The night before I started my challenge I took a picture of all my rations and did a bit of meal prepping.

As a reminder, I’m going to eat only refugee rations for 7 days. The base rations for 7 days for one person are:

• 1.92kg Rice
• 400g Flour
• 170g Red Lentils
• 85g Dried Chickpeas
• 1 x small tin Sardines
• 1 x 400g tin Kidney Beans
• 300ml Cooking oil

In addition to these rations, I have also raised enough money to “earn” some extra rations (similar to refugees who manage to earn a little extra money here and there), and I have a joined a team so I can share resources/spices much like real refugees and families would do. My additional rations are:

• Salt (unlimited)
• 1 x clove garlic
• 1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
• 210ml Milk
• 10 teabags
• 170g of any vegetable (I have chosen spring onions, same as last year)
• 120g of protein (I have chosen chorizo to make the flavour go further – last year I tried bacon)
• 6 x shared team spices (my team have chosen Turmeric, Cumin, Paprika, Stock cubes, Garlic Powder, and Chilli) – these are unlimited and make a HUGE difference!
• 50g Fruit (Pomelo) – this year I have inspired 2 other people to sign up and do it with me so this is a new reward for me
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 x hot or cold drink of my choice (up to 330ml)

To prep the night before I made some sauces! First I cooked my tin of tomatoes with a bit of extra water, some garlic powder and paprika and a stock cube and whizzed it with a blender into a smooth sauce – 1 small tub set aside for “ketchup” on my burgers, and one for making tomato rice one day. The rest I added half a tin of kidney beans, some more spices and then whizzed that up too into a “beannaise” sauce for drizzling on rice. I put the other half a tin of kidney beans away in a tub for my lentil and bean burgers later on.

I also printed out all my recipes and re-did my meal plan

So here we go…. Wish me luck!