Live for just £1 a day: Day three – Porridge minus milk, pita and delightful soup
It's day three of my seven day challenge to live on just seven pounds.
You can find out how I was cohersed into making the decision here.
Wednesday
Breakfast: Oats and water
Lunch: One pita and hummus
Dinner: Tomato and lentil soup (with added soup mix)
Breakfast was dull and lunch left me hungry. I’m not feeling the health benefits of oats or hummus and my energy and happiness levels are ridiculously low.
Dinner was a bit better though. I used a couple of handfuls of lentils, half an onion, a couple of handfuls of soup mix and a tin of chopped tomatoes to make another soup.
Admittedly, it would have been a lot nicer with crusty bread of any bread for that matter. But it filled me up more than any meals I have had this week.
Apparently, protein makes up 26% of the calories in lentils, so they are a pretty vital component of a veggie or vegan diet. It’s also been proven that people who eat high-fibre legumes are less likely to suffer from heart disease, as the folate and magnesium in them protect the heart.
But despite all these magical health benefits, I’m still feeling pretty rubbish, slow and sluggish. I would do anything for a slice of cheese.
If I had have gone for convenience food today, my option was a deep pan Hawaiian pizza. One word: Yuk.
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Cheap satisfying meals
For a main meal I do this.
In a small saucepan I put:
I glass of frozen vegetables
1 measure of pearl barley
1/2 tin of baked beans
1 tin basics vegetable soup
I leave that in the fridge and to cook it later, I put it on the lowest setting on the electric hob, and stir it every 30 minutes. After 90 minutes it's piping hot and then I thicken it with a small amount of instant mash. I call it vegetable stew.
I eat that with 3 slices of bread defrosted from the freezer.
That's a cheap and filling meal.
Another one is baked potatoes, with 1/2 tin baked beans, and a sausage in each potato.
Porridge with water
when cash was extremely tight this is what I had to do for the span of a month. Downright miserable, but it is a proper breakfast with enough calories to keep you going through the morning.
Porridge itself is a great way to shave money off food budget, instead of cereals, which are damned expensive these days.
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