The Ration Book Diet

[Viola]

Sauteed fresh spinach with nuts and currants is great. Canned spinach is an abomination.

Canned spinach is doable with a bit of butter or cheese and a lot of spices. I eat the cans sometimes when I'm dieting - I can have the whole thing and feel very full, without getting more than 200 calories, COUNTING the butter, if I even add it.

I will NOT sign off on canned green beans though. Fresh or frozen is the only way to go. (I almost typed "grean beans" which, jeez, I need coffee)

Everything is better fresh but some things are okay canned, at least for me. I might not have very fancy tastes.

 

[MPicciotto]

I see now that milk was not rationed. How popular was milk to drink during the war? It seems to me that it being not rationed and a source of fat it would be pretty popular. Certainly for children, what with the growing bigger and all.

Matt

 

[LizzieMaine]

It was recommended that kids drink at least a quart of whole milk every day -- in addition to whatever cheese and butter ration they consumed. Rickets had been a huge problem in children during the Depression, and plenty of dairy was seen as the best way to avoid that.

It was also during the early '40s that fortifying milk with Vitamin D became practically universal, and this was seen as another argument in favor of consuming plenty of dairy.

Adults tended to consume a lot less beverage milk, although when coffee went on the ration in 1942, a lot of people turned to hot beverages like Postum, which was a toasted wheat brew often made with milk.

 

[Viola]

I'd think the big things for milk would be stretching and baking and making things creamy. Especially in a land without butter.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I drink a quart of skim milk a day now on my super-duper diet, the first diet I've ever been on. I'd prefer powdered milk but it's hard to find and very expensive nowadays.

 

[Forgotten Man]

Ration book diet eh? Well, that's a good idea! A "Victory" garden would be a good thing to have as well... I'd love to grow a garden but, my back yard ain't the ideal spot for one... would take a lot of work.

Well, right now I'm kinda on a Depression Era diet... not much work for me right now, I eat what I can afford... eggs, milk, bread, and a few odds and ends.

Soon I'll be singing "Happy Days are Here Again"!

 

[Paisley]

Everything is better fresh but some things are okay canned, at least for me. I might not have very fancy tastes.

For me, things that are meant to be cooked (chicken stock, soup, garlic paste, sardines) are fine from a can. So are acidic things that don't have to be cooked very long (peaches, tomatoes, pears, pickles).

 

[olive bleu]

I was 21 before I ever saw fresh peas, or corn on the cob.In fact i was quite shocked to see what fresh corn looked like, i thought they grew like that( 4 tiny cobs squished into a canlol and the first time i tasted peas that were just picked, i nearly wept

but then the only thing we ever had for fresh veggies was root vegetables, which we stored in the root cellar, so by the end of the winter, they weren't so "fresh"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, back today from an overnight trip, and I went off the ration in a big way for supper last night -- a friend and I went to a nice Italian place in Haverhill, Mass., where I took one look at the menu and ordered the biggest plate of fettucini alfredo they could bring me. Probably a month's cheese ration in that, and there wasn't a speck of it left on the plate when I was done. ("Guess you won't be needing that packed up then," was the waitress's laconic comment. If there's one thing the world needs less of, it's sassy help.)

But after a month of limiting myself to one small slice of cheese a day, I was going insane with craving it. I'll live on bread and water till my blood tests on Tuesday morning, but it was well worth it.

Before my Indulgence, I was down to 142 lbs. I haven't dared to weigh myself since I got home.

 

[MPicciotto]

I hope that the large amount of cheese wasn't a shock to your system and set you ill at all?

Matt

 

[Lola Getz]

there wasn't a speck of it left on the plate when I was done. ("Guess you won't be needing that packed up then," was the waitress's laconic comment. If there's one thing the world needs less of, it's sassy help.)

lol

When my husband and I go out to eat, he always tells our waiter/waitress, "Don't even think of taking her plate until she's finished or you might lose a hand..."

 

[Dr Doran]

tiny point ...

it isn't the cheese in fettucine alfredo that will get you. the cheese in that is parmigiano-reggiano which is an intense aged cheese that is so dry as to be rather low fat compared to Brie, etc.

it is the heavy whipping cream and butter in the sauce that will get you.

 

[LizzieMaine]

OK, this is a ration recipe I have to try -- "Crusty Drumsticks," courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens, March 1944. If you crave fried chicken (which I do, and didn't realize till I saw this recipe) but you just can't get it at the butcher shop, well, here's the next best thing:

2 cups ground cooked chicken
2 cups ground cooked pork
1 cup thick white sauce
1 tbsp parsley
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
Dash of ginger
Salt and pepper to taste
Bread crumbs
1 beaten egg
6 small radishes

Combine chicken and pork, add sauce, blend. Mixture should be thick and not dry. Add remaining ingredients. Chill. Shape on wooden skewers making a mock drumstick. Dip in flour, beaten egg, and bread crumbs. Fry golden brown in hot shallow fat. Slit each radish, place sprig of parsley in slit. Place radishes over pointed ends of skewers. Makes 6 "chicken legs".

------------------

The ration advantage here first off is that the recipe is an excellent way to reuse leftover meat -- grind those pork and chicken scraps up and put them to use! Plus the fact the meat is already cooked will mean you need a lot less fat to fry it -- the frying only browns the coating, and doesn't carry the burden of cooking the meat as well. Ingenuity!

 

[Paisley]

Well, back today from an overnight trip, and I went off the ration in a big way for supper last night -- a friend and I went to a nice Italian place in Haverhill, Mass., where I took one look at the menu and ordered the biggest plate of fettucini alfredo they could bring me. Probably a month's cheese ration in that, and there wasn't a speck of it left on the plate when I was done. ("Guess you won't be needing that packed up then," was the waitress's laconic comment. If there's one thing the world needs less of, it's sassy help.)

But after a month of limiting myself to one small slice of cheese a day, I was going insane with craving it. I'll live on bread and water till my blood tests on Tuesday morning, but it was well worth it.

Before my Indulgence, I was down to 142 lbs. I haven't dared to weigh myself since I got home.

Overindulging is a natural instinct. On Body for Life, you get one free day per week--you eat all you want of anything you want. It does a few things: it gives you some freedom to eat your favorite foods, it lets your body know it doesn't need to go into starvation mode, and it reminds you of how you felt (stuffed, lethargic, etc.) when every day was free day. I think your free day was fine. Maybe you could have a black market day once a week.

According to Bill Phillips, trying to lose weight by drastically reducing food intake never works. Eventually, you break down and binge. And if you don't, a severly limited diet still deprives you of necessary nutrients--and makes you lose muscle as well as fat.

 

[RitaHayworth]

I start my diet next week - I received my Ration Book Diet book this week and found a book in the library that talks about rationing.

Although I love tea from the pot (and tonnes of sugar in it too!) teabags at work etc are obviously more practical. 2oz of teabags is only 16 teabags - I drink at least 5 cups of tea a day!!

Though I can allow for a few more since the bag weighs in a bit too!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'll be interested to hear how it works out for you (and for anyone else who tries it!). As for me, I've been holding around 143 this week, and had blood drawn for tests on Tuesday, so we'll soon see if it's made any difference on cholesterol and triglycerides.

I do *feel* a lot better, though, if that's any judge, even though this has been an exceedingly stressful week. Which is, I think, a very good sign.

 

[scotrace]

My mom was of that generation also, and cooked the stuffing out of the canned vegetables we had. A ghastly business. She also boiled chicken until it was good and squishy before frying it. She made a mean carrot cake, however. And I have been unable to replicate her German Chocolate cake.

It makes a lad love his cereals, alas.

 

[olive bleu]

Me too. I hated vegetables as a kid. Loathed them.Especially carrots.To my mind, all vegetables were nothing more than tasteless, mushy heaps of torture.My mother was in such despair, that she tried to "perk up my appetite" by daily spooning "Brick's tastless" ( a tonic )into me .

What further frustrated my mother was that i would eat plates of veggies at my Grandmother's house. My mother finally asked why , oh, why would I eat carrots at my grandma's house and not at home. I told her i liked the way they tasted, that they were crunchy in the middle.My mother's response was,"oh,she doesn't cook them long enough"lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Me too. I hated vegetables as a kid. Loathed them.Especially carrots.To my mind, all vegetables were nothing more than tasteless, mushy heaps of torture.My mother was in such despair, that she tried to "perk up my appetite" by daily spooning "Brick's tastless" ( a tonic )into me .

Ack! It was Father John's Medicine for me -- a horrifying New England product that had a stern, glowering priest on the label. Gave me an irrational fear of men of the cloth that lasted for many years...

 

[olive bleu]

lol lol lol oh my gosh, i am weeping! lol lol