Weekend Dinner Ideas

Free time just seems less and less available, and changing the batteries in my mouse just took most of the time I have for this post, so this will be quick!  Today's finally supposed to be cooler, but I so discount the possibility of rain ever again that I'll go for grilling tonight.  It will be salmon, but the questions remains, the fresh wild coho at Whole Foods for $14.99 a pound, or the farmed Atlantic at Sprouts that's just $4.99 a pound.  Munson's corn will of course go on the side, probably in a new recipe Mark Bittman demoed recently on the Today Show, raw corn salad with tomatoes and basil, which will also keep me working on my overflowing basil plants.

Tomorrow will be corn and fingerling potato chowder with applewood-smoked bacon from Cooking Light.  Do we have a theme going on here?  You betcha, until the Munson's corn runs out.

Although actually we'll take a break from the corn for Sunday.  With days no longer in the 100s and mornings downright cool (my furnace has actually turned on and had to be whacked back off a couple of mornings), I'm pining for a pizza hot from my own oven.  Chicken Italian sausage is $2.99 a pound at Sprouts this week (although never expensive anyway), so it will be a favorite, pizza alla salsiccia (sausage pizza) from Cooking Light.  Love the taste the fennel imparts, and I always make a double batch, using the wonderful multigrain fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods that fills an entire cookie sheet.

Which gets us through the weekend, my having spent more time writing than I should.

Boosting Immunity With Herbs Webinar

Sprouts has another webinar coming up, this time on the interesting topic of Boosting Immunity With Herbs.  Note that you should preregister.  Here's what they say:

Join us on September 10 for a brand-new webinar!


Medical Herbalist Mitchell Coven joins Sprouts Nutritionist Janet Little for a discussion on herbal remedies. Discover which herbs help maintain a healthy immune system and which provide effective relief for colds, bronchitis, asthma, flu, pneumonia, sinus infections and recurrent immune weakness.

Boosting Immunity with Herbs
Monday, September 10, 2012
7 - 8 p.m. PDT
Click here to register and reserve your space!

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Tomorrow

With Wednesday sales the norm, a Friday one-day sale at Whole Foods is a special treat, although not being much of a red meat eater, this one isn't for me.  Here's what they say:

One-Day Sale!


Ground Grass-Fed Beef

This Friday, September 7th, ground grass-fed beef is just $4.99/lb. Stock up and save!

Sunflower Now Sprouts

The "merger" has been official for quite some time, but now it's visual too - the store that was our Boulder Sunflower is now signed everywhere, inside and out, as Sprouts.  And you can use that $5 Sprouts coupon that was in last week's sale flyer there, too.  The bad news is that, as I feared, they're closing out my favorite Luigi Vitelli whole wheat dried pasta in the store that was Sunflower.  It will be hard to find a quality replacement anywhere near the $1.49 it was selling for, but in the meantime, I picked up all I could handle at the $1 a package closeout price.

This Week's Hot New Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Sunflower (both logos still coexisting on the new sale flyer), while the current sale continues at Whole Foods (click for prior report).  Here's what's looking good to me in the new sales.

At Sprouts and probably Sunflower (there's still that fine print about the merger in progress and price differential possibilities) through September 12th, surf & turf is featured, with porterhouse steak $6.99 a pound, and very big 16/20 count shrimp $5.99 a pound.  Value packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts are $2.99 a pound, not the lowest we've ever seen, while chicken (also pork) sausage are $2.99 a pound as well.  Rosie's organic whole fryers or grill packs are $2.79 a pound, previously frozen Alaskan cod fillets are $7.99 a pound, fresh (farmed) Atlantic salmon is just $4.99 a pound, and there's a big "buffalo stampede," with many types of bison on sale.

In organic produce, baby carrots remain nicely low at $1.25 for a one pound bag, red or green grapes are $1.99 a pound, one pound clamshells of strawberries are $2.99, celery is $1.29 a bunch, five pound bags of russets are $3.99 each, grape tomatoes are back down to $2 a pint, and the march towards prepackaged produce unfortunately continues.  There's a lot of BOGO action, including Earthbound Farm organic salads, my favorite Cascade fresh yogurts (good thing, considering they've bumped up the regular price), Cascadian Farm cereal, Westbrae organic canned beans, Oikos Greek yogurts, and Near East pilafs and couscous (select varieties for all).  Last but not least, conventional avocados are 50 cents each, not as good as last week's three for $1, but still pretty good.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Tomorrow

Be still, my wildly beating heart.  Organic fig lover that I am, I'm very enthused about tomorrow's one-day sale at our local Whole Foods stores.  Read the news from them and you'll see why:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 5th only:

Organic
Figs
$2.99/lb
(save $2/lb)

Bobo's
Oat Bars
2 for $3
(save $1.29/ea)

Manitoba
Hemp Hearts
(raw shelled hemp seed - 8oz.)
$4.49/ea
(save 50%)

No Benefit To Organic?

I don't think so.  I was going to ignore this when I read it yesterday, but since it's all over the news this morning, I guess I'll jump in.  There's a new meta-analysis out from Stanford University that questions the value of buying organic over conventional.  Anyone telling me that because the pesticide residues in the conventional are deemed mostly "safe" means they are equal in value to the organic has got to come up with a different argument to persuade me.  You can read the coverage from the New York Times here.

Happy Labor Day

Wishing you a fun holiday filled with lots of grilling and Munson's corn.  If you're still debating what will go on the grill, check out these grilling guides for inspiration.

Weekday Dinner Ideas, Starting With Labor Day

So what to do for Labor Day tomorrow?  It obviously has to include something on the grill, which I'm thinking will be the St. Louis ribs from American Homestead Pork that Whole Foods has for $3.99 a pound.  Potato salad would be classic on the side, and I like the very light, veggie-filled version from Cooking Light, light and fresh potato salad, with its vinaigrette dressing.  And of course, some ears of fresh Munson's corn on the cob.

Tuesday is our usual reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week is the corn and green chile chowder from the Food Network.  Much as I'm enjoying these soups and chowders, I'm secretly starting to look forward to returning to some comforting casseroles when the days start cooling off in the fall.

For Wednesday, we'll finally give the corn a break, using the raw shrimp that are $3.99 a pound at Sprouts and Sunflower through that day to do spicy shrimp and fettuccine from Cooking Light, since the runners in the family will be clamoring for pasta by then.

I'll also grab some of the top sirloin that's $3.99 a pound through Wednesday at Sprouts and Sunflower to do a longtime favorite for Thursday, sirloin steak with tomato and cilantro sauce from Bon Appetit.  The steak mixture is great either on its own, or wrapped in warm tortillas.

Which quickly gets us heading well into September, as I'm seeing more and more yellow leaves around my yard.

Boulder Farmers' Market Today

Happy September, all (how did we get here so quickly?)  Labor Day weekend makes for a fine time to stroll the Boulder Farmers' Market, downtown today from 8 to 2.  While there, you can take advantage of all the activities of the Boulder Creek Hometown Festival, bearing in mind that the live music starts at 12:30.  Planning types can check out the spectacular late summer list of produce you can expect to find at the market using their crop list.  It's an absolute ode to late summer.