This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have a new sale starting today at our Boulder Sprouts, while the current one continues at Whole Foods through October 15th (click for prior report).  And I still haven't made it to Vitamin Cottage to check out the new sale scene there.

At Sprouts through October 16th, fresh wild Pacific salmon fillets are news at $4.99 a pound.  But if you're in the vicinity of the new Lucky's Market in Longmont, it looks like this is the week they're doing British Colombian wild fresh salmon for $3.99 a pound.  Fresh wild salmon wars!  Back to Sprouts, value packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.99 a pound, and boneless center-cut pork loin chops or stuffed chicken breasts are $2.99 a pound.  Turkey tenders or ground turkey breast also look good aat $3.99 a pound, and they have fresh wild albacore tuna steaks for $9.99 a pound.

In organic produce at Sprouts, jewel or garnet yams are $1.29 a pound, five pound bags of russet, red or Yukon potatoes are $3.99 each, green, red or black grapes are $2.49 a pound, butternut squash is 89 cents a pound, and three types of apples are all $1.49 a pound.  Elsewhere in the store, the Big Brand Sale continues for its final week, with a whole lot of brands running 20 to 35% off regular prices.  Brands that particularly appeal to me include Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen organic tomatoes, Kashi, and Niman Ranch.

As for the new Lucky's in Longmont, it looks like this week is when they're doing the sale they accidently sent out last week, then retracted.  You can read what I said about it last week before they said whoopsie and took it back.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Tomorrow

For tomorrow, the 9th, our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a duo of special sales.  Actually the olive bar sale isn't really so special, as I've discovered that every Thursday, at least at the Pearl Street store, the olive bar is $6.99 a pound.  And there's so much more than olives to be had on that bar, including fresh pesto (although I have plenty right now from my own basil plants), artichokes, marinated mushrooms, and the like.  Here's what they say:

OCT 9 (WED ONLY!)

Olive Bar: 30% OFF
Sale Price: $6.99/lb
Nita Crisps: 40% OFF
Sale Price: 2 for $6

Boulder Film Festival For Foodies

Now we have it all.  The International Film Series folks, along with a whole lot of others, are putting on Boulder's first ever food film festival, starting tomorrow.  Most of the films are on the CU campus (the $25 pass to all five is worth the free parking in the Euclid garage alone), plus there's a free film at the Boulder Public Library (yay for public libraries!).  You can read all the details here.

A Week Of Dinner Ideas

These are so comfort food oriented and mundane, it's hardly worth even writing.  Plus, I had lots of great ideas for early fall chowders, but the family is in rebellion over too many soups these past few weeks, so my ideas were nixed.  Here's the barest outline, backing up to Friday.

Friday - massive pesto making and freezing, with the first hard frost imminent.  Most pesto went into the freezer, but some went on sautéed steelhead trout from the Longmont Lucky's at $6.99 a pound, plus a bit on some tri-colored pasta shells that Whole Foods has very reasonably in its own line.

Yesterday, the new Longmont Lucky's sale has an extraordinary "wild oregano Greek marinated flattened chicken" on sale for $1.99 a pound this week, and that was very fun.  As I was checking out with it, the cashier commented that he'd just had it, and it was awesome.  Roasted veggies on the side (time to get into fall mode).

Tonight will be a comfort food pizza, since the family is rebelling against any more chowders for the near future.  Pizza alla salsiccia from Cooking Light will be on deck, a longtime favorite for pizza with sausage and fennel.  I always double it, using the multigrain fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods to fill an entire rimmed baking sheet, which makes plenty for another dinner in this house.

Tomorrow we'll continue this comfort Italian theme, trying a new recipe from the current issue of Bon Appetit, a very simple pasta with pancetta.  I'm not finding it with a quick web search, but it has about five ingredients, with the usual suspects like olive oil, garlic, and parmesan, in the current issue.  No more time to look, and the Bon Appetit site likes to lock up my computer for about five minutes while it loads all its add-ons.

Tuesday will be a return to all those lovely pizza leftovers.

Wednesday will be an improvised risotto with pesto, taking one of this weekend's many pesto containers from the freezer.

Then Thursday is usually salmon burgers from Whole Foods, and no more time to write!

Arapahoe Sprouts Giving Back

This actually started yesterday, but I just haven't had time to write.  The Sprouts store on Arapahoe, that was so hard hit during the flood, is doing a wonderful campaign this weekend, through tomorrow.  They say, "Shop at Sprouts on Arapahoe Avenue Oct. 4-6 and we'll take 10% off every shopper's total purchase. Plus, we'll donate 10% of all net proceeds to Foothills United Way."  That's way good enough, but they also have pre-packaged bags of food needed by Community Food Share, so you can do some good yourself, also at that 10% discount.

Hard Freeze Likely Tonight

Brrr, it's going to be a cold day today, with rain and snow, and channel 9 is currently predicting a low of 26 degrees in Denver for tonight.  I'm going to be a pesto-making fool today with my basil crop, and I already stocked up yesterday afternoon on what's likely to be my last Munson's corn of the year (sniff).  They told me yesterday that a temperature of 28 degrees is what ends the crop for the season, and it sounds like we'll probably be there tonight.  Meanwhile, our spare room has taken on the role of garden shed, with every pot I could haul inside stored there, since once we get past these next couple of days, it looks like we'll return to some warmth, at least briefly.

Weekend Sale At Whole Foods

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a trio of specials for tomorrow through Sunday only.  Here's what they say:

OCT 4-6 (FRI-SUN)
Caramel Apple Lattice Pie: $5 OFF
Sale Price: $9.99
Amazing Meal
By Amazing Grass: 50% OFF
15-Serving Tubs
Sale Price: $19.99

All Hot Soup: 50% OFF
Chef-Inspired | Options Vary By Store

Hold The Phone Re Lucky's Sale

So Lucky's has issued a retraction, apologizing for sending out the wrong sale flyer, at least for Longmont (and this after I'd already planned around it).  The revision looks nothing like what I had worked from.  Considering I have almost no time for any of this anyway and it's almost midnight, this might just be the what puts me over the edge in amending or ending writing all of this.

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales all over the place at our Boulder area natural grocery stores, at Sprouts, Whole Foods, Lucky's, and I believe also at Vitamin Cottage (I need to get there and check that one out).  Here's what's appealing to me this week.

Sprouts' sales generally run for one week, but today, their big news is a two-week sale, through October 16th, a Big Brand Sale, with 20 to 30% off some bestsellers.  Items catching my eye include 35% off all Cascadian Farm organic products, 35% off all Blue Diamond (their Nut Thins are great with hummus), 30% off all Amy's products, 35% off select R.W. Knudsen juice, 20% off select Sabra hummus (for those Nut Thins), 25% off select big cans of Muir Glen organic tomatoes, 30% off select Annie's mac and cheese, 30% off all Cascade Fresh items, and 30% off all Alexia products (time to get some frozen sweet potato fries into the oven), among many other options.  Select gluten-free products are also 25% off.

In Sprouts' regular sale running through October 9th, previously frozen wild Alaskan cod fillets are just $4.99 a pound, boneless skinless chicken breast tenders are $2.49 a pound, all chicken sausage is $2.99 a pound, their very good stuffed chicken breasts are $2.99 a pound, and fresh wild Pacific salmon fillets are $5.99 a pound.  In organic produce, broccoli is $1.49 a pound, jewel or garnet yams are $1.29 a pound, vine-ripe tomatoes are $1.99 a pound, gala apples and four types of pears are all $1.49 a pound.  Elsewhere in the store, bulk coffee is on sale at $7.99 a pound, although that's the everyday price at Lucky's, at least in the Longmont store.

In Whole Foods' new sale through October 15th, if you're moving from fresh wild to farmed salmon, their fine Norwegian salmon is $13.99 a pound (although that's quite a jump from $5.99 above for wild, and also look below at Lucky's).  Teriyaki is the salmon burger du jour at $7.99 a pound, and American Homestead boneless pork shoulder roast is $3.99 a pound.  Organic golden delicious apples are $1.49 a pound, three pound bags of yellow onions are $2.99 each, organic green or red cabbage or russet potatoes are all 99 cents a pound, and organic green bell peppers are $1.99 a pound instead of their usual stratospheric price, and organic black seedless grapes are also $1.99 a pound.  Whole Foods' own sourdough boules are $2.99 each, Fage yogurts are $1.25 each, and there are several pumpkin/Halloween specials.

P.M. Update - Ignore everything below.  Lucky's has issued a retraction, saying they posted the wrong ad, so none of this applies.

Maybe I'm the only person in Boulder who finds the new Lucky's Market in Longmont a convenient place to shop, but there are a few specials there worth mentioning.  (The Longmont and Boulder stores continue to have separate sales, with some overlap.)  Most notable and curious is British Columbian wild harvested fresh salmon at just $3.99 a pound.  Doesn't specify steaks or fillets.  Teton Waters grass-fed London broil is $3.49 a pound, and their house-made chicken sausages are $2.99 a pound.  There's a big Bulk Bonanza at 20% off, meaning their everyday $7.99 for coffee should be even lower this week.  Also, local Hope organic hummus is particularly low at $2.29 each.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Tomorrow

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a duo a special sales for tomorrow only, the 2nd.  The coconut one won't do much for me, as I have an intense dislike of anything with it.  Here's what they say (and so glad they got the word out earlier than recently, which has been basically past bedtime!):

OCT 2 (WED ONLY)

365 Coconut Water: 10 for $10
17.6 oz Cans
Or get it by the case for $12!

Baby Back Ribs: $3 OFF/lb
Humanely Raised
No Antibiotics Ever!
Sale Price: $4.99/lb