IV.

EVENING MEAL.

Evening meal or tea meal should be the last meal at which solid food is eaten.  It should always be a light one, and the later it is eaten the less substantial it should be.  Heavy or hard work after tea is no excuse for a supper.  This meal must be taken at least three hours before retiring.  From 4 to 6 oz. of Allinson wholemeal bread may be allowed with a poached or lightly boiled egg, a salad, or fruit, or some kind of green food.  The fluid drunk may be Brunak, cocoa, milk and water, bran tea, or even plain water, boiled and taken cool.  Those who are restless at night, nervous, or sleepless must not drink tea at this meal.  Fruit in the evening is not considered good, and when taken it should be cooked rather than raw.  Boiled celery will be found to be lighter on the stomach at this meal than the raw vegetable.  When it is boiled, as little water as possible should be used; the water that the celery is boiled in may be thickened with Allinson fine wheatmeal, made into sauce, and poured over the cooked celery; by this means we do not loose the valuable salts dissolved out of the food by boiling.  Mustard and cress, watercress, radishes, and spring onions may be eaten if the evening meal is taken 4 or 5 hours before going to bed.  Those who are away from home all day, and who take their food to their work may have some kind of milk pudding at this meal.  Wheatmeal blancmange, or cold milk pudding may occasionally be eaten those who are costive will find a boiled onion or some braized onions very useful.  Boil the onion in as little water as possible and serve up with the liquor it is boiled in.  To prepare braized onions, fry them first until nicely brown, using butter or olive oil, then add a cupful of boiling water to the contents of the frying pan, cover with a plate, and let cook for an hour.  This is not really a rich food, but one easy of digestion and of great use to the sleepless.  Those who want to rise early must make their last meal a light one.  Those troubled with dreams or restlessness must do the same.  Very little fluid should be taken last thing at night, as it causes persons to rise frequently to empty the bladder.

V.

SUPPERS.

Hygienic livers will never take such meals, even if tea has been early, or hard work done since the tea meal was taken.  No solid food must be eaten.  The most that should be consumed is a cup of Brunak, cocoa, lemon water, bran tea, or even boiled water, but never milk.  In winter warm drinks may be taken, and in summer cool ones.

VI.

DRINKS.

LEMON WATER is made by squeezing the juice of 1/2 a lemon into a tumbler of warm or cold water; to this is added just enough sugar to take off the tartness.  Some peel the lemon first, then cut in slices, pour boiling water over the slices, grate in a little of the peel, and add sugar to taste.