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:

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

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:

• 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.

----------

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 

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.

----------

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 

Live Below the Line - Day three

Linguine Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino, £0.42

Day 3, no more pizza please!  Welcome to my blog again. This is my third day of the Live Below the Line challenge, and everything goes well.  

Yesterday and the day before I stuffed myself with pizza, as it's quite cheap to make, so please no more pizza for at least a week!

If I have to be honest, I am craving for some meat and fresh vegetables, but my £1 daily budget is too low to afford them.

The only option I have is to eat carbs again, so I decided to opt for two very simple Italian dishes, pasta and bruschetta.

The good thing about Italian food is that you don't need many ingredients to prepare a decent meal, because it's very simple (and healthy too).

The only concern is that I am taking too many carbs, but I don't really have much choice... 

For breakfast (£0.093) I had my usual cup of black coffee (£0.09) with half a tsp of sugar, 3g (£0.003)

LUNCH - Linguine Aglio, Olio and Peperoncino, £0.42

Ingredients

• Linguine pasta, 100g (£0.19)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 2tbsp (£0.11)
• Crushed chillies, 1tsp (£0.08)
• Garlic, 1 clove (£0.03)
• Salt (£0.01)

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to the boil, adding a handful of salt. Add the pasta and cook until 'al dente'. In the meantime, in another pan, heat the olive oil on a medium heat. Add the garlic and the crushed chillies and saute for a couple of minutes or until the garlic is golden but not browned. Drain the linguine and toss everything together for a minute or so. Transfer to warm serving plates. Easy!

DINNER - Tomato Bruschetta, £0.45

Tomato Bruschetta, £0.45

Ingredients

• Bread, 3 small slices (£0.15)
• Tomatoes, 3 small (£0.25)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1tbsp (£0.05)
• Salt and pepper (£0.002)

Instructions

This is so simple, that I would feel embarrassed to write instructions!

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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.

----------

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 

Live Below the Line - Day two

Welcome to my blog. This is my second day of Live Below the Line challenge, and everything goes well. Let me just quickly remind what this campaign is about.

The campaign is asking the public to cut their spending on food at drink to just £1 per day for 5 days.

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.

While taking on this challenge, they will raise money for charities working to end poverty.

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

Day 2, I still have some pizza dough left from yesterday, yay!

Another pizza day today, no bad at all. Well, I cannot use tomato and mozzarella, but that's fine, I can survive.
In my previous post, I have published a recipe for pizza dough. For today's lunch, I am going to use the dough left from yesterday.

For breakfast (£0.093) I had the usual:

• A cup of black coffee (£0.09)
• Sugar, 3g (£0.003)

LUNCH - Pizza Bianca with Black Olives, £0.43

Pizza Bianca with Black Olives, £0.43

Like yesterday, let me tell you that you will not be able to finish this pizza, as it's quite a lot. However you can save a piece for dinner and maybe share some with your family, if you like.

Ingredients

• Half the pizza dough you have prepared yesterday (£0.179)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (£0.11)
• Black olives, 20g (£0.140)
• Salt (£0.01)

Instructions

Remove the pizza dough from the fridge (at least 2 hours before cooking).
Preheat the oven to the maximum (230-250 °C).

Grease a baking tray with 1 tbsp of olive oil.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. 

Pat your dough down, paying attention not to press down the air bubbles, which are the result of a long fermentation. Transfer onto the baking tray. Sprinkle with the sliced olives, pressing down gently, and brush with 1tbsp of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden.

As mentioned, this meal was quite filling, so far I really cannot complain.

DINNER - Egg and Potato Salad, £0.42

Egg and Potato Salad, £0.42

Ingredients

• 1 free-range egg (£0.20)
• 1 small potato, 150g (£0.10)
• Red kidney beans, 50g (from the tin I opened yesterday) (£0.05)
• Extra virgin olive oil, 1tbsp (£0.056)
• Salt and pepper (£0.02)

Instructions

Put the egg in a small pan. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. When it starts boiling, put a timer on for about 7 minutes (or less if you don't like it hard-boiled).
Wash the potato under cold water. Transfer to a pan, cover with cold water and half teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil. Cook until tender, remove from the water and let it cool a bit. Remove the skin and cut in small pieces. Add the sliced egg, the red kidney beans, the olive oil, salt and pepper to your taste.

After dinner thoughts

Today's lunch was OK, I love pizza with olives. Dinner was also OK, but certainly not my favorite dish! In terms of quantity, dinner was just about right, not a lot, also a bit dry because I could use only 1 tbsp of oil oil. However I had a piece of pizza left from lunch, so I am not feeling hungry to be honest..  Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge! 

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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.

----------

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