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| Food for five days |
Well, yesterday was our first day of living below the
line, so I thought I’d jot down a few quick thoughts about it. The first thing
that surprised me was how hungry I felt – I know, that sounds stupid, but I didn't think the hunger would really kick in on the first day. I mean, I’m
still getting three good meals, right? Wrong. Turns out that tiny portions and
no snacking, plus nothing to drink except water, is not a pleasant combination.
By the time it got to dinner we were both ravenous, so we really enjoyed our
Bean Chilli – there’s an old English proverb that says ‘Hunger is the best
sauce’, and I can appreciate that already. That said, I do think the bean
chilli was pretty good – see below for the recipe.
Another thing that I noticed was how much I missed some
of my cooking shortcuts, which I couldn't afford on this budget. I have to
confess that I absolutely hate cooking rice, so I normally get those
boil-in-the-bag jobs that make it really easy. However, on £10 for the week, I couldn't get those, so it was back to Basics (literally) with a Sainsbury’s
Basics bag of broken white rice – only 45p for 1kg, which is pretty damn good,
but much more of a faff to cook with. On the plus side, I discovered that
Sainsbury’s Basics Cheddar is really rather good, which as a bit of a cheese
snob, I wasn’t expecting. Win!
Finally, I’m realizing already how much snacking as a
habit is built into our lives. Last night we went to see Avengers: Age of
Ultron at the cinema, and probably for the first time ever, had to entirely
eschew the popcorn, sweets and coke, in favour of a bottle of tap water brought
from home. Obviously this is a bit of a wonky one, because someone living on £1
a day probably wouldn’t be gallivanting off to the cinema, but it did make me
realise how much we eat even when we don’t need to. And when you’re absorbed in
a good movie, are you even really enjoying the popcorn, or just absently
shovelling it in because that’s what you do at the cinema?
Today’s challenge is taking part in a Twitter chat on
food later, one of two that I join in with weekly, and which is sure to be full
of delicious recipes and tempting photos. Wish me luck.
If you haven’t
donated yet, please please do if you possibly can – click here to visit our
sponsorship page for Action Against Hunger.