Me and Mine - June 2015

June saw us getting outside more, as we took part in 30 Days Wild. Much of that was in our garden, which is coming on nicely. Not all our vegetables have taken to the poor soil, but we've had some lettuce and rocket and a few strawberries. The wild flowers we sowed are looking beautiful and attracting butterflies, bees and even a damsel fly.

We also took part in the Rationing Challenge, which was educational and pretty tasty. 

We checked out a few nearby fayres, visited the Safari Park a couple of times - just avoiding being eaten by lions, when we realised B had opened the back windows in the car! - and got on with more decluttering. 

We made use of our new English Heritage membership too, and this month's photo was taken at Wrest Park on Fathers Day. It's the first time we've been there, and we will definitely go again. 

Towards the end of the month, I ended up with labyrinthitis. It is horrendous. Constantly dizzy, nauseous and feeling that the room is spinning. I've not been able to drive and it's been pretty tough on the girls, because we've not been able to get out during the week. Labyrinthitis can last 2-3 weeks. Here's hoping it will be over soon. 

This month:

The Hubby has enjoyed...

Seeing his new exercise regime getting results

Getting his back waxed

Making preparations for turning the spare room into the girls' bedroom

The food we ate during the Ration Challenge

M speaking more words

I have enjoyed...

Trying out Egyptian dance at Strawberry Fair

Enjoying the first fruits of our garden

The Ration Challenge

30 Days Wild

Helping my cousin with breastfeeding her new baby

Watching Hunt for the Red October with the Hubby

B has enjoyed...

Watering the garden

Theatre Bugs and soft play each week

A friend's birthday party

Wearing her Flower Girl dress daily

Reading her Marvel characters Encyclopaedia

Flying off the wet slide during a rainy trip to the park

M has enjoyed...

Watering the garden

Watching Lego Superheroes and shouting, "Hulk!" at the screen

Saying her own name

Screaming

Going for "poo wee wee" on the toilet

Climbing and declaring, "Did it!" when she succeeds.

52 Weeks of Memories | 25: Family

A perfect prompt to fall in the week we celebrated Father's Day - a day out with my parents and one of my brothers. 

Rationing Challenge - Final Thoughts

So, we've come to the end. I've lost 7lbs over two weeks and yet, I've actually rarely felt deprived. We had some lovely meals - spicy beef hash, mince slices, cauliflower cheese, Lord Woolton pie. Even had puddings, which we don't usually have often. What I really missed was the option to just go and buy something quick if I felt tired. And the ability to have whatever we wanted, when we wanted, without having to constantly work out if we had enough rations left. And cheese. I really missed cheese. But it's amazing how far you can make it go when you try. Grating it and mixing it with chutney for sandwiches was one of the best tips in We'll Eat Again.

Day 14 - Rationing Challenge

Today was Father's Day. We contemplated finishing the Ration Challenge a day early so that we could just concentrate on the Hubby and give him so tasty food, but then I thought about all those people who celebrated during the War and made the most of what little they had. Having not used much sugar over the past fortnight, I had plenty of that left, and we even had some butter left last week, so I found a wartime Chocolate Cake recipe. I used butter instead of margarine, because I could. And made a chocolate fudge topping with a bit of milk and some of our remaining chocolate rations, instead of the odd chocolate spread recipe I found that contained flour. I contemplated making mock cream, for the look of things, and decided against it, because it was just too weird. During the War people often saved up their rations for celebrations. Neighbours would club together to provide sugar and fats for wedding cakes; children would arrive at birthday parties with packets of sugar as gifts to replace the rations used on party food.

 

Breakfast

Porridge & honey; tea; milk

Lunch

A brilliant picnic, consisting of bacon sandwiches, cheese & chutney sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, fruit, pickled onions, chocolate cake, orange juice for the kids, and ginger beer for the grown ups. We didn't feel at all deprived. 

Tea
Macaroni cheese with braised cabbage & bacon, broccoli and spinach.

 

 This was a hit! Both girls finished their plates - well, almost. M refuses to touch leaves! Today was a good day for food, and left us finishing our Ration Challenge on a high. Perhaps this rationing business is something we can carry on with. If the Hubby can stop urging me to let him have a Domino's!!

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz 30.6oz 28.5oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz 11oz 10oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 9.1oz 5.8oz FINISHED

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz 5.5oz 4oz 3oz FINISHED

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz 4.3oz 4oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz 

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz 2.7oz 2.5oz 1.8oz 1.3oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz 7oz 6.5oz 1.3oz FINISHED

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints 13.6pints 11.75pints 9.5pints 7.9pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz 8.6oz 7.45oz 3.95oz

Marmalade - 1lb 15oz 13.5oz

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz 3.5oz

Eggs - 8 6 4  FINISHED

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Rationing Challenge - Day 13

Breakfast
We fancied an English breakfast.
(Burnt!) Bacon, fried eggs, fried mushrooms, potato cakes, bread and butter
Milk, Tea

Lunch
Beef curry, loosely based around this, made using leftover brisket, with rice.

 Tea
Cheese scones

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz 30.6oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz 11oz 10oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 9.1oz 5.8oz

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz 5.5oz 4oz 3oz

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz 4.3oz 4oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz 

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz 2.7oz 2.5oz 1.8oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz 7oz 6.5oz 1.3oz

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints 13.6pints 11.75pints 9.5pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz 8.6oz 7.45oz

Marmalade - 1lb 15oz 13.5oz

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz

Eggs - 8 6 4

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Rationing Challenge - Day 11

I woke this morning with a real hankering for something spicy and flavoursome. Lunch wasn't a wartime recipe, but then this challenge is also about trying to make rationing work in this day and age. I couldn't sustain this diet if we had to exist only on wartime recipes, as they are - in the main - quite bland. I don't know where all my spices come from, which is something I need to look into, but as my spice rack is well stocked, I wasn't having to buy any new ingredients.

Mayonnaise wasn't available during the war, unless you made it yourself, and the lack of eggs made that difficult. However, I read an article - in the Daily Mail, so I refuse to link to it! - that said Salad Cream became quite popular, so I used some today to make a coleslaw.

Breakfast 

Porridge & honey

Coffee; milk

Lunch

Spicy Beef Hash:

Parboil diced potatoes

Pop some lard in a roasting tin in the oven to melt

Put potatoes into roasting tin.

Add paprika, salt, pepper, garlic, tomato puree, tomatoes, leftover brisket, and mix together

Top with lardons.

Cook in hot oven (200c) until the potatoes and bacon are crispy.

Add chopped spring onions and grated cheese, and pop back in the oven until the cheese is melted

Coleslaw - grated carrot, cabbage & radish with a little salad cream

Watercress

Nectarines

Tea

Eggy Bread

Milk

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz 30.6oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz 11oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 9.1oz

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz 5.5oz 4oz

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz 4.3oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz 

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz 2.7oz 2.5oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz 7oz 6.5oz

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints 13.6pints 11.75pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz 8.6oz

Marmalade - 1lb 15oz

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz

Eggs - 8 6

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Rationing Challenge - Day 10

Breakfast 

Porridge with honey

Tea; milk

Lunch

Picnic - cheese, watercress & chutney sandwiches; marmite & cucumber sandwiches; bacon turnovers; jam tarts; apples

Tea

Curried potato wedges; leftover brisket with gravy & veg; spinach

Crunch Flapjack (Coconut oil - in place of margarine! - golden syrup, oats, chocolate)

Mocha Pudding

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz 30.6oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz 11oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz 5.5oz

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz 2.7oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz 7oz

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints 13.6pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz 8.6oz

Marmalade - 1lb 15oz

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz

Eggs - 8

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52 Weeks of Memories | 24: Hands

Not hands, per se, but the first strawberry from our garden, in my hand. 

Rationing Challenge - Day 9

Breakfast
Porridge with honey
Tea; milk

Mid-Morning
Cup of tea and a cheese scone

Lunch
A mix of leftovers, followed by nectarines, and jam tarts made with some leftover pastry

Tea
Spiced Beef; fried potatoes; griddled courgettes; watercress 

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb 31.5oz

Margarine - 1lb 14oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz 6.5oz

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz 5.3oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz 3.1oz

Meat - 24oz ALL COOKED

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz 7.4oz

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints 15.6pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz 10.1oz

Marmalade - 1lb

Jam - 8oz 6.5oz

Eggs - 8

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Siblings - June 2015

These girls are gorgeous. I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure they are the most beautiful little girls I've ever seen. They are still great friends, though I see B's frustration with M at times. Both strong willed and knowing what they want, they clash frequently, but more often I find them sat reading together or looking after each other's dollies. 

Rationing Challenge - Day 8

The Ministry of Food was created during the Great War to help with the issues arising around food on the Homefront. During the 1930s, "Britain imported 70% of its food; this required 20 million tons of shipping a year. 50% of meat was imported, 70% of cheese and sugar, 80% of fruits, 70% of cereals and fats, 91% of butter. Of this, 1/6th of meat imports, 1/4 of butter imports and 1/2 of cheese imports came from New Zealand alone, a long ways away by shipping lanes." The great concern was that the enemy would cut off food supplies in order to starve the British into submission, and so the Ministry of Food was revived. Lord Woolton became the Minister of Food in 1940. The pie named after him was by a chef at the Savoy Hotel, and was recommended, along with a great deal of other useful recipes, to the British Public as a nutritious, meat free meal. It is full of vegetables, and could easily be adapted according to the seasons.

Breakfast
Porridge with honey
Tea; milk

Lunch
Cheese scones; cucumber, carrot, radishes & cherry tomatoes; bacon turnovers; leftover sponge pudding

Tea

Lord Woolton Pie, topped with mashed potato; gravy; spinach

I'd read mixed reviews of the Woolton Pie, but we all enjoyed it, even the girls. Definitely something I'll make again.

Remaining Rations

Sugar - 2lb

Margarine - 1lb 14oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 

Cheese - 11oz 7.5oz

Lard - 6oz 5.7oz
Vegetable suet - 2oz

Tea - 4oz 3.5oz

Meat - 24oz

Butter - 8oz 7.7oz

Milk - 20pints 17.65pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 10.7oz

Marmalade - 1lb

Jam - 8oz

Eggs - 8

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Rationing Challenge Update

I weighed myself last week, before starting on rations. On the Wii, because we don't own scales, so perhaps not the most accurate!

And I've weighed myself this morning.

Rationing Challenge - Day 7

Chicken wasn't rationed, but it was also nearly impossible to get. Rabbit became a more popular meat, though mainly people tried to disguise it as chicken. I already had some chicken thigh in the freezer, and so in the interests of not wasting food, we had chicken today. Plus the idea of rabbit makes me a little squeamish. Maybe next week!

Breakfast

Bacon Turnovers, made last night.

Tea; milk

Lunch

Chicken and vegetable pie, with potato pastry; mashed potato; broccoli; gravy

Steamed Eggless Syrup Sponge with Custard

Tea
Eggy bread & honey
Leftovers

Remaining Rations 

Sugar - 2lb 30oz 28.8oz 28.15oz 26.65oz 26.15oz 24.15oz 22.05oz

Margarine - 1lb 12oz 9.5oz 6.4oz

Bacon/Ham - 12oz 11.75oz 10.5oz 9.3oz 7.8oz 4oz FINISHED

Cheese - 11oz 9oz 7.05oz 5.55oz 5.05oz 4.75oz FINISHED

Lard - 6oz 4.8oz 3.8oz 2.5oz 1oz FINISHED
Vegetable Suet - 2oz 1.25oz FINISHED

Tea - 4oz 3.9oz 3oz 2.6oz 2oz 1.5oz 1oz 0.45oz

Meat - 24oz 7oz FINISHED

Butter - 8oz 7.5oz 7.25oz 5.5oz 5.35oz 4.2oz 3.25oz 2.5oz

Milk - 20pints 18.25pints 16pints 13.4pints 11.1pints 9.1pints 6.9pints 4.15pints

Sweets/Chocolate - 12oz 11.8oz 10.6oz 8.6oz 7.1oz 5.6oz 4.6oz

Marmalade - 1lb 14.5oz 13.7oz 12.7oz 12.1oz

Jam - 8oz 6.95oz 6.7oz 5.95oz 5.55oz 5.3oz

Eggs - 8 7 5 3 1

So, after the first week on rations, we still have quite a bit of our allotted amounts left. We've used up all of our meat, fat, and cheese though, which I suspected we would. I'm not surprised that we still have milk left. I tried to get a pint a day into the girls - their allotted amount - but didn't always manage it. And we used less than 10oz sugar - with some of the foods made using it still to be eaten. This is quite encouraging, having been considering quitting sugar recently - I now know we can definitely eat less without feeling deprived. I thought we would use all the eggs, but I think I was being over cautious at times. I haven't felt too much like we're missing out. Mince & gravy four days in a row wasn't as monotonous as it could have been, but it took a bit of creativity.

I don't know how the women of the War era did it. It's exhausting having to be constantly aware of how much of this and that is being used; making sure nothing gets wasted; trying to make meals interesting without so many ingredients. I feel like I've been thinking about, or preparing, food constantly. Next week I need to be a lot more organised!

Rationing Challenge - Day 6

Breakfast
Girls - bacon and eggy bread with honey
The Hubby and me - fried egg; mushrooms; (burnt!) bacon; tomato; toast
Tea; milk

 

Mid-Morning - at a cafe

Rationing Challenge - Day 5

Coffee wasn't rationed, though it was rarely drunk, and neither were sausages, though they usually had a minimal amount of meat in them and were bulked up with breadcrumbs. It was also possible to go out to eat and have a pretty decent meal, because, "Hotels and restaurants were not obliged to observe rationing rules, or to collect coupons from their customers' ration books." (The Ministry of Food - Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall) And fish and chips became even more popular because potatoes were not only off-ration, but in good suuply, and people were encouraged to eat a great deal of them. So today we made the most of a snack out and chips from the chip shop!

Breakfast 

Porridge

Tea

Milk

Mid-Morning - out

Sausage roll

Blackcurrant juice for the girls; Coffee for me

Lunch

Pasties made with potato pastry and filled with the remaining mince & gravy; cucumber, carrot and radish; leftover soup 

Rationing Challenge - Day 4

I've found myself becoming obsessive about leftovers. Uneaten crusts, tops of vegetables, bacon fat, vegetable cooking water - everything goes in the fridge to be used later. We've eaten mince and gravy for 3 days in a row and there is still some left, so I have pasties planned for tomorrow, to be made with potato pastry, which will use up some of the leftover mash. I'm torn when the girls don't finish their plates. I have never once in their lives insisted that either of them finish everything, not wanting them to ignore their bodies. But this week, I'm so aware that if something isn't eaten, we can't just replace it. How much worse it was for those during wartime when there were posters everywhere telling them that wasting food was as good as feeding Hitler! And people were fined for giving stale breadcrumbs to birds. Necessity really is the mother of invention. When you can't let anything go to waste, it is amazing what you can come up with. We are fortunate in that I have a fairly well stocked store cupboard and haven't had to buy in extra ingredients. I've been working on the premise that most housewives would have had staples in their cupboards when rationing began, so I haven't had to go off-ration for anything yet. Flour, oats, semolina would have cost points, but I have them in already. But it would have been so much harder when those staples ran out and they were low on stock at the grocer's; then alternatives to standard recipes had to be found. Potatoes in pastry, carrots in cakes, tomatoes and cheese masquerading as crab. The ingenuity and creativity of the wartime cooks knew no bounds.

Breakfast 

Porridge and a slice of bacon each. 

Tea; milk

Mid-Morning 

Cup of tea and a honey biscuit 

Lunch

Mince Slices made using some of the leftover mince & gravy; mashed potato with chives; leek sauce; grated raw carrot; lettuce, rocket and cress from our vegetable patch. 

Recipes from We'll Eat Again by Marguerite Patten

The girls shared an apple, and we all had 1/2oz chocolate.

Rationing Challenge - Day 3

Breakfast

Pancakes (1 cup self raising flour, 1/2pint milk, 1 egg, pinch of salt, lard for frying) - 3-4 small pancakes each, with 4 leftover.

Drizzle of honey and a little butter. 

1 rasher pancetta each. 

Tea for grownups; milk for children. 

Mid-Morning

Cup of tea and a honey biscuit each. 

52 Weeks of Memories | 23: In the Car

 

 The Road Safari with Granddad.

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Rationing Challenge - Day 2

With sugar and jams rationed, people had to find other ways of sweetening their food. The use of honey as a sweetener increased during the war, as it wasn't rationed. Beekeepers were given extra sugar rations, officially to use to feed the bees, but coincidentally, the number of beekeepers in the UK increased! Bees are also important for pollination, which was of a greater necessity with all the extra crop growing going on. Today we've used honey instead of some of our jam and sugar.

Breakfast 

Porridge with jam/honey

Cup of tea for me; milk for the girls

Mid-Morning

The girls shared an apple; I had another cup of tea. 

               

We did some more baking today - honey biscuits, which are quite delicious. 

Rationing Challenge - Day 1

During the war, most workers ate at work in canteens, or at cafés near to where they worked. This meant their rations would go further at home. The Hubby was out at work today, and B had gone with my parents to visit her cousin. M and I missed them. She kept walking around the house, calling out B's name. It felt pretty quiet, and it's been so much harder to get stuff done when I have had to do all the entertaining that B normally does! The upside of it just being M and me today is that our rations will go further this week!  

Breakfast

B & Me: Toast with butter and marmalade 

The Hubby & M: Porridge with jam

Grown ups: Cup of tea each - 1tbsp milk

Girls: 1/4 cup milk each

Mid-MorningThis is when I got hungry. Breakfast was not enough. I usually have eggs or mushrooms, so I need to get some more protein into tomorrow's breakfast. It could also be psychological, in that I suddenly realised I couldn't just find something to snack on and that got me thinking about it. Instead, I had another cup of tea (1tbsp milk) and made some Wartime Scotch Shortbread (4oz margarine, 2oz sugar), to keep my mind off eating.

M had another 1/4 cup of milk and half an apple. 

30 Days Wild | 8: Not Wild

The pollen count was just too high today. I've been suffering with hay fever and feeling a bit miserable about it. We went outside for a short time, but I got too sneezy. It's begun to rain now though, so hopefully that will settle it all down a bit, and top up my water butt. I don't like having to use the hose to water my veg patch. And our new plant needs to sit in rain water too:

Our new Sarracenia, waiting to catch some flies

Rationing Challenge - Intro

Tomorrow morning we are beginning our fortnight living on World War Two rations. The people of Britain were the healthiest they've been during the Second World War. It was also a time of much less waste and therefore diets had less of an impact on the environment. More food was local; less meat was consumed; people ate a lot more vegetables and beans. 

I am always trying to get better at meal planning and budgeting, so when I saw Cambridge Carbon Footprint's World War Two Rationing Challenge, I thought it would be a great way to get back into it. Having a limited amount of foods means planning around those ingredients, which I find easier than choosing meals before shopping for them. Also, the way that our veg box delivery works is that we don't always know which vegetables we're going to get, which ties in nicely with the lack of choice shoppers often had at the grocer's. 

Our Rations:

Most of our rations for the week 

30 Days Wild | 6: Strawberry Fair

After a long and enjoyable day in the sun and fresh air, here is a selection of the animals spotted on our walks to and from Strawberry Fair in Cambridge, and a shot of the carnivorous plant we bought:

Far too tired for anything more!

30 Days Wild | 5: Digging for Victory

We were at a class today, so specific wild activities weren't part of our schedule, though we did spend some time in the garden. However, when we got home, I found that my Ration Book had arrived.

For a fortnight from Monday we will be taking part in Cambridge Carbon Footprint's World War Two Rationing Challenge. We will be trying to eat as though we are on WWII rations. During the Second World War people were encouraged to grow their own vegetables in order to supplement their rations and whatever they could buy from the shops.  So it seems like as good a time as any to show you our vegetable patch. 

30 Days Wild | 4: Secrets and Lice

Our garden faces the wrong way, so it doesn't get much sunshine during the day. The area that gets the most and longest sunlight is the decking and vegetable bed, which is fortunate for everything trying to grow there. The lawn, however, spends much of its time in shade. Brilliant for preventing sunburn, but not great for basking. First thing in the morning though, it can quite glorious out there. This morning, we made the most of that sunshine by going out straight after breakfast. 

30 Days Wild | 3: The Really Wild Show

Today we went really wild with a trip to the safari park. We love seeing the animals in such close proximity whilst also having plenty of space to roam. But today's highlight, for me, was seeing a black squirrel. I've never seen one before, and at first I thought I was mistaken, because I had my sunglasses on, but there in the monkey enclosure was this little fella:

All thanks to my dad for this brilliant photo (and most of the others in this post).

52 Weeks of Memories | 22: Yum

 

Oh, we had the most delicious meal I have tasted in a very long time. The recipe card in our Abel & Cole box this week was for Cauli Coconut Curry. I made it (without the lime, because we just didn't have one) and served it with the paleo favourite, and new to me, cauliflower rice. I could have eaten it a second time. And the kids and the Hubby enjoyed it too. This yummy recipe is going into our family favourites.

Here it is, in all its delicious glory.

And the recipe, so you can enjoy it too.

30 Days Wild | 2: The Parable of the Weeds...

Day 2 of 30 Days Wild

In the words of Winnie the Pooh, today was, "A rather blustery day." It was raining when we got up and the wind was incredibly strong. I thought that the closest we would get to nature would be reading The Gruffalo, and watching our garden get a good watering, but then the wind blew away the rain clouds and the sun came out. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we went into the garden and I did some weeding, whilst B played with pebbles and M tried to get herself trapped behind the shed.

 

30 Days Wild | 1: From Tiny Acorns...

The other week I spotted 30 Days Wild being shared in a home-ed group on Facebook, and it grabbed my interest. We need to get out more - not just into our garden - so it seemed like the perfect way to inspire us to explore.