Live Below the Line – Day 2

I woke up today actually feeling really positive about going forward with this challenge because I had really enjoyed my dinner last night! It’s a meal I used to make at university when I was feeling short of money (most days), but this is an even more basic version! I thought I would share this with you today to show how well you can eat on £1 per day.

Excuse the photos, I am just taking them on my phone because I have just moved house and I don’t even have a computer or anything set up yet! I feel like it’s quite fitting to this challenge

So dinner last night, and infact tonight was just rice, kidney beans, canned tomatoes, frozen veg and vegetable stock. The Stock is great because it adds seasoning and dried herbs without having to spend extra money. You could just cook plain rice in some stock to add more flavour to your meal.

Instead of cooking everything seperately what I did was put everything together in a large saucepan and the cook it until the rice had absorbed the liquid. The flavour of the tomato and stock absorb into the rice as it cooks and develops nicely.

For my one portion I used 1/2 cup rice, 1/4 Can Kidney Beans, 1/4 Can Chopped Tomatoes, 1/2 Stock Cube in about 300ml water and a cup full of frozen veg. Simmer for approx 20 minutes until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is nice and fluffy.

The best part of this is that I had leftovers so I have a small portion to have with my soup at lunch today! Just the knowledge that I have that little bit of extra food today is keeping me going 🙂 It was also handy because I went out for a pub lunch for a colleagues birthday and obviously could only drink tap water, so I had my left over rice before hand to keep the hunger at bay and then my soup after! It was difficult to resist stealing a chip or two but I managed to stick to my water!

From reading other people experience of Live Below the Line I think I am following quite a typical budget diet. Beans and lentils help add some protein to your day, porridge is filling and has a slow releasing energy so should keep you full for the morning. It is also really good for you albeit a little boring just made with water and no added fruit etc. Frozen veg is perfect because it is frozen fresh so it doesn’t lose any goodness.

Day two is completed and I’m really feeling quite chuffed with my meal choices, the only problem is that I am running out of kidney beans and tomatoes!!! It might be rice and veg for dinner on thursday, we will see!

To sponsor me please visit www.livebelowtheline.com/me/beckycotter. Thank you!