Hallowe'en is just around the corner!

Just have to have some candy corn around the house for Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving, here. And of course, I need treats to hand out on Hallowe'en.

For the candy corn, I found WinCo has the best prices in our area on candy corn, in their bulk bins, at $1.48 per pound. Compare this to the other budget candy corn venue -- Dollar Tree, at $1 for an 8 oz bag (equals $2 per pound). Dollar Tree is still a pretty good deal, when compared to buying name-brand, bagged candy corn from the grocery store.

Last week, at WinCo, I did buy our candy corn for the season, a little over a pound. We'll use some of it to decorate Jack O Lantern cookies, and some will go on the Thanksgiving table.

As for the trick-or-treats, I have a set budget per treat of 15 cents. We get around 30 trick-or-treaters at our house.

While at WinCo, I deliberated the merits of all kinds of treats, -- juice boxes, bags of chips, fruit snacks and candy. I weighed the pros and cons of many treats. I wanted just the right treat to hand out. I didn't want any kid to feel like I gave out rotten treats. But I also remembered that my own kids would occasionally get something other than candy, and really appreciate the variety. And I didn't want to add to the sugar overload from the huge pile of candy. Nor did I want a bunch of candy left over in my own home. Wow, so much to consider. I spent close to an hour trying to find the one right treat.

I settled on individual bags of pretzels. Pretzels may not be the most impressive treat, but I'm together enough that my ego will stay intact if I don't impress every child in the neighborhood. And the treats that I give out don't need to in some way "fix" the lives of every kid who knocks on my door.

I felt okay about my choice of treat, okay in a good way. Because I don't have to feel super-duper fantastic about every detail of my life. The treat, itself, is just a token. It's the fact that I open the door, and wish the trick-or-treaters a happy evening, and I ooh and ah over their choice of costume, and I make them feel that I have enjoyed this moment of time with them at my doorstep. All of that is what matters to the kids, isn't it? At the very least, I made at least one mom pleased that their child got something other than candy on that night.

And just so you know, WinCo also has a lot of pre-wrapped candy, in the bulk bin section, at awesome prices, if candy is your preferred treat for Hallowe'en.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for October

3rd day of turkey and dumplings became turkey stew

Friday
Only 3 of us for dinner tonight. Dinner will be an easy to prepare one.

• hot dogs and buns from the freezer
• leftover baked squash
• apple wedges
• grilled tomatoes
• banana bread

Saturday

My daughters and I are going to a concert on campus, at their university. I'm honored that they want me to come with them (or is it -- that they want me to drive them? Hmmm, I think I'll choose to believe they want me there.) Anyways, it's a Christian rock concert, so it should be loud and fun! Dinner needs to be super-duper easy, as I'll serve dinner for all 5 of us around 4:45.

• beans, rice, tomatoes and beef from the freezer
• tomato wedges
• apple wedges

Sunday

So, us girls kind of stayed up really, really late last night, with no chance for sleeping in this morning. once again, dinner needs to be easy. Fortunately, I still have a couple of meals in the freezer. I took a vote, in the car when we came home from church, and it sounds like everyone wants leftover chili.

• leftover chili from the freezer
• scratch cornbread, using up some lingering corn flour, mixed with corn polenta, in place of corn meal
• cole slaw (planning on making extra, thanks to some suggestions, here)
• baked apples

Monday

• turkey in gravy (from freezer) over brown rice
• grilled tomatoes
• cole slaw
• leftover corn bread

Tuesday

I'd been thawing about a gallon and a half of turkey and stock in the fridge for a couple of days. Today's the day to do something with it. I managed to to gather enough carrots, green beans, summer squash, kale and parsley from the garden to add to some veggies in the kitchen, plus barley to the turkey and stock. I also had some liquid from various vegetables in the fridge I could add. Topped with a biscuit dough, and now it's simmering away. I should have enough turkey and dumplings for 3 nights.

• turkey, vegetables and dumplings
• pumpkin spice cake

Wednesday

• leftover turkey and dumplings
• tomato, cucumber, basil salad
• leftover pumpkin spice cake

Thursday

No more dumplings left on the turkey stew, so I'll have to make some other sort of bread product to have with it. Hopefully, we'll finish up this pot of turkey stew, tonight. It's cold, rainy and the wind is supposed to pick up this evening. A good night for turkey stew.

• last night of turkey stew, I had to extend it a bit with leftover squash, pureed pumpkin, a diced potato, and some almost ripe tomatoes that were half-blighted
• bran muffin squares (muffin squares are what I call muffin batter, baked in an 8X8 square pan, then cut into squares -- slightly easier than muffins)
• chunky apple sauce, using the good half of apples that had Apple Star Crack (an apple virus)

That was our week of meals, again using a lot of leftovers, either from the freezer, or from what I made, one night, then served 3 evenings in a row. I still do a little cooking every day, so it's not like these are complete nights off. But it's an improvement. And on days when I don't have as much to cook, I can do something else in the kitchen, like make relish. (I did get to the dill relish, as well, this week. So we have both sweet and dill relish to get through the year.)

Saryn, if you're reading here, today, you'll notice that I did indeed copy your lead from last week, and made a poultry and dumpling dish!! Told you it sounded delicious! I have lots of turkey in the freezer, so I did the turkey/dumpling combo, instead of chicken and dumplings.

What was on your menu this past week? What's the weather like where you are? It's cold, wet and windy, here. Saturday the wind is supposed to really kick up. I'm thinking I should plan something that can be either heated over a fire, or eaten cold, as a just in case measure.

Have a great weekend!