Meals For War Workers

by RUTH KARNS

Nutritionist Emergency Food Commission

(from The Plane News, November 11, 1943)

The problem of planning and preparing meals for a family is a difficult one for all homemakers these days. It is a very difficult one for those of us who are away from home for long hours during the day. Many women in this vicinity have commuted for years. They have worked out a system of planning and preparing meals with the minimum of effort. Those of us who are new at carrying the two jobs of homemaking and working find we have to do some pretty careful thinking ahead. It means we have to plan meals, buy food and do some of the preparation ahead of time or we find our cupboard and refrigerator looking like Old Mother Hubbard’s.

Most of us just won’t read through a whole week’s menus or, if we try, we get lost by the time we get to Wednesday or Thursday, so this week I want to give you menus for only three days, which will include only breakfasts, packed lunches and dinners. The dinners are for Sunday – one with leftovers – and the other a rather quick one for the last of the week some time.

Sunday	Breakfast	Sunday Supper	Dinner
	Waffles or Griddle Cakes	Potato Soup	Baked Chicken
	Bacon	Crackers	Mashed Potatoes
	Apple Sauce	Pickles	Peas (quick frozen)
	Coffee	Beverage	Green Salad
		Gingerbread	Bread-Butter or Margarine
			Lemon Fluff**
			Beverage
Monday	Breakfast	Packed Lunch	Dinner
or	Grapefruit Juice	Sandwiches - Peanut Butter	Chicken Pie with Vegetables
Tuesday	Oatmeal	and Honey on Whole Wheat**	and Mashed Potato Crust
	Toast	Lever Sausage	Lettuce Salad
	Coffee - Milk	Cabbage or Lettuce Wedge	Bread-Butter or Margarine
		Apple - Milk	Lemon Fluff
		Gingerbread	Beverage
Wednesday	Breakfast	Packed Lunch	Dinner
Thursday	Tomato Juice	Egg Salad Sandwich	Peanut Macaroni**
or	Fried Oatmeal with Syrup or	Cheese and Green Pepper	Green Beans
Friday	Jelly	Sandwich**	Cabbage and Carrot Salad
	Beverage	Carrot Sticks	Bread-Butter or Margarine
		Grapes - Fig Newtons	Apple Sauce and Cookies
		Milk	Beverage
**Recipes given

HELPFUL HINTS

Here are some hints to help you speed up meals during the week:

1. Make enough apple sauce on Saturday for Sunday breakfast and dinner some other night.

2. Cook and mash plenty of potatoes so there are enough for the top of your chicken pie. (A little hot milk added to the cold ones will soften them so they may be dropped on top of the chicken mixture.)

3. Select a plump, well-fattened chicken so you can make plenty of gravy for the chicken pie.

4. While you are doing the Sunday dishes, cook 3 or 4 carrots and 2 or 3 sticks of celery and, when done, add any leftover peas. Then, the night you have the chicken pie, all you have to do is combine the diced chicken, vegetables and gravy, put on the potato crust and bake a very short time.

5. Mix and bake the gingerbread on Saturday or Sunday.

6. Make the whole recipe of lemon fluff so there is enough for a second meal.