New Whole Foods Deals

Whole Foods may have a (mostly undeserved) reputation as Whole Paycheck, but the quality of much of their stock, especially meat and seafood, is so good, it deserves to cost more. And if you watch them closely (or simply read here), you can find fabulous deals to make that quality fit more wallets. I was just at the Pearl Street store, where they have a today-only excellent sale on some meat. Items I saw, all at nearly or more than half price, were whole chickens at 99 cents/lb, Virginia baked ham at $2.99/lb, and bone-in spiral ham at $3.99/lb. I didn't check expiration dates, but if I remember correctly, vacuum-packed hams can keep quite a while. I can't say if these deals are available at the other local WF stores today, but tomorrow, a 3 Day After New Years Sale starts at all of them. Standouts again to me are in the meat and fish departments, with boneless turkey breast roast nearly half price at $3.99/lb (I might postpone my plans to use their $2.99 turkey tenderloin based on this), organic grass-fed beef boneless rump roast at $3.99/lb, and Whole Catch cod fillets, $3 off at $4.99 each. I believe the cod will be their nice frozen package, handy to have in your freezer. Aleutia sockeye salmon will also be $4 off at $10.99/lb, and it was already flying out of the seafood department today. From partway across the vast Pearl Street store, I heard a hearty cry that I initially mistook for "Need pollution in the case!". Of course, it was "Need Aleutia in the case!".

The New Year's Plan

Dinner on New Year's Eve will be Mark Bittmann's pasta with crab from the New York Times. We'll precede it with an experiment, smoked salmon rolls with ricotta and chives. Since that's also a NYT Bittmann recipe, it should be great. For New Year's Day, we have a tradition of doing something along the hoppin' John route, supposedly for good luck in the new year. Looks like I'm on quite a roll with Bittmann, as our norm is his soup spin, black-eyed pea soup with ham and greens. If you try this out using his option of prosciutto, remember that the Pearl Street Whole Foods usually has small slabs of prosciutto for cooking in their deli case at maybe half the cost of their freshly sliced prosciutto. Corn bread is a classic accompaniment, and recipes are everywhere. I particularly like one that was published in Bon Appetit, green onion corn bread. New Year's morning is more likely devoted to working out than to cooking, but the New York Times just published a recipe for a strata with mushrooms and chard that has me intrigued. Stratas are usually artery-clogging affairs, but this one, published as a NYT "recipe for health," looks really appealing. Like most stratas, it can also be made largely in advance, so it could fit in nicely with the workout. Rather than going with whole eggs, we find that NuLaid makes a fine substitute to cut down the cholesterol. Here's to a great 2010!

Last Call for WF Current Specials

While Sprouts and Sunflower put out flyers weekly, Whole Foods stretches theirs out to a two-week cycle, so today's the last day to grab the current specials at Whole Foods. Among my favorites have been their Seeduction hearth bread at half price ($1.99), Two Bite cinnamon rolls at nearly half price ($2.99 for a bucket of them - and good news, their chocolate brownies will be at that price starting tomorrow!), and Cotswold cheese at nearly half price ($9.99/lb). Tomorrow only, beef NY strip loins (averaging five pounds each) will be $5.99/lb, if you're thinking of a large roast for New Year's. Because they do overlap days on Wednesdays, you'll still have tomorrow to catch the current specials at Sunflower and Sprouts.

Boulder Dining Scene

Hope you caught Cindy Sutter's article on the growth of Boulder's sophisticated dining options that appeared in this Sunday's Daily Camera. If you missed it, you can still view it here.

Burger Alert - 99 Cent Burger!

At Whole Foods, no less. Was out at the Superior store, using the New Year's $10 off coupon I've previously mentioned, and found prepackaged 85% lean burger on sale for 99 cents a pound! Most packages were about 1.25 pounds, so it's not like you have to take ten pounds to get the deal. Don't know what's happening at the other Whole Foods stores in the area, worth checking out. Also at Superior, if you're a fan of the Mix 1 drinks, they're on sale in 4-packs for $5.99, which wouldn't normally be a remarkable deal, but many of the 4-packs have $2.00-off coupons attached.

More Dinners For This Week

Last night we cheated and did another large cinque formaggio pizza (on sale at Whole Foods for $7.99, and it's big), dressed up with veggie pepperoni, some diced Black Forest ham (also on sale at Whole Foods, $7.99/lb), and mushrooms. Tonight will be some yummy chicken parmesan sausages from Sprouts, on sale for $2.99/lb (will probably freeze some as well). Haven't decided whether to do polenta or spaghetti squash served like spaghetti on the side. Christmas' standing rib roast dinner will get a partial reprise for Monday, this time with organic russet potatoes baked on the side. Tuesday will go vegetarian, using butternut squash for the New York Times' pasta with winter squash and tomatoes. Organic romas were on sale for $1.99/lb at Whole Foods when I was last there. Haven't decided about Wednesday, and am still thinking pasta with crab for New Year's Eve.

Hot Two Day Sale

Whole Foods (flyer says Rocky Mountain Region, so must be all the stores around here) is doing some great deals in a two day sale, today and tomorrow only. Items that quickly caught my eye are their great burger, the 85% lean ground beef, just $1.99/lb (put a bunch in the freezer!), ground turkey breast $2.99/lb (half price!), and their fabulous baguettes at $.99 each (better than half price!).

Thinking Ahead to New Year's

I'll get next week's menus done in any downtime tomorrow (yikes), but one special in this week's crop of grocery deals already has me intrigued. Sunflower is advertising a 16 ounce jar of crab meat for $6.99, wow! Haven't tried the product, but at that price, I will. It started me thinking of a recipe Mark Bittmann published some time ago in the New York Times for pasta with crab. In budget-conscious times, and especially with the deal at Sunflower, that strikes me as a suitable centerpiece for New Year's Eve dinner!

Holiday Dinner Plans

To round out the week, Christmas Eve we'll do a spicy shrimp and fettucine dish that you can find by searching at Cooking Light. Very easy and cheap, yet festive. For Christmas dinner, we'll pull out the stops with a standing rib roast, a fennel and leek gratin that doesn't have a link, and green beans livened up with a chipotle butter. Friends will bring a potato dish and dessert. To start, we'll munch on lots of shrimp cocktail from the $3.99/lb sale at Sprouts, and the Cotswold with chives nearly half price at Whole Foods.

Coupons and Events

Interesting things to be found in today's Daily Camera paper. Sprouts is offering a coupon for $10 off a $60 purchase. Also, night owls might enjoy Whole Foods' Moonlight Madness sale, Wednesday the 23rd, from 11 pm to 1:30 am. Won't find me there - I'll be asleep.