Ration Challenge 2022 - Day Three

I started my day as usual with a cup of hot water and then two hours later after washing my hair and then walking the dogs I had breakfast.  It was nice having the component parts already made and in the fridge, all I had to do was make a bit of space in the dish that the rice was is and tip one of the little pots of dahl into the space.  Three minutes later breakfast was cooked.

A Ration Challenge ready meal. 😁

I looked at the menu and realised that I needed two lots of floury items today so I decided to make up 100g of flour, salt and water and start the prep for both of them.

I wasn't all that hungry so I divided the dough into two thirds and a third.

First I rolled out the larger piece and cut my tagliatelle strips ready for teatime.  As you can see the little end pieces were not wasted but balled up together to add to my lunch.

I wiped down a coat hanger, and then using the edge of the knife to pick up half of the pasta strips at a time I draped them over the bar, and they stayed like this all afternoon to dry out.

Now it was time to start on lunch, one nice thin large flatbread and one teeny tiny offcuts one.

Which cooked nice and quickly all on it's own in the pan.

Lunch for day three was a lovely crispy flatbread and my little dish of Kidney Bean Pâté, with a glass of ice cold water straight from the fridge ... something I doubt a refugee gets to enjoy. 😟 

I remembered to soak my chickpeas overnight last night, thanks mainly to my menu being stuck on the side of the fridge, I do find that I am referring to it a lot to keep me on track.  So this morning while I got on with other things I cooked them for an hour.  Even though I knew I wouldn't be eating the hummus I was going to make with them until tomorrow,  I wanted to use the remnants of the hummus left in the Nutribullet cup to make the basis of the sauce to go with my pasta for tea.

I decided to use 100g of the cooked chickpeas for the hummus ...

... and followed this very basic recipe.

The crossed out words are 2tbs of Peanut Butter ...I gave my peanut butter away!!

The hummus went into a tub to go into the fridge and the rinsed out Nutribullet cup went into the fridge as well for later

And here is my tea ... Pasta, with Hummus and Spring Onion Sauce.  

 It was very filling, a lot more so than it looks like it was going to be.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated to this worthwhile cause.  The last four donations were all matched pound for pound by another mystery Ration Challenge benefactor, and have made a big difference to my fundraising total.  THANK YOU.  💖

Sue xx

Ration Challenge 2022 - Day Two

After going to bed feeling slightly hungry last night, but sleeping like a baby, I woke up early but not hungry at all.  I had a cup of hot water and then I decided that I would have half of my leftover rice from yesterday with one of the pots of dahl for my breakfast and use the other half of the rice to make some of the Rice Crackers from the recipe booklet.

I reheated my rice and dahl in my lovely neighbours microwave, and it looked great like a proper ready meal half and half ... and then I stirred it all up before remembering to take a photo, so you will have to take my word for it ... it started off looking quite presentable ... honest!!

I almost made a mistake with the recipe as I thought it meant cooked rice, but reading through it I cottoned on that the first couple of instructions are telling you to cook the rice, so I poured away the excessive amount of water I had just added and carried on.

I decided to add a little onion powder and some salt and pepper to the rice, along with some of the very tips of the spring onions.  I am using the onions tips each day so that they don't dry out completely and nothing goes to waste.

It's the first time I've had my oven on for a while, and perhaps will be the only time this week!

They came out quite well considering the very basic ingredients and a couple were eaten while they were still warm along with a glass of cold water.  The rest are in one of my glass tubs, I'm not sure how long they will keep for so I'll be eating them up over the course of today most likely.

I started making my lunch a bit late really I just wasn't hungry and had no inclination to be cooking.  So I stripped the bed, did the washing and then got another load of clothes done, I got everything out on the washing line in the glorious sunshine that we had all day, and then ... finally,  I weighed out my flour to make today's lunch - a Paratha.

It would appear that when mixed with water and a pinch of salt my daily allocation of 50g of flour weighs in at 81g.

Once you have kneaded, rested and then rolled out the ball of dough it's time to brush it with lots of oil.

Then you roll the circle up ...

... and then coil up the long roll, tucking the end underneath.  

Next if you have time, rest the dough once more just for about 20 minutes or so, and then repeat the rolling out, brushing with oil, rolling up and coiling once again.  This time you can immediately heat up your oiled pan and cook your Paratha.

After cooking it for about five minutes on each side I had a lovely tasty lunch, that went down so well with an ice cold glass of water.  For anyone that doesn't know a Paratha tastes like a cross between a flatbread and slice of flaky pastry ... and is delicious especially when eaten fresh from the pan.

While I tucked into my lunch I cooked the rice for my tea and breakfast tomorrow, this time it's just plain white salty rice which I thought would go well with tonight's tea of Rice and Beans.

The simplest of ingredients, and these are on the menu to be used in four meals.

Two rice and bean meals, one kidney bean pâté lunch, and one portion is to be turned into Lentil and Bean Burgers.

The recipe that makes good use of my one tin of kidney beans.

My tea for Day Two.

Thank you so much for following along and thank you for all the support and the comments that you have been leaving.  If you nip on over to my Fundraising Page HERE you will see that yesterday afternoon an Anonymous someone donated a large sum and as it was another surprise Matched Gift day the amount was doubled.  

Amazing, thank you so much whoever you are. 💖

Sue xx

The Ration Challenge 2022 - Day One

 

It's here at last Day One of the Ration Challenge 2022.

My first job of the day in the absence of being able to make a coffee, was pour myself a cup of hot water and then set too to weigh out my days rice ration.

For day one I decided to see just how much one seventh of the rice allocation would make up.  I could have this much every day if I wanted to ... or needed to.

I gave it a good soak and a rinse to remove excess starch, I wasn't in the mood for clumpy rice.

I added twice the weight of water to the rice in the pan, along with a good teaspoon of turmeric, and then brought it to a fast boil before turning the heat right down and setting the timer for 20 minutes.  I then realised what I was about to eat and went and changed out of my white t-shirt!!

When the timer went off I turned off the heat, put a clean tea towel over the rice with the lid on top and left it to steam for five minutes.

The result ... perfectly fluffy yellow rice.

I got myself a good portion for my breakfast, and then put the rest into a cold container to cool quickly, before putting it into the fridge for later.

On the menu plan for lunch was Lentil Pancakes, nice and simple to ease me gently into this first day.

But as I put them to soak I crumbled at the first hurdle, and made myself two thirds of a cup of coffee with a quarter of my two teaspoon coffee ration.

Tip - If you want to soak anything in your Nutribullet cup leave it stood the right way up.  I thought I was being clever soaking them this way, but I had a slow seepage of water onto the worktop.  

Oops ... I knew I needed that coffee, it was a shame I didn't have it earlier!!

After about four hours I whizzed up the lentils in the soaking water.

And poured about a third of the mix into the oiled pan, sprinkled some of the spring onion on top and cooked it for about five minutes, before flipping it over and cooking the other side for another two minutes.

The second pancake turned out to be a lot bigger so I carefully cooked it for a bit longer, these are not nice when they are soggy in the middle, turning it was a problem and some of it broke off.  Once it was cooked through I added the folded in half first one back to the pan to warm up a bit more.

And then settled down to a very messy looking but very tasty, and surprisingly filling lunch.

Then it was time to make my weeks supply of dahl.

Dahl is simple to make and with simple ingredients at the best of times, but this week it seems even more basic, so it was important to get the flavours right and take care with this.  After all I was using up over half of my red lentils.

Sorry, but I don't know why I took a photo of the lentils on the scales and then didn't even get the weight of them in shot!!  You'll have to take my word for it they weighed in at the 150g that was in the recipe.

I rinsed them well, and then while they drained a bit I chopped half of my one clove of garlic and about 30g of the spring onions, leaving some of the dark green ends to garnish tonight's meal.

An hour later and I had my tea for tonight.

Along with seven little pots of dahl, six of them for my breakfasts each day with one extra for emergencies or to add to the pasty I have planned later in the week.

And suddenly that empty shelf in the fridge was looking just a little bit healthier.  That little blob of clingfilm contains the other half of the garlic clove which will be used for my hummus, and as you can see the rice I made first thing was far too much for one day ... so I have my breakfast all ready for tomorrow.  😀

Thank you for following along with my progress and for all the support and donations.  My fundraising page is linked to from the top of the righthand sidebar ... and as you can see we have beaten my target and gone above what we raised between us last year.

A special mention and thank you to Carolyn from The 1940s Experiment who linked to me and the Challenge in THIS post.

See you tomorrow with all the food from Day Two ... and I think there might be a bit more rice involved. 🍚

Sue xx

The Preparations for the Ration Challenge 2022

 

My only shopping for this week, and possibly the emptiest trolley that I have ever pushed around Aldi.

When I got home I weighed out my allowed 170g vegetable of choice, that this year as you can see is Spring Onions ... and gave Alan the rest.  This is the way that I usually store my Spring Onions in the fridge.  I knew a pint pot would come in handy for something ... even though I don't drink pints.  😃

Then I opened up all the bulbs of garlic and looked for a clove that weighed as close to the 6g weight that I am allowed for the Challenge as possible.  I was lucky that this one and two others weighed in at exactly the magic figure so I had a choice.  The rest of the cloves are now in a zip-lock bag in the freezer, as this is the way that I always store my garlic and I had only run out last week ... perfect timing.

Next it was time to ready my kitchen worktop for the Ration Challenge.  

I pulled out of the drawer the spices that I and my team-mates had chosen to use for the week, minus the cinnamon that someone chose, as the only thing I have cinnamon with is apples  ... and I definintely do not have any apples this week.

These are now out and ready for action along with my unlimited salt.

The cat is also a salt cellar ... it's a long story that one!!

Possibly two of the most boring photos that I will ever share with you!!

My fridge is virtually empty, the odds and sods that are left are relegated to the salad drawers and the top shelf ... I manfully (womanfully) drank the wine that was left in the door so there would be no temptation during Challenge week.  I might have also eaten more chocolate than usual this week in an effort to clear the decks.  

😋😁

The easiest 'Spot the Difference' game ever!!

The final thing for me to do was to clear the worktop of all but the most essential items ready for the Challenge.  I wont be using the toaster or the food processor during the coming week and I will be rolling lots of flatbreads etc out on the worktop, which means that flour gets everywhere, so it made sense to clear everything away.

I have to admit to loving the clear streamlined look of my one and only kitchen worktop.

And THIS is it.  

My entire weeks food, along with flavourings etc for Ration Challenge 2022.

Thank you to everyone who has already donated to this worthwhile cause.  As you can see if you follow the link below, or use the one on the top of my righthand sidebar, we have now just passed the final total that I set myself (and beating the total amount we raised in 2020)  and this means that we have raised enough money to be able to feed TEN refugees for a whole year.

My Ration Challenge Fundraising page.

Ten people eating for a whole year just because I eat this way for one week, and you and I open our hearts, purses and wallets and donate our hard earned cash, it is remarkable and saying thank you just does not seem enough but ...

THANK YOU  💝

I'll be back tomorrow morning with the first days meals, recipes and thoughts.

https://youtu.be/7VeBbV8lL1Q

But let's leave the final words of today to Fatima.  This lovely message was sent to be shared to all the Ration Challengers the day before the Challenge kicks off ... and I thought it only fair to share it with you.  Fatima has been in one of the camps in Jordan since before I had ever even heard of Concern Worldwide and the Ration Challenge, she's a remarkable lady.

Sue xx