The Ration Challenge - Day One

So here we are day one of the Ration Challenge, and I woke up to the news that between us the Challengers and their sponsors have raised a million pounds ... WOW what an incentive for us to give this our all.

I started my day with a glass of hot water, something I always do but usually there is a slice of frozen lemon floating in there, giving a hint of flavour and a touch of goodness.

Alan sat opposite and tucked into crumpets with lots of butter and lemon curd, washed down with a cup of tea.  My water went down well, but there was nothing there except liquid refreshment.  No goodness, no flavour and most definitely no morning shot of caffeine to jump start my day and make me want to leap up and make myself some breakfast.

My first job of the day was to put away all the foods from the little shelf in the kitchen that I wouldn't be able to eat for the next seven days, and instead fill it with all my Ration Challenge foods.

It looks surprisingly sparse, even with the onions and tomatoes temporarily joining the dried and jarred foods while I took the photo.  With the rice cooker out I set to making enough rice for today.

For some reason I decided it would be Spicy Turmeric Rice for breakfast this morning ... now I seem to have dyed everything a rather fetching shade of fluorescent yellow, rice cooker, wooden spoon, dishcloth etc 

The rice that came in the Ration Pack clumped together as it cooked and was stodgy, not that I'm complaining really.  It filled the gap in my stomach that was waiting for it's Weetabix and hot buttered Sunday morning toast and that was the main thing.

We walked the dogs along the canal and then  briefly left them in the car while we went into Aldi for Alan to pick up some supplies for him to take home with him.  Seeing him walk out with two bags full of food brought it home all the more that my little box of food was all I had for the week ahead.

I'm glad that I'm mostly doing the Challenge here on my own.  No temptation to cheat, no pots of hot coffee on the go or misplaced offers of lunches to be eaten out and I'm glad I've got my menu planned out, it will keep me on the straight and narrow.

My lunch was a Garlic Paratha made with 50g of my flour ration and liberally sprinkled with Garlic Powder to give it flavour, accompanied by a black coffee ... one of three I will be making with my two teaspoons of instant coffee earned last week. 

I burnt it slightly ... I like my food pale, but I ate the well done pieces first and then savoured the paler ones.  Then I sipped the coffee while watching an episode of The Bridge, it's surprising how long you can make a cup of coffee last when you know its the only one you will have until Wednesday!!

Tea time saw me and Suky waving Alan and Mavis off for the week, and then while Suky snoozed on her full tummy after her doggy dinner I started on mine.

I decided to cook up all the kidney beans in one fell swoop, so I checked my workings out for how much I could have for my evening meal.  Seemingly a 40g portion was what I had allowed myself.

Five minutes sautéing in a pan with two thirds of one of my onions, a dash of Paprika and a heaped teaspoon of Cumin and they were done.

I separated off enough for the four other meals I will need them for and while these started to cool ...

... I added some of the cooked rice to the pan to heat thoroughly through.  The rest of the rice went straight back into the fridge and will be used for breakfast.  One less job to do in the morning.

My tea - Spicy Turmeric Rice with Kidney Beans and Onion.

Another cup of hot water before bed and that was it ... my day in food.  The final foody job of the day was to tip my dried chickpeas into a jug full of water and leave them to soak overnight.

Day One under my belt ... will it be one notch tighter by the end of the week I wonder?

Why not visit Faith at Much More with Less and read all about her first day on the Challenge too.


Sue xx

The Ration Challenge - My Food for the Week

So here is the basic Ration Pack foods.

The things that arrived in the actual pack were:

420g white rice

170g red lentils

85g dried chickpeas

1 tin of kidney beans

330mls of vegetable oil

+

2 coupons

With the coupons I could add from my own supplies 400g white flour and an additional 1.5kg of white rice.  Because I asked for the vegetarian/vegan pack I could also choose to replace the sardines that would usually be in the pack with 120g of a protein of my choice.  I realised that in the refugee camps people would simply swap with each other I decided to choose an additional 120g of red lentils.

So in total I have 1.92kgs of rice and 290g red lentils.

I decanted my rice into a large jar and put my flour in two jars as it wouldn't all fit into one.   The top jar has exactly 100g in it and will be used first.

With the help of all my sponsors I have been able to earn some extras, just as the refugees do in the camps by doing jobs to help the camps run as smoothly as possible.

My Earned Rewards are:

For passing - £125 - Unlimited Salt

For passing £250 - 170g Vegetable - I chose Onion

For passing £400 - 120g Protein - I chose Peanut Butter

There was just enough in my jar, so I decanted it back after weighing it out.

For passing £600 - Any hot or cold drink (330ml)  - I have chosen to make myself a Smoothie.

For passing £850 - Any bonus food item to the value of £3.  To be eaten in one sitting.

After much deliberation ... never has £3 been so important to spend correctly ... I chose to buy a pack of Cherry Tomatoes.  These will be used to top and accompany a pizza for one of my evening meals.

The teeny tiny jam jar in the photo with the salt, onions and peanut butter contains two teaspoons of instant coffee, which I earned for gathering over £39 of sponsorship in a 24 hour window.  This will be used when an emergency coffee is called for ... and every sip will be savoured.

Although participants can earn up to 10 teabags for asking for sponsorship, as I don't drink tea I didn't do this.  Coffee is not allowed during the Challenge so this little incentive to be able to earn just two teaspoonfuls was brilliant.

For initially sponsoring myself as well as getting the Ration Pack I earnt the right to use an unlimited amount of one spice ... I chose Cumin.  Then when I joined a team The Vegan Squad, I earned the ability to also be able to use the spices chosen by my team-mates.  So I can also use Turmeric, Cinnamon, Paprika, Garlic Powder and Chilli Powder

As well as the spices which you can share a team also earns 210mls of milk each.  As I don't use milk in much of what I eat and none of my teammates wanted my share, I offered it up to anyone on the Ration Challenge Facebook Group and it was accepted by someone who needed milk for her tea.

My Next job is to put all my available food on the little shelf in the Van and remove from sight and away from temptation anything else that is usually there.  I'll be back tomorrow with the first days meals, as obviously I have to make and eat them before I can do a blog post about them.

So I'll see you tomorrow.

Sue xx

The Ration Challenge - One Final Play with My Food

Well it's just one day before the Ration Challenge 2020 kicks off and yesterday I decided to have a final 'play with my food'.

This year as well as the ability to use the spices that my teammates have chosen I have gained 210ml of a milk of my choice, and I didn't know how I would use it.  To be honest apart from on cereal or a dash added to sauces I just don't use milk at all in my normal life .... ooh is my life normal in any sense of the word ... I do hope not 🤣🤣  

My coffees are drunk black and have been for the last few years and I don't like to drink any of the milks I have tried.   NB. I don't use dairy milk AT ALL.

So I decided to try making some rice pudding.

I weighed out the milk and then added 70g of uncooked rice and left it to putter away on the stove top for ages, while I caught up on a couple of episodes of Harlots ... brilliant series once again  😃

When it was ready ... I didn't like it, but I didn't want to waste it so I decided to turn it into the rice cakes I mentioned on yesterdays post.

They went together well and held their shape.

And looked quite good after ten minutes cooking on each side.

But I just wasn't that keen really, and I don't want to be going to lots of effort next week to make something that isn't that nice for me.  Anyone that likes the creamy taste of milk and the texture of a soft rice cake would no doubt love them ... but not me.

So that is my last play with food.

The Ration Challenge 2020 starts from when I wake up on Sunday 13th September and ends when I go to sleep on Saturday 19th.  I will do a post showing all the foods I have for the week on the 13th and then so that I can show you each days meals I will post the day after I have eaten them throughout the Challenge.

I'd say 'Wish me Luck' but you all already have and you have all been amazing with your support and sponsorship ... THANK YOU so much 💖

Sue xx

A Ration Challenge Recipe

A little film of a refugee called Maya cooking the Lentil Soup recipe that is in the Ration Challenge Pack recipe book.

I am now just 33p short of being able to supply nine refugees with enough ration packs to last them a year.  Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me up to now, as well as feeding so many people and helping such a good cause you have also enabled me to climb the rewards ladder and add little extras to my rations pack foods.  Things that you see Maya using in this short clip.

My Fundraising Page

Sue xx

The Ration Challenge - Rice

Included in the Ration Challenge Pack is a little bag of white rice weighing in at 420g.

And along with it and the other contents, there are two coupons that tell you to buy 400g white flour, and another 1.5kg of rice for the week long Challenge.  This is mainly done to save the exorbitant postage costs that adding almost two kilos to the weight of the box would cause, but also because that is exactly what happens in the refugee camps.  

While Concern Worldwide provide the refugees with ration Packs just like mine, other aid agencies hand out coupons that are redeemable in local shops and markets.

I bought the white long grain rice that I needed and yesterday weighed out the 1.5kg and put it into a jar ready for next week, and then remembering the post the other day I decided to use the left over half kilo to weigh out what a seventh of the total rice allowance would be.

It looks quite a lot doesn't it?

Then I decided to keep going and cook it.

Now it looks even more, almost three times the weight in fact.  I cook rice using the absorption method and this time I used my pan rather than the rice cooker and followed Jamie Oliver's instructions to the letter. 

Wash the rice once, use double the weight of water to rice, bring to the boil and then simmer for twelve minutes with the pan lid on.  Then turn off the heat and leave for another ten minutes or so before fluffing up with a fork.

It turned out beautifully.

I had the bowl full on the right for my tea and the rest was quickly cooled and put into the fridge.  I think I may have a go at making rice cakes from the Ration Challenge Recipe book later. 

4. Place cooked rice into a muffin tin, filling each hole about halfway.

 5. Sprinkle a pinch of reward spice across the cakes. 

6. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes (or until crispy on the outside).

 They sounds interesting, if a little plain ... I'll let you know how I get on.

There are quite a few people currently doing or who have done the Ration Challenge ... you are allowed to do it at a time to suit you if there is a reason you can't manage the official week ... saying that they were hungry all the time and I honestly cannot understand this.  The total calorie intake is a bit lower than is recommended for an adult at 1738 per day, but these people are also saying they don't like this or don't like that so haven't eaten it, and the thing they are leaving out the most is the rice.  When the rice makes up such a large proportion of the ration I think it is important to use it and make it to the best of your ability and even more important ... eat it.  One lady had over 1.3 kg over at the end of the week ... no wonder she was hungry 😢

It will be interesting to see how much I have left over by the 19th.

Edited to add:  I didn't like the rice cakes at all, so I wont be making them during the Ration Challenge Week itself.  Better to put my effort into things that I do like. Thank goodness for this time to have a little practice!!

Sue xx

The Week Before the Challenge

So there's less than a week to go before the Challenge kicks off again for this year and I decided the other day to have one final little 'play with my food'.  I had a little bit of flour in a jar in the Van so I weighed out 50g of it added a pinch of salt and just enough water to bind it all together to make me some pasta.

A quick knead and then a half hour rest for the dough while I got on with a few little jobs and I was ready to roll out my pasta.

Just using a rolling pin and a well floured surface meant I got it reasonably thin, well I could see my fingers through it so I reckoned that was thin enough for me.  This was actually only the second time in my life I have ever made pasta from scratch, last time I was at the Vegetarian Society showing that pasta could be made without eggs, but then I had a pasta rolling machine.   If anything I found the rolling pin method easier and obviously there was a lot less to wash up afterwards ... always a bonus in my book!!

I sliced it into sort of tagliatelle width strips, I thought that was so much safer than trying to get to the spaghetti thinness.

And then I hung it to dry, far out of the reach of a certain little permanently hungry Pug  🐕

After a few hours hanging in the sunshine it was almost completely dried out, so I made a quick 'sauce' with half a dozen halved cherry tomatoes and a finely sliced spring onion that had seen better days.  Simply sautéed in some olive oil with a sprinkle of garlic granules and then a dash of the pasta cooking water right at the end to make it a bit more saucy.  It took around four minutes to cook and really was as simple as that to do.

A tasty little evening meal and surprisingly filling for what seemed like a small portion.  A good finale to my practising for Ration Challenge Week. 

I'm home in Wales at the minute but tomorrow morning I will be heading back to the Van and once there I will take some photos of my rations and get myself prepared for starting the Challenge.  I think a bit of this preparing may involve eating all the chocolate that is left in the Van in a bid to take away all future temptation ... it's a hard but very necessary job  😁

The Fundraising Page

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me by donating money to my fundraising page, between us we are doing an amazing job and we are now less than £11 from being able to feed nine refugees for an entire year.  Wow ... what a result.

Thank you so much.

Sue xx

Gearing Up To a Challenge

One days food for ration Challenge Week,  the same rations that the refugees in the Syrian camps have for each day.

I don't usually spend so long 'gearing up' for a new Challenge.  This year because I signed up nice and early to the Ration Challenge there has been over a month up to now of thinking about this, fundraising for this brilliant cause and sort of planning.  I say sort of  because I have yet to work out a menu for the week, I have lots of ideas in my head for things to make with my limited ingredients, but no definite menu plan as such.  

Some of this years Challengers have divided their food up by the seven days and are using one seventh of the total rations each day.  A guy called Jonathan Smith divided all his food up into sevenths and took this photo to put on the Facebook group so everyone could see what this actually looks like.  But of course there are lots of us, me included who don't eat fish, so with his permission I did a vegetarian/vegan version of his photo with the little one seventh of a tin of sardines carefully edited out.

A little bit of vegan magic I called it  🤣🤣

Some ... me included ... are making larger portions of things to have in different meals all through week.  One thing is really for sure with 1.92kg of rice to pad out the meals one heck of a lot of rice will be consumed.

Between now and the start of the Challenge in just eleven days I am slowly and steadily eating my way through the cupboard, fridge and freezer at the Van and when I nip back to Wales at the weekend it will be the same there.  My mind is telling me to remove all the temptation ... well it's a good excuse to have chocolate for supper!!

Thank you so much to all of you who have donated recently.  My fundraising page is HERE and you can see for yourselves what the brilliant new total is.  

THANK YOU

Sue xx