New Recipes

If you're anything like me when it comes to cooking, sometimes you just get in a "rut." Please tell me I'm not the only one!? =) I like the food I normally cook. It's flavorful, pretty healthy (for the most part!), and best of all-- CHEAP. I am a coupon-er, I go to 5 different stores to shop the "deals" and hate hate hate when our grocery bill gets above $50/wk. That doesn't include Lucy's formula.....so I guess groceries cost a little more. Anyway, overall that's pretty good!! :)

This week I decided to get out of my dinner rut and cook some amazing recipes I found. I totally splurged and spent way over our grocery budget! I was completely out of meat, so that did it. BUT, the meals have been incredible! I can definitely re-make these recipes again for much less and plan to put them on rotation.....all while sticking to my $50/wk. budget!

Mon. and Tues. we ate up some leftovers....so those days don't count. Here's what we had Wed, Thurs, and Fri. I have 3 more meals to try next week! I can hardly wait!

Before I give you the links to these fabulous recipes let me say: EVERY one of these meals gets 2 thumbs up from me and my hubby! Carey exclaimed, "This is excellent!" every meal. Bad news: I now will be held to a higher standard of cooking. HA! =)

Here's what we ate this week:

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup. Oh my. So good. 

Murphy's Hot Hamburger from Tasty Kitchen. Yeah, it was as good as it looks! (I used ground turkey and made sure to use olive oil.....had to add a little extra for the gravy since turkey doesn't have a lot of fat. Anyway, it turned out great. My hubby had lots of great things to say about this meal!) AND.....I maybe devoured it too. :)

Chicken Parmesan found on kevinandamanda.com. This was oh so yummy! I have never made this dish. We had it a lot growing up but I never really enjoyed it. BUT, when we were at Olive Garden a few weeks ago I got the Tour of Italy. Chicken Parm. was on the plate and it was so good! I knew right then I had to give it a try. Very glad I did!

Also.....I gave Lucy spaghetti for the first time last night. ......um, yeah. Let me just say we're not doing that again maybe ever. :) She was not a fan of the flavor and decided finger painting with marinara sauce was tons of fun. Also, rubbing the sauce through your hair is fun too. I was smart enough to undress her before eating, thankfully. She went straight to the bath after dinner. Here are some pics of the damage. Yuck.