A Week Living Off Rations

[jennyjj01]

Day 1

Today, after breakfast, I made a couple of small loaves of bread.

Breakfast: 50g porridge oats with 250ml of that re-hydrated milk and a tablespoon of honey.
Estimated 300kCal

Lunch: Half of 400g tin of Beef Stew with half a sachet Instant Mashed Potatoes. Make the other half tin/sachet into a sort of shepherds pie and refrigerate.
Estimated 350kCal

Dinner: Toast from the home-made bread with 1/3 of 400g tin of Pilchards in Tomato sauce. Refrigerate the rest.
Estimated 200kCal

Treat: 300ml Bottle of Budweiser.
Estimated 150kCal

Also 4 mugs of instant coffee, through the day with milk, no sugar.

Observations:

The bread came out well, but I missed having butter to spread on it.
Porridge was a delicious and satisfying breakfast.
Stew & Mash was what I'd imagine as a bunker meal. Half Tin & Half Pack of mash made for a rather frugal portion. But it was enough.
The Pilchards were not the most pleasant fish to have, after de-boning the contents, I used the sauce to 'butter' the toast. It was an acceptable, but modest meal. I was glad to have a beer to refresh my pallette
All three meals were mean/modest portions. I could have happily eaten twice as much. But it was enough.

Leftovers carried forward: Meagre Shepherds pie: 2/3 tin of Pilchards. 6 Trifles, Bread, >1.5L Milk.

[Arzosah]

I'm glad you've got the drinks all sorted, and interested to read the report of your first day ... but those portions really wouldn't be enough for me I might have to in the end, of course, but I couldn't start off with "frugal" portions, not unless an end of the world event had already happened. I'm a bad person that way

[jennyjj01]

... those portions really wouldn't be enough for me I might have to in the end, of course, but I couldn't start off with "frugal" portions.

I'm tending to work these 'recommended' portion sizes because in SHTF, my tendency is to be pessimistic and fear running out. Plus I need to lose weight and I'm looking for quick results. I could easily eat far much more. I'm being hard on myself now, so the end of the week is going to have treats to look forward to.

[Arzosah]

I'm being hard on myself now, so the end of the week is going to have treats to look forward to.

Ah! I use that trick on myself too, sometimes it works really well. Good luck Jenny!

[pseudonym]

Thanks for the update.

[mcprepper]

You should definitely lose weight on those portions! I think the body would go into emergency panic mode if you tried to sustain it for too long and metabolism would slow down? I guess that’s what would happen in reality anyway if shtf… all part of the experiment? Good luck with it all

[jennyjj01]

Day 2

Initial observation: Mr JJ was irritated by my Pilchard breath last night. Note to self

Breakfast: One of my previously made up trifles
Estimated 180kCal

Lunch: Rice & Pilchards, comprising 60g Dried Rice & 1/3 Tin Pilchards in Tomato Sauce. I cooked and chilled an extra portion of rice for tomorrow.
Estimated 400kCal

Dinner: 1/3 tin of baked beans on some of my bread, toasted.
Estimated 250kCal
Dessert: A trifle
Estimated 180kCal

Observations:
Starting to tire of pilchards, already . Actually they go OK with Rice. Better than with toast.
Leftovers carried forward: Shepherds pie: 1/3 tin of Pilchards. 2/3 tin Baked Beans, 4 Trifles, Boiled Rice, >1.5L made up milk. Bread.

[pseudonym]

Bread looks tasty.

Any noticeable affects? Tiredness etc...

[Arzosah]

Any yearning for snacks, or sweet stuff? Sweets are over at breakfast!

[jennyjj01]

Bread looks tasty.

Any noticeable affects? Tiredness etc...

Any yearning for snacks, or sweet stuff? Sweets are over at breakfast!

Yes. The bread is better than our usual white sliced. Well chuffed with that.
Not noticeably tired and though not feeling hungry per se, I'm not particularly sated, either.

I ALWAYS yearn for snacks and the only difference this week is that I'm trying harder to resist. That's why I snuck in a trifle for dessert, yesterday.