A Week Living Off Rations

[jennyjj01]

I need to lose weight, anyway, so I'm thinking of doing a week on only my long life food reserves. An experiment. Not starting immediately, but soon, after your input on my ideas.

I'll be serving Mr JJ his regular diet.

I'm not totally sure of my meal plan, so I'll enter my week with arbitrary amounts of some foods and I'll weigh in what I use as the week progresses.

There are to be no ingredients from the fridge* or freezer: No fresh meat or dairy and no fresh fruit or veg.
I'll measure water, but won't count water for cleaning/washing etc.

Anticipated, back of the envelope ingredients and meal plan.

1x400g Tin Peaches.
1x400g Tin Fruit Cocktail
1x400g Tin Strawberries
1xSachet Custard Powder
1xblock Hartley's Jelly
Some sachets of powdered milk.
I'll be making 6 portions of trifle with one of the tins of fruit, the jelly and the custard.
The above should cover breakfast and desserts for at least four of the days

Add Carbs
500g oats
500g flour
200g sugar
Some cooking oil
Some more powdered milk
With that, I'll be able to knock up some pitta bread, some pancakes and some Staffs Oatcakes,
Half the oats will make porridge for a few breakfasts.

Add Proteins
1x400g Tin Chicken Curry Ready Meal
1x400g Tin Minced Beef & Onions
1x400g Baked Beans
1x213g Tin Salmon
1x200g Tin Bacon Grill
1x200g Tin Chicken
1x400g Tin Hot Dog Sausages
1x330g Tin Mushrooms
Some Powdered Egg

Add More Carbs
2x80g Sachets of Powdered Mash
Some Dried Pasta
Some Dried Long Grain Rice
1x 60g Portion Dried Ramen Noodles
1 Packet Cream Crackers
1x250g Pouch of Pilau Rice

Add Tomatoes
2x400g Tetrapaks of Tomatoes in Juice

Add Veg
1x300g Tin Peas
1x300g Tin Carrots
1x400g Tin Ragout

Add Fillers
Some Dried Kidney Beans
Some Dried Lentils
Some Dried Soya Chunks
Some Dried Onions
Some Dried Carrots

Add Treats
3x330ml Bottles Budweiser
2x400g Tin 'Big Soup'
Some Coffee
Some Teabags
100g Cheap Chocolate Bar
Small amount of Honey
Small amount of Branston Pickle
Unlimited Herbs and Spices, Yeast, Baking Powder, Stock cubes
1 Multi-Vitamin Tablet per day.

Considering this, It immediately bothers me that there will be no cheese or butter.

When I do start, I'll be posting progress updates.

*I will be using the fridge to keep trifles, beer and opened ingredients cool.

[pseudonym]

Sounds good Jenny

Can you use Ghee instead of butter?

And any Squash will help with water intake.....plus hot or cold for drinks.

Oats can be savoury too with a stock cube.

Hot sauce is your friend

[jennyjj01]

Sounds good Jenny

Can you use Ghee instead of butter?

And any Squash will help with water intake.....plus hot or cold for drinks.

Oats can be savoury too with a stock cube.

Hot sauce is your friend

I do have a few tubs of ghee: Horrendously past BBE. I might use some if it's still edible.
I mostly drink coffee, but squash is an option.

[GillyBee]

My adult sons are playing with a rice & beans diet at the moment for health. They have been shocked at just how much they need to eat to hit 2000 calories a day. They have veg oil in the diet and fresh veg but almost no meat/cheese/butter as they need to cut the saturated fat. They report that each of them is currently eating about 250g a day of dried beans/lentils.
That means that my 5kg bag of lentils would last 2 people for 10 days. In reality a mix of beans means it will last rather longer but I need to look at about 7.5kg mixed beans per person per month.

[jennyjj01]

My adult sons are playing with a rice & beans diet at the moment for health. They have been shocked at just how much they need to eat to hit 2000 calories a day.

For my weight to drop, I plan on trying for 1000-1200kCal/day
A mix of quick meals with a little batch prep.
I'll probably modify the proposed ingredients.

[Arzosah]

What an interesting experiment! It's a good idea to check it out.

The one thing I notice, there's no nuts or seeds at all, not even peanut butter - and if you're cooking pasta or rice, you can certainly just chuck in some cashew nuts or brazil nuts. And linseed can be bought ground - I put it in my porridge every day.

[jennyjj01]

What an interesting experiment! It's a good idea to check it out.

The one thing I notice, there's no nuts or seeds at all, not even peanut butter - and if you're cooking pasta or rice, you can certainly just chuck in some cashew nuts or brazil nuts. And linseed can be bought ground - I put it in my porridge every day.

Nuts and peanut butter are staple preps for many, but I just don't really like them.

[Arzosah]

What an interesting experiment! It's a good idea to check it out.

The one thing I notice, there's no nuts or seeds at all, not even peanut butter - and if you're cooking pasta or rice, you can certainly just chuck in some cashew nuts or brazil nuts. And linseed can be bought ground - I put it in my porridge every day.

Nuts and peanut butter are staple preps for many, but I just don't really like them.

Ah! That does it, then. Though I've found that people who don't like nuts (cough, my sister) find ground almonds are okay in porridge or something ... YMMV.

[grenfell]

Just a thought but if you are eating just your rations as you call them and are aiming to lose weight ( not in itself a bad thing) perhaps make a note of how much would be consumed if you weren't aiming to lose weight. Could give you an insight as to how much food you'd need to store for "regular" survival.

[Frnc]

If you want to lose weight you need to count every calorie and stick to an amount that will lose you weight, eg 1,600 a day. It took me a few months to lose 30 pound or so. But I was only aiming to lose 0.5 lb a week. You lose weight faster at the start.

Easiest way is an app. I still use Nutracheck's calorie counter. All my meals are in it, so it doesn't take long.