Eating on a Bangladesh budget: Day one

Inspired by a visit to Bangladesh with Save the Children, I’m trying to eat on 40p per day – like the villagers we met.

Today’s menu was two chapattis for breakfast, pasta for lunch and rice for tea – enlivened by carrot, onion and marjoram from the garden.  Also two cups of black tea (one tea bag) and five biscuits.

Tasting notes

The chapattis were half-cooked floury disasters.  The centres looked like wallpaper paste.  I’ll try rolling them out next time to get uniform thickness, so they cook better.

The rice tasted good, but half a small onion and one carrot don’t exactly give the recommended five a day, much less the amount of fruit and veg I normally eat.

Budget

The cost of today’s food was 39p, 1p under budget, but the shock was the calorie count of only 1,650, that’s 350 below the minimum I need.

The carrot and onion were expensive at 12p, but the prospect of cutting down on vegetables so I can increase the calories is daunting.

Temptation to raid the fruit basket today was almost overwhelming and this is only day one.  I promised myself I’d do five days for £2.  I’ll have to be more imaginative tomorrow.