We have had a good meal week.

Dh has been using leftover veggies to make salsa quite often. We got the "recipe" from a hispanic friend a while back. & we LOVE salsa. So in our frugal endeavors dh has been making it much more because usually he has everything anyway in leftovers (except maybe peppers and tomatoes). & we buy the chips more in bulk when they go on sale. I am not much of a veggie eater so the more salsa is good. The more chips is not. We might have to go find some healthier chip varieties. But these are so cheap. I seem to be losing weigh regardless. ?

Anyway, last week we tried a new cauliflower soup recipe from the newspaper. It is pretty good. I am not a veggie fan, but in that form I could eat it up. It is very creamy but it just has rice and chicken broth, something like that. & a lot of veggies. I was sure it had some high fat cream in it or something, but it doesn't. We've had it twice since because it is another great leftover recipe (all the leftover veggies) and the kids LOVE it.

The paper also had an Indian Broccoli recipe. Love Inidan food; not a fan of broccoli. But it actually used shoestring broccoli and it was REALLY good. So needless to say I have been eating more veggies this week.

Finally, dh tried a new rice and meat dish. It is SO good. We usually try a lot of new recipes and a few make it to our tried and true recipe book. But it seems like it has been a while. So it was a great week for new recipes. & yes I will share them when I get a chance!

We also tried Ms. Bean's frugal greek dish and it was good. We tried that a while back and I think dh is making it again this week. I forgot what it was, but I saw the recipe sitting out so I know dh is planning on it again. IT was yummy.

I also asked dh how grocery prices were and he said besides milk he hasn't noticed much. I wonder if the big cities are a little more immune to inflation. I don't know. We just haven't seen it here. I shouldn't say immune. Maybe I should say, just slow to reflect it. We just aren't feeling much pinch here. Yet. Not where we shop.

Which reminds me, I have been trying to talk dh into astro turfing our back lawn. We both hate yardwork and such but he is really against it for whatever reason. Anyway, now that we have metered water I have brung it up again. We should re-landscape. Sure the front yard has to look just so for the association. But the backyard - who cares. We just waste a lot of water. I's be happy to get desert landscaping (it's almost desert here anyway) and save water. But anyway, he wants to grow a garden. We are thinking of dividing the lawn into maybe 1/2 garden and 1/2 play area for the kids (get the tanbark and maybe a play set). Well, it will be a step in a good direction. We'll still have to water the garden. But not near as much as the lawn.

We could maybe get a cheaper rate on our gardener as well, with one less lawn to mow.

We had a tree die also. So we are thinking of getting an apple tree to replace it. The kids are apple monsters. So that will be nice!

The apple tree, we should jump on in the spring. After windy season. But the rest, I think we will wait a year or two. Not that the garden would cost money. But ripping up the lawn a bit, might. I don't even know where to start. IT's in the "idea" stage for now.