Musings on Menus

Part of Challenge #1 included establishing some breakfast menus that I could post inside the kitchen cabinet and follow each month.  When Jitterbug started to follow a 1940s breakfast routine, she chose to use menus published in The American Woman's Cook Book, edited by Ruth Berolzheimer (Chicago: Consolidated Book Publishers, 1945).  Unfortunately, my copy of this cookbook is an earlier edition published in 1942 and does not have these menus in it.  However, while going through the box of books this weekend, one thing I found was a printed copy on 11x17 paper of How to Feed a Family of 5 on $15 a Week Cook Book, edited by none other than Ruth Berolzheimer, (Chicago: Consolidated Book Publishers, 1942), who I have come to learn was quite the maven of cookbook editing in the 1930s and 40s.  I am not sure where I found a scanned version of this book to print out or I would gladly provide a link to share this treasure with you.  I have looked on Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive both to no avail.

This book provides a full month of menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and follows up with the recipes.  As I looked through the menus last night, I noticed that many of the breakfasts sounded familiar to those that Jitterbug tried, and with both books being edited by the same person, it stands to reason that she would choose not to reinvent the wheel with each publication.

Initial observation indicates that not all of the menus contain a protein source like eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, etc.  A few contain eggs and one has something called Bacon Corn Bread (which sounds delicious, by the way), but in general the menus are focused around carbohydrates like cereals, breads, and fruits.  It is understandable for two reasons.  Meat was heavily rationed during this time.  Additionally, the focus of this cookbook is feeding a family inexpensively and meat has always been one of the more expensive items in the grocery store during any time.  I am used to eating a higher protein breakfast as it seems to keep me full and satisfied longer, but I wonder if my body could adjust to a higher carbohydrate breakfast?  Would it be detrimental to my waistline, especially since I am fighting to lose this extra 20 lbs. already?

Moreover, some of these menus have components that would not work well for my entire family, such as waffles or griddlecakes since J cannot eat syrup due to his Crohn's but R and I both like them, for example.  Or the stewed prunes or apricots, which I know both J and R would balk at, but I would eat.  I am trying to decide whether it is worth the effort to cook different things in the mornings or try to stick to menus that everybody can/will eat.  I have been doing a mixture lately.  As an example, when I cook waffles or pancakes for us, I'll fry eggs for J and cook bacon for everyone.  On the weekends, it is not that bad, but trying to do a lot of different things on a weekday morning when time is at a premium is difficult.   Lately, I feel like my digestive system does a lot better if I limit grains.  This is not to say that I have gone grain-free by any means, but I'm not eating a piece of gluten-free toast every morning like I was back in 2015.


One thing I have learned is that menu planning is difficult.  Even when you have a go-by, it is sometimes hard to think of what to substitute.  The whole point of this series of challenges is to help me simplify and streamline life.  At the same time, I don't want to gain any additional weight while doing it.  So, I feel that using a fully authentic 1940s menu might not be the best choice.  I'm still pondering the best options and hopefully will have this figured out before long.