Sausage, Kale and White Bean Soup (Oh, and a cute kid too)

I promised a while back to show you the soup I've been making for lunches.  I bought a magazine called "Hearty Soups" on a whim from Target, and it's turned out to be a surprisingly good buy.  I won't reprint the recipe here because I'm afraid of the copyright police, but I'll give you a general idea of what's in the soup.  You could probably figure it out just from the ingredients.  It's similar to this soup but without the potatoes.

Tear up some kale into bite sized pieces.  You will want to cut off the "ribs" of the kale, as they are bitter and won't taste great in the soup.

I bought mild italian sausage and removed the skin.  You could use hot sausage in this soup too, and it would probably be delicious.  Saute the sausage with some garlic and onions.  Throw it in a pot with some chicken broth, then add diced tomatoes (get the kind with garlic, basil, and oregano) and cannellini beans,  and simmer for a while.

Add the kale at the end and keep simmering just until the kale is wilted.

It is super delicious, and it freezes really well.  I ate it for lunch every day last week.
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Another cooking discovery I made last weekend:  You can cook a whole chicken in the crock pot.
 
It was amazingly delicious.  I used this recipe and it was so simple.   Plus, I got the chicken on sale for around $2.50 (for the whole chicken!!) so it was even cheaper than buying the $5.99 cooked rotisserie chicken from the store.
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Speaking of cheap, I've been doing more couponing lately.

I've gotten into a habit of going really early on Saturday mornings.  Harris Teeter has special "Saturday only" deals, and I figure I'm up anyway, may as well get our shopping out of the way. :)  This week, my best deals were sour cream for nine cents, free yogurts, and banana chips for $0.19 a package.  I'll be eating the banana chips by myself, since Steven is not a fan.

TOTAL: $42.65 (I left out about $27 of non-sale items we bought that we needed but I lacked coupons for, like milk, OJ, strawberries and meat.  And I splurged on a $10 chuck roast that was DELICIOUS... so my real total was closer to $70)
TOTAL before sales and coupons: $141.26
SAVINGS: 70%  (Still haven't broken out of the 70 percentile mark.  My goal is 95% savings, but that's hard to do with larger shopping trips.  I think most folks who save that much are doing many small trips, and are also doing the CVS deals. I'm not ready for it yet....)
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And finally, because you were so patient to read this far, here are some adorable baby pictures.

Very focused on her blankie.

She loves Sophie the Giraffe!

Bumbo seat!