Week Three - Already!!

 

Time is running away with me at the moment.  I have only just worked out the menu for the week, noting down while I did it what I had yesterday.  I have not yet got out from the cupboards or fridge or photographed this weeks rations so I will do that today.

Off the Ration

In the meantime this is all I have bought up to now for this weeks non-rationed food.  One sliced brown loaf from Asda, as that is where I was nearest when I ventured out for a dog walk and fuel.

 Sanity Saver

This week I have chosen a tub of ready made hummus as my Sanity Saver.  This was picked up on an outing to the chemist for Alan's prescription, combined with another dog walk.  Alan needed supplies from the Co-op so I went too.

It feels a bit bitty this week and I feel completely out of routine after my emergency trip back to Wales, but I am determined to get back to normal over the course of today.  I will find my MR £2.96 worth of healthy foods from my own back-up stores if I can as I really do not want to go into any more shops.

Living off my Modern Rations and trying not to shop is proving as wearisome as it must have felt shopping for your foodstuffs during the actual war.  I was going to say 'but not as dangerous'  because although we have no bombs dropping or threat of them, but we do have a completely different danger at the moment that is keeping us indoors.

Once again we are being asked to listen to our Prime Minister and Government and follow their guidelines ... and it really is the least we can do.

Sue xx

Week Two - The Food

 

The Weekly Rations

All this weeks food rations were weighed out last night ready for a new Monday start.  It felt all wrong running from Friday to Friday just because the first of January was a Friday, so now I have switched to Monday to Monday.

You will notice one glaring thing wrong with this photo and it's a roll of modern ready rolled Puff Pastry.  To use this up I decided that this week I would forfeit the rest of my fat ration, so no 2oz of oil or 2oz vegan suet (or similar) just my 4oz of spread in the butter dish and the pastry will be considered as having taken the rest of my fats along side 8oz of unrationed flour.

If things need using up I will be using them instead of wasting them and this sort of compromise will no doubt happen for quite a few weeks as I shop from home and use things up.

Off the Ration

My not on the ration shopping this week up to now has included bread, potatoes and a round lettuce.

  Not my usual sort of lettuce at all as I am an Iceberg fan through and through, I just love the crunch it gives to a salad or a sandwich, but they come from Spain at this time of the year ... a big no-no for me during rationing ... and round lettuces are grown in the UK all year round.  I need to go to the shops late at night when it's quieter and I can have a slower, better look at all labels to see what else is grown in the UK all year round these days as these items will all fit into my modern rationing plan.

I still have half of last weeks cabbage, most of the leek and all but one of the carrots.  I do need to do so much better at piling my plate up with vegetables.

 Sanity Saver

My sanity saver this week is a carton of ready made custard.  It was at the back of the fridge and it's date was up at the start of December ... it should be fine and will be used on an apple pastry that I intend to make later.  Hot apple pastry and cold custard ... yummy  😋

My next job today after another coffee and a spot of blog hopping is to make up this weeks menu plan and take a photo of it for you to peruse.

Sue xx

A Year of Modern Rationing - Week One - The Food

 

It seems to have taken me ages to get my head around the various component parts of my rations.  But here in photos they are.

The Weekly Rations

4oz Bacon Substitute 

4oz Dairy Free Spread

4oz Oil 

1 Carton Almond Milk

3oz Cheese

8oz Sugar

2oz Coffee

2oz Flaxseeds

2 Vegan Sausages

3oz Sweets

There are some replacements for this first weeks foods, and while I use up the supplies of things in my own cupboards this may continue for a while.  For instance I had no Trex or vegan suet so I simply doubled the weight of oil.  I did not have enough in weight of the bacon substitute (which by the way is delicious and will most likely stay on my shopping list) so I added 1oz of split yellow peas.

I have no egg replacer yet ... although I have now found a source ... so I started this month off with some Flax seeds, which work very well in baking and as a binder.  I also had no white sugar so I just used some Demerara sugar from a jar in the cupboard.

A bit bitty but it should all  work.

Off the Ration

The weekly non-rationed foods were a bit easier.  I picked these up yesterday when we called into Tesco after walking the dogs.

Just LOOK at the size of that leek!!

All this, plus the three items below for just a smidge over £7 ... I'm very impressed 😀

I'm hoping I will be able to get at least my carrots and potatoes not wrapped in plastic bags next week, but for this week I couldn't as the available unwrapped ones were really not a pretty sight. I am also only buying foods grown in the UK wherever possible.

MR £2.96

A total of 90p worth of foods from my allowable 'meat replacement' spend of £2.96.  Leaving me another £2.06 for more fruit or healthy foods for the rest of the week.

 Sanity Saver

 2/3 jar of Peanut Butter from the cupboard.

My Monthly Points Shop

1 tin of Tomatoes - 6 points

1lb Oats - 2 points

2lb Red Lentils - 8 points

1lb Pasta - 2 points

and 

1lb Rice - 2 points

= 20 Points

I think I'm already slightly regretting the tin of tomatoes for 6 points as I have just read that a tin of baked beans would only have been 2 points.  Three tins of baked beans would have made a lot more meals, but I will just have to see how it goes this month and maybe change around a bit for next.

I was quite surprised that this is it for a month.  I'm thinking one pasta meal a week and one rice meal a week, and I sat and calculated that I only have enough for approximately nine porridge breakfasts for the month, that's just over two a week.

It would seem that points are spent more quickly than cash!!

My Monthly Rations

4oz Coffee

1 Carton of Almond Milk

1/2 lb Onions

Dried Egg Replacer to be added here.

My Bi-Monthly Rations

4oz Jam

4oz Marmalade

1 Jar of Cocoa Powder

It's going to be very interesting to see how this all works out, it might take me a week or so to get into the swing of it, but I'm hopeful that this is going to be a healthy and pretty cheap year of good food and clever meal making.  

Thank you to all those of you who have signed up already to be Followers of this new blog, it's been amazing to see the numbers go up so quickly.

And now it's time to make some porridge I think  🥣 

Sue xx