Mommy Meet-Ups Wednesday

The Whole Foods store in Superior will host two free Mommy Meet-Ups this Wednesday regarding kids, their diets, and allergies.  Note that signup is requested.  Here are the details from them:

Mommy Meet-up        
             

Wednesday, October 2
10:00am and 6:00pm

Mommy Meetups
Free

Do your kids have food allergies?  Do you as a parent have questions about your child’s diet? Join us at the Superior Whole Foods Market Café at 10:00am and 6:00pm for informal round table chats with whole food and allergy experts Robyn O’Brian author of “The Unhealthy Truth” and Founder, AllergyKids Foundation and Angie Nordstrum, Healthy Child Healthy World “Mom on a Mission” & Food Allergy Advocate.  Please sign up at our Customer Service Counter or email rm.sup.events@wholefoods.com to reserve a spot today!

Boulder Joins Wally World Wednesday

Forthcoming article from the Daily Camera about Walmart squeezing itself into Boulder despite lots of opposition, in the form of a "neighborhood market" opening Wednesday.  Fortunately not in my neighborhood.

A Week Of Dinner Ideas

I never did get around to posting anything Friday about dinners, so I might as well back up to there.  This week's thinking is motivated by three great sale items at the new Lucky's Market in Longmont, the fresh bay scallops for $6.99 a pound, the domestic prosciutto that's $7.99 a pound, and the organic roma tomatoes that are just 77 cents a pound (plus a lot of other good deals).  Those deals, plus the fact that I have a lot of basil in my yard that's already had a near death experience as we came close to a frost, and the end of this week isn't looking good either.  Will need to start making and freezing pesto as well as the uses below.

With the above specials in mind, Friday was linguine with bay scallops, fennel and tomatoes from Bon Appetit.  I also indulged by adding about a quarter pound of sliced prosciutto at the end, yum.

Last night, halibut from Whole Foods' current weekend sale, $17.99 a pound through today, went on the grill.  $17.99 is still a lot, but halibut usually runs even so much higher, and it was so worth it.  Corn from Munson's went on the side in a recipe I've mentioned before that really needs no recipe, sautéed corn with tons of herbs.  My burgeoning herb garden and basil plants, plus upcoming frosts, were the motivations there, along with the Munson corn, of course.

Tonight we'll be back to those bay scallops, adapting bacon-corn chowder with shrimp from Cooking Light to do it with scallops instead.  Some more sliced prosciutto just might make it into the pot at the end (or if I were more ambitious, I'd crisp it then crumble it).

Tomorrow, we'll turn to Sprouts' ground chicken breast or turkey breast special at $3.99 a pound to do spicy Thai basil chicken from Cooking Light.  Yup, another use for that basil harvest.  I love that it's great served in lettuce leaves, and with a bit of edamame on the side, makes a light dinner.  Even the runners in the house like it, despite any heavy carbs.

Tuesday will be our usual reheat of a big weekend item, which this week is the bacon-corn chowder from Cooking Light, link just above.

For Wednesday, the last day of the current Longmont Lucky's sale, it will be tomato and mozzarella risotto from Cooking Light.  I'll use plenty of fresh romas in it instead of canned, lots of basil from my garden, and will undoubtedly add some of that sale prosciutto, too.

Thursday?  No specific plan, but it's always an easy one as the week winds down.  Pork chops make a frequent appearance, and they're just $1.99 a pound for boneless center-cut loin ones through Wednesday at Sprouts.  Another frequent option is the salmon burgers at Whole Foods, where there's just about always a good sale option at $7.99 a pound.

Which gets us through an entire week, which currently is looking at some pretty chilly overnight temperatures for the end of it.  Do what you can for your gardens!

Vitamin Cottage Sale Heads Up

Just a reminder that if you want to grab any items from the current sale at Vitamin Cottage, you only have through tomorrow to do it (and at least in the Boulder store, they tend to out-of-stock on the particularly good deals as the sale winds down).  You can read my favorite items in this post.

Whole Foods Sales Starting Tomorrow

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a three-day weekend sale starting tomorrow and also a flash sale for tomorrow from 3 to 6 pm only.  Those NY strip steaks are incredibly good, and this flash sale is a fantastic deal.  But we've already been eating too much beef lately, so I'm going for that halibut in the weekend sale instead.

SEP 27 (FRI FLASH SALE!)

NY Strip Steak: $8 OFF/lb
<< 3-6pm Only>>
Sale Price: $9.99/lb        SEP 27-29 (FRI-SUN)

Halibut Fillet: $10 OFF/lb
Sale Price: $17.99/lb

Cucina Pasta Sauce: 50% OFF
Sale Price: $3.99 Each
Amy's^® Bowls: 40% OFF
Sale Price: 2 for $6Café Ubuntu Blend by Allegro^® Coffee: $4 OFF
Sale Price: $8.99 Each
Cinnamon Crumb Cake: 50% OFFSale Price: $2.99 Each

Big Whole Foods Flood Donation Tomorrow

This pretty much says it all:

Colorado Friends: We are heartbroken by the devastation Colorado's floods have had on so many of you. This Thursday, September 26th, we will be donating 5% of our sales* to a special Colorado flood relief fund established by the American Red Cross. Every Whole Foods Market store in our state will participate in this effort, as well as stores in New Mexico, Idaho and Utah. To those of you shopping this week, please consider choosing Thursday so that your purchases contribute to this important cause. Sending you our very best, Your Local Whole Foods Market Team

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our local Sprouts stores and Lucky's Markets, while the current ones continue at Whole Foods through October 1st and Vitamin Cottage just through September 28th, getting close.  Here's what's looking good to me now.

Sprouts' new sale runs through October 2nd, and the poor Arapahoe store that was so damaged in the flood should be part of it, as it should be reopening today.  I'm intrigued by what a value pack of whole chickens might entail, as they're just 99 cents a pound.  Boneless center-cut pork loin chops are incredibly low at $1.99 a pound, ground chicken breast or turkey breast are both $3.99 a pound, and Rosie organic whole chickens are $2.99 a pound.  In fish, they are still advertising the availability of fresh wild coho salmon fillets for $9.99 a pound.

In organic produce at Sprouts, bunched broccoli is good at $1.29 a pound (but was even better at Lucky's last week at 99 cents), baby carrots are $1.49 for a one pound bag, five pound bags of red, russet or Yukon potatoes are $3.99 each, red, green or black grapes are $2.49 a pound, Bartlett pears are $1.49 a pound, and honeycrisp apples are $2.49 a pound.

Elsewhere in the store at Sprouts, there's a "line drive" sale on the Kashi brand, with everything 30% off, and it gets even better if you buy five of them and use the in-store coupon for an additional $4 off.  The smaller 15-ish ounce size of Muir Glen organic tomatoes is three for $5, Fig Newmans are $3 a 10 ounce package, some Brown Cow yogurts are 35% off, and Clif bars (also Luna or Mojo) are $1 each, although we've seen lower.

I'm not committing to covering Lucky's, but their Longmont store continues with some grand opening specials that are too good to ignore.  They continue to have a separate sale from the Boulder store, with a little bit of overlap.  At the Longmont store through the 2nd, I'm liking wild fresh diver bay scallops for $6.99 a pound, antibiotic-free boneless skinless chicken breasts for $2.99 a pound, grass-fed top sirloin at $5.99 a pound (all their meats promising no hormones or antibiotics), and I'm very much liking Fiorucci prosciutto at just $7.99 a pound.

In organic produce at the Longmont Lucky's, roma tomatoes are stunning at 77 cents a pound, three types of kale are $1.50 a pound, one pound bags of baby carrots that are both organic AND local are spectacular at 99 cents each, and organic red seedless grapes are just $1.50 a pound.

I can see I'll be cooking with a lot of roma tomatoes, prosciutto, and bay scallops this week.

If you want to see sale flyers for both of the Lucky's stores, scroll to the bottom of their website here.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Today

For today only, the 25th, our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a duo of special sales.  Here's what they say:

SEP 25 (WED ONLY!)

Pasture Raised Rump Roast: $3 OFF/lb
Sale Price: $3.99/lb
Soups by Boulder Soup Works^®: 50% OFF
Sale Price: $3.49 Each (Organic & Gluten Free!)

Arapahoe Sprouts To Reopen Tomorrow

Today's Daily Camera is reporting that the Sprouts store on Arapahoe, which was considerably damaged in the flood, is set to reopen tomorrow morning.  Yay for comebacks!

I Have Munson's Corn!

Yahoo, Munson's stand at 75th and Valmont is open, and they say their corn came through quite well!  Problem was getting in to pick it while the ground was muck.  We'll have corn with our steaks tonight, since yesterday's weather caused us to swap around the grilling and the salmon chowder.  Just hope today's crazy winds die down before dinner.