My shop for take two of the Live Below The Line challenge included whole meal bread, yogurts, sausages and peaches – all of which I tucked into with gusto today, and relief that I wasn’t facing a week of white bread and cornflakes again!

I divided the mixed veg into ten freezer bags at 100g each, and have worked out that I can have an apple or a peach every day – a significant fruit increase on the last time!

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast with lemon curd and a glass of water. 7p.

Lunch: Sausage and stuffing sandwich (2 slices of whole meal bread, 2 sausages, 1/4 of the packet of stuffing mixed with 60ml boiling water), with a strawberry yoghurt and a peach. 38p.

Dinner: Beefy vegetable rice. (75g rice, 100g mixed veg, 1 beef stock cube). 12p.

Total for the day: 57p.

I seem to have made hardly a dent in my £4.85 food shop – but will have to ration the sausages! At 56p for 8, they were much nicer than I thought they would be, and I think I’ll keep another sausage and stuffing sandwich up my sleeve for the end of the week, when I’ll need some additional motivation, but so far, so good.

For those of you who followed my progress on the challenge at the end of April – I did consider trying to leave out the lemon curd for take two, but it was an absolute godsend last time, so I just had to have it! At 22p a jar it’s cheaper than any of it’s substitutes; jam is 29p, honey is 99p, and peanut butter is 62p – and none of them are quite as versatile as the humble lemon curd proved to be.

Six days left, and £4.28 of food left (plus 15p on top of the microwave that I’m not sure what I can blow it on yet! Either a tin of potatoes at 14p, rice pudding at 15p, a single yoghurt at 15p, or some chicken noodles at 15p. Choices, choices!)

To donate to Live Below The Line, a global poverty project, click here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/agirlcalledjack

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

The challenge is open until June – so I thought a second attempt would be an opportunity to raise additional funding for Oxfam, as well as awareness about poverty and food poverty in the UK.

Since my explosion across the national media, the most common criticism I have received is that ‘it just isn’t possible’ – as though a year of living on a stringent budget is not evidence enough that it is.

Anyway – for the next seven days, I will be closing up my store cupboard again, shelving the fancy spices that Schwartz so generously sent me, and creating a minimum of 21 meals from the following items:

4 fruit yogurts, 33p
Wholemeal loaf, 22 slices, 50p
5 peaches, 30p (reduced from £2)
1kg frozen mixed veg, 75p
2 apples, 41p
1 baking potato, 24p
1 courgette, 22p
400g kidney beans, 21p
411g lemon curd, 22p
400g chopped tomatoes, 31p
10 beef stock cubes, 15p
Sage and onion stuffing, 15p
1kg rice, 40p

Total spend: £4.85

As before, I will be documenting the days on my online blog under the category “Live Below The Line 2013″.

I am doing the challenge for seven days – as most people do a ‘weekly’ food shop – I never understood the five day part of the Live Below The Line challenge!

To donate to Live Below The Line, a global poverty project, click here: https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/agirlcalledjack

If you are taking part in this years Live Below The Line challenge and want to share your experience, get in touch at jackmonroe@live.co.uk

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

More to follow as I pack up and move over the next fortnight…

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

“You sell the meagre DVD collection for an even more meagre sum, the netbook, a camera, you wash clothes in basic washing powder that makes your skin itch.

“You pare back, until you have only two plates, two bowls, two mugs, two glasses, two forks, two knives, two spoons, because everything else feels like an indulgence, and rent arrears don’t wait for indulgence.

“In a world where people define other people by their job title (this is Sue, she’s a lawyer, and Marcus, he’s an architect) and by the number plate on the type of cars they drive, and the size of their television and whether it’s 3D or HD or in every room, my world is defined by the love and generosity of my friends, and the contents of my bin shed.

“You sit on the sofa someone gave you, looking at the piano someone gave you, listening to the radio someone gave you, perched on the chest someone gave you.”

And this came back to me, today, as I handed my son’s matching white wood and baby blue bedroom furniture over to a friend with a son of a similar age.

As I stood the two seater sofa on it’s side ready to give to a friend who has recently moved house; just four months after I hoisted it over my bannisters with my father, we find ourselves doing it again.

I had this in mind as a photography project to complete before the Big Open House Sale in August, but never got around to it with one thing and another going on at the time.

So before I lose everything again, before I move from a two bedroom flat, to a single bedroom in a shared house in two weeks time, I thought I would share – in a collection of quickly-taken photographs – exactly what I meant when I said that my world is defined by the love and generosity of my friends.

Things are just things, at the end of the day. I sit in my flat, surrounded by pieces of the love and generosity of my friends and perfect strangers.

It’s not clean lines and matching furniture; but it’s a very physical reminder of the depths of human kindness.

For photographs, click here: http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/05/18/love-in-snapshots-may-2013/

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

Slice and deseed any fruit….you’ll soon discover which one works best for you. We like plain old apple….but pear, pine-apple or orange are also good.

A small knob of butter or other light fat in a pan that has been sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnammon and just “fry” until the fruit is browned and the sugar treacley.

Serve with what ever you like or have, cream, ice-cream, yoghurt, creme fraiche etc.

Perfick….

Rod

To see your favourite recipe here, email it to jackmonroe@live.co.uk

Sauce
1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
1tbsp marmalade
pinch chilli powder (more if you want)

Boil the lentils according to the pack instructions
Saute the onion in a little oil
Mash the lentils, breadcrumbs, garlic, cayenne, mustard, coriander with the beaten egg, until all are well combined.
Add the carrot, onion and celery
Shape into balls and then flatten into burger shapes
Chill for at least 30 mins to firm up or freeze for later use
Fry in a little oil until golden brown

For the sauce cook all the ingredients together in a saucepan until reduced and sticky

I would serve with potato wedges , parboiled with the skins left on, tossed in a spoonful of oil and oven baked till crispy and a coleslaw of grated carrot, cabbage and finely sliced onion tossed in a little oil and lemon juice.

Kate x

To see your recipe here. email it to jackmonroe@live.co.uk

On BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday afternoon, I mentioned that I buy just one herb or spice a week to add to my collection, in order to widen the variety of dishes I can cook.

The first one was paprika, which transformed my simple tomato and onion pasta into something seriously special.

The next one I bought was cumin, which led me to make ‘those’ burgers, various curries, curried chickpeas which became curried hummus, and spicy warming soups.

And so on, and so forth.

And I happened to mention this on the radio, when they asked me for hints and tips about frugal living, because a little herb or spice goes a long way when making cheap but delicious food!

So imagine my glee and surprise when a parcel arrived for me at the reception desk at work…

… Love from Schwartz, the herbs and spices company!

The bag of goodies includes some allspice, mint, marjoram, mixed spice, garlic, cinnamon, garam masala, cardamom, sea salt, chives, ginger, and my favourite but distant memory these days – caraway seeds! This calls for some lemony caraway biscuits, and a weekend sweet and lazy loaf!

Thankyou Schwartz!!

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

It’s an event about food waste and food poverty, and there will be a petition on the day that will campaign the food industry to give its waste to charity.

For more details see the poster below:

Hope to see you there!

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

(C) Oxfam

See you there!

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe

Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe