Nettle soup

Day 1 and the nettle soup for lunch has been prepared,!

Got up early and had my 2 slices of toast with basic peanut butter - which gave me the energy to cycle to school with my grandson - I had forgotten how hilly the route was over the fields to Bedmond, but it was a lovely sunny morning and we got to school in time.
Two cups of hot water later, tummy is starting to rumble - think it is time I started heating up my nettle soup and prepared pasta & mixed veg for lunch.

The soup was good - I added  a tablespoon of cooked lentils so it had something to chew on, the mixed veg tomato and pasta was filling but a little bland - should have expended the other half a stock cube on it I think! Total spend on lunch < 20p
Have just packed half a peanut butter sandwich to sustain me, am cycling down to Watford hospital for a visit, then picking grandson up after school choir, so am thinking that I might just hit an energy gap around 4pm!

Far more aware of food, its importance and also how fortunate I am to be able to CHOOSE to live on £1 a day - so many have thisday in day out without any choice at all.......

Shopping below the line

Shopping below the line.

So I decided to go for the Live below the line challenge, and now there is only 3 days to go, and I can't back out as people have been amazingly generous!

My shopping is now complete and my frozen veg and basic sliced loaf are in the freezer. What can you buy for £5 for 5 days and is it going to be a balanced diet?

Well probably not, but there's no changing it now - my fiver is all gone.....

 basics rice                             =   40p
Basic spaghetti                         =   19p
Basic wholemeal loaf              =   50p
sweet potato                          =   32p      (that's the filling carbs sorted)
500g brown lentils                 = 1.00
tin kidney beans                    =     27p
basic peanut butter                =     62p   (that's the protein & fibre)
1Kg frozen veg                      =     75p
4 carrots                               =     36p
1 banana                               =     11p
basic passata                         =     29  (that's the fruit & veg then)
basic veg stock cubes           =     15p
3 small chillies (loose)            =      6p (to make things more bearable)

Total =  aaagh £5.02 - rats I'll have to ditch a chili !!!!

Actually the chillies are an interesting aside - our local supermarkets sell them by the pack (too dear at 50p) and I knew I didn't need that many, as you can freeze them and slice them straight from the freezer. So I asked my lovely husband to buy some from an Indian shop - who charged him the princely sum of 6p - this was before I bought the carrots etc. He then had some time to kill went into the local hostelry for a coffee and on return from the bar found the little black bag of chillies missing! He said it looked like a jewellery bag so some thief is going to be disappointed. We then had to replace them - and stopped at a different Indian corner shop who refused point blank to take any money for them as they didn't register on the scales.

I will let you know what I cook, and whether the extra chili would have made a difference

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/gillhulme