Third World Eating: Day 3

Note: I am cranky.

Breakfast was spiced Dal (yellow lentils) which cost 20c a cup. This was accompanied by a boiled egg, 17c. I found it filling and delicious. As you get hungrier, food tastes really, really good.

I ate early, around 7am, and I didn't really feel any hunger until around noon. But there was a lot of cooking going on around here in the early afternoon. On the menu was a vegetable upma. Here's a picture of the ingredients used in this dish.

It looks like a lot of stuff, but this upma can be made with whatever vegetables are available. Pictured is 98c worth of cabbage mix, 1/4 lb of cut up cauliflower stems (people usually throw these in the trash!) a few cashew pieces, I estimated 10c, $1.00 worth of semolina, 50c of zucchini, 25c of peas, and less than 2c worth of each of the following: salt, hot chili, urad dal, rye, cumin, and turmeric.

The finished product was estimated to cost 37c a serving.
I think something similar could be made in third world countries using veggies from the garden or from the market.









Here's the finished product, all ready to eat. It made quite a bit--8 to 10 servings. This was a really filling dish as well. I limited myself to 1 cup, but I was satisfied for several hours.

It really is amazing how much inexpensive food is available to us in the U.S. It does take time to make things from scratch, but using grains and dried legumes is healthy, satisfying, and cheap.

Right after I ate this, I walked to my place of employment and worked fairly strenuously for 8 hours. Midway through, I had my dinner, which I had packed from home. It was rice and more of the spiced Dal from this morning. I was surprised that I didn't feel any of the hunger I felt yesterday. But now that I am home and it is late, I feel grumpy. So it's off to bed, and only 4 more days to go!

Total cost for the day: 96 cents.