Eating Out and Filling Up (with Guilt)

Remember waaaay back at the beginning of the Rational Living year when all the household members predicted that the self-imposed limitations on eating out would be the hardest part? And then in February I blogged this entry:

We are all surprised at how manageable the transition to reduced restaurant visitation has been.

It was like we were some bad-ass non-eating out ninjas who could quickly and silently whip up an easy dinner in the chaos of the day. Only a half-hour to eat between getting home and piano lessons? No problem! Running errands that conflict with lunch time? Just grab some snacks to tide us over until we eat a real meal at home.

Yeah, that was so February.

In the past few weeks we've definitely been experiencing a backslide in this category. An extra dinner out. Grabbing a quick sandwich while out shopping (who can resist the $5 foot-long with that catchy song?). And I was beginning to feel guilty about this slide, because we originally planned to reduce our allotted rationing points on the weeks we went out and because I'm very quick to feel guilt (seriously, it's amazing I'm not more religious with how quickly I can feel at blame even if I'm not).

We had decided to reduce our ration points during eating-out weeks because I had read in several sources general comments about how during WWII rationing consumers had to turn over ration points for meals eaten in restaurants. This made sense, since eating in restaurants would be an easy way to supplement rationing if points weren't involved.

So I did a little more research to see just how justified my guilt was for our recent transgressions. I had a hard time finding any specific information until I found this little gem. It's an article from the May 5, 1943 Wichita Eagle entitled, "Persons Eating Regularly At Cafes, Institutions, Must Pay Ration Points." Finally! Here was a historical source that would accurately admonish our current behavior and set us on a straight and righteous path when it comes to eating out during the rationing year!

The article clearly concludes:

OPA regulations state that all persons who consume eight or more meals a week in a restaurant, hotel dining room, hospital or institution which has registered as an institutional user of processed food, meat, and fats, shall surrender their ration books to the owner or operator of such places of business, and stamps will be removed by the management for the periods which stamps are currently valid. The books in turn will be turned back to their owners at the expiration of the period which the persons are receiving meals in such institutions. [bold added]

What? What? What? Eight or more meals a week? What? Seriously? You don't have to surrender ration points unless your eating eight or more meals out a week? I don't think I've ever eaten eight times out in a one week period, in my whole life!

Oh hell. Let me tell you, dear reader, that that foot-long sandwich is gonna taste a whole lot better without the extra side of guilt.

--Rational Mama

Temper Tantrum

You know that howling three-year-old in the store, screaming at the top of her lungs, eyes red and wet from her emotional outburst? The one you can hear half-way across the store, exclaiming her certainty that the world is unfair and justice must be served to her NOW?

That's kind of how I feel about rationing right now.

I'm tired of the constraints and the rules and the can't haves and can't do's.

I was already feeling this way a bit (I think it's part of the natural stir-crazy feeling that comes at the end of winter) but it reared it's ugly head big-time in the past few days when we went on a mini-vacation with our good friends.

Late Monday afternoon we went to a local indoor water park/hotel combo (using some of our saved-up miles) and got away from the everyday mundane, if only for a day.

No points. No counting.

Since both families were doing a vacay-on-the-cheap we both brought our own breakfast and lunch supplies for the second day. We did eat out at a restaurant Monday night, but our ration points for the week were reduced as a result.

No points. No counting.

And then back to reality.

I didn't want to leave vacation. I didn't want to be subjected to the rationing rules again.

We arrived back home early Tuesday evening and I didn't want to stop being on vacation. I didn't want to fix our ration-friendly meal and deal with the dishes and the clean-up and the work. So Sissy and I headed to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant (TMOTH and Eowyn had eaten enough junk throughout the day and weren't hungry for dinner).

This was a contraband meal.

I think it's even getting a little to TMOTH, who is typically a very easy-going guy. Last week his self-imposed rationing-year ban on liquid forms of caffeine came to a crashing end when he had two Cokes in one day (and proceeded to feel a little queasy).

Sigh.

I can only imagine that what I'm feeling was par for the course in 1943, as families adjusted to the new wartime rationing system. Granted, at this point in 1943 canned goods rationing had only been in effect for six or seven weeks and meat/fat/cheese rationing had only been enforced for two weeks.

This coming Saturday we will be entering our 13th week of rationing.

On the bright side, we will be 1/4 of the way through our rationing year. In 1943 no one knew how long the rationing would last (or who, more importantly, would win the war).

I can only hope that the next six months will be easier, as more fresh produce options become available and healthier menu plans can be accommodated. It will be nice to work in the garden and feel the sunshine on our skin and feel like we're making progress towards preserving a stash of produce for winter.

Until then, I might be a little pouty about this rationing thing.

So bear with me, folks, while I have my tantrum.

Like the three-year-old in the store, I'll be done with it in 15 minutes and get distracted by something shiny and forget what it was that I was upset about.

I promise.

--Rational Mama

General Tso's Confession

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned.

Okay, sinned may be a strong word. But I did stray from the path set before me during rationing year.

You see, part of our self-imposed regulations includes the girls and I going out to lunch only once a month. Last Sunday I found myself in a dilemma; waist deep in the griminess of spring cleaning, I made a deal with the girls.

See, we were doing that only-one-or-twice-a-year cleaning. The kind where you get the telescoping duster and dust everything up really high, including ceiling fans and molding. And then you work your way down, dusting and cleaning and getting rid of all the trash and clutter that has built up since the last time you did this sort of thing.

And I was faced with a dilemma: stop everything and make lunch, then clean-up after lunch and somehow convince the girls to get back on the cleaning bandwagon.

Or...

...bribe the girls with Chinese takeout for lunch if they kept with it. Even though we had already eaten out for our one time that month.

I chose the bribe.

Yes, sweet, delicious sesame chicken and General Tso's chicken; I have you to thank for the upstairs being thoroughly cleaned by the time Sunday came to a close. You kept us motivated and were much cheaper than hiring a cleaning service.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to do the same thorough cleaning of the main living level of the house. And I vow to do it without restaurant delicacies.

I do, however, have supplies for chocolate chip cookies.

I'm not insane, you know...

--Rational Mama

Just Ask! A Matter of Finances

This week's question is from Rational Living reader Rebecca, who asked:

"Do you keep close track of your household finances and, if so, are you seeing substantial savings from all these homemade meals and not eating out?"

Great question!

I consulted the great Quicken oracle for some fast stats on the same period (Dec. 26 through Feb. 21) this year and last year and here's what I discovered:

Dec. 26, 2008 through Feb. 21, 2009
Gasoline: $197.86 (avg. price per gallon $1.87)
Eating Out: $241.72
Groceries: $1019.60
Total: $1459.18

Dec. 26, 2009 through Feb. 21, 2010
Gasoline: $147.60 (avg. price per gallon $2.50)
Eating Out: $106.50
Groceries: $735.01
Total: $989.11

Total savings while rationing (so far): over $470.00

Not too shabby, huh?

I know we had extra miles last February when Eowyn was hospitalized for a few days at a children's hospital around 60 miles away from home, but in general we've been able to reduce our consumption just by being more efficient with our trips. If you divide last year's figure by the average cost per gallon, that equates to 106 gallons, whereas the more recent figure equates to only 59 gallons. Even if you subtract last year's extra trips to/from the children's hospital our current rate of consumption for gasoline is down 39%.

Our eating out tab has reduced to less than half of last year's expenses. We are all surprised at how manageable the transition to reduced restaurant visitation has been.

Finally, our grocery tab is down 33%, even though more meals at home theoretically means more groceries. I imagine it is because we are spending less on commercially prepared items. Our cost per person has dropped from $4.39 per person/per day last year to $3.16 per person/per day during rationing. That figure includes several different occasions of having company over for dinner, so that actual figure is less than that. Now, some bloggers out there will say that it is still too high, but since I work outside of the home 40 hours a week and don't have the availability to prepare certain foods (breads and pastas) from scratch (although I would really love to), I'm pretty happy with that figure.

What are we doing with this savings? Well, our charitable giving is significantly higher than last year. Very significantly. Otherwise, we're trying to set aside the extra for a fabulous family vacation post-rationing.

What would you do with the extra savings?

--Rational Mama

It's One of THOSE Days...

I accidentally left my lunch sitting on the kitchen counter top when I went to work today.

Luckily, I live close enough (and drove today) that I could run home during lunch to get it/eat it.

At lunch time I ran down a flight of stairs, across the alley, up a flight of stairs in the parking garage and over to my car...and then realized I left my purse in the office. Ugh.

Back down a flight of stairs, across the alley, up a flight of stairs to grab the purse.

A co-worker who doesn't know about our rationing program (really, I'm sure they all think I'm weird enough already) suggested I just run next door to the sandwich shop and grab lunch instead.

If only it were that easy. I am not allowed to eat lunch out during rationing year, but she doesn't know that so her comment is well-meaning.

Back down a flight of stairs, across the alley, up a flight of stairs in the parking garage and over to my car, then home to eat my left-overs which were luckily still chilled by their little freezer pack insert.

The dog was happy to see me. Good dog.

After lunch it's drive back to work, run down a flight of stairs in the parking garage, run across the alley then up a flight of stairs in the office and sit.

Sigh. Two and a half miles added to the weekly total because I forgot my lunch.

At least I got a decent mini stair workout.

--Rational Mama

OMG

We went out to eat tonight (a rarity for rationing year).

I had a salad.

A nice, crispy, juicy, green, leafy salad.

With cucumbers.

And a small, decent-tasting tomato.

Compared to this, that "heaven" label for last night's SPAM is just crazy talk.

Goodness, how I miss lettuce!

--Rational Mama

Preparing for the Big Day AND Another Week of Scenarios

Things are in full chaos mode at the Rational Living household. Sissy's birthday party (with 15 attendees!) is on Saturday afternoon, so we're in a frenzy of cooking, cleaning and crepe paper. But I squeezed out a few minutes to let you know how we did last week and what scenarios we are facing this week.

Last week we used 62 of our 64 red points and 125 of our 192 blue/green points.

We used 125 of our 193 miles.

We had a special treat on Tuesday when the Rational Living household was taken out to eat in honor of Rational Mama's thirty-f(*cough*cough*) birthday. We had a lovely dinner at the local Indian restaurant and the night was rather ration-friendly, since most ate vegetarian meals and we had plenty of blue/green points left to "pay" for the frozen vegetables that were used.

However, the dinner out got use thinking...during the weeks that we go out to dinner it doesn't seem fair to give ourselves the full amount of ration points, since we don't count our meal's points when dining out. So, since this Tuesday is our regularly-scheduled, no special event, only once a month, Rational Living household night out for dinner we are only allotted 13/14ths of our ration points: 59 red and 178 blue/green points.

With that in mind, here's our four scenarios for the week (that's the most scenarios per week so far!):

• Beef - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
  
• Coffee - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
  
• Canned fruit - scarce, available but at 1 1/2 the normal ration points
  
• Dried fruit - scarce, available but at 1 1/2 the normal ration points

As if the fruit issue wasn't challenging enough. Sigh.

Two recipes on the menu this week call for one pound of ground beef per recipe, so that will now be 1/2 pound each, to be extended by adding black beans. Tortillas also make another appearance this week. Since our town has had a thriving Hispanic population since the late 1800s we are allowing ourselves this treat, as they would have been available in local markets during the 1940's.

This week's menu:

Saturday: Sissy's Birthday Party! Homemade macaroni and cheese (historic recipe), coleslaw, broccoli casserole, relish tray and banana cake (historic recipe)

Sunday: Tacos and (canned) corn - special request for Sissy's real birthday

Monday: SPAM burgers and oven-fried cabbage (thanks to reader Carla for the great cabbage idea!)

Tuesday: Out!

Wednesday: Spaghetti marinara

Thursday: Cheese enchiladas and black beans

Friday: Hot dogs, saffron rice and carrots

Did you see that on Monday?!?! It's our first SPAM recipe! I have vague memories of having SPAM a few times as a child and being mesmerized by the thought of meat in a can. I'm interested to see how the girls react. I'll report all the gory details and let you know how the party fare is received.

Have a great weekend!

--Rational Mama

This Week's Scenarios and Menu

Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer has spoken! Our scenarios for this week are:

Processed Meats - no new purchases available

Coffee - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available

Whew! I am so thankful that cheese and butter were not restricted, since we're saving them up for Sissy's birthday party on the 15th!

We'll be fine with the processed meat we have on hand (leftover pepperoni from last week's purchase) and since we're not big coffee drinkers we're doing quite fine with the 2 pounds I purchased at the beginning of rationing.

We have a few left-over anachronisms in the refrigerator and cupboard that we'll get rid of this week to put us on the up and up. Hence, the tortillas and wonton wrappers mentioned in the menu below:

Saturday: Homemade pizza (pepperoni, olive, onion and pineapple for the girls)
Sunday: Homemade tacos and (canned) corn
Monday: Mushroom and barley soup with fresh-baked bread
Tuesday: Out for Rational Mama's birthday!
Wednesday: Egg puffs and (frozen) mixed vegetables
Thursday: Turkey wontons and (frozen) broccoli
Friday: French toast casserole and (frozen) blueberries


For this week's menu we used 62 of our 64 red points on ground beef for the tacos, canola oil, turkey for the wontons and cheese and butter for Sissy's birthday menu.

We used 125 of our allotted 192 blue/green points on canned pineapple and other fruit, canned corn, spaghetti sauce and beef broth. Mostly, though, our blue/green points were used for frozen produce; we are desparately missing the variety of fresh produce normally available to us. Everyone in the household agrees that this is the hardest part of rationing so far.

I also purchased an additional 2 pounds of sugar.

Tuesday night's dinner out with family will be the first time we've eaten out since at least December 26th. Not a new world record, I know, but a good change. We have a no-rules policy towards eating out during the rationing year, since we will be doing it so rarely. This gives our modern souls a little break and is still in line with the historical example. Early in the rationing period purchases at restaurants were not included, but the government quickly decided that wasn't in the best interest of the general food supply. Folks still ate out in restaurants during the war although selections were often, but not always, limited and ration points were usually recorded.

As for the gasoline ration, last week we used 73 of our allotted 193 miles. Pretty impressive, but the horrible weather we've had has made us more home-bound than usual. I expect that number to increase significantly once warmer weather is the norm.

It will be interesting to see exactly how lunch and dessert for 17 people will work out on the 15th. I've got one more week to prepare and plan and calculate ration points.

Oh, and there's at least two more historical recipe posts on the way! One was nice and comforting, the other was...well...you'll see. If points allow then next week we will try our first SPAM recipe!

--Rational Mama

A Rational Review

Now that we've survived the first day of rationing, I thought I'd review all of the rations/restrictions that we are following during this rationing year.

These allotments follow traditional U.S. civilian rationing during WWII:

Gasoline: maximum of 193 miles per week combined for our two vehicles (equivalent to the 11 gallons per week we would have been allowed during the War).
Sugar: maximum 2 pounds per week for our family of four.
Meat/Cheese/Oils: maximum 64 red points per week, following point values on this handy dandy chart (we are including poultry, which was not part of the original WWII U.S. civilian rationing program).
Canned, Frozen and Processed Fruits, Vegetables and Soups: up to 192 blue/green ration points per week following the handy dandy chart. [Editorial Note: during the 4th week of the rationing year it was discovered that we are only allowed 48 blue/green points. Big change!]
Coffee: Up to 1 pound per adult every 5 weeks.

All of the above restrictions, as well as some additional food items, are subject to change as a result of Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer.

In addition to the above we have also incorporated a host of additional restrictions during the rationing year:

Eating Out: we will eat out at a restaurant as a family only once a month, and I will have one weekend lunch out with the girls just once a month as well.
Limited Processed Foods: minimally processed and/or minimally-packaged foods will be preferred over other options (i.e. "real" carrots vs. bags of mini peeled carrots, no prepackaged snack cakes).
Seasonal Produce: only seasonal fresh produce may be purchased, following this list (if off-season, produce must be dried, canned or frozen and thus cost more rationing points).
Soda: permitted at a maximum of three 12 oz servings per week, per adult.
Limited New Purchases: all purchases must be evaluated for needs vs. wants and when possible second-hand options should be considered (Craig's List, Ebay, Goodwill and Freecycle).

We're also in the process of re-evaluating our energy usage in the Rational Living household, so additional energy ration guidelines may be added. We're notoriously bad about leaving lights on in unoccupied rooms and don't use power strips to power-down idle electronics. But that will be fodder for a future post!

In the meantime...pretty much the entire gang at the Rational Living household suspects that the eating out restrictions are where we will feel the most pain.

How often does your family eat out? Do you have a family plan about eating out, or is it more loosey-goosey?

Thanks for stopping by!

--Rational Mama

Rational Living Cast of Characters

Happy holidays from the Rational Living household! Since rationing begins tomorrow (eeek!), we thought we would formally introduce you to the Rational Living family. Here goes!

Rational Mama - Main author of the Rational Living blog. History nut, sci-fi geek, avid vegetable gardener and foodie. Has a history of establishing (and eventually ending) challenging relationships with food (kosher, vegetarian, no dairy, local...). Serves as main researcher for the rationing project. Predicts the hardest part of the rationing year will be unsatisfied food cravings.






The Man of the House (TMOTH) - Reader, philosopher, nerd, and even-tempered goofball. An all-or-nothing kind of guy. Guest author and moral compass for Rational Living. Predicts the hardest part of the rationing year will be explaining why we've chosen this project.







Sissy - Oldest of the two Rational Living children. Book reader, piano player and all-around animal lover. Pickier of the two kids when it comes to food. Predicts the hardest part of the rationing year will be the reduced sugar intake (she has a serious sweet tooth).





Eowyn - Youngest of the two Rational Living children. Family clown, movie watcher, and lover of pets (her current wish is to have a pet hamster). Rather adventuresome with her food choices. Predicts the hardest part of the rationing year will be going out to eat only once a month.





So that's the Rational Living family. Hope you and your family are enjoying this beautiful (and blizzardy) season!

--Rational Mama