Lentil Soup with Kielbasa

Started off the week on a high note! Lazy afternoon led me to make Ina's Lentil Soup with Kielbasa (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lentil-sausage-soup-recipe/index.html)!

Ingredients: Lentils (I used brown, but green are good too!), Onion, Garlic, Leeks, Thyme, Cumin, Carrots, Celery, Chicken Stock, and Kielbasa.

This was so filling! Served it with some rye bread toast and shaved Parmesan cheese on top! I cut the recipe in half and look how much we have left over! 6 more servings, maybe I will find a friend to take some! I now have half a pound of kielbasa in the freezer that can be used until January! Who thinks an apples and onion sausage dinner on cold winter night is in Eric's future? Other leftovers from this recipe are two leeks, be interesting to see what I can do with those besides potato and leek soup!

Weekly Budget update!

This weekend I spent $13 at Trader Joe's and $66 at Stop & Shop. Because I cooked so much last week I was able to spend less this week!

 Major Purchases: 2 lbs ground beef, package of fresh thyme, 2 filets frozen tilapia, lots of produce!

Good Deals: None this week unless you count all the free candy we keep getting for Halloween!

Meal Planning:
Lentil Soup
Eggplant Parmesan
Meatloaf
some sort of chicken with rice??
Leftover Beef Stew
Tilapia (date night!)

Every week I try and make a special "date night" meal to replace going out for dinner. I set the table, light some candles and spend a little more time cooking to make it special. This week I am shooting for sauteed tilapia in a white wine sauce with roasted potatoes and carrots. Wish me luck!!

A bit about me and my new blog!

Welcome to my kitchen! As you will soon see it is a very small kitchen, about 35 square feet! This is where the journey to savings began. After cutting back where we could everywhere else my husband, Eric, and I have challenged ourselves to save more money during these tough times. The best way we could think to do this is by limiting the amount of times we dine out each month. Though it was tough at first to continuously cook every night, I eventually came up with a system to both save money and time - and actually started to enjoy it!

We have a budget of $80 per week to spend on all food! That means if we want ice cream from 7 Eleven one night it has to come out of the budget. I will be sharing how I do with the budget as well as any awesome weekly finds and deals, and photos of the recipes I am making each night! Hopefully you will be inspired to start saving money, and dining in with food good enough for a restaurant!