Introducing -- The Faux Betty!!

I know my original plan was to only stick with rationing for one week, then I decided that I was going to do it for an entire month.  Well, I have changed my mind again.  I have decided to call off the project and just focus on cooking vintage recipes, some of which will still be WWII era. 

I made it through four weeks.  Had I been living alone and eating WWII rations or had my husband also been doing rations, I truly believe that this is something I could have done indefinitely.  My problem with the project was that I do all of the cooking for my husband and myself.  That means that I have been cooking two entirely different sets of meals, almost every single day, for the past four weeks.  It gets tiring quite fast and the temptation to eat non-ration food was in my face multiple times a day.  It just became a bit much so I am simplifying and moving on.

So what, if anything, have I learned from my little experiment?  Well, even with cooking almost all my meals at home, my grocery bills actually decreased $15 - $50 per week.  Additionally, we were not spending the money we normally would have spent eating out.  Finally, the big thing that really stood out for me was that since I was preparing whole foods that were full fat, I felt more satisfied while consuming smaller portions.  I never felt deprived and I never felt rundown. 

That kind of brings me to my decision to focus on cooking vintage recipes.  Why wouldn’t I want to spend less money on groceries each week and feel better about what I am putting into my body at the same time?  I have gotten into the habit of sitting down and planning out meals for my husband and myself once each week.  I take into account what I have on hand then pick out one or two new recipes that sound enticing.  It helps me to get by on less without feeling like I am missing out on anything and it keeps me from being wasteful. 

For anyone who thinks that they do not have the time to do weekly meal planning, you are fooling yourself.  It only takes about 15 – 20 minutes to flip through a couple of cookbooks and make your selections.  When you have less food on the shelves and in your freezer, you stand a much better chance of knowing what is there and that makes writing your grocery list go that much faster as well.  Obviously, it takes longer to cook your food than it does to bring home a bag, unwrap burgers and eat.  HOWEVER, if you have planned your week well, you can cook extra and place individual portions in containers to be quickly reheated later in the week.  Plus, food that has been cooked fresh in your home will always taste better than food that has been kept warm under a heat lamp.  (And who knows what is in all that take-out?!)

At any rate, since I am no longer going to be eating on a rationing system, my blog has a new name.  It will no longer be called, The Amazing Adventures of Ration Woman.  Instead, the new name is The Amazing Adventures of the Faux Betty.  (Seriously, I still want to be Betty Crocker when I grow up, even knowing that she is a fictional character and knowing that I am 40 and in most circles, that means that I am, in fact, already grown up.)  That does not mean that I am only going to be cooking recipes from a Betty Crocker cookbook.  Though I do have a 1956 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, I also have a 1942 edition of the Good Housekeeping Cookbook, the Victory Cookbook and another small WWII era cookbook.  I also have a 1901 edition of the Mrs. Beeton’s Cookery Book which I have ordered from Amazon and should arrive in a couple of weeks.  Additionally, I have an entire binder of recipes that were clipped from magazines in the 1950s and 1960s as well as countless recipes available on the internet.  My goal will still be to prepare, photograph and share vintage recipes here.

What is your favorite vintage recipe?