Live Below The Line: The Whole Week
Jack Monroe. You can follow me on Twitter & Instagram @MsJackMonroe
This was my Live Below The Line challenge to raise money for Street Child United – I’ll blog all of the recipes I haven’t got around to over the next couple of days. In the meantime you can read about it (and sponsor me!) over on http://www.livebelowtheline.co.uk/me/agirlcalledjack
Categories: Blog, Fundraising, Campaigns & Charity, Live Below The Line, NEWS, Recipes & Food
COOKING ON A BOOTSTRAP 
What an incredible achievement for you, and all that money going towards a good cause 🙂 I bought some tinned peaches today after watching you eat them all week – very tasty and cheap!
Could you guesstimate a calorie count from the original list? It looks very light on protein to me, and probably nowhere near the overall RDAs that are on all our labels.
(Purely out of curiosity, I’m going to bet there are people out there muttering on about how easy this all is, and I don’t think that at all. )
I’ll work it out eventually but not tonight. I deliberately tried to get protein in from eggs, yoghurt, sardines and beans. It was a priority this year. Still won’t be the RDA but I’d rather have had small reasonably balanced meals than do the crashes and spikes of bowl after bowl of white rice again….
yes. It would be interesting to see the calorie intake.
Good stuff anyway. Thanks
that’s insane – you must have been really hungry !
RESPECT. Not an easy thing to do, yet sad that for so many it’s a constant reality.
How much weight have you lost this week ?
I didn’t weigh myself but my jeans and shirts fit the same, so I’d guess none. It’s been fairly carb and fat heavy compared to how I usually eat so I’m not surprised!
Complete respect to you for this. I’ve lived like this and not been nearly is “healthy” as with your choices (focused on pasta and rice as it was cheaper). It takes an insane amount of effort for the resulting basket. So sad that people have to live like this and some for many years now. The sooner things change, the better.
Hugs to you and yours, both for your past sacrifices and your current campaigning xx
You are a real inspiration and I hope that thing can change, sooner rather than later, for those who have to eat like this. I’ve just sponsored but wanted to let you know that I couldn’t get your link to work (a quick google sorted it for me, but I thought you might like to know!)
There are recipes there that I want to investigate. How creative you are, Jack! It’s amazing to be able to get so many varied, interesting and colourful meals out of such a tiny amount of money. Yet again, huge respects to you!
J x
Yes – total respect. Creative and balanced meals on 5 pounds a week – really clever.
Wow my food tech students are amazed at the budget. thanks for still showing us it can be done.
This is incredibly inspiring – a very creative use of the money to make nutritious meals. Huge respect.
Well done again! Such a worthy cause and you did your bit brilliantly. Always inspiring.
I’ve been following your progress on Instagram and noticed you posted some of the recipes. Any plans to post the others?
Well done again Jack! Always inspiring.
I’ve been following on Instagram and saw you posted some of the recipes. Any plans to post the others?
Eventually!
Very well done! I am sooo impressed and inspired by the nutrition balance you managed to achieve on such a limited budget. As I first looked over your purchases it struck me that that amount of food would feed my sb (now a not so small 15) for approximately 1.5 / 2 days max. I felt like crying, grateful I can now provide enough food and remembering when it was so hard. We ate elbow pasta with tinned tomato’s as supper a lot. That was also my mom.s go to meal when I was growing up. I love that you made flour from some of the barley!
The link is wrong try this instead
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/agirlcalledjack
What I’ve learned: Barley is our savior and we should trust it’s leadership! But seriously, good job!
Hi Jack,
What a wonderful array of meals for a small spend! I for one think it’s good that you couldn’t get your frozen veg as this selection looks much more interesting to me! 🙂
Would love to know the recipes for themushroom and spring onion barley ‘risotto, ‘ fried barley and veg, peach and barley bircher, the barley strone and the raw and charred broccoli barley when you get a chance, all very inspirational and inviting meals!
Have put away the ones you’ve provided for safe keeping and can’t wait to try some of them out. Have been juggling two part time jobs and came across your microwave recipes which have really saved my tired, weary body this week so thanks very much for those wonderful recipes. All the best from South Australia 🙂