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 :-)

Preparing for Week of 'Living Below the Line'

Preparing for five days of 'Living Below the Line' to raise funds for Heifer International ( https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/revanbus ). I'm not sure where the idea came from, but it seems great! Instead of running a marathon or something unrelated to the charity, people try to live below the line of poverty for five days. This year it means spending less than $1.50 a day on food.

The challenge starts on Monday, so this weekend I spent some time menu planning and shopping. Even though 1.2 billion people around the globe live on $1.50 or less, I didn't realize what that number meant until I started to calculate the food I could buy with that.

Two really surprising conclusions from this weekend's menu planning were:

1. Sadly, I spend more daily on coffee than 1.2 billion people have to spend for their entire day :-(
2. The incredible impact that an organization like Heifer International must have on people's lives. After spending a day calculating how to squeeze every penny from my weekly budget, it made me realize the impact a gift of a goat or even a chicken would have on a family. The free milk or eggs must make a huge difference.

So anyways... after a lot of wrangling and penny-pinching, it looks like the dinner menu for this week is (drum-roll please :-)

• Arroz Cubano - Fried eggs and tomato sauce over rice
• Lentils with potatoes and peppers
• Pasta with spaghetti sauce
• Black beans and rice with peppers
• Fried rice with eggs and peas

Breakfast is pretty much oatmeal with banana and brown sugar every day. Lunch is homemade bread (maybe with peanut butter... I still have to crunch the numbers...) And maybe.. possibly... I can fit in a cup of drip coffee or a tea bag for around $0.16 to $0.18 . ( If I can fit that into the budget any day, it's probably going to taste like the best cup of coffee I've ever had in my life :-)