Free Bird

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be travelling on, now,

cause there's too many places I've got to see.

But, if I stayed here with you, girl,

Things just couldn't be the same.

cause I'm as free as a bird now,

And this bird you can not change.

I'm not really "free as a bird," but I did get a free bird today during my grocery trip. A dear family friend gave me a coupon for a free Norbest Turkey and I finally had a chance to use it today. It was an even better deal though because my Publix doesn't sell Norbest birds, so I got a Murray's Farm turkey! Their birds are raised the way nature intended on a family farm with no antibiotics nor hormones. There is even a really neat feature to learn more about the family farm your bird was raised on. I had some trouble with the code on the front of my turkey so I don't know which farm my turkey grew up on, but I do know my turkey was raised in "idyllic Blue Mountains in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster countryside." This was a $35 turkey that I got for free! Thanks Debbie! I did freeze it and will let you know when we cook it and all the wonderful things I use it for.

Since I only used $9 of last week's budget, I had $41 to spend this week. With that, so far I've only spent $30.79, which puts me UNDER BUDGET for 2 weeks in a row! Woo hoo! I might go back out tomorrow to buy some more frozen or canned veggies, thereby just being on budget. We'll see how the schedule goes.

And finally, since this post is already long, I think I'll make it just a tad longer and ask for your help. I purchased a bag of lentils today ($1.29) at Publix because I really want to try them. I understand they are incredibly healthy and a very frugal food. Maybe I even read somewhere that they are very good at taking on the flavor of other ingredients. (I'd compare them to tofu on that point, but then my husband might not eat them.) Here is where you, my wonderful readers, come in.

Please share with me ideas for preparing lentils. Sure, I could google lentil recipes (and probably will anyway), but how will I know if they are any good? Leave a comment with your time-tested, family-tasted favorite lentil recipes so that I know what the heck to do with these little green beans.