Category: Food

The 28th May is World Hunger Day

When I was asked to take part in the recipe challenge, to create a healthy meal for just 33p a head in aid of World Hunger Day, I decided to take part in the dine below the line campaign when MyVoucherCodes offered to donate £40 to the cause on my behalf for taking part.

At 33p per head, I found it difficult from the get go.  The main challenge is to live on less than £1 per person, per day, or otherwise known as eating ‘below the line,’ however I took part in a one meal challenge for 33p a head.

The project says.

When women are empowered and supported, everyone rises. Make some change happen from £1 and support our partners in 17,000 communities working to end hunger and poverty by pioneering sustainable, grassroots, women-centred strategies.

To be honest, I’d actually have found it easier to live on £1 per person per day than simply 33p per person for one meal, as that would give me £30 to spend on food and drink for the full 5 days, which would make recipe planning a whole lot simpler, but still a major challenge.

I’m a big soupie, so my first thoughts turned to my soup maker.  naturally.  Even then, I found that with some good planning, and some cautious shopping at the end of the day, I could get a good lot of veges, but my choice of veg would be limited to what was on offer.

But whoa, my whole budget for the meal was £1.98.  I simply had to take what they had on offer, which would not have filled my boys with joy, but a bit of rooting around at 4pm found a 500g bag of carrots going out of date for 50p.  Eating on a budget really does need some precision planning and strategic shopping.

I used Tesco as my reference point for most ingredients, although I found carrots at my nearest co-op for pricing my meal.  I added two pudding variants, as my first option relied on garden produce, which is not always available for people to use.

Budget £1.98 – Healthy Meal For 6 People.  My meals came in at £1.92 and £1.89, including accompaniments and pudding, or add 6p for a glass of squash each .

How To Get Involved

Visit the hunger project and you can even take part in the dinner party challenge, to feed everyone for 33p or less per head.  Honestly, you think it’s easy, but it really is not.  Or join the campaign that runs until June 27th, 2015, to live on £1 per day, per person for 5 days.  You can also find some of their own recipes to try.

My Recipes

Soup – £1.02

Ingredients

– 500g Carrots (or whatever vegetables are on offer-even frozen will do) – 50p

– 1 Onion – 16p

– 2 Value Stock Cubes – 6p (From a pack that costs 30p for 10)

– 1 Baking Potato – 30p

– 800ml Boiling Water – 0p

Method

Peel and chop your vegetables.

In a pan, add your ingredients and simmer until your vegetables are soft, then simply purée your mix to make it more palatable.  If it’s too thick, just add a teaspoon of boiling water at a time until it reaches the consistency you are looking for.  For additional taste, add a little salt and pepper, or other spices if you have any in the cupboard.

Accompaniments – 42p

– 1/2 Value Loaf of Bread – 20p

– 1/4 Block of Butter – 22p (86p for 250g)

Pudding

Unfortunately, with the paltry 52p I had left for pudding, it was difficult.  I couldn’t find anything in shops that was reduced and although I have rhubarb from our garden, it does take a little planning and working out to get it right.

Pudding 1 – Rhubarb Crumble 47.5p

Ingredients

– Rhubarb (Free from our garden)

– Plain Flour 120g – 6p (45p for 1.5kg Value Flour)

– Sugar 100g – 6p – (59p for 1kg)

– Oats 100g – 7.5p (1kg Value Oats 75p)

– Butter 31g – 11p

– Custard – 385g Tin – 17p

Method

Pre-heat your oven to around 180 C.   Wash and chop your rhubarb.  If you have dessert rhubarb, the sugar content isn’t so crucial, but if you have any other kind, be tempted to use up the remaining pence on extra sugar to sweeten the dish.  Pop your chopped rhubarb into an oven dish and add a couple of tablespoons of water over the top.

Put your flour, sugar and oats in a bowl, then rub the butter into the mixture until it looks like breadcrumbs.  Layer it over your rhubarb and bake in the oven for up to around 40 minutes, or until the crumble is nice and golden on top.  To serve for six people, a couple of dessert spoons of custard each will spin it out.

Pudding Alternative 2 – Bananas & Porridge – 45p

Ingredients

– 200g Oats – 15p

– 900 – 1000ml Water – 0p

– Pinch Salt – Negligible and Optional.

– 2 Bananas – 24p (12p each in Tesco)

– Sugar 100g – 6p

Method

Add the oats and water into a pan, stir well on top of a medium heat level.  Adding salt is optional, although it does bring out the flavour and does not affect the taste in conflict with the sugar added later.

Stir porridge continually, or you are likely to find it ending up in a gloopy mess.  It will take five to ten minutes for the oats to be cooked and for your porridge to look like porridge.  If it’s too thick for you, add a little more water.

Some people will add the sugar at the cooking stage, but I don’t like the potential for burning, so I simply add it at the serving stage.  Chop your bananas into small pieces or thin slivers.

Split your porridge into bowls, sprinkle the sugar on top.  You can choose to mix it through the porridge or leave it for the person to choose for themselves.  Evenly distribute the bananas among the bowls, and serve.  With a few pence left over, you could even add a tablespoon of milk to each portion when it is served.

Drinks

– Water – 0p

– Extra Value Squash – 1 Glass – 6p (42p per bottle of 750ml double concentrate squash)

Let’s face it.  On its own, oatmeal just isn’ t seen as sexy enough for breakfast, but if you really and truly do think that, then you’re missing out on a fabulous food to start the day, and much more besides.  There’s more to oatmeal than just porridge, although porridge is a fine meal in a bowl.

I’ve had a scour round the internet for some of my favourite oatmeal recipes, and new ones I’d like to try.

Hamlyn’s very kindly sent me some of their goodies, and I need to get cooking some lovely dishes.  They’ve been making Scottish porridge since 1888, and are pretty well known in my neck of the woods as a go to brand.  The oats are grown and milled in Scotland and recently added sachets and porridge pots to their range of products.  Check them out here.

Dishes To Make With Oatmeal

1 – Strawberry Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie

This looks amazing with a lovely deep pink colour with bananas, strawberries and oats.  I wouldn’t use the sugar in this recipe, but I suspect I’ll be trying a form of this quite soon.

2 – Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal from Annie’s Eats

I absolutely love apple and cinnamon together, both as scents for my house, and food to eat.  I don’t yet know what this would taste like, but I’d love to try it.

3 – Boyndie Broth – Oatmeal Soup

A Hamlyn’s recipe and knowing my perchant for soups, it’s one that I’ll very likely try a few versions of.  They say it is a “very economical, velvety and elegant soup which is quickly and easily prepared. The addition of good undyed smoked haddock or smoked salmon makes a good alternative to Cullen Skink.”

4 – My Own Traditional Scottish Oatcakes

5 – Oatmeal Raisin Cookies by Simply Recipes

I think everyone’s grandmother around here used to make cookies or biscuits like these.  I do have to admit to letting my kids lick the bowl though.

6 – Skirlie (Oatmeal Stuffing)

This is a lovely simple recipe and is exactly how I make mine.

7 – My Rhubarb Crumble

 8 – Oatmeal Bread

I wouldn’t have thought of using oatmeal in my bread, so finding this recipe was quite nice.

9 – Chai Oatmeal

A creamy bowl of goodness with coriander, cinnamon and turmeric.

10 – Cuban Style Oatmeal

Blackbeans, green peppers, onions, cumin and more.  A new twist for a full meal.  I’d be temped to add chicken to this.