Live Below the Line - Day four

Poached eggs on toasted bread £0.50

Day 4, carving for some fresh fruit.

This is my fourth day of the Live Below the Line campaign challenge, and everything goes well, except for the fact that  I am really craving for some fresh fruit at this point. I always eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, but with a £1 daily budget I cannot afford it.
Before taking on this challenge, I never realised how hard is living 'below the line'. I mean we take so many things for granted (I.e. eating an apple or drinking a cappuccino in the morning) that we forget how difficult is for millions of people in this world to survive. 

Think about a 'normal' day, in our 'normal' life.

Medium skinny latte to kick start the morning: £2.65, BLT for lunch; £3.50, muffin for an afternoon snack; £1.50, quick take-away after work; £8. Many of us won’t even bat an eyelid at spending over £15 each day on food!

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on the equivalent of £1 here in the UK. Live Below the Line is a challenge for people to eat and drink on the same amount as those living in extreme poverty.


So, on day fourth of my challenge I had:

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

LUNCH - Poached eggs on toasted bread, £0.50

Ingredients

• Free-range eggs, 2 (£0.40)
• Bread, 2 small slices (£.10)
• Salt and pepper (£0.002)

Instructions

Toast 2 bread slices.

Bring a pot of water to a gentle boil. Carefully break the eggs into the water and after 2 minutes remove the pot from the heat. Leave the eggs in the water for about 10 minutes.

Drain on kitchen paper, season to your taste and serve on toasted bread.

DINNER - Risotto with peas, £0.41

Risotto with peas, £0.41

Ingredients

• Arborio rice, 100g (£0.22)
• Frozen peas, 40g (£0.08)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1tbsp (£0.05)
• Vegetable stock cube, a half (£0.06)
• Salt and pepper (£0.002)

Instructions

In a saucepan, bring the vegetable stock to the boil (well, the stock is quite light as I had to use only half stock cube, never mind!).
In another pan, heat 1tgsp of olive oil. Add the rice and stir until completely coated with the oil. When the rice starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, add a ladleful of stock and continue stirring. When the liquid is absorbed, add another ladleful of stock. Repeat until the rice is cooked. Add the frozen peas 8 minutes before e the rice is ready.


Under 'normal circumstances', I would have added 20g of butter and a couple of spoons of parmesan cheese before serving. As you can understand, this was impossible with such a low budget, but never mind, this meal was filling and comforting anyway.

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Let's try helping beating poverty, either:

• Joining the Live Below the Line campaign,
• or, donate for me! or for anyone else. To donate for me, please follow this link.

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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