Day 40

Breakfast: Porridge, Toast, with butter and honey, Hot Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Lunch: Vegetarian Stovies.
Tea Time: Cheese Pudding, with mashed turnip and potato, and cabbage.
Snacks: Homemade biscuits.

Well, that's it...

Final Thoughts:
This diet is kind of like a diet people would have eaten maybe in the UK up to victorian times and during World War 2 in the UK. Maybe we will go back to eating more things we can produce in our country if the prices of food continues to go up. It would be better for our counties sustainability- but I'm not sure we could produce enough food in this country at the levels we consume it just now.

As a vegetarian I'm still not sure that I would be able to be completely healthy for an extended period of time but in the short term its been reasonably varied. I maybe could have been more adventurous about what i have cooked. I am aware of a lack of beans and nuts that would usually be some part of my diet. I did use green split peas a few times- but after i was ill (unrelated to my diet) I didn't fancy eating them. In terms of other health benefits: I don't think I lost any weight; someone commented that my skin looked clearer; I've expressed concerns about my cholesterol level but actually cutting out the chocolate probably balances with the increased intake of butter, and cheese.

It was most difficult at the start finding things to eat and initially I was amazed at the lack of purely UK produce around- even the bread in the supermarket which says "100% British Wheat" has so many other ingredients including soya flour that it can't really be considered a UK product- in terms of my diet anyway. Most of the things I have eaten have been cooked from scratch and aren't pre-processed. I quite like that aspect of it really. I've surprised myself that things aren't as difficult to make as I feared- particularly bread. My main problems occurred where i hadn't planned ahead for eating and was left with a very small choice- oatcakes and butter at work for instance. Health food shops are pretty poor for UK produce, Supermarkets are a bit better and The Farm Shop was best of all- partly because you could ask them about where things came from- try that in any other shop and you often have a severe lack of knowledge. A guy in the health food shop thought all the teas would be okay because they were UK companies!

Another interesting things for me was that people always seemed keen to talk to me about it- everyone has an interest in food. This blog has the most comments I've had on a blog I have done. Thanks for all your support. I think Food is Political.

Things I think I will still do:
Make bread sometimes
Make cakes and biscuits
Maybe keep eating butter- I like the fact that it's got one ingredient vs the 10s of things that are in spreads.
Eat porridge or shredded wheat
Eat UK honey
Use the farm shop
Think about where food comes from a lot more, and buy local or UK where I can.

Amount I paid in forfeits: £86.45 -most of which comes from the salt, pepper and baking powder I used during the time- and when I was eating out and paying the cost of the meal as the forfeit - I did always try to eat something that could have been produced in the uk though- no pasta, rice, curries, pizza's, veggie sausages, tea, coffee or chocolate. All the things I'm looking forward to eating tomorrow morning at breakfast!

And next year: maybe do the same again- or maybe try a diet based on what people's rations were in ww2? who knows?

Day 39 Plastic vs Glass

Breakfast: Porridge, Toast with butter and honey, Hot Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Snack: Home made biscuits.
Lunch: Roasted Cheese, Co-op Apple and Spring Water.
TeaTime: Tortilla, with extra potatoes.

Packaging is an issue for us with our food. If you make most of your food you are going to cut down on packaging a lot- you still have some things that are packaged- like eggs and flour and sugar- but a lot more recyclable paper. Processed stuff usually comes in plastic. My main source of plastic has probably been in my Copella english apple juice. I was having a look to see if I could work out whether Plastic is better if it is recycled and a comparison to glass bottles for things. The Co-op fruit and spring water comes in a glass bottle (unfortunately making it look like an alcopop)
The main points are: Plastic is made from a non-renewable resource which will run out at some point. It can be recycled but only a limited number of times. Glass is made from sand and as such we have pretty abundant resources of it. It can also be recycled multiple times. Both could also be re-used but Glass is more suitable for multiple re-use. The website addresses below give some interesting facts and figures about glass and plastic.
The best thing really would be re-useable glass milk bottles and Barrs drinks (if I could have guaranteed they had all uk ingredients, and it was in the least way healthy!)
Re-use is better than recycling.Glass recycling
Plastic Recycling

Day 38

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat. Toast with Butter and Honey. Hot Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Lunch: Sandwiches with egg and cheese and lettuce. Drinks: water and milk.
Tea Time: Stir Fried Veg and potatoes.
Snack: Homemade biscuits. Gaymers Cider.
I was at a conference during the day- and it had rubbish sandwiches for which I shall pay a forfeit.

How long is Lent?
As I have usually been writing my posts and counting the days as I went I started to realise that it wouldn't last till Easter Sunday. In all the previous years when I gave up stuff for Lent I had always assumed there were 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. But guess what- it's 46. So I should always have been finishing a 40 day Lent at after Palm Sunday. I must be owed some days from previous years!
There are various rationales given for the difference in dates- maybe that you can take all the Sunday's off from your fast (?) or that nobody said it should actually be 40 days. Wikipedia lists different lengths of Lent and ways of calculating it. When I started I was convinced it was 40 days long- because I always thought it was supposed to reflect the time that Jesus fasted in the desert before he began his ministry. So 40 days- that's how long mine is going to last- so til Monday morning then.


Forfeit £1

Day 37

Breakfast- shredded wheat, toast butter and honey.
Lunch- omlette and chips.
Tea time- stir fried veg and potatoes.
Snack home made biscuits.

Almost there!

Day 36

Breakfast: Shredded Wheat, Toast and butter and honey. Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Lunch: Oatcakes and Butter, Apples.
Tea Time: Home made Vegetable Pasty, potatoes and coleslaw.
Snack: Home made biscuits.

Lunch time at work can be a bit hectic really as a group starts before 1pm- if I've not planned well then I end up not eating anything, or getting a sandwich out the cafe or eating rubbish. I do feel a genuine need to eat- I get properly hungry -so I just finished some Cumniestown Oatcakes with butter, and some apples.

At night I was out at the pictures to see Shutter Island. There was no way I thought the pictures would have any UK food or drink so I took some home made biscuits and juice in with me.

For my birthday I got some edible things. A fair bit of whisky, all of which fits in the criteria of my diet, but at my rate of one bottle a year I should be okay until I am in my mid to late 40's! I also have chocolates and a Thornton's Chocolate Bottle and a packet of Tayto Crisps awaiting me on Palm Sunday. More about Lent soon.

Day 35

Breakfast: Porridge, Bread and Butter and Honey, Apple and Blackcurrant juice.
Lunch: Sandwiches on Cheese and egg mayo, Apple, Apple Juice.
Tea Time: Cheese and onion pasty (home made), Coleslaw (home made), Potatoes. Biscuits.
Drinks: 80/. , John Smiths, monkey shoulder whisky.

I was at a training course so I ate the sandwiches provided- and will pay the forfeit for that.

Monkey Shoulder is a blended whisky. They like to call it a triple malt, but that's trying to have your cake and eat it. It's a blend really. Its quite nice for that. They are trying to make it cool and hip. Don't try looking at their website because the amount of cool hip graphics will probably slow your computer down a bit. More info here.

Day 34

Breakfast- porridge, bread and honey. Apple and blackcurrant juice.
Lunch- carrot and parsnip soup, cheese sandwich.
Teatime souffle omlette and stovies. Birthday cake. Homemade biscuits.

It was my actual birthday today. Yvonne had bought a cake out mathiesons. Birthday cake must be exempt from forfeits!

Had a go at a different type of omlette. You whisk the egg whites first. Its like eating air. Nice air though.