Cheap & Cheerful for the week

Saturday -- beef tacos, carrot sticks, salad

Sunday -- beef and potato hash, eggs

Monday -- scrambled eggs, brown rice, sweet potato souffle

Tuesday -- chicken-rice soup from the freezer (I prefer chicken-noodle, but chicken-rice holds up in the freezer better, I think), crackers, tossed salad

Wednesday (family dinner) -- roasted chicken (leftover and frozen from the previous week), mashed potatoes, mustard-glazed carrots, dinner rolls, baked apples

Thursday -- hotdogs in buns, canned corn, apple chunks and banana slices

Friday -- turkey curry over rice, using leftover turkey from the freezer

It was a busy week with a lot going on in our home. However, I did clear time from my schedule to make a nice family dinner on Wednesday (my son was over and said that the dinner seemed very autumnal). But the rest of the week was easy fixins', here. Tuesday was Senior Discount day at Fred Meyer, so I did a major stock-up on that day. There seems to be a flow to our grocery supply. I stock up and we eat like kings for a week, then the following week we eat like ordinary folk, and finally the end of the month we eat more like paupers. I'm not complaining, just noticing. It may actually be a beneficial thing, as many of the cheapest foods are pretty healthy, like beans and rice, carrots, or cabbage. I did well at the grocery store, combining coupons with Senior discount on store-brand items. No more 49 cents gallon milk, though.

How was your week? I hope was well and that fall is settling in beautifully where you live. Have a wonderful weekend!

Radishes: a good buy in the produce department

You get a lot in a bundle of radishes for just 79 cents or so. I bought this bundle yesterday (for 79 cents). I think most folks break off the red root portion and toss out the leafy greens. Those leafy greens are edible, too. Wash them well (they are often sandy), pluck off yellowing leaves, then chop and add the greens to soups or stews. That's what I did yesterday. I had a pot of soup simmering on the stove and I used some of the greens in the soup, and the roots in a salad.

Radish greens are peppery and sharp. However, that sharpness is masked well in soups and stews. And they're packed with vitamins K, C, A, B(s) and E, plus potassium, iron, calcium, and zinc.

Don't toss those leafy portions! Yet another vegetable that you can eat all parts.