Lafayette Oatmeal Festival Tomorrow

If you are looking for some weekend fun, the annual Quaker Oatmeal Festival in Lafayette is tomorrow from 7:30 am to noon. It includes a 5K walk/run, an oatmeal breakfast, and a health fair. You can check out all the details here.

Weekend Sales At Whole Foods

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a special sale for tomorrow only, plus a trio of sales for the entire weekend. For tomorrow only, the 9th, top sirloin steaks and roasts will be $7.99 a pound, $5 off. For tomorrow through Sunday Wallaby Greek yogurt cups will be half off at $1 each, quarts of the same will also be half off at $3.50 each, and Garden of Life Raw Fit Protein Powder will be 47% off at $24.99 each. I don't know anything about the protein powder, but 47 is one of my favorite numbers.

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

Good morning Boulder, and watch that absolutely treacherous ice out there! Being Wednesday, it's time for a new sale at Sprouts, while the current one continues at Whole Foods through January 13th. I think Vitamin Cottage is still on a hiatus as far as their big, lengthy Hotline sale goes, but may be doing some smaller sales until it returns. Here's what's looking good to me now.

At Sprouts through January14th, the big news to me is the return of the Vitamin & Body Care Extravaganza, with everything in the department 25% off. This is a great time to grab those favorite products you know otherwise don't really go on sale. In meat, chicken breast tenders are $1.99 a pound, Italian chicken sausage (pork also) is $3.99 a pound, whole or split fresh chickens are $1.69 a pound, with cut-up a little higher, pork shoulder roast and bone-in country style ribs are $2.99 a pound, and ground chicken breast or turkey breast are $3.99 a pound. Previously frozen Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets are $9.99 a pound, and 30/40 count Peruvian sea scallops are $8.99 a pound.

In organic produce at Sprouts, broccoli is $1.48 a pound, curly green kale is $1.48 a bunch, baby carrots are $1.48 a one pound bag, celery is $1.48 a bunch (somebody's really on a roll with 1.48), Braeburn or red delicious apples are both just 98 cents a pound, butternut or spaghetti squash are also 98 cents a pound, Bosc pears are $2.50 for a three pound bag, and Valencia oranges or grapefruit are $2.50 for a four pound bag. Elsewhere in the store, aside from the big vitamin and body care sale, I'm liking bulk coffee for $7.99 a pound, Fage Greek yogurts $1 each, select Westbrae organic beans $2 for the big 25 ounce size (maybe I should do that chili with black beans, butternut and chard this weekend), and I'm thrilled to see some DeLallo organic whole wheat pastas at just $1.50 for a one pound bag. It usually sells for nearly twice that, and DeLallo whole wheat has become my favorite go-to pasta brand these days.

Be careful out there!

New Year's Wishes En Francais

I've previously sung the praises of Chocolate & Zucchini, the email newsletter (plus Facebook, blog, etc.) of Parisian Clotilde Dusoulier as a fun way for foodies to brush up on their rusty French (I believe she's totally bilingual, hence the English spelling of the site). In her newly released newsletter for January, she opens with wishes for the New Year that I could not have said better myself (or maybe could hardly have remembered how to scrape together at all):

J'espère que 2015...

... sera pour vous une année pleine de joies, petites et grandes, d'aventures excitantes, de rencontres enrichissantes, d'expériences inspirantes et bien sûr, de repas délectables.

Bien dit. You can find links to all her resources at her Chocolate & Zucchini website. Bonne annee!

Healthy Eating Cooking Class In Superior

The Whole Foods in Superior will offer a Healthy Cooking class this Thursday, the 8th, from 6 to 7 pm, but note they ask you to sign up.  Here's what they say (and apologies that the bottom will cut off on the right):

HEALTHY EATING COOKING CLASS

• print

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8TH

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
SUPERIOR WHOLE FOODS MARKET CAFE, FREE

Thursday, January 8

6:00pm-7:00pm

Healthy Eating Class –

Free

Join Stephanie for an introduction to Healthy Eating after the Holidays! New Year, New You. Please sign up at the Customer Service Desk or at rm.sup.events@wholefoods.com to reserve your spot today!

Cooking Of A Bygone Era

If last night's premiere of season five of Downtown Abbey put you in a nostalgic cooking mood, check out The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook: From Lady Mary's Crab Canapes To Mrs. Patmore's Christmas Pudding byEmily Ansara Baines. Well don't check it out literally, because I put dibs on the remaining available copy at the Boulder Library yesterday, but you can always put a hold on it for when one is returned, at which point you can indeed check it out. There's also A Year In The Life Of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes by Jessica Fellowes (also currently claimed at the library). I could also consult my beloved copy of Fanny Farmer's 1896 Cook Book. Although published earlier than the era covered in the series, it gets me in the mood for period dining or at least research.

Lose Something At The Farmers' Market?

The Boulder Farmers' Market reports they've developed quite a collection of personal items forgotten at the Market this past year. If you lost something, call their office at 303 910-2236 before January 9th to claim. After that, it will be donated.

Dazzling Boulder Dishes?

Happy Saturday, with more snow expected today. So I'm a little slow getting to the Friday magazine in yesterday's Daily Camera, and I find its feature is "14 plates that dazzled our dining critic in 2014." The dishes are wide-ranging both in cuisine and geography, coming from restaurants all over Boulder County and beyond. Since I haven't eaten at any of them, I clearly need to get out more, much as I enjoy cooking at home. You can get the lowdown on these 14 dishes from the Daily Camera here.

Weekend Sales At Whole Foods

Looks like our local Whole Foods stores are trying to get us off to a healthy start for 2015 with a duo of sales, one of which actually started yesterday. Through Sunday, Kevita sparkling probiotic drinks are $2 each as of today, and in a four-day sale that started yesterday and runs through Sunday, large tubs of Vega One nutritional shakes are $42.99 each. Can't say I've had experience with either product.

A Cleanse For 2015

Happy 2015! After all the overindulgence of the holidays, some folks are looking for ways to dial it back, and cleanses are popular in Boulder. Bon Appetit offers a food lovers cleanse that looks to be far more appealing than a week of nothing but kale juice. You can find all the recipes and instructions for their food lovers cleanse here. I might just follow Mark Bittman's advice and try to add more veggies and lessen the meat.