It's been Five Weeks of Rationing

Five weeks has flown by and we have both been enjoying our rations.
Grumpy Teenager has been enjoying our wartime meals alot.
Both Salem and I are still loosing weight.  I've lost 7kg in total and Salem has gone from 36kg at the start, down to 31.5kg.  He really doesn't need to loose weight but it is dropping off.
It's quite amazing as we are having full cream milk, cooking fat, butter etc.. which we never ate before.

We still aren't using much of our sugar rations and now Salem has found that he enjoys his cups of tea without sugar.  He has saved some of his lollies ration too.  My lollies don't last long at all.
We had a big spring clean (in the middle of summer) and Salem did alot of cleaning for me so I gave him half my lollie ration in payment, and it was chocolate too!!!!

We have all been enjoying the wartime recipes and Salem likes to help out with making our meals.
A big favourite with the boys is Semolina Pudding which I substitute half the milk with water and just cook it on the stove top leaving a lid on the pot and turn the heat off to finish the cooking.  Yum, yum, yum.



Semolina Pudding

Ingredients

• 600ml, 1 pint milk
• 45gm, 2-3 oz semolina
• 25gm, 1oz caster sugar
• 15g, or a knob of butter
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (to taste)

Making and cooking it

1. Well grease an ovenproof dish
2. Put milk into pan and heat until lukewarm
3. Sprinkle in the semolina
4. Cook slowly, stirring all the time until it comes to the boil and thickens
5. Add sugar and butter
6. Remove from the heat and pour into the ovenproof dish
7. Grate (or sprinkle ready ground) nutmeg over the top
8. Put into a moderate oven (160C or Gas 3) for 30 minutes.

Another family favourite is the Vegetable and Oatmeal Casserole.  The boys love it.
I add either a leek or an onion diced up and fry in the cooking fat until soft along with a diced up carrot and stalk of celery if I have it.  Grumpy Teenager even literally licks his plate clean.



Vegetable and Oatmeal Casserole

Ingredients

• 450g ( 1lb) mixed root vegetables
• knob of dripping
• 50g (2oz) coarse or medium oatmeal
• sprinkling of paprika
• chopped parsley and herbs to flavour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5ml (1tsp) meat extract or stock cube
• 1 pint vegetable stock

Making and cooking it

1. Peel and dice the vegetables
2. Fry in dripping until slightly cooked
3. Add the oatmeal and stir until the fat is absorbed
4. Season with paprika, herbs, salt and pepper and add the meat extract
5. Add the vegetable stock and simmer gently, covered for 1 hour. Stir occasionally or it may burn on the bottom

A little corned beef, cooked meat or fish may be added at the last minute.

It doesn't look like an interesting recipe but it really is delicious.

Unexpected weightloss after two weeks

At the moment I am listing to the very cool 1940's Radio Station which is at
http://www.1940sukradio.co.uk very nice at this time of night.

Well we are into our third week of rationing and out of interest we thought we would weigh ourselves as I thought with all the fats we were eating and all the full cream milk we would be gaining weight.
But no, Salem has lost 1kg and I have lost 3kgs.  It is quite a bit for just two weeks.

We never started this to lose weight, it is just a living history lesson.

Salem does not need to lose weight at all but it will be interesting to see how he does when his dance classes start up on the 7th February.  He is very serious with his dancing and will be having at least 3 classes a week.

I've been naughty with my lolly ration this week, I had all my sweets this afternoon, I now have to wait until Monday for my next lot.

Time to go and have my last cup of tea for the day.

Two Weeks of Rationing

Our rationing has been going well.  Both of us have been sticking to it.
Have been having alot of vegetables and salads. 
Haven't been doing any baking as we are still making do with xmas cake and xmas pudding.
They should last us for another week or two.

One weeks sugar ration has lasted us two weeks and we have only used half of it.
Likewise with the tea, I've had to cut down on my pots of tea as I don't have enough milk to
have all the cups that I would like.  I have also been watering down my milk to make it last longer.
Salem has been enjoying his milk ration.  The amount is more than what he used to have pre-ration time.
We do use up all our butter ration, this was something we didn't really eat before.  Margerine doesn't get all used up though.

Our one week ration of cooking fat hadn't been touched until yesterday, I used some to fry up some lovely fish that Salem worked for on Saturday.
He worked at the fishmongers at the market in the morning and we got some lovely trevally.  This is a fish that years ago people would turn up their noses at and would only use as bait.  I told my mother about our lovely fish and she didn't have anything nice to say about it, saying it was just a bait fish and oily.  I don't think she has ever eaten it before.
We made fish fingers with it, cutting it into strips and them Salem crumbed it.  It is a lovely firm fish and was absolutely delicious.  Even my other son "Grumpy Teenager" loved it.
We had the fish with lots of fresh salad.

During the last week we have been having toast for breakfast with either jam or vegemite.
Having the Oslo Meal most lunches.
Having baked potatoes with a bit of cheese, relish and more salad.
I have also made fish chowder using a tin of smoked fish from our monthly points.

FISH CHOWDER

1 can of smoked fish

1 leek sliced up

1 cup milk

1 cup water

salt and pepper

1 cup or more of frozen or left-over vegetables

1 heaped tablespoon of corn flour

1 tablespoon margerine
Parsley

In a large pan fry the leeks in the margerine until soft.

Add the liquid from the can of smoked fish to the pan.

Flake up the fish and add as well.

Add the vegetables and warm through.

Then add the two cups of liquid and salt and pepper to taste.

Just before this comes to the boil, mix the cornflour with a little extra water

then add to the pan and stir to mix in well.

Turn element down as you do not want this to boil.

Cook for a few more minutes.

If it is too thick add a little more water and check the seasoning.
Sprinkle with plenty of fresh chopped parsley before serving.
If you don't have fresh parsley, use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of dried added with the vegetables.

This made a decent meal for the three of us.

Will feed 4 or 5 people if you serve it with bread.

Very, very yummy!!!!

Last night I started reading "Spreading their Wings - New Zealand WAAFs in Wartime" by Bee Dawson.
It's a very interesting read.  I'll tell you about that later.

Day Three

Our third day and all is going well.

It has been very hot and the salad (oslo meal) is going down a treat.  Salem really enjoys it.

It is also nice and easy to prepare and while there is plenty of fresh salad available we may as well stick to this.  It's also too hot to think of preparing anything else.

Breakfast was weetbix and milk with a cup of tea as usual.  Dinner was fish cakes, lettuce, more leftover veges and gravy.  Yum.  The fish cakes are just made with mashed potatoes, small amount of cooked and flaked white fish with parsley.  Then coated in breadcrumbs and fried in some margerine.

A little after dinner we went for a nice walk in the cool evening air for about an hour.

We did this yesterday evening as well. We like to walk alot but the weather has been to hot so the evening is perfect.  Salem has fallen asleep alot quicker tonight and last night as well.

We will try to do this every evening, even in the rain which is forcast for tomorrow afternoon

and the rest of the week until after New Years.  So it will be very humid - hot and sticky.

I will make some jelly for tomorrow.

Day Two

It's our second day on our rations.

Breakfast and lunch were the same as yesterday.

We are in the middle off summer so really aren't really wanting anything cooked.

I'm having to not drink as much tea as I usually would as I won't have enough milk.

Salem has plenty and is quite enjoying having so much.

He even enjoys having the codliver oil.

We have been drinking a lot of water with ice cubes because it has been quite hot,

not having our usual fizzy drinks.

Dinner was more leftover vegetables from xmas day.

I heated them up in the frying pan with a little margerine and served it up

with silverbeet and gravy.

I made the gravy with a very basic gravy powder with some vegemite

and a little margerine.

I don't think we will get through all our margerine, butter and cooking fat this week.

I think once the weather gets a bit cooler we will want some

baked goodies and some roasts.

I have been doing alot of research online and we got quite a few books from the library.

I've also ordered a couple of books online, one being "Nella Last's War".

Can't wait until it arrives.

Our First Day of Rations

 Today is Boxing Day and we start our wartime rationing. 

We started the day with some weetbix and cups of tea with milk and sugar from our allowance.

I drink alot of tea and am thinking will I have enough milk as I can't stand drinking tea without it.

But then I also have dried skim milk, enough for a pint.

 For lunch we had the Oslo Meal each.

I used to live with my grandparents alot of the time, and this is what I had for lunch alot of the time.

My grandparents lived through both world wars.

This was a blast from the past.

We also had a small glass of orange juice each. 

We have some left over from our xmas treats.

 We weighed out our rations, especially our lolly allowance.

Dinner was some spinach and Bubble and Squeak made from yesterdays leftovers.

Bubble and Squeak is just leftover veges fried in some margerine.

Had a small glass of strawberry syrup in water.

We actually had a lot to eat today.

Welcome to my new blog.

His is my first post on this blog.

My son and I have decided to challenge ourselves and live on the rationing of food which

was in effect in England during WWII.

We were given this idea by the television program "Supersizes Go...Wartime".

This gives my son the opportunity to study how life was during that time and also to experience some of what it was like to live then.

He is very excited about this.

We went to the supermarket on Tuesday and bought our supplies and rations and he had a ball!!!

We had to tink of how may points we had for extras and with our combined points

(20 all together for the month)  bought a tin of soup, a tin of fruit salad and a tin of condensed milk.

We didn't go as far as looking for dried egg, I don't even think you can buy it here,

 as we do have our own chickens.

We are both vegetarians so didn't buy any of our allowence of chops (2 each).

Vegetarians were allowed extra cheese  and an extra egg each week.

Children were also allowed an extra egg and extra milk bringing their milk allowence to 5 pints.

This is more than what my son has now.

Today we bought some cod liver oil which children had every day. 

We could only find capsules so he will be having 3 every day.

He bit into one to taste it and actually liked the taste.

We will be starting our rationing on Boxing Day so that we can have our Christmas treats.

I will be putting up the recipies that we try and tell you how we are doing and what

books we are looking at to find all our information.

This should be a lot of fun