Ongoing Journey to being a Frugalista..

XSpender

Thanks both for the chickpea curry ideas.  Yes please for the lemon recipe Brizzlegirl.

I hope you have a lovely Easter weekend x 

Moneyfordreams

Happy Easter Brizzle

Seasidegal58

Rather late to the party but Happy Easter brizzle@!🐇🐇🐇
My thanks too for the chickpea curries!

brizzlegirl

• Sorry for the delay folks, here is the chickpea dish which I love...I just take out the paneer for the vegan in my household (or me, I am trying the vegan until evening meal plan as an antidote to. climate change....working well so far but I do need to eat more frequently! This apparently makes for 4+ but I'd usually double up and then not have that much left over.
• 
  
• vegetable oil
• 2 onions, finely sliced
• 1 heaped tsp turmeric
• 2 tbsp dried mint (we use fresh as have loads)
• a large garlic bulb, cloves peeled (i use frozen garlic so even quicker)
• 500g baby spinach (again frozen is fine)
• 400g tin chickpeas
• 250ml boiling water
• 6-8 preserved lemons, halved (if you can't buy these then make your own? dont take long and are vey easy)
• 225g paneer, cut into 12 cubes
• Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper

Heat a splash of vegetable oil in a large saucepan, then add the onion and cook for 6-8 minutes over a medium heat, or until softened. Add the turmeric and mint and cook for a minute, then add the garlic cloves. Continue to cook for a few minutes to soften the garlic a bit, then stir in the spinach. Cover the pan and cook for a few minutes, or until the spinach has wilted.

Season the pan generously with salt and pepper, then add the chickpeas and boiling water. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened a bit and doesn’t look too watery.

Adjust the seasoning to taste and stir in the preserved lemons and paneer. Cook for 15 minutes, then serve with naan bread or rice.

(Original recipe from Bazaar by Sabrina Ghayour, 2019.) Its an excellent book although I adore her book Persiana the most. Hugely recommended

brizzlegirl

Hi folks..so yesterday was a good MSE day in our house..
Usual 5k run which is moving into embedded into my routine. I have been 13 times so far in April. Like it and its only 40 mins and we get to run through some woods and a farm so its a good antidote to city living. Picking up yoga again too, I guess you could say I am slowly getting reconciled to this new way of being and finding  new 'life tools' to help me. I am on leave now for a long weekend which helps me focus on self care and the household rather then the never ending stream of work emails. Not that I am complaining..feel so very very privileged that I moved from being a freelancer to being employed late 2018.

So... yesterday was a very good MSE day as we put 78% of OH's income (he gets paid mid month) against a CC debt and that balance is now very low. I will put more against it when I get paid at the end of the month too. Next month it will be gone and a hefty chunk off another card too. I am very thankful that we can do this. Its making both OH and I have a spring in our step, despite such worrying times. There is no doubt that I can focus on spending less at the moment.. we probably all can... and this means that the 40% saving/no spend target I optimistically put from Barefoot Investor into my forum signature here may be in reach. Am upset that a global pandemic had to help us reach this point, but its definitely a sign that if I pull back from discretionary spends it can be done. And this is in a month where we are still paying for a lot of private tuition, our lodger is elsewhere, OH's tax coding changed, we have basically 4 adults in the house etc etc. More van costs too but then hopefully thats it for a bit on the vehicle front.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well

Brizzle x

beanielou

That’s some great news in among the horridness of the world at the moment. Xx

PurpleFairy26

Awesome progress Brizzle glad that you are running and doing yoga too. Sounds lovely. Keep well and safe. 

XSpender

Thanks for the chickpea recipe.

Well done on such an amazing savings rate this month so far.  I am very impressed by how you and your DH continue to maintain such amazing focus on clearing the CC debt.  Can we have a drink of whatever you 2 are having?

I agree with you about feeling bad that the fall out from the pandemic is helping our finances as we are spending so much less.  Even though DH and I are furloughed, and will probably end up taking a mortgage holiday, as long as I still have my job in 3 months we will come out of this with less debt and an emergency fund in place.  Even if I do get made redundant we will be in a better place financially than we were before.

greent

Chickpea recipe looks lovely - thank you

I'm also v grateful that DH moved away from contracting last year - life is much more stable even without Covid!

x

jwil

That's an amazing result with the credit card, well done!

Have a lovely long weekend.