Fred’s Grocery List

I have to say — I am very biased, but I love Jamba Juice’s new Berry Cherry Pecan Oatmeal. It looks like this:

Berry Cherry Pecan Oatmeal

and it tastes great. Dried cranberries, cherries, and blueberries combined with a crunchy glazed pecan (some have described it as tasting like an oatmeal cookie, others say that they would snack on it all day).

You can get it for $1 between December 7th and 11th by printing out a coupon from http://oatmealforabuck.com .

Jamba Juice Oatmeal for a Buck

enjoy!

Happy Earth Day! Just the ads today (i’m late already!).

Safeway:
*****Jumbo Artichokes @ $1/ea (Sat/sun only)
****Chicken Leg Quarters @ $0.77/lb
**Free Drink and Chips if you buy a Signature Sandwich
**Wishbone Salad Dressing @ $1.29 (Sat/Sun only)

Raley’s / Nob Hill:
*****Whole Bone-in Beef Ribeye @ $3.99/lb (costco is comparable)
****Victoria Island Asparagus @ $1.37/lb
****Tomatoes on the vine @ $1.27/lb

Mollie Stone’s:
*****Organic Broccolette @ $1.99/ea
***Organic Cherry tomatoes @ $1.99/ea 10 oz

Looking for the weekly posting? Here’s the post.

Since I spend 10 hours in front of a computer monitor a day, I try to punctuate my days with some exercise after work. The thing that really promotes this is that I live at the approximate straight-line midpoint between Trader Joe’s (1.5 miles north of me) and Safeway (1.5 miles south). Nob Hill is conveniently located 0.5 walking miles to the west.

I’ve run to Trader Joe’s quite a few times (it’s a nice route through a large park), but since I was running low on toothpaste and Safeway had it on sale, I decided to trek out to Safeway. I ended up coming back with some Organic Yellow Peaches (still at $1.99/lb!), O Organics Salad Greens ($4.99 for 1lb), 2 lbs of Organic Strawberries (@ $4.79 for both), 2 tubes of Colgate (it’s just the regular flavors – $0.99 /ea), and 1 Cantaloupe.

Okay. Let me talk about the Cantaloupe. You’d think that Safeway, having featured the Cantaloupe prominently in their weekly ad (taking up about 1/4 of the front page) would have a nice supply of the fruit sitting in the store. Nope. No such luck. By the time I got there at 8pm (mind you, today was the first day of this week’s ad), there were only a few sad-looking cantaloupes sitting there.
Read the rest of this entry »

Dinner Today
I had a randomly thrown together a nicely complemented set of flavors for dinner, so I decided I had to write something about it.

It began with an appetizer of reheated O Organics Macaroni and Cheese. After I finished the Mac & Cheese, I proceeded to use the leftover bowl to microwave steam the organic Kale that I had bought (1.5 mins on high, with plate covering the bowl). After it cooked, I added a splash of sesame oil and dark chinese vinegar. I also reheated some brown rice and added a raw egg white. I figured the egg white rice would be too chicken-like for my tastes, so I mixed in a tiny bit of soy sauce and 2 tsp or so of rice vinegar. Halfway through the meal, I added slivered almonds to my rice (that was a nice touch). I also had cold pan-fried tofu on the side (that I had cooked yesterday).

Strange sounding, isn’t it? Somehow the flavors all worked out and nothing was overwhelming. I particularly liked the Kale with sesame oil and black chinese vinegar.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is

Last time I heard, it was supposed to be bad for you (something about obesity and diabetes), but wait! According to an “expert panel” at the University of Maryland Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy, that’s not true. The funny thing about this information is that it’s provided in a report called “High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Guide for Consumers, Policymakers and the Media” released by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (basically an association of packaged foods companies). Here’s what the press release says:

“High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has been widely adopted as an ingredient because it is safe, relatively inexpensive and has numerous positive attributes ranging from taste, texture and versatility,” said Robert Brackett, chief science officer for GMA. … Consumers can be reassured that HFCS is just like any other caloric sweetener to be enjoyed in moderation in the context of a health-promoting lifestyle.”
Here’s the news release

Interesting, right? Well… this isn’t going to make me want to eat more foods with HFCS in it. It always makes me suspicious when special interest groups like the GMA release news releases that say “our products are safe! No really!” I’ll stick with plain old sugar or nothing at all, thank you very much.

Less Meat

There’s this fascinating Mark Bittman (NYTimes Minimalist food column) article that I just had to share. It talks about how to reduce the amount of meat in our diets. Basically the key is to eat like food cultures that have had some real history: make meat an accompaniment, not the main dish. Coming from a Chinese food background, I have to agree. I can’t remember the last time I was served a thick steak of meat with Chinese food. Everything is pounded thin or cut into tiny strips so that you can maximize its impact per oz of meat — very important thing to remember when meat is either extremely scarce or expensive. The article is worth a read if you find yourself unable to reduce your meat intake. It also talks about the “protein problem” and dispels myths associated with less meat.

Picky Eaters

I found a fun little article on the NYTimes about picky eaters and …well, two caucasian children growing up in China and their varied diets. It opens with this quote:

IN Beijing, where my family lives, I once returned home from a restaurant with a doggy bag full of deep-fried scorpions. The next morning, I poured them instead of imported raisin bran into my 11-year-old son’s cereal bowl. I wanted to freak him out. The scorpions were black and an inch long, with dagger tails.

“Scorpions!” shrieked my son, Roy. “Awesome!”

Anyway, the article makes you think about how many people in this day and age don’t really appreciate the ability to choose what they want to eat. I know that my parents didn’t always have that choice.

I was mulling this over after spending about 40 minutes in a Trader Joe’s store. First of all, I actually enjoyed spending 40 minutes in the store. Second of all, I wasn’t sick of trying to find the item I wanted, even after 40 minutes, because I didn’t ever have to walk more than 300 feet.

Trader Joe’s has perfected the “small-format” store. There’s no question about it. They have a loyal customer base who spend most of their grocery dollars in their store. But why are they so good at it?

1. They have good products at great prices.
   This is pretty much the main reason I see for shopping at Trader Joe’s. Their prices are always predictable and low. Their products appeal strongly to their shoppers. You can walk in and you can easily tell how much you will be spending, and you don’t have to worry about whether something is on sale or not.
2. Their employees are passionate about the products.
   Everytime they release a fearless flyer, all store employees are invited to try the featured products. This makes evangelists out of all of their employees. There’s also the 10% discount for employees.
3. They have a clear, definable company mission. Not just a catchy slogan.
   You often hear about “Ingredients for Life” or “Always low prices”, but how often do you come across grocery stores that have clear missions? Trader Joe’s has one. Whole Foods has one. Every item they carry and decisions made by the company are clearly in line with their mission. This makes customers feel comfortable about buying their products.

Needless to say, I am in awe. No weekly-ad to contend with, just always the same great price on great products. Orange Juice for $2.99 every day? Bananas at $0.19 /ea? Eggs at $1.79??? Simply amazing. And get this one — every single day, they sell Cocoa Almonds for the price that everyone else sells normal raw almonds for. How do you beat that?