Fall, are you here to stay?

Today is supposed to be much cooler, which I'm glad about b/c I'm sick of 85 and humid.  Last night it felt a little bit cooler (like 72), so I decided to make some soup.  We are trying to be a bit better about budgeting, so I'm trying to only go the the store every 2 weeks except for perishables like milk and eggs we go through quickly.  Space is an issue at our house so I can't keep too much extra on hand.  We are to the end of our 2 week grocery time, so it's slim pickings in the house.  Last night I decided to take all the leftover veggies in our crisper and chop em up to start a soup (which I made up as I went along based on what I had).  I had some onion, 1 zucchini, 1/2 an orange pepper, carrots, and garlic (of course).  I started the diced onion in a little o.o.  I let is sweat and then added the rest of the veggies.  I also through in 6 slices of low sodium bacon, chopped b/c I was trying not to add any more oil, but increase the flavor.  Then I added in the garlic.  After it was all cooked a bit, I added a shot of sherry and cajun creole seasoning (no salt in this). Once it cooked out I added some tomato sauce (I had a big can--and eventually I added it all, but not at first).  Then I turned it off b/c I had to thaw out my It. sausage (I hadn't planned on soup, but I felt like it midafternoon so I didn't have it prethawed).  Then I took it out of the casings and browned it.  Once browned I added it to my soup base.  From this point I turned it on a low simmer and added some chicken broth and the rest of the tomato and some water to make it the consistency I wanted.  I let it cook for a while and then added a can of rinsed white kidney beans and red kidney beans. 

Then I made homemade cheese beer bread.  It is so easy. It's just flour, a little sugar, baking soday, baking powder, salt, oregano, basil, beer, and cheese.  It goes great with hearty soups. We all ended up loving the soup, which was good b/c I had no idea how it was going to turn out.