Tuesday 13 March 2012

Live Below the Line - Day five

Farfalle with broccoli, £0.38


This is my fifth and last day of the Live Below the Line campaign challenge.
Tomorrow I can go back to my 'normal' diet, so I will be able to eat meat, fresh vegetables and fruit.
I will not have to plan my meals so carefully, meaning that I am a very lucky person.
Before taking on this challenge, I never realised how hard is living 'below the line'.
Now I understand why people living in extreme poverty have to eat rice most of the times (cheap and filling), while we (the lucky ones) can eat whatever we want. 
I also realised that if we all give up a little amount of food or drinks every day - donating the equivalent money - we could really make a difference in beating poverty.
How easy for us would be to give up a cappuccino every day, for example. £2 would make such a difference for someone else.
Something to think about...

Let's try helping beating poverty, either:


Live Below the Line challenge - Day 5

For breakfast (£0.09) I had my usual cup of black coffee (£0.09) with half a tsp of sugar (£0.003). 


LUNCH - Farfalle with broccoli, £0.38

I recommend this pasta dish to anyone taking this challenge. It's very healthy, tasty and incredibly cheap (£0.38!).

Ingredients
  • Farfalle pasta, 100g (£0.10)
  • Broccoli, 50g (£0.10)
  • Extra virgin olive oil, 1tbsp (£0.05)
  • Garlic, 1 clove (£0.03)
  • Crashed chillies, 1tsp (£0.08)
  • Salt and pepper (£0.02)
Instructions

Bring 2 pots of salted water to the boil. In the first one, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Add the broccoli to the other pot and boil for 7-8 minutes, or until tender.
Drain the broccoli, reserving a glass of their water. In a small frying pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the crashed garlic and the chillies and saute until the garlic is golden but not browned. Add the broccoli, and saute for 1-2 minutes. Transfer the broccoli sauce into a food processor, season and whiz for a minute or so. If the mixture is too thick, add some of the broccoli cooking water (you will need about 5-6 tablespoons).
Transfer the broccoli pesto into the same pan where you cook them. Drain the pasta, add to the sauce and toss everything together for a minute. Transfer to warm serving plates and serve.


DINNER - Egg fried rice, £0.53

Egg fried rice, £0.53

Ingredients
  • Sainsbury's long grain & wild rice, 100g (£0.19)
  • 1 Egg (£0.20)
  • Frozen peas, 40g (£0.06)
  • Vegetable oil, 2tbsp (£0.08)

Instructions

Boil the rice in salted water. Drain and let cool.
Put the frozen peas in a glass of hot water and set aside.
Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a wak. When the oil is almost smoking add the egg and break it up as if you are making scrambled eggs. When cooked, transfer the egg onto a bowl. Add another tbsp of vegetable oil into the wak. Heat until almost smoking. Add the rice and the drained peas, and stir-fry for about 3 minutes. Finally add the egg, a stir-fry for another minute or so. Serve immediately.

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Let's try helping beating poverty, either:

You can join the challenge by registering at www.livebelowtheline.com/uk.

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From 7th to 11th May, join Live Below the Line living on £1 a day for 5 days to change the way people in the UK think about extreme poverty - and make a huge difference.
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/uk 

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11 comments:

  1. congratulations Laura

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  2. It's a nice recipe, but if you were living below the line would you have a food processor?

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    Replies
    1. Dear Anonymous, probably not. I wouldn't have a stove or an oven either. I wouldn't have this computer to reply to your comment too. The challenge doesn't not impose not to use kitchen tools. It's about changing our relationship with food and becoming more aware of what poverty means. That said, everyone is free to cook following their preferred method. If you like the recipe, and don't have (or don't want to use) a food processor, you could just mash the boiled broccoli with a fork.

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  3. Congratulations indeed. Here in the US a number of nutrition related charities run a similar program called "Food Stamp Challenge". In Philadelphia the average benefit is about $5 a day - a bit more than 3 times what you had to deal with. Mrs. C and I will be taking the challenge this year and I suspect our blog will be strikingly similar to your excellent presentation.

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    Replies
    1. Good Luck Bill. I had a look at your blog, and the pizza bianca from Gabriele Bonci looks great, it's one of my favorite too!

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  4. Ciao Laura , sono approdata qui alla ricerca di una ricetta e oops vedo questo delizioso blog e angolo di Italia all'estero!
    Io invece, ho creato il mio angolo thai in Italia :-)
    Questo piatto mi sembra così leggero e forse andrà bene come alternativa al
    Riso thai !
    Grazie
    Ps mi sono anche unita :)

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    Replies
    1. Ciao Vaty! Scusa x il ritardo con cui ti rispondo, ho preso un piccolo break dal blog :-)
      Io ADORO la cucina Thai, ma non mi sono mai cimentata ancora. Provero' presto la tua ricetta x il Pad Thai, mi piace da morire.. Mi unisco anche io al tuo blog, keep in touch xxx

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  5. You have made delicious food for very little expense. We are truely lucky that we can buy the food we want but I wonder for how long? Prices here in Australia are skyrocketing. More self sustainability may be the answer.

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  6. love the blog! we've just started, so much fun :)

    www.fedupanddrunk.com

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  7. Hello!

    I just would like to give a huge thumbs up for the great info you have here on this post. I will be coming back to your blog for more soon.

    Man and Van Twickenham

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  8. felicidades por la receta y por el blog, esta genial!!! asi que con tu permiso me quedo mirando cosas ricas por aqui, saludossss

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