I gave myself a low cost meal challenge for supper tonight and hit the Westside Sobeys without a shopping list. My plan was to walk through the departments and pick only a few key ingredients that were on sale, to put together a delicious meal.

Feeding a family of any size these days can really add up. Setting a budget and sticking to it while you are in the grocery store isn’t always easy, I see temptation in every aisle. Here are a few little tricks I use to keep my groceries bills in check and still eat well.

The Director of the Compliments Culinary Centre, Winnie Chiu, and I were having a conversation about eating less meat this year and I apologized because the blog I was planning on writing was about a hearty beef stew that can stretch your grocery dollar. However, when I went into the kitchen to start the dish I found that I was a few key ingredients short. So instead of panicking I went to the pantry and found a can of Compliments Diced Tomatoes and a can of lentils. I thought back to my earlier conversation with Winnie, and that’s when Lentil and Tomato Stew was born!