An Idiot’s Guide To Surviving The Ration Challenge 2022 Or #RiceIsLife

This is an idiot’s (mine!) guide to doing and surviving the Ration Challenge in one piece, hopefully with sanity and health intact and also your family members, as you get more and more hangry.

Ration Challenge pack

***A couple of changes this year. If you join a team, you get 6g of garlic cloves. You have to earn the milk - 210ml - by raising £150 individually. You can share spices, salt and individual rewards you earn. For example, if you earn a vegetable, you can share it amongst your team (170g/6 - 28.3g each). Exception is salt - if one person in the team earns it, you can ALL have salt. I donated an extra £5 to RC for sharing the spices.  You can get some 25g fruit if you inspire someone to join the Challenge***

***You ARE allowed to make adjustments if you have allergies***

***If you have any condition, consult your doctor first. You should carry on taking any medication you are on***

***If you are unsure of something, post in the FB page OR ring/message your Coach**

First – Start cutting down on coffee. Caffeine headaches are awful so better to prepare yourself. Also, think about all the food you eat. Keep the paracetamol handy. There is a lot of processed food, with lots of sugar. Cut down on processed foods and sugar if possible because again your body will react to the drastic change of going from lots of that to a simple diet. It will also react at not getting all the fruit and veg you normally eat. So, it might be useful to make a few changes and use fewer processed meals and ingredients, I wouldn't cut down the fruit and veg though until the week. 

Rice  – I hope you like eating rice because that is where most of your calories will come from. You have 1.9kg of WHITE rice. That is 270 grams of rice a day. I didn’t get through mine. You need to get creative with the rice to change its texture and flavour. You can make rice cakes, rice flour and rice milk for example. Rice cakes are a good snack, perhaps a bit bland. Rice milk can be used in tea. Rice flour can be used to make bread. One of the things you can make is congee but it helps if you add something to it. Congee is like rice pudding and is a bit of an acquired taste but could be useful for hydrating you. Some people waited until the congee had solidified in the fridge and then cut pieces of it and fried it. Congee takes an hour at least, so if you are having it for breakfast, you need to be organised. I loved making mujadara, but rice and lentils is one of my favourite meals and cumin is a great spice to have with it. Frying the rice and adding salt and a spice helps a lot, believe me. You can add the oil from your sardine can after you have opened it for at least one meal and that will help. Hopefully, you won’t be sick to death of rice by the end of the week. It was surprising how many people were dreaming of eating something other than rice during the week and then ended up having rice in one of their first meals after the week. My second dinner after the Challenge was rice and chickpeas.

Make sure you cool the rice quickly and store it in the fridge or freezer. Ensure it is heated all the way through when you want to eat it later, so as to kill off any harmful bacteria

Watery congee with fruit

Congee

 

Rice cakes

Oil is a very important part of your box. I ended up frying a lot of stuff. It makes things taste better and provides a lot of calories. Most people use up all the oil

Spice – You are allowed a GROUND spice as a reward, if you self-sponsor. Choose it carefully. The more versatile it is the better. 14 meals (I am not including breakfast here) with one spice is a lot, so be wise in your choice. However, if you are part of a team, you will have access to more spices. This year (2022) you don’t have to be near each other to share spices. I chose cumin. MIXED SPICES for example garam masala, curry powder and five spice are NOT allowed. Or WHOLE spices

Salt- A little bit of salt will make an awful lot of difference so try to raise the money for salt. Again, this year it’s different. If one of the team earns salt as a reward, you can all share it as a team. That should make your food taste better.

Flour – You have 400g of PLAIN flour. You can make crepe, flatbreads, chapattis, parathas, pancakes… You can add salt and spice to make those taste better. Also, cooking in oil and/or frying will make them taste better. You can freeze the flatbreads in packs of 2 or 3 and reheat them when you want them. You can toast the flatbread and have it with hummus, which you make from your chickpeas. Flatbreads and chapattis make a nice change from rice. That flour is precious, so use it well. You can make something like a samosa using making parcels of beans / cooked lentils/sardines in very thinly rolled out sheets of dough and frying them in oil. People also made pasties with rice and beans as the filling. Some people made sourdough bread. There are various methods. You need to make your starter a few days before the Challenge and remember you can only use the flour you have

Chapattis

Chickpeas – You get dried chickpeas. You need to soak them, drain and boil them in water. The water they are cooked in is called aquafaba and is very useful. It can be used as egg substitute to make meringues, veg mayonnaise etc. You can find recipes online, but you need to adapt them to the ingredients you have. You can use the chickpeas to make hummus, curry (depending on spices you have) and falafel. Also, you can fry them with salt and spices and use them as a snack. The veg mayo is like a thin yoghurt and you can use it as a sauce. You can sprout your chickpeas (or other beans/lentils) but you may need to start this a few days before 

Hummus

Lentils – You can make soup and curried lentils. You can also make mujadara and lentil pancakes. Mujadara became a favourite, and I eat it now with salt and other spices. A quick and easy meal

Mujadara

Kidney beans – People made dips using the beans. You can simply squash a few beans into your rice to add taste and texture. The kidney bean water can also be used as aquafaba. You can make a bean curry or bean patties / burgers

Rice and beans

Sardines – Lots of people turned their nose up at the sardines but they provide a much-needed protein hit. I spread their use over 3 meals. Simply squashing a sardine into the rice improves the taste. You can make fish cakes of a sort or a simple fish curry. You can use the oil to flavour your rice. Remember to store them in the fridge when opened. Obviously, you can substitute the sardines if you are a vegetarian or vegan for something like tofu. soy chunks or perhaps more chickpeas, beans, or lentils. NOT Quorn as that is considered a luxury item and thus not suitable

Rice and sardines

I am quite lucky in that rice and lentils and rice and chickpeas are my comfort food and I can make a nice meal in about 20 – 25 minutes

Tea – You are allowed black tea or green tea as a drink. You earn the teabags by writing emails / messaging your friend. One teabag for 5 messages. You get a maximum of 10 teabags, so you will need to reuse them. I used it to make several cups of tea. Some people made a pot in the morning and warmed a cup when they needed it. Last year, I went to a café a couple of times and I wanted to take my teabag home… Wahhh!

Weak black tea. Save the teabag!

Milk - You can earn milk as a reward and use it for tea. A better use might be in cooking example rice pudding, cake, biscuits etc. It can be a plant based milk - oat milk, coconut milk etc provided it's unsweetened and doesn't contain extra ingredients. I wonder if you would be allowed to make yoghurt. 

Vegetable – So you are lucky enough to earn a vegetable reward? What are you gonna have? Cherry tomatoes, onions, kale, spinach, broccoli, spring onions and garlic have all been used by people. What do you want from your veg? Taste, texture or crunch or a mixture? Think very carefully. Also, how long will it last? If you are with your family, you can weigh a small portion for yourself and feed the rest to them and repeat until you have used 170g. If you are on your own, you may have to eat it quickly. If you choose spring onions, you could have one a day. With spinach, you get a lot of green food. Or you can even have a green herb like coriander.

Protein – If you are even luckier, you might have earned a protein. What will you have? I earned my protein on the last day of the 2019 Challenge and I had a free-range egg. It was delicious. Meanwhile, as we were out for a meal, my kids stuffed themselves with huge steaks, chips, rice and salad...

My last RC dinner - on the Curry Mile!

Water – Drink lots, and I mean lots, to keep yourself hydrated. Then drink some more. Your body will be detoxifying

Feet up after a hard day's rationing with a pot of tea

Teams – You can do the Challenge alone but in my opinion, it’s much better as part of a team. You can talk to each other for support. You can share spices. Post in the group if you want to join a team or you can make a team. You can join a public team straight away. For a private team, you need to ask for a link. You need to be logged in to join a team. Go to your RC page and then the three horizontal bars on the top right, Search for a team or a participant that way.

Recipes – There is a recipe book in the resources pack. Also, a meal planner, with suggested meals for the week. This year, there are lots of meal plans on the Ration Challenge website. Try out the recipes beforehand so you don’t waste your ingredients during the Challenge. Also, plan out your meals. This is especially important if you work long hours and have limited time to cook. You may need to cook the night before. What will you have for breakfast? What can you use for snacks? How can you make your meal more interesting? People will post recipes during the week as well, so look out for those. I have collected some recipes and put them into blogs - links below

Health – There is plenty of food although the ingredients are restricted. You won’t starve. You may not even lose weight. I didn’t. However, your body may react against this diet. You will not be eating so much processed food, so much sugar, additives and colourings and obviously very little caffeine. You might have to take it easy, perhaps even give up if the symptoms are severe. There is no shame in that. YOUR health is important too. People with all kinds of ailments have done the challenge. If you are worried, do check with a doctor. I am a Type 2 diabetic. I know there are other diabetics in the group who did it. There were pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers who did the Challenge. You are allowed a multivitamin supplement. Again, I suggest you talk to your doctor. Post regularly in the Group and tell people how you are getting on and seek advice. Sometimes, very generous people will donate their reward to someone who is really struggling

Coaches - Last year we got our box soon after we received our first donation. A coach will ring you to talk through the Challenge with you. They are very helpful and supportive. Make sure you ask them about any aspect you are uncertain of. It's a good idea to follow their posts, especially if they do the Challenge earlier 

More about Rewards - When you fundraise you will be able to earn rewards such as salt, milk, vegetable, protein, a drink etc. You can keep the reward, give it to someone or share it with your team. If there are 6 of you, each person gets a sixth. You can earn teabags by tagging people in posts or emailing them (see above). You earn a spice by self-sponsoring. This is to imitate the idea that refugees can earn money and buy stuff. Raising money is our work. 

***LOOK OUT FOR THE FLASH REWARDS***

Dates - There is a set week for the Challenge but it may be a bad time for you, for example, you may be moving house or have an operation. You can change the date, so long as you inform the Coaches so they can support you.

Diary - Keep a diary / log / record of your thoughts and feelings while doing the Challenge. Obviously, you can share via blogs, vlogs, youtube, etc. At the end, the Coaches will ask you for feedback, so it may come in handy. Also, save videos and pix as they might get used for publicity for next year's Challenge

Read the posts every day. A few minutes will be very useful. People will come up with new ideas and questions. Also, there will be people doing the Challenge early so those posts would definitely be worth following, seeing what they are experiencing. I found the Coaches' posts very helpful

So that's a quick run-through on doing the Ration Challenge. Of course, you may have other challenges like cooking for a hungry horde - I got ready meals and let them deal with it - or living opposite a takeaway - 3 in my case and another 2 within 3 minutes walking distance - or having a celebration in the middle - visiting the Curry Mile in my case... How do you cope while everybody is eating delicious food and you are rationing? Even worse, when they start eating your rations because the food looks interesting as has happened with toddlers and others slightly (ha ha!) older. It's hard keeping going sometimes but it's worth it. We learned an awful lot from it and raised a load of money                                                                                                 

In a cafe... 

Weak tea

Ideas for Raising Money

Post on social media – FB, Twitter, IG, TikTok etc. Do a short video of opening your box when it arrives. The box arrives after you receive your first donation. The box contains coupons – for the flour, for 1.5kg of rice and, for this year, 330ml of oil. This is to cut down on the cost of postage mainly. Also the oil has leaked sometimes. You have to buy these. These coupons cannot be redeemed in a supermarket... You will be shocked by how little there is in the box. So will your friends and other sponsors. Do regular updates - videos, pictures etc 

Send personal messages to people with pictures describing what you are doing, how you are feeling

Put posters and sponsorship forms around your workplace, church (Jenny Meldrum), meeting places etc

Write to your local councillors, local newspapers, local radio, MP etc.  I got messages back from my MP and a donation from a couple of the Councillors. Get the word out there and hopefully, you can get some money too

Hold an event or an auction (COVID permitting) – cake sale, do a Syrian meal  (Mariam Memon), raffle, make jewellery (Saffron Straughan) or offer to do something, for example, I could tutor or proofread for a donation etc. Beg, borrow, steal donations. Wait, don't steal. It's against the law

Final Tip - If you have a query or want to know something for example Recipes or Tips, there is a search button (magnifying glass) on the top right of the Ration Challenge Group page. Use that and you will probably find the answer to your question

                     

If you would like to find out more about the Ration Challenge, visit their page 

If you would like to sponsor me, visit my fundraising page

I have made an ingredients blog and collected 8 pages of recipes which people used 

Ration Challenge ingredients and uses blog 

Ration Challenge Recipes 1 

Ration Challenge Recipes 2

Ration Challenge Recipes 3

Ration Challenge Recipes 4

Ration Challenge Recipes 5

Ration Challenge Recipes 6

Ration Challenge Recipes 7 

Ration Challenge Recipes 8

Updated 22/05/22