$10k is underway!

Week one of my plan to save $10k in 365 days is almost done and things are not going so well. My car is approaching 100k miles and things are starting to happen to it. My driver's side view mirror glass fell off on the highway on Wednesday night! I had to order the part, pretty cheap. $26 for the whole glass/turning mechanism unit. Unfortunately Honda charges an hour of labor to install it. I highly doubt it takes an hour to do this. Charge for hour of labor? $95!!! So I stopped by AutoZone on the way home yesterday to purchase a $7 cut-to-fit stick on mirror. All I needed was the glass anyway. So, we will see if I can successfully install this stick on mirror and save $100.

Dutch also needed some new stuff that was not in my budget. He has been choking on his food because he is eating way too fast. $34 on slow eating bowls and accessories.

Oh, and gas prices are going up.

This is going to be quite the challenge. Follow my $10k blog by clicking here!

Samosas!

James and I went to visit my friend Jen and her baby up at CHaD the other week. We went out for Indian food because apparently there is a great Indian place up there that came highly recommended by the nurses of Indian heritage.

I am not sure if it was the way Indian was supposed to taste or maybe I am just used to the great Indian food down here in Manchester, but I was not impressed at all. I think that the chicken came from a package of precut strips! We did have a very yummy appetizer called Samosas. They are crispy dough pockets filled with potato and vegetable filling. There were a few dipping sauces that we had to go along with the samosas. My favorite was the onion chutney.

So, tonight we had the Turkish beans that I made in my previous post as well as some Samosas with red onion chutney!

Potato, peas, and curry all cooking in the wok.

Rolled out dough

Stuffed and ready to be cooked

cooking...

All done and ready to eat!

They came out pretty good. Not the same fluffy dough that we had at the place up in Lebanon.

Barbunyali Plaki

Today is my first day off of the week! I decided that I needed to cook today so that we have some food for the week. So, what is on today's menu you ask? Barbunyali Plaki! I had recently purchased 11 bags of dry beans. This recipe called for Pinto beans, which of course I had a bag of in the cabinet. I have never had Pinto beans before so I thought I would try this different recipe.According to vegweb.com, this is a "traditional Hellenic recipe with origins to the Armies of Alexander" and also has been enjoyed in Turkish cuisine. It finished cooking and although it is supposed to be served chilled, I enjoyed it warm with a splash of fresh lemon juice. It was pretty good. The recipe does not call for salt of pepper so the lemon really made the dish. It was very flavorful especially since the recipe called for 8-10 cloves of garlic! Not overly flavored, but a smooth flavor.
Click the link above to try this recipe! Here are the few stages of cooking.

8 cloves of garlic, 1 diced carrot, and 1 large onion cooking in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook until tender.

Added the 4 diced tomatoes, freshly cooked Pinto beans, and water to cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.

The finished (warm) product spritzed with lemon.