Lunch Hour

I've been doing a pretty good job with these vintage lunch menus lately... I can only say "pretty good," because even this week I broke down and took one of my pre-mission frozen lunches to work on Wednesday. (I'd eaten the same lunch for the last two days in a row and couldn't face it one more time!) I've finally reached the bottom of that carton of soup, so I'm planning a new menu for tomorrow. First, though, let's take a closer look at the last one. How much of an improvement was this vintage menu over a typical pre-mission lunch? Here's the 1945 menu, with a few adaptations in the interest of my waistline:

Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Open-faced Cheese Sandwich on Whole-grain Bread with Mustard and Lettuce
Celery
Olives
Fresh Pear

Now let's compare it to one of my normal pre-mission lunches - a frozen Enchilada Pie by Cedarlane.

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 430
Fat: 14g
Sodium: 1,190mg
Carbohydrates: 52g
Protein: 26g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 350
Fat: 16g
Sodium: 1,530mg
Carbohydrates: 37g
Protein: 16g

Kind of a mixed bag this time. I certainly take a sodium hit whenever soup is on the menu. All in all, though, I'd say these vintage menus are doing well by me. Here's the original menu for tomorrow, straight from The American Woman's Cook Book (1945):

Oven Baked Beans
Catchup
Boston Brown Bread Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Filling
Cole Slaw
Applesauce
Milk

...with a few edits:

Vegetarian Baked Beans
Catchup
Open-faced Raisin Brown Bread Sandwich with Light Cream Cheese
Pennsylvania Cabbage Salad
Applesauce

Lunchtime at work is still a bit rushed. I zoom out the door at noon - as soon as I've slathered on some sunblock and thrown a cap on. I've been wearing heels most of the time these days, so I bought a cute little pair of slide-on canvas shoes with a good sole that make that noon walk so much more comfortable! My iPod in my pocket and away I go... You know, I remember vividly when this routine was new and it seemed like a massive rush to walk for 30 minutes and try to cram down a meal. These days, it doesn't really seem so bad. I'm usually back in the office by 12:35. My lunch takes less time to prepare - maybe two minutes in the microwave for my soup (versus five minutes for one of the frozen meals). That gives me a good 15 minutes to eat, a quick trip to the ladies' room to powder my nose and reapply lipstick, then I'm back to work. Admittedly, I don't always have time for fruit after eating my lunch, so I'm sure to fit it in as a mid-afternoon snack when that happens.

Once a week, I treat myself to a chance to wear a dress with those heels. I have one weekday off from my mid-day walk. One chance to dress up and wear the kind of clothes that I can't really do any power walking in. What surprises me is that I find myself a little antsy on my days off. That uninterrupted hour seems to go on forever! What a turn-around.

The Housewife's Tool Box: Thinking Ahead

Let's hear it for persistence... I nailed that vintage lunchbox menu today. (It's about time!) And just because I want to make sure these vintage menus are really and truly better for me, I'm going to compare the basic nutritional stats to one of my typical pre-mission lunches. I used to love having one of those table-ready cans of Campbell's Creamy Tomato Parmesan Bisque with probably two or three servings' worth of Rosemary and Olive Oil Triscuits and Trader Joe's Chunky Olive Hummus. Yummalicious! And yet:

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 640
Fat: 36.5g
Sodium: 1,480mg *gasp*
Carbohydrates: 82g
Protein: 16g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 360
Fat: 23.5g
Sodium: 370mg
Carbohydrates: 27g
Protein: 17g

Yikes. My vintage lunch menu today was a no-holds-barred improvement on a typical pre-mission lunch. So far, these 1945 lunches - with a little tweaking - are undeniably a change for the better. Here's the adapted menu for tomorrow:

Organic Creamy Tomato Soup
Open-faced Cheese Sandwich with Mustard and Lettuce on Whole-grain Bread
Celery
Olives
Fresh Pear

All this fuss over lunches here at the Jitterbug household has made me think about just how important forethought was to the 1940s housewife. You might have the latest washing machine, a state-of-the-art vacuum, and an amazing storage closet, but you couldn't run an efficient home without the ability to think ahead. To anticipate the needs of tomorrow and the day after that. To plan, to remember, to always have a foot in the next meal while cleaning up after the last one. The kitchen - the basic, never-ending demands of the battle to put nutritious, affordable meals on the table three times a day --- the kitchen probably requires more forethought than any other facet of housekeeping. And when it came to rationing - a family couldn't have survived without the forethought an experienced mother and wife had ready to apply to the challenge.

My own vintage meals are several days in the making. Before doing my twice-weekly marketing, I sit down to plan my menus for the week ahead. Buying produce especially can be a trick. If I buy it too far in advance, it'll spoil before it hits the table. Produce that keeps or that needs time to ripen can be purchased a little farther in advance. How many eggs have I got on hand? How many days 'til my milk expires? Can I get a better deal on spices at the supermarket or at the natural foods store? All these questions must be weighed as I make my way through the store. I'll bet most successful housewives constantly carry about in their heads a running inventory of their pantry!

In the evenings, I must look ahead to the morning. Have I got enough space in the dishwasher for tomorrow's breakfast dishes? Is there anything which needs to be taken out of the freezer to thaw? Anything to soak overnight? My latest question: What can I prepare in advance for tomorrow's lunch? If a vintage dinner is in the works: Are there any dishes I can make up before I've finished cleaning up after lunch?

I don't think this kind of forethought has to come naturally... If it did, I'd be in serious trouble. It's a learned skill, I think. Something you just become better at with lots and lots of practice. I haven't picked it up completely myself. There are plenty of moments where I wish I'd thought of something hours ago - or days ago. But those kinds of moments come fewer and farther between these days. See? There is hope for all you last-minute types like me!

Eating Out

You know what I forgot? Those sodium- and preservative-packed lunches actually make it pretty easy for me to get in that workout at lunchtime on weekdays. Today was my day off from walking, but it took me a good 10 minutes to assemble my lunch in the kitchen at work. That's going to be tough to pull off the rest of this week when I've only got about 20 minutes to eat... It also took me long enough to make my vintage lunch this morning that my whole sense of timing was thrown off and I actually had to leave the house without my bed made and with dirty dishes in the sink. Eek! Just one little change and everything's a mess. Here's the menu I adapted from the original:

Organic Creamy Broccoli Soup
Open-faced Egg Salad Sandwich on Whole-grain Bread with Lettuce and Tomatoes
Green Pepper Strips
Fruit Salad (Apple, Strawberries, Blueberries)

First, I'll have to say that it was a yummy, filling meal. Even without the Crackers, a second slice of bread, and the Cup Cake. What I might have eaten for lunch today without this mission in place is an Amy's Broccoli Pot Pie with some fruit for dessert. So let's do some basic nutritional comparisons of the non-raw fruit/veggie components of these lunch menus:

Typical pre-mission lunch
Calories: 430
Fat: 22g
Sodium: 630mg
Carbohydrates: 46g
Protein: 11g

Vintage lunch, adapted
Calories: 260
Fat: 19.5g
Sodium: 690mg
Carbohydrates: 32g
Protein: 14g

Interesting... My vintage lunch was better in every respect except for sodium. Boy, that soup sure packs a wallop! I'd bet if I was making the soup from scratch with a low sodium broth, I could make a difference there. I'm loving the drop in the number of calories. Will my lower calorie lunch make a difference in my ability to resist the temptation to snack tonight? It didn't make any difference this afternoon.

I'm sure I'll get better at packing these lunches. It'd help ginormously if I actually owned some good lunch-packing equipment. The American Woman's Cook Book (1945) has some serviceable sounding suggestions on preparing and packing lunches.

Sandwich-making tips:

• Whole grain breads should be used for sandwiches. Graham, whole wheat, oatmeal, brown, raisin, and nut bread are excellent. [I guess they hold up better to sandwich fillings!]
  
  
• Pack lettuce separately, to be added just before eating.
  
  
• Fillings for sandwiches may be packed in small jars and buttered bread in waxed paper included for spreading just before eating.
  

Adding a hot or cold dish:

• Special vacuum containers make it possible to include hot cocoa or hot soup in the lunch, also a creamed vegetable, a hot pudding, or other hot food. The containers should never be filled the night before the lunch is prepared.
  
  
• In the winter have something hot and invigorating in the thermos bottle: Hot soup, coffee, tea, baked beans, hot chocolate, or stew. Something cool and refreshing in the summertime, such as lemonade, tomato juice, fruit juices, chocolate milk shake, milk, iced tea or iced coffee, canned fruit juices.
  

General packing advice:

• Stewed or canned fruits may be carried in any small screw-top container. Cold puddings, custards or similar desserts may also be carried in this manner.
  
  
• All foods not in containers should be wrapped separately in waxed paper before being placed in the box. The neatly wrapped articles should be placed, so far as is possible, in the order in which the lunch will be eaten, so that those found first may be eaten first without disturbing the remainder. The heaviest foods, however, should be placed at the bottom of the box.
  
  
• Articles should be packed compactly in order to prevent the food from shaking about.
  
  
• Lunch boxes should be washed, scalded and aired daily. Those made of lightweight metal are best. Many attractive boxes are now made with a vacuum bottle which fits the box.

It is a bit hard to imagine toting one of those old-fashioned black metal lunchboxes to work with me everyday. (Imagine if I ran into Curly with one of those in my hand!) And yet most of the soft-sided lunch bags I see out there these days don't provide much support for items wrapped in wax paper. The only tools I've got right now are a few plastic sandwich-sized containers and some custard cups with lids. Usually I just toss a few things in my tote bag --- but they're frozen, so no big deal. That arrangement isn't going to cut it when I've got soup to carry along! I'd like to find something that doesn't really look like a lunch box, but provides the same protection to my noonday meal. Any ideas?

Perception v. Reality

Feeling under the weather is so dreary. I guess colds and viruses have their way with us all every once in awhile, but I can't wait to feel better again! I looked at my blog today and couldn't believe how many days have gone by since I felt like posting - or eating - or, well, doing much of anything. What a week!

The chores I do these days are done out of pure desperation. Run out of clothes (well, good clothes)? Guess I'd better haul myself down to the laundromat. No time or energy for sorting or turning out pockets or mulling over modern fabrics. I made my bed once a few days ago when I couldn't stand not having the bedcovers tucked in all tidily. I have no appetite still, so I'm eating catch as catch can. My housekeeping routine flew a white flag to illness several days ago.

So I'll make this a brief post. I noticed that my one-month mission in analyzing my food dollar ran its course a couple days ago. Here is how America's Housekeeping Book (1945) recommends that housewives spend their "food dollar":

It helps also occasionally to keep a detailed food record for a couple of weeks or a month with separate totals for cost of cereal foods; fruits and vegetables; meats, fish and eggs; milk and cheese; and in a final class, fats, sugar and miscellaneous items. On a modest income, in order to get a balanced diet, not far from 1/5 of the food money should go for each of these five groups.

As embarrassing as it's been to bare how my own food dollar breaks down, I guess things can only improve from here!

Fats, Sugar and Miscellaneous Items = $247.04 (66%)

Fruits and Vegetables = $40.40 (11%)

Cereal Foods = $37.95 (10%)

Milk and Cheese = $30.64 (8%)

Eggs, Beans, and Soy = $19.64 (5%)

Part of the reason the first category is so large is because I eat many more frozen, prepared foods than is good for my pocketbook or my waistline. When you have a deathly fear of doing dishes or dirtying up a kitchen you don't want to clean, reheating frozen foods is a heck of a lot easier than cooking a meal from scratch. Using multiple pots and pans. Spilling things on the stovetop.

I am very surprised by the total I'm spending on food. In one month, I spent $375.67. What I thought I was spending on food was about $250-275 per month. Quite a difference between perception and reality! I'm sure that as I reform my dinner habits - slowly, but surely - there will be some changes here. So I'll try this mini-mission again in several months and plan on seeing some improvements.

Case of Mr. F. . . .

We met Mrs. F. a two days ago and got to know why even a dieting housewife needs a good day's breakfast. Alas, her disinterest in breakfast has led her to prepare boring meals for Mr. F. every morning, and now he can't be bothered with breakfast any longer. Can Better Homes and Gardens save the day?

Case of Mr. F. . . .

Mr. F. has no appetite for breakfast, often goes to the office without eating anything, getting coffee and rolls later on. He feels midmorning hunger pangs, yawns at his desk. His hands aren't steady as he lights a cigarette (B1 shortage) [I'm betting that's just the nicotine!] and he's losing his hair prematurely (B2 deficiency).

Breakfasts served were so monotonous that Mr. F. lost interest in eating...

Mineral and vitamin defects lead to his lowered mental activity. Diminishing glycogen reserves (form in which sugar, starches are stored in the tissues) hasten fatigue, important factor in accidents. Most industrial injuries occur before noon.

In evening, at home, Mr. F. is tuckered out, irritable; doesn't want to romp with the children...

Calculated energy expenditure for man weighing 154 pounds, in sedentary job, is about 2,400 calories a day.

Suggested breakfast

1/2 medium grapefruit

1/2 shredded wheat biscuit

Fried egg

2 crisp bacon strips

2 slices toast (whole wheat)

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup top milk

5/8 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons sugar

Coffee

I sampled Mr. F.'s suggested breakfast menu this morning - without the bacon, of course. I skipped the shredded wheat as I was already eating toast with the egg. A filling meal, though frying isn't my favorite way to prepare eggs. It's tough to keep them from browning and get that yolk fully cooked. I've got half a grapefruit left over, so I'll give that another try tomorrow morning.

Today is Ironing Day, and I think I'm making some headway with this new craft o' mine. The only one of those Top Ten tips that is still eluding me: "Iron with straight strokes, with the thread of the fabric." You quilters out there must be able to recognize the "thread" right away, but this is still so mysterious to me. And in some of these synthetic blends, I can barely even discern a weave to the fabric. I think I must have learned to iron by puddling the iron about in semi-circles, so straight strokes feel very awkward. Did the '40s housewife have to maneuver the iron about in this way because the irons weren't as smooth and light as today's irons, or are "straight strokes" actually easier on the fabric?

Well, I've just finished ironing my first sheet. I tried it this first time using the "four thickness at once" method, and it didn't take too, too long. It's neatly folded and stacked up with two freshly ironed pillowcases. (They haven't looked this good since they came out of the package!) But what to do with the fitted sheet? The manual gives me no help on this topic as fitted sheets hadn't yet been invented. I'm going to have to do some additional research and leave the fitted sheet wrinkly this time 'round.

Case of Mrs. F. . . .

I started off the day with a breakfast menu straight from the pages of the February 1947 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. It's one of three menus in an article called "Why Don't You Eat a Good Breakfast?" The author presents profiles of three fictional Americans - the reasons they don't eat breakfast and some purportedly practical and tasty solutions. Here's an excerpt from the first profile:

Case of Mrs. F. . . .

Mrs. F. is overweight, yet has many colds. Her usual breakfast of coffee, frosted sweet rolls (350 calories each) is short of proteins, vitamins, minerals...

While hanging wash, Mrs. F. feels chilled, starts sneezing. Her resistance is low (studies show possible relation between resistance to tuberculosis and foods rich in protein, Vitamins A and C). [Way to scare the skirts off your readers!] A breakfast of fruit, enriched cereal, and egg would have given her food essentials for morning tasks.

Interested in a dieting fad, she decides to skip breakfast entirely, has to draw on her reserves of fat for heat and energy every morning. In a short time she suffers from a fat shortage, marked by constant hunger, lack of pep, vague discomfort...

Woman weighing 130 pounds, keeping house, has a daily energy requirement of about 2,300 calories. Milk is a must.

Suggested breakfast
1 slice canned pineapple with sirup
2/3 cup oatmeal
1 cup whole milk for cereal
1/4 cup coffee cream
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 slices toast (enriched white bread)
Coffee

I did make a couple adaptations. Used 1% instead of whole milk with my oatmeal and coffee. Skipped the buttered toast entirely. But then I'm not yet doing the kinds of hard physical labor Mrs. F. was doing in 1947. After my morning chores, I was free today 'til this evening. Stay tuned for Mr. F.'s breakfast issues in an upcoming post...

My routine is going to see a few adaptations of its own during the next two weeks. My sister is taking her youngest home on Wednesday to spend several days with our parents, so I'm going to be playing substitute mom for my older niece. On weeknights, I'll be picking her up at her grandmother's when I get out of work and staying at her house until my brother-in-law gets home from work around 10:30. And because of the way his work schedule falls, I'll have her both days next weekend from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It's going to be lovely to spend so much one-on-one time with her, but I am going to be one tired chickadee by the time I crawl into bed each night. (She's only two years old and a ball of energy!) As for housework --- my goal is just to keep things running at the level they have been while all this extra work is afoot. No more new missions until my sister is home and I've had a day or two to recover. If I can keep everything running "as is" for the next two weeks, I'll be very proud.

I may have to shift some of my daily chores around a bit, though. Which is something I need to be able to do with any routine. I want to be sure that I still have some empty-ish time slots left over in every week so that I can make some adjustments when something social comes up or when family calls. As comforting as it is to have an appointed day and time for every chore - and as critical as that is while I'm trying to make habits of these chores - I need to build some flexibility into my schedule so that unexpected things don't trip me up. I think that's going to be key to getting through the next two weeks and getting through life, period. A 1940s housewife would have needed some flexibility herself for that monthly club meeting or when her spouse or child was sick at home and needed extra tending. The daily stuff needs to get done no matter what, but the weekly stuff needs to be more portable. What do you think?

Spending the Food Dollar Wisely

America's Housekeeping Book (1945) has lots of advice on the topic of budgeting for groceries. Some of it dated, as food used to be more expensive than it is today. Some of it might be very useful, though. For starters:

If the income is small, food costs loom large in proportion. Sometimes when the family is large the entire budget must be built around this item… If menus are planned and written down several days ahead, marketing will be easier and less costly. You will find it possible to take advantage of “week-end specials,” to plan for leftovers, and to provide for more variety in the meals you serve to your family. Cooking ability is a big help in cutting food costs, because inexpensive foods, skillfully prepared, often top higher-priced foods in flavor, health value and “appetite appeal.”

There's nothing old school about that. Simple foods can make wonderful meals, and experience in the kitchen can make a small budget go a long way. No matter what the proportion of your income you spent on food - families were expected in the '40s to spend anywhere from 20 to 35% - there are some rules of thumb as to how to spend it:

It helps also occasionally to keep a detailed food record for a couple of weeks or a month with separate totals for cost of cereal foods; fruits and vegetables; meats, fish and eggs; milk and cheese; and in a final class, fats, sugar and miscellaneous items. On a modest income, in order to get a balanced diet, not far from 1/5 of the food money should go for each of these five groups.

The author of my 1945 cookbook is in complete agreement on this point. You should find your "food dollar" split five ways:

ONE-FIFTH or more for whole milk, cream, cheese and cod-liver oil for growing children. Plan to give each child 1 quart and each adult at least 1 pint of milk in some form, per day.

ONE-FIFTH for vegetables and fruit, with emphasis on the green leaf and yellow fruits and vegetables. Serve at least 1 cooked vegetable, besides potatoes, and 1 fresh vegetable each day. Serve fresh fruit twice a day, with citrus fruit at least once.

ONE-FIFTH or less for meats, fish and eggs, serving liver in some form at least once a week.

ONE-FIFTH for breads and cereals, especially the whole grains.

ONE-FIFTH for fats, sugar and other groceries.

I've decided to keep track of my own food expenditures for the next month so I can find out if my "food dollar" is supporting a balanced diet. I never even keep my grocery receipts, so I'll have to remind myself not to just throw them away! I'll keep a running tally on the sidebar. It'll be interesting to find out how it all breaks down at the end of a month. Since I'm a vegetarian, I think I'll include things like eggs, soy, beans, and hummus in that third category - the protein-packed foods. Prepared foods that are a combination of things really ought to go into the last category. I made a quick stop at the supermarket today, so I'll start the tally right away.

By the by, have any of you ever broiled grapefruit? It's on the menu for breakfast tomorrow morning and I've never even used a broiler! Should I cut it in slices? Cut all the peel off? I guess I should start by actually looking inside my broiler. I have no idea what it looks like in there...