Rationing and Diets!

 Pumpkin and beans I froze this fall

This February I joined a “boot camp” program at my gym.  It is a fun program that combines fitness work outs with developing new eating habits.  Part of this program is following the “Mayo Diet.”  I was not sure how WWII rationing would blend with the Mayo Diet.  To my surprise… it blends very well.

The Mayo clinic encourages people to eat 3 or more servings of fruit and 4 or more servings of vegetables each day.  They want people to eat whole wheat, and only two servings of lean proteins and dairy.  They encourage people not to eat out or to watch more TV then the amount of time they spent working out.  Pretty similar to what the government encouraged people to do during the War.

Rationing automatically required people to use more fruits and vegetables to stretch the meat rations.  They encouraged women to make their own bread (hearty whole wheat’s were encouraged to help workers have the energy they needed to make it through the day).  Homemade bread offered the smells of comfort and home to a busy household that found themselves in a constant state of stress and change.  Exercise was also encouraged by the government to help relieve stress and to keep workers (women) healthy and happy with their selves.

Making Whole Wheat Bread

I was surprised how many WWII recipes fit perfectly into the eating habits.  I have made “California Chicken.”  A lovely recipe that creates four filling servings of vegetables in a cream sauce with 6 oz. of tuna.  The white sauce is made with flour and the water from the can of tuna.  Tuna was not always available during the war – but was a great source of meat when it could be found.  I had a stock pile of tuna from pre-rationing times that I could dip into.

Vegitable  burgers in the Muffin tins

The vegetable burgers I make often.  They stretch a half a pound of beef into six servings by adding lots of grated vegetables.  A healthy serving of chili powder makes them extra tasty and they don’t need any ketchup (which is rationed).  I make them in muffin tins and take them to work on a bed of cooked green beans.

7 layer hotdish ready to cook

A 7 layer vegetable hot dish stretches ½ lb. of beef into 8 servings.  The flavor is amazing with sliced potatoes, celery, onions, green peppers, and tomatoes.  It makes a meal that is wonderful to eat every day and gives you two servings of vegetables for the day.

The part that I have loved in this eating style… is the aspect of no sugar.  This has helped me stretch my sugar rations and I have started using fruit to sweeten baked goods. 

7 layer hotdish ready for lunch...

I have figured out that most recipes from WWII are pretty healthy except for the use of oil.  If the oil is cut and whole wheat is used – it is wonderfully healthy and rations friendly (the less canned food the better).  I would like to know if I could grow lettuce and spinach indoors in window boxes – it would help my grocery bill during the winter months.

The Mighty Lunch…

I have received the best WWII document every.  A beautiful cookbook on 500 recipes for packing victory lunches.  In rationing – I have gotten quite board with my lunches that I take to work.  Now the options are endless.

I wanted ideas for sandwich fillings.  I don’t buy sandwich meat and I get tired of Peanut butter.   I have started making bread each week- and I like to have a variety of sandwiches during the week.

Here are some of my favorites…

Green Bean filler:  Take two cups of cooked green beans and cut them up into tiny pieces (I used my olu knife and a cutting bowl).  Add chopped parsley (about a tablespoon), pepper, and a table spoon of mayonnaise.  Stir together well.  This will make enough for 4-5 sandwiches. 

It tastes wonderful- and it is a great choice for meatless Monday!

Green Bean Sandwich filling

Cottage Cheese and Carrots:  Take a ½ cup of Cottage cheese.  Add a ½ cup of grated carrots and 1/8 cup of raisins (the recipes calls for ½ and I used a ¼ cup and it was still too much).  Mix together and eat on brown bread.

This is a sweet and filling sandwich.  Great protein and vegetable servings.  The carrots are so sweet.  You could add mayonnaise if you wanted (I don’t like it so I left it out).  Again – great for Meatless Mondays.

Cottage Cheese, Raisins and Carrots

I also made chocolate macrons.  It was baking chocolate, coconut and I put in currants.  I think they taste much better without the currants.  They are a great quick cookie for lunch.

My Packed Lunch, with Macrons

I did discover that as I eat less meat – I crave milk.  So I always pack a small jar of Milk in my lunches and it just hits the spot.

Happy lunch packing….

Weird Meats – Take Two…

I did not learn from my experience of cooking heart.  This Christmas – my sister-in-law had bought a forth of a cow, and let me take some cuts of beef home for my Christmas gift.  So digging through my freezer I found beef neck.    I was not sure how I could use this cut of meat… but it looked like I could use it to make stew.

So that week I salted onions, celery and the cuts of meat in a big pan.  The neck cuts were interesting in that they did not hold as much meat as I thought they would.  The meat was tough, and was hard to cut off the bone due to a lot of tendons – Hurray for sharp knifes!  I ended up with half pound of meat (and the bone marrow from the bones).  I added lots of vegetables to bulk up the stew… then thickened it with flour. 

This turned out much better than the heart.  It was a tasty stew (mostly vegetables with a taste of beef) that tasted much better with some soy biscuits (Sour milk biscuits made with a cup of soy flour in them).   I do think that time wise and money wise – it is better to buy a pound of ground beef and stretch the meat with vegetables.  I have discovered that my favorite recipe is the vegetable burgers (meat loaf made with potatoes, carrots, onions and other vegetables instead of bread) and I cook them individually in muffin tins so they are ready for lunches.

Mystery Meat

This January – I attempted to try different types of meat.  In the 1940’s meat was rationed and was hard to find.  To combat this – the government attempted to have people use less meat… and when looking at the ration points cost of meat – the unusual cuts of meat require many less points.  I felt I needed to do my part and try to eat the unusual cuts of meat to support the war effort.  How bad can it really be?

So in that mindset - I went to the story to purchase my first beef heart.  I was not sure what I would find when I went shopping.  Would there be a blood dripping pile of hearts in the meat case?  When I lived in Poland the stores had piles of fresh chicken hearts, livers, and other unidentifiable parts… but never any large animal organs.  Could I really ask at the counter, “pardon me, but do you have a heart?”

I was very surprised to find them in the frozen meat area.  They did hide them at the top of the freezer and when reaching for a heart I was almost knocked out by a frozen Kidney!  I picked out the smallest heart I could find and thought about it for a while.  I was surprised that the modern cost of Heart is half the price of ground beef… this might be the cheapest way to eat for a while.  I finally talked myself into buying it and went home.

The Heart...

I let it unthaw in the refrigerator, and prepared to cook it.  Growing up, I had eaten heart and liver when I went archery deer hunting with my dad.  I remember the heart being tender and tasting really good (I hated the liver – yuck all chalky and stuff!).  I wasn’t sure how different frozen cow heart would be.  I had a recipe to make stuffed cow heart and it looked pretty good.

Stuffed and ready to go...

I was not so confident when I took the thawed mess out of the refrigerator.  There was a muscle sitting in a bowl of blood.  The recipe said to wash out the heart and cut out all the veins and arteries.  Humm -- I should have paid more attention in science class.  I could not tell where the veins were so I cut out anything that looked hard.  I washed out the heart as best as I could then carve out space for the stuffing. 

The stuffing was similar to what I put in turkey and smelled good.  I stuffed as much stuffing as I could get into the heart then tied it shut with cooking twine.  I put it in a roasting pan and cooked it like a roast.  It smelled good as it cooked.

The Heart "Roast" done...

When it was done – I let it cool and cut medallions of meat and took them to work for lunch.  The meat looked weird and kind of smelled like a deer that has been hanging in the garage for a few days before butchering.  Even after cooking it still had that smell to it (I think it is the smell of old blood).  I ate it for two lunches then found me eating just crusts of bread for supper so I would not have to eat that heart.  It was awful!

The Medallions - I don't know how brave I am to eat it...

I am starting to realize why women are often shown working a meat grinder in cook books.  Theses mystery meats are not bad – but absolutely not good!  Next time I make heart – I will grind it up and add it to meatloaf or something to hide the flavor.  I can now say that I tried heart but I will stick to meatless Mondays instead.  That week – I did not eat any meat (the heart was my meat rations for the week) and I realized that I enjoy eating beans and peanut butter - they are much better then heart.

Going Without to Give Back

Well – I am back from the wedding. It was wonderful … and it gave me a chance to eat some more often rationed food. Ummmm – I drank all the coffee that I could get my hands on!

Rationing during the winter holidays was an interesting experience. I ended up not making my traditional cookies (sprits or holiday fruit cake). I did end up trying some new recipes. I made a sugarless and eggless spice cake. This cake was so good and due to molasses being the sweetener – it could easily be substituted for fruit cake (which costs too many ration points in butter, dried fruit, and rum). I also ended up eating a lot of lefsa … and yes … I used my coveted butter on this wonderful sweet snack. I discovered that it is great with honey or jam besides using my favorite sugar and cinnamon.

One thing that surprised me was looking at what I gave away as gifts. Due to not being able to buy many new things (that and I am paying back school loans) I went through what I had that I wanted to give away. I discovered that I had so many things that were still nice but I didn’t need or use. My whole Christmas gift giving was all repurposed or homemade. I did end up buying my dad a new shirt (for the wedding) and my mom a new Christmas plate… but my nieces got my old jewelry and nail polish I didn’t use, my sticker collection (some from the 80’s-so vintage:). I hand other items that were very nice but I didn’t need them… It was wonderful to slim down my own home – while not buying a lot for Christmas. I do have to say… I haven’t heard the verdict from my family to hear wither I am considered thrifty or cheap!

This December got me thinking a lot about how much I throw away or what I have. I am discovering that I do not need as much as I thought I did. I want to know what I could do with the extra money that I save from not buying as much… So here is my new year’s resolution. I have decided that I am going to stop buying coffee (It is on the edge of cheating on this rationing thing anyways) and the money that I save from that habit – I am going to give to a charity. This is one way this experiment can be used for the good of others – besides me.

WWII living is about going without so others can have – and that is what I want to do as well!