In the kitchen

A little background for those that don't know me all that well. I have always wanted to be able to cook but never thought I had the skills to do it. Yeah I could handle a simple spaghetti or bake a mean batch of cookies, but I wanted to be able to REALLY cook. And I wanted to enjoy it more than I did because I always loved the look on someones face when they ate something I made and enjoyed it.

Well, since I stay at home and do nothing but take care of the baby and house and dogs all day (and some days that is MORE than enough) I thought I would see how well I could do with some new recipes and new determination for cooking. Turns out that with a little practice that I might actually be good at this whole cooking thing. I have expanded my cooking abilities by probably 100 or so recipes and it is doing more than just making me happy. Yes, I love to see my husband enjoy a new dish that I prepared for our family, but what I love even more is seeing our grocery budget cut by nearly 33%! Now that money can go towards our savings account and what I call our "cushion." I am always worried about money and having something set aside for emergencies and unexpected expenses makes me a lot more calm.

With coupons and a game plan set when I went grocery shopping, I managed to get about 2 weeks worth of food for just over $60. That is much more what I like to see.  This week's menu (in no particular order) for lunch (I eat leftovers for dinner since I'm by myself and cereal is our breakfast staple):
homemade pizza, chicken fingers, chicken milano, chicken florentine, grilled cheese and tomato soup, garden salad with tuna, and finally meatball subs. Most of our options are pretty healthy and I love that we have started introducing so many veggies into our diet because I will admit I tend to really slack in that part of my diet.

Also, this is the last day of my first week of the 30 day shred and I am happy to say that I'm not nearly as sore as I was early on. It still hurts, don't get me wrong, but not as badly. But like they say "no pain, no gain."