Some Surprises from Day 1

Of all the things I didn't expect to learn with the 'living below the line' challenge, the most surprising was how good the food tasted on Day 1. Obviously, I'm lucky I can cook with safe and sanitary food and water, that many of the 1.2 billion people living on $1.50 a day don't have access to. And it's a choice for me, so I'm sure if I spent 100 consecutive days eating the same thing it would lose its appeal. But still...

When I was shopping I noticed any type of prepared food would be impossible to buy. We don't buy a lot of prepared foods, but we do buy some. Cereals, yogurts, tofu, bread, etc. all counted as prepared foods. So I was kind of expecting to choke down the meals for 5 days since the ingredients were the cheapest ones I could find at the supermarket. But my experience was the exact opposite.

Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and 1/2 a banana. It's hard to describe how good, that actually tasted! It tasted like a fresh loaf of banana bread straight from the oven.

And lunch was a quarter of a homemade loaf of bread ( actually straight from the oven ). I had enough in my budget for a tablespoon of peanut butter, and it was undoubtedly the best peanut butter sandwich I've had in my entire life.

Dinner was the classic Cuban dish with the politically-incorrect name of Moros y Cristianos ( Moors and Christians ). It's rice and black beans, and I enjoyed it with a fried egg on the side and a bit of Sriracha sauce. I've probably paid 10x the cost of it at some restaurants and not had 1/10 of the pleasure eating those meals.

I'm sure this wasn't the point of the challenge, but it was a nice benefit :-)