Quick and Easy Menu
While the previous menu from the booklet contained a couple of more complicated recipes, this particular menu is designed for busy days.
Many women worked outside the home (either for pay or as volunteers) while their children were in school during WWII. Women who had previously thought of themselves as full-time mothers and home caretakers were now trying to balance outside work with their homemaking roles.
If you can imagine what it must've been like to go from cooking three full meals from scratch daily and caring for the house and children to suddenly in a situation where your husband is away at war and you're working in a factory, store, office, or volunteering in some capacity, while looking after the home, yard, children and still providing three "squares" a day. Many of us do that in modern times. But imagine not having the array of convenience foods or simplified cleaning tools or restaurants for take out or delivery that make it all possible.
Enter women's magazines and booklets that offered suggestions for quick and easy (and healthy) meals, basically from scratch.
The menu suggestions here are based on simplified recipes and using a few "healthy" prepared foods (such as purchased enriched white bread, boxed, uncooked whole grain hot cereal). The booklet suggests using the basic menu for one day, then subbing in the alternates on other days to provide variety while still working within the context of a quick and easy menu plan.
Here's the menu:
Breakfast
(A) Stewed Rhubarb (recipe)
Hot Whole Grain Cereal with Whole Milk
Enriched White Toast
Butter or Fortified Margarine
Coffee and Milk
Hot Whole Grain Cereal with Whole Milk
Enriched White Toast
Butter or Fortified Margarine
Coffee and Milk
Lunch at Home
(B) English Monkey on Crisp Crackers (recipe)
Carrot Raisin Salad (recipe)
Soya Bread (recipe) with Butter or Fortified Margarine
Apples or Bananas
Lunch Box
(C) Bologna Carrot sandwich Filling (recipe) on Enriched White Bread
Peanut Butter "Pep Up" Sandwich Filling (recipe) on Soya Bread
Wedge of Cheese
Apples or Bananas
Cocoa
Dinner
(D) Barbecued Cube Steak (recipe)
Parsley Potatoes (recipe)
(E) Pennsylvania Dutch Spinach (recipe)
Toasted Buns with Mustard Butter (recipe)
(F) Broiled Grapefruit (recipe)
Alternates
(A) Applesauce (recipe) or any canned fruit
(B) Rarebit (recipe) or Cheese Fondue (recipe)
(C) Pimento Sandwich Filling (recipe)
(D) Dried Beef Gravy (recipe) or Victory Hamburgers (recipe) or Ham and Eggs (recipe)
(E) Stewed Tomatoes (recipe)
(F) Citrus Juices and Cakes or Cookies Left from Previous Baking
Things to do ahead to get these meals on the table fast
- stew the rhubarb
- wash the spinach
Tips to make meals quick and easy
- Serve raw fruits and vegetables, if possible -- more vitamins, less time to prepare, and fewer utensils to wash. "A relish plate of raw carrots, tender greens, cabbage wedges, green onions and radishes can take the place of both a vegetable and a salad." Fresh fruit, such as berries and pineapple require little extra (perhaps a little sugar) to make a dessert.
- Serve fruits unpeeled, when possible.
- Serve small chunks or cubes of cheese along with the fruit to boost protein with little extra work.
- Cook "big" when you have the time, in order to use leftovers in future meals, not only entress and side dishes, but desserts such as cakes and cookies as well.
- Use fish and eggs as the main protein source, as they cook quickly.
- Use canned and frozen foods (judiciously, I'll add) to speed meal prep time.
- Use fewer dishes, if possible. Plan one-dish meals, such as casseroles and stews. Less to clean up afterward.
I'll be providing the recipes tomorrow. English Monkey is a dish that was around during the Great Depression. Curious sounding name, right? And the "Pep Up" sandwich filling sounds like a food I need right now. Stay tuned to find out how these dishes were made.
I was curious about English monkey. :) The tips for doing things faster are good, but the menu suggestions still sound rather time intensive to me given the scenario. But they had to do what they had to do.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteThe lunches sound more time intensive than I think most of us do today. The dinners sound a lot like what I do. With the breakfast, I wouldn't do both cereal and toast. I would choose one or the other. But I guess these menu suggestions were made with the understanding that snacking wasn't really a thing back then, and many people were working more physically than we do, with lots of walking as transportation or part of transportation for many (gas rations).
It's interesting to read, though.
Oooh, we should all try to guess what "English Monkey" is. That would be fun. I'm going to go with beans on toast, mostly because I think the English used to eat a lot of beans, and I think of monkeys as being brown, and depending on the bread/beans used, they could also be brown.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of raw veggies as a side to save time, as well as cooking with as few dishes as possible. Like L&L said, some of the menu items still sound labor intensive.
Hi Kris,
DeleteNo beans in English Monkey, but I like your reasoning. I have you covered on the bean-based sandwich filling -- there is one on another day's menu.
We do both raw veggies and fresh fruit as part of our dinners and lunches. Tangerines are often dessert, just as is. And when tomatoes are ripe from the garden, we often have tomato wedges as a side dish. I like their suggestion for a veggie tray using cabbage wedges and leafy greens. We normally use carrots, celery, maybe broccoli or strips of peppers. But adding some cabbage wedges sounds like a nice crunchy change from the usual veggie tray. And with my garden cabbages just a month away from first harvest, I think we'll be adding wedges to veggie trays.