Sunday, May 24, 2009

Health food hopping

Yesterday went well in terms of learning more about the best location for purchasing healthier food, whole food per say : ) And of course time spent with my friend is always a huge blessing and gift in affirmation.

We started with a trip over to Whole Food, formerly Wild Oats. Have a hard time with that and keep interchanging their names - oops, sorry to all that confuses (besides me - LOL). Love getting there early when the store is almost empty. I was also pumped because I had scored a $5 off coupon from one of the frugal food blogs I read. It was good on meat, seafood or produce. Since their produce isn't a good deal usually and I can't afford much seafood, we headed straight for the meat counter. My friend clued me in that even this store had marked down meat - yea! So that was what I used my coupon on.




One of my main motivators for driving that far is that Whole Foods has a bulk section. I found it lacking and their were almost no bargains to be had there. I did get some raw/unsalted cashew pieces for making my own nut butter though, so that was good. I also found some vegan carob chips for baking, an imposable thing to find in my area. Wish I had bought more. I also checked the price of rice milk. There national brand rice milk was only thirty cents cheaper but . . . their own brand was two dollars cheaper! That got me a bit excited and I had to remind myself that I didn't need any since scoring that deal at Kroger two weeks ago. We don't drink milk anymore and only use the rice milk in some baking and in making faux cheeze, so a little goes a long way. There was also a better selection of gluten free/rice noodles. Other than that . . . not much else exciting. Oh, besides the coupon I saved ten cents on every canvas bag of my own that I brought in to bag my food.

Then we headed over to Trader Joe's, which ironically enough is housed in an old Wild Oat's store. I have never not seen that store busy, no matter what time you arrive. They open at nine and I have gotten there at eight-thirty, and there was already a line. Huh. Not sure of the attraction, half the size of Whole Foods and less organic choices. They do have some nice produce and produce prices. This store is truly the operating den of every individual who wants fancy food but doesn't want to make it themselves. It is a packaged, prepared food haven. That said, they also have wicked awesome recycled canvas store bags. These are the ones I buy to reuse. I reuse them at Whole Foods (they pretend not to notice) and other local area stores. They are great to keep in the side pocket of my door on my Durango. They can also double for library bags if one of ours is forgotten. You get the picture. To tell the truth I never gave the whole reusable bag thing much thought. Then I read a blog . . . her ambition is to have a matching set of reusable store bags . .. . . Now those of you who know me (and love me :P) and my OCD . . . You see whats coming right? I am trying to convince myself it doesn't matter, it's no big deal . . .


Anyway, got some great produce and ended up getting my brown rice noodles there. Used them today when I made faux mac & cheeze. By the way, K if your reading this - you were right, those smaller noodles were great. I also noticed that their brand rice milk was the same price as Whole Foods, that gives me two buying options but I believe my friend mentioned that if I bought a case at Whole Foods I would get a 10% discount. Since it is nonperishable this is the best way to go. I did however find a recipe in my allergy free book, for making my own, which I will share in a separate post. Not sure about grinding up my own cooked rice and worried about the consistency. I might just have to try one batch to see the price difference and see if I like it.


Headed home after that but stopped by Aldi's to pick up their 2lb. bag of lemons for 99cents. I bought two bags and will make lemon ade out of them. (also used another Trader Joe's bad there as well :P)

By the time I made it home I was whipped, still so hot here for this time of year. My wrists were feeling better (tendinitis issues when weather shifts) so I juiced my grapefruits and mixed in some pureed berries for breakfast today. I also made some into home made Popsicles, kids seem to like it better that way - tasted like sour patch kids! Guess I won't be buying grapefruit again in the near future.
Blessings, Beth Ann

1 comment:

Unknown said...

We are fans of Whole Foods too. The closest one is more then 25 miles one way from us.