Thanksgiving Tasting At Sunflower

And another holiday tasting! Our Boulder Sunflower will also be into the tasting act this weekend, with a Thanksgiving Tasting Fair on Saturday, the 12th, from 11 am to 2 pm. Happy tasting! (P.S. If you don't find it on the main floor of the store, check up the stairs by the cheese department.)

More Whole Foods Holiday Tastings

Both the Pearl Street and Superior Whole Foods stores (and possibly the others - I can only check on so many, so I go for the largest!) are continuing their string of tastings to tempt you with new ideas for Thanksgiving and beyond. Pearl Street will focus on sides and desserts both today and Saturday, while Superior will go for the whole meal on Saturday.

Here's the news from Pearl Street:

Thursday, November 10th

Holiday Tasting- Sides and Desserts
4-6:30pm FREE

Stop by the store for a taste of some of our delicious Holiday side and dessert offerings. It's never too early to start planning the perfect Holiday meal!

Saturday, November 12th

Holiday Tasting- Sides and Desserts
1-4pm FREE

Stop by the store for a taste of some of our delicious Holiday side and dessert offerings. It's never too early to start planning the perfect Holiday meal!

And here's what the Superior store has to say:

Saturday, November 12th

Holiday Tasting- Holiday Meal Items
3:00pm-6:00pm Free

Join us throughout and enjoy samples of Holiday items that you may have never tried. What a great way to make your Holiday Meal choices!

This Week's Hot Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Sunflower, while current sales continue at Alfalfa's, Vitamin Cottage, and Whole Foods (click those links for prior reports). Here's what looks best to me in the new sales.

In Sprouts' new sale through the 16th, chicken breast tenders look good at $1.99 a pound, boneless pork loin chops are $2.99 a pound, and they're doing a "wild caught seafood spectacular," with previously frozen swordfish, sockeye salmon, ahi tuna, Alaskan cod, and 16/20 count raw shrimp all $8.99 a pound. All their bulk cheese looks great at 30% off across the board. In organic produce, gala apples, Italian squash (think zucchini), and D'Anjou pears are all just 99 cents a pound, garnet yams are $1.29 a pound, broccoli continues at $1.49 a pound (basically the same at Sunflower), as do five pound bags of russet potatoes for $3.99 (pretty good, but remember a five pound bag is just $1.69 at Vitamin Cottage), and three pound bags of yellow onions for $2.49 each. You can find Amy's burritos for $1.50 each, and select eight ounce packages of Organic Valley cheese are 25% off. Finally, don't forget, as I mentioned yesterday, for today only, the 9th, you can buy a $100 gift card for $89.99.

At Sunflower through the 16th, I'm enthused to see Hass avocados, both conventional and organic, at 50 cents each. Grass fed 93% lean (that's pretty lean) ground beef looks good at $3.99 a pound, as does ground pork for $2.99 a pound. Organic produce looks good as usual, with acorn, butternut, spaghetti squash and pie pumpkins all 99 cents a pound, sweet onions $1.99 for a two pound bag, bunched leeks $1.99 a pound (that one has me thinking...), russet or red potatoes 99 cents a pound, cauliflower or broccoli $1.50 a pound, and five pound bags of carrots at $3.99 each. I'm also enthused to see select Voskos Greek yogurts at $1 each, and Seapoint Farms veggie blend edamame at $2 a 16 ounce bag (keep them stocked in the freezer for a quick stir-fry).

Gift Card Special At Sprouts Tomorrow

In their new sales flyer preview, our Boulder Sprouts is showing that for tomorrow only, the 9th, you can buy a $100 Sprouts gift card for $89.99. That makes everything you buy there with the card effectively 10% off, in addition to whatever great sale savings you are getting.

One-Day Sale at Whole Foods Tomorrow

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us a quartet of special sales for tomorrow only, the 9th. The stunner among them (IMHO) is Desert Essence Organics shampoo, conditioner, or lotion for $2.99 each, $6 off their usual price. Also looking good are four-packs of brownies, half price at $3 each, and 10-stem bunches of tulips half off at $5 each. I'm sure it's something wonderful, but I'm somewhat mystified by the "salmon roast, all flavors, $9.99/lb, (save $7/lb)." Can someone clue me in as to what a salmon roast is?

GoLite Warehouse Sale Coming Up

Kind readers have previously pardoned my going off-topic to enthuse about the GoLite warehouse sale, so I hope you'll indulge me again (besides, after all that relevant cooking and eating from Boulder's natural foods bounty, you'll need great high performance gear to get outdoors and work it off, so maybe there is a connection). The fall/winter GoLite (aka GoLight) warehouse sale will start this Saturday, the 12th, running from 9 am to 7 pm every day through Sunday the 20th. It's at a new location, 2845 29th Street, on the corner of 29th and Valmont. 303-443-3352 for further info, and you can like them on Facebook to learn about daily giveaways. Oh, I love a good sale.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Friday

Here's a way in advance heads up that our local Whole Foods stores will be doing a special one-day only sale this Friday, the 11th, which will be their excellent (antibiotic-free and with a host of other worthy attributes) whole chickens for just $1.29 a pound. At that price, there's a 10 bird per person limit for those of you with gigantic freezers. I see a roast chicken in my future for the weekend.

Gluten-Free Sampling At Sunflower

According to Sunflower's calendar, they'll be doing a gluten-free sampling tomorrow, the 9th, from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm in their Boulder store. They promise "lots of delicious items for your holiday meal!"

Vegan Supper Club

Looking for vegan ideas for Thanksgiving? The Pearl Street Whole Foods will host a vegan supper club this coming Thursday. Here's what they say:

Thursday, November 10th

Vegan Thanksgiving Supper Club
6:30pm $20 Per Person

Join us for a delicious alternative Thanksgiving meal. Take home the recipes to make on Thanksgiving Day. $20 per plate. Limit 20. Register by calling 303-545-6611 or email sarah.morgan@wholefoods.com.

Weekday Dinner Ideas

How quickly Sunday rolls around, time to get planning the rest of the week's dinners. One of them is a no-brainer, since Sunflower's stunning sales on asparagus, organic broccoli, and chicken tenders are absolutely screaming for chicken, asparagus, and broccoli stir-fry from Bon Appetit for tomorrow. It will go over brown rice, of which I have plenty from Sprouts' recent gluten-free sale.

Tuesday will be a super easy one, our customary reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week is the baked rigatoni with ricotta and collard greens from MyRecipes.com.

I'll be more ambitious by Wednesday, for which I'm planning another favorite I haven't made in ages, barbecue chicken pizza from Bon Appetit, inspired by seeing smoked gouda on sale at Sunflower, and using more of that sale chicken from there.

We'll ramp down the ambition level for Thursday, just sauteing some pork chops, with microwaved "baked" potatoes or maybe some organic winter squash on the side. Sprouts has their pork loin chops on sale for $2.99 a pound through Wednesday, but I'm also liking Sunflower's new pork line that promised to be antibiotic-free, and those chops are on sale for $3.99 a pound, also through Wednesday.

And that will get us through to Friday's planning.