of days.

Yesterday's menu :

2 rashers of bacon ( last of the ration) with lots of mushrooms and potato cakes from left over mash. Bread and butter.

Potato and leek soup , bread and butter and fairy cake ( see above)

Beef tomatoes hollowed out with some macaroni pasta and cheese mixed together .

We would have had more cheese but my husband forgot and ate most of it by accident as a snack earlier in the week !!!

I went shopping today and found it was much easier to be restrained. I actually bough slightly less bacon (250g) , a small amount of breast of lamb ,1/2 a lamb shoulder, and 250g of sausages ( these were not on the ration). I will add to this 500g mince that l already have in the freezer.  Total weigh of meat about 1.6kg.

Am going to spend some time this weekend planning set meals this week to see if that is easier. 

mad mad week !

well rationing is the easy part ! My daughter was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery yesterday ! Good job i had made soup as we have been eating that ever since ! Only downside , i forgot to check the date on some chicken and have had to discard 300g meat ( would have been tomorrow's dinner) as it was past its use by date.
Forgot to talk about points last time ! - points for each adult was 16 per month. I therefore got 500g lentils and 500g split peas with my OH points and 2lb dried fruit with mine . This leaves me 8 points still to be used.

The soup was from an Irish cookbook . I substituted a ham hock ( £1.75) for the shin beef as i thought the flavour would be better.
Farmhouse Soup

i ham hock
3 pints water
2oz red lentils
1oz pearl barley ( Already had )
2 carrots
1 turnip
1 large onion
1 leek

The current soda loaf i made worked well and lasted 3 days - the children had some toasted this morning.
I am finding the children are not snacking anywhere nearly as much.
todays meals :

Current soda toast and butter
Bacon ( 1 slice chopped ) and fried with mushrooms and potato cakes made from left over mash.

Left over soup
cheese and salad sandwiches

Braised steak, with mash, vegetable mash and onions


I have 3 rashers of bacon left , lots of vegetables, 3oz cheese and 4 eggs, most of the butter and 300g cooking fat. The fat ration is lasting a long time as i dont tend to fry anything. Tomorrow is going to be a bit challenging but i think  i will make the children macaroni cheese with vegetables in the evening.

We are finding we are going to have to introduce some spices as we are finding it a little monotonous. good job it is not for 14 or so years !!!!!!

first day of rations

supermarket shop with no 1 daughter to stock up on the rations. worked out via a conversion that the meat ration would be just under 2kg ( for 2 adults and 3 children).
following worked out:
375g bacon
175g cheese
175g butter
750g sugar
1.9kg meat
200g cooking fat
lots of veggies !!!!
fruit- apples , pears and plums
milk- a wopping 9 pints ! We dont drink that much milk so i got whole UHT milk as i make yogurt with that.
6 eggs ( i could increase this to compensate for the powdered egg which i think was about the same as 12 eggs per month but it was a little confusing)

Didn't sound that much but actually when i got it home it looked a lot. The children are a bit apprehensive ( the sweet ration was only 12oz per month !) but i am hopeful that all the homemade food (and cakes) , lack of snacking and no sugar/salt/chemicals added in prepackaged food will help stop them being constantly hungry.

Tomorrow's meal plan :(sunday)

Porridge with milk and 1 teaspoon of sugar

Boiled silverside with mashed and roast potatoes, carrots, home grown courgettes and broad beans.
Steamed sponge pudding ( made with home grown blueberries and my grandma's recipe sponge)

snack of fruit soda bread and butter/wholemeal bread and jam

My cookery books from the period talk about 4 meals per day ( high tea being included) but i think i will try and stick to the 3 for now.
I will post monday's meal plan ( which will be all from the "Good Eating " book of leaflets printed by the MOF) soon !