Living below the line experience

Day 4 of my 5 day experience of living below the line
Live below the line


My daily diet has consisted of the following
Oats (50g) soaked in water & cooked the next day with a little cinnamon + 1 kiwifruit for breakfast


Dhal for lunch and dinner - made with 70 lentils, 160g canned tomatoes, 1/2 onion (chopped), 1/3 carrot (chopped) 1 tsp curry powder (divide the cooked result in half for each meal).


Brown rice 200g for the day shared between lunch and dinner


Cabbage approx. 200g per day with dinner.


Drinks - water hot or cold


Total calorie count approx. 1330 - so leaves me feeling a little hungry.


Total spent on food for the 5 days $10.58.


Total funds raised for Oxfam so far $489.00 :-)


Haven't checked my weight yet - will do that on Friday morning after my last day - I suspect I will have lost a little more.


So the diet is nutritious if boring. Probably long term I would experience some iron and vitamin deficiencies. But it definitely shows that whole foods plant based diets can be cheap

Chickpea and kale vege curry

desperately trying to finish everything fresh from my fridge that needs using. I made a huge batch of curry (leftovers to freeze & eat after below the line finished) had it with the rest of my quinoa/amaranth that I had cooked for the salad I made this morning for lunch

saute 1/2 to 1 onion in small amount of water to brown
add chopped portobello mushroom
2+ cloves garlic
1 red pepper
2 zucchini
1 head broccoli
1 chopped fresh tomato
1 dessertspoon curry (adjust this amount depending on taste and heat)
add 1 can of chickpeas
2 cans of tomatoes chopped in juice
1/4 cup red wine
1-2 tsp ground coriander
1-2 tsp ground cumin
stir in 1-2 cups chopped kale and cook until kale is tender.


mmm good!
just how many antioxidants can you fit into one meal????

Quinoa salad

Using up fresh veggies before starting my livebelowtheline project I made this salad to take to work

Cooked quinoa/amaranth blend
chopped fresh tomato
chopped cucumber
1/2 avocado
chopped olives
capers
chopped raw broccoli stem (peeled)
grated carrot
grated zucchini

stirred through some plum vinegar

delicious, tasty, crunchy and colourful

finished off the meal with 2 small oranges

Living below the line - vegan style

I signed up to "live below the line" to fundraised for Oxfam. This commits me to living on $2.25 per day for 5 days (spending on my food & drink).
you can follow my progress on
www.livebelowtheline.com/me/suigeneris

I am convinced that I can do this and in a healthy and nutritious way - eating healthy is not necessarily expensive. Here is a photo of the food I bought to live on for the next 5 days - cost me $10.58 at pak n save.

Dirty Mashed Potatoes

Inspired by the tales of vegan dirty rice from a friend

Potatoes cooked (in their skins) and mashed
Add 1 tsp of tahini and sufficiant plant milk to get the right consistency
Sauté onions & mushrooms and stir through
Defrost frozen peas & corn & stir through
Add a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast
Season generously with fresh ground pepper
Lightly season with salt (truffle salt is awesom if you can get it)

Serve with a side of your favourite greens or a green salad.
A dollop of salsa on the top wouldn't go amiss either

Tuscan rice stuffed pita bread

Somewhat concerned about the flatulence associated with beans, I decided to avoid them for dinner on the opening night of our small play. Inspired but the "shrapnel rice" recipe from the "Prevent & Reverse Heart disease cookbook" (& the contents of my fridge & pantry) this is what I came up with:

Brown rice cooked ( I cooked 1 cup of rice & used approx half for this recipe)
1/2 onion slowly caramelised in a hot pain with minimal water.
Soak 1 Tbs porcini mushrooms in boiling water and add to the onions cook 1-2 more minutes, add soaking water if more moisture needed  Add Tuscan seasoning to taste.
Grate 1 carrot & 1 courgette. (Used about half)
Handful of chopped black olives
Handful of capers
1-2 tbs chopped sundried tomatoes
1-2 tbs chopped walnuts
1 tsp chopped jalapeños
Stir all of the above into the cooked rice

I used some to stuff a toasted soy & linseed pita bread. Yum. Then I had some in a wholemeal tortilla which I first spread with hummus and topped with mixed greens. Also yum.