I decided to make Cheapskate Soup (THM Cookbook pg 88) which is a split pea soup. I had been getting my split peas from Sprouts but when Tiffany looked for them last grocery day she couldn’t find them. She asked someone and they said they discontinued them in the bulk bins because there was no demand for them. UGH! I got them on sale last month or so for about 89¢ a pound! That is good.

We looked all over the place for them at Walmart. Tiffany even asked someone. This is not a young person that she asked and she didn’t even know what we were talking about! Seriously, she had no idea what split peas were.

They have dried beans in, not one, and not even two, but THREE different places in that crazy store! I know this because I found the first two places and then stumbled upon the last place when I was looking for something else. There they were, pretty as you please, in a small one pound bag on the next to the bottom shelf. However, they were $1.37 for that one pound bag!!! I kid you not.

I do not consider that cheap! Especially not for dried beans. Ugh. You see, I can get a one pound roll of ground turkey in the same store for only $1.50, so that is just 13¢ more than the peas. Then of course, you can get chicken thighs for 79¢ a pound. Albeit, for a family of four you need several pounds because of the bone and skin there but those have such health benefits and you can keep the bones to make broth too. Sad thing is that I needed two pounds of those peas to make the soup. We’ll have a couple servings for lunch or yo-yo (you’re on you’re own) dinner another day though.

Let me talk to  you about lettuce for a minute too. You have to be careful about buying too much lettuce at once because if it gets wet at all (thank you water misters in the produce section) and you don’t get it dried off (giving you yet one more thing to do as you put away groceries) it will get funky–wilted and nasty in spots. Then you have to be careful when you are using it.

So the alternative is to buy bagged salad but that isn’t cheap and if you’re not quick about it, it’ll start getting just like that other lettuce from condensation in the bag. YUCK!

So I thought I hit on the perfect thing: boxed salad greens! The first week it worked like a charm. It made our salads so super easy! Then last week I got two of those tubs of lettuce greens and was a little concerned about them because they seemed a bit damp.

I was right to be concerned! We didn’t even get to eat the first salad out of them before they started pulling the same YUCK fest that the other ones did.

So, I don’t even know what the answer is to this dilemma, except maybe to just be very picky about the salad greens and reject it if it is moist. Ugh! Because I NEED to be eating salads every single day of the week.

Next spring this shouldn’t be a problem because we are going to have a garden and these greens are one of the things we are supposed to be planting. I cannot wait!!! Okay, I can wait but I’m very eager for it to happen.

Well, I’ve rambled and ranted long enough for today. I made a nice meal today that I wish I’d have taken pictures of to share with you but alas, I didn’t. So, maybe I’ll have it together for next Tuesday.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº