Fred’s Grocery List

Yup. It’s that time of year again.

Fig season officially starts (for me) when Trader Joe’s starts running those crazy $3.29/lb containers of California grown Organic Figs. I picked up two lbs of the greenish-yellow ones and two lbs of mission figs today. The photo is from last year (lazyness).

If you haven’t tried a fresh fig, then you really owe it to yourself to go out and try a box. If you don’t eat organic food (why not?) then you could always get the conventional ones for $2.99 at trader joes… But at that price, why bother with conventional?

In case you wanted to know what other specials were going on (why would you? just eat figs…), there are some nice organic produce sales going on at Safeway.

Safeway:
*******Organic Red Seedless Grapes @ $0.89/lb
******Organic Heirloom Tomatoes @ $2.79/lb
***Organic Broccoli @ $0.99/ea
**Cornish Game Hens @ $0.99/lb (Fri+weekend only)

Raley’s / Nob Hill:
******Organic White Nectarines @ $1.49/lb
****Kellogg’s Nutrigrain or Fiber Plus bars @ $1.49/ea (must buy 4)

And in case you read this far, I have to tell you about my Safeway shopping trip last weekend. I walked in trying to spend my $3 off of $10 worth of produce Catalina coupon. So I ended up getting a bag of Organic Green Grapes (eck. sour) and Organic Red Grapes (mmm. better) @ $1.99/lb (this week it’s $0.89/lb!!). And then I was wandering around and ended up checking out with this nagging feeling that I was missing something. When I finished checking out, the cashier handed me a long string of Catalina coupons including one with… whaddya know, a coupon for $1 off a seedless watermelon. The funny thing is that I wanted to get one of those at the $2.77/ea price that they were on sale for. With a $1 off coupon in hand, how could I resist going back in and grabbing myself a watermelon (for $1.77?!?!?!)?

Have you gotten a watermelon for cheaper than $0.12/lb? 15 lbs of watermelon later… Well, now I have a watermelon but no idea what to do with it. Anyone want some watermelon smoothies? Come find me.

Many weeks have passed by and I’ve been a bit MIA. I guess there’s some correlation with not doing much grocery shopping. Anyway, I’m kind of back in the swing of things this week as stone-fruit season winds it’s way down. In case you were wondering, I’ve been doing a fair bit of my produce shopping at Berkeley Bowl West. This week, I got organic plums @ $1.69/lb, organic bing cherries @ $1.90/lb (in 3 lb box), organic figs @ $4.59/lb (yay. figs), and organic white peaches @ $1.99/lb. I was tempted by the heirloom tomatoes there, but they were a bit more pricey at >$4/lb, whereas almost every other conventional grocery in town is offering them at around $3/lb.

Today, I wandered through Trader Joe’s and picked up some random stuff. I found a strange pricing scheme for organic eggs — the same price ($3.99) for a dozen of extra large brown eggs as the jumbo sized ones. Anyway, at TJ’s I got some organic chicken legs that I plan on stewing in some soy sauce + garlic + sugar, some dried mango (just dried mango, nothing added) and an “organic multi grain beverage” or something similar ($1.99 for 32 oz). I thought I’d give the “beverage” a shot. The organic chicken legs are because I’m lazy this week and will not be roasting two chickens (like I did when I got the 2-pack at Costco for $2.29/lb, vs TJs @ $2.69/lb, or Raley’s Nob Hill @ $2.79/lb)… Oh! And I stopped by costco last week and got fresh wild sockeye salmon @ $7.99/lb — i ended up with a bit more than 2 lbs of it. I salted one fillet and cut+bag+froze the other one. I survived on that one fillet for about 4 days.

Raley’s Nob Hill:
*******bulk organic short grain brown rice @ $1.39/lb
****organic heirloom tomatoes @ $2.99/lb
***lean cuisine $2/ea (probably non-meat entrees)
**cheez-it crackers @ $1.47 if you buy 4 boxes

Mollie Stone’s:
****organic grapes @ $1.49/lb
***organic broccoli @ $1.29/ea
***organic heirloom tomatoes @ $2.99/lb

Safeway:
organic red and green grapes @ $1.99/lb
Watermelon @ $2.77 /ea

Hello!

I’m back in the swing of ads this week. I had a special request from a friend who assaulted me with questions about organic/natural meat, so look out for a special page on that coming up soon. I went to one of the coolest produce/organic markets in the Bay Area this week: The Berkeley Bowl West. If you haven’t been to the Berkeley Bowl, then you really should go. Try not to drive there because the original Berkeley Bowl parking lot is always packed. However, Berkeley Bowl West just opened up a couple weeks ago in a brand-spankin-new building. They haven’t quite ironed out their quirks yet (read, slow, unresponsive service) but the market itself is clean, beautiful, and well-priced. I found some great organic produce (Bing Cherries @ $1.69/lb, Plums @ $1.69/lb…etc). The cherries were great.

Anyway, if you only have access to conventional markets, then read on:

Safeway:
*****GM Honey Nut Cheerios @ $1.50/ea
****O Organics Cherries @ $2.99/lb
****Sweet Corn @ $0.25/ea
***Lucerne Yogurt @ $0.40/ea

super-coupons (see ad):
*****Lucerne 18 Ct eggs @ $1.49
*****Watermelon @ $2.49/ea
****Kraft Shredded or Chunk Cheese @ $1.49/ea
***Lucerne/Safeway Select Ice Cream @ $1.99/1.75 Qt
***Nature Valley Granola Bars @ $1.50/ea (must buy 4 – I like the mixed nut bar)

Raley’s Nob Hill:
*****Blueberries @ $5.99 / 2lbs
****Large Eggs dozen @ $0.99/ea
****General Mills Cereal @ $1.49 (must buy 4)
***Grapes @ $0.99/lb (assuming they’re from California)

Lucky’s:
*****Organic White and Yellow Peaches and Nectarines @ $1.49/lb
***Organic 1 lb Strawberries @ $1.99/lb

Mollie Stone’s:
******Organic White Nectarines @ $1.69/lb
*****Organic Heirloom Tomatoes @ $2.99/lb

It’s fourth of July weekend. Shoot. I can’t even believe it’s already July. The weather has certainly felt very summer-like, especially last weekend. I guess it’s perfect that Jamba Juice is running a buy 1 get 1 free promotion… See link here for the coupon: http://www.summerblissisback.com/eb3/sbbg.html

Speaking of Buy 1 Get 1 Frees, Safeway is running that same promotion on Organic 1lb Strawberries ($4.79 for 2lbs). Oh, and they have those silly buy 2 get 3 free soda things for this fourth of July weekend. Who needs that much soda??!? Other than that, nothing interesting…

Oh wait. Raleys/Nob Hill definitely has Safeway beat. They have buy 2 get 4 free on 12-pack Coke. Okay. That is clearly insane. “Save $23.96″. They also have Triscuit @ $1.69 and Florida’s Natural OJ/Grapefruit Juice @ $2.49. Great prices. That, and Organic Nectarines @ $1.99/lb. By the way, the Organic Plums from Safeway last week were horrible: tasteless, pulpy, and bland. I threw them out. Pork Spareribs for $1.99/lb too. White corn @ $0.33/ea.

Mollie Stone’s is doing a lot of good stuff as always. White Corn @ $0.30. Organic Red Raven Plums @ $1.99/lb (hopefully these are better than Safeway’s). Organic Heirloom tomatoes @ $3.99/lb.
Triscuit @ $2/ea.

But yeah! What a fun week…

Going to keep it short because I am running late on my sleep time.

NYtimes has an interesting article about how food companies make food especially appealing to our senses — and talk about “perceptual shifts” that allow us to retrain the mind. They cite an interesting perceptual shifts where former meat-eaters become vegetarians and learn to view meat with disgust. During my one year vegetarian experience, I got to the point where I was highly sensitized to the taste and smell of cooked animal flesh. I wouldn’t say I was disgusted by it, but I do know that being vegetarian helped me become more accepting of vegetables (duh).

It’s stone fruit season so I hope you’re eating those peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries. Organic please — stone fruit are highly pesticided and I don’t know many (except for a weird ex) who peels the skin off of them before consuming. This week I’d probably go with those organic plums at safeway.

Safeway:
*********Organic Raven Plums @ $1.49/lb (these are really good when you get them perfectly ripe)
******White or yellow Corn @ $0.25/ea
***Pork Spareribs @ $1.97/lb
**Lean Cuisine @ $1.99/ea (selected varieties)

Raleys / Nob Hill:
****Personal Watermelon @ $2.47/ea
***Pork Tenderloin @ $2.97/lb
***18 Ct Eggs @ $1.49/ ea
**Gold Kiwifruit @ $1.99/lb (try these. i love them)

Mollie Stone’s:
****Organic Leaf Lettuce @ $1.49/ea
****Kellogg’s Cereal @ buy 3 Get 3
**Organic Heirloom Tomatoes @ $3.99/lb