This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Whole Foods stores, while the current one continues at Vitamin Cottage through May 31st. Here's what's looking good to me now.

In Sprouts' new sale through May 7th, 30-40 count Peruvian sea scallops (good for chowders) are back at $6.99 a pound, boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenders are okay at $2.99 a pound (at least it doesn't specify value pack, so presumably smaller quantities are available at this price), three types of chicken sausage are $2.99 a pound, stuffed chicken breasts are $3.99 a pound (although the sale price used to be $1 lower), fresh ground chicken, pork or chicken breast are all good at $2.99 a pound, and fresh farmed salmon fillets are $9.99 a pound.

In organic produce at Sprouts, I'm pleased to see on-the-vine cluster tomatoes for $1.98 a pound, Italian squash (think zucchini) at $1.48 a pound, D'Anjou or Packham pears both $1.48 a pound, cantaloupes or honeydew melons both 88 cents a pound, and one pound clamshells of strawberries just $2.98 each. I rarely buy conventional produce, but corn fiend that I am, I'm taking note of sweet white corn at five for $1 (have to get my fix, since we won't see local corn from Munson's until July). Also, Sprouts typically does a fire sale on conventional avocados during the week including Cinco de Mayo, so avocado fans will be disappointed to find no conventional avocados being advertised this week (organic ones are 98 cents each). Elsewhere in the store, Cinco de Mayo does crop up with selected Fiesta Favorites 25% off (the picture includes items like Hatch enchilada sauce and Green Mountain Gringo salsa), and my favorite Ezekiel 4:9 bread is very good at $3.49 a loaf.

In Whole Foods' new sale through May 13th, fresh Icelandic cod fillets (yup, fresh) look very tempting at $12.99 a pound, baby back pork ribs are $3 off at $5.99 a pound, and top round steaks are $3.50 off at $4.49 a pound, but their very good lobster tails have been lower than the current sale price of $7.50 each, although that's still in the running. Conventional Hass avocados are $1.50 each, and my guess is they're considerably larger than the 98 cent organic ones at Sprouts (avocados are one of the few produce items I'll buy in conventional). Also "rough cut," whatever that is, artichokes are $2.50 each, and again, Whole Foods' artichokes tend to be quite large. I'm also liking Stonyfield Farm Greek yogurts at $1.25 each, although last week's unadvertised sale on Brown Cow Greeks was even better, Cascadian Farm cereals $3 a box, Uniekaas Parrano $4 off at $12.99 a pound, and for a celebration, Whole Foods' own excellent large fresh fruit tarts are $6 off at $19.99 each.

Looks Like No Wednesday Sale Today

Whole Foods typically does a one-day sale on Wednesdays, but it looks like there won't be one today, at least in what they've posted online. You never know what you might find when you walk in the store, though.

Kentucky Derby Galloping Up On Us

The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday, May 3rd already. If you like to celebrate with a party (at least it's an excuse to drink mint juleps), Epicurious has you covered with its Kentucky Derby guide. You can also check out the Plan Your Party section of the Derby's official website; in addition to recipes, it provides advice regarding party supplies and the ever important fashion component. I've never thrown a Derby party myself, but so miss the ones our Louisville ( in Kentucky - not the Louisville five miles from Boulder) friends Kathy and Dennis used to dazzle us with during their several-year stay in Colorado.

Going With A CSA

As previously mentioned, I've been angsting about whether to take the plunge and sign up for a CSA this year, knowing full well not having control over the veggies coming into my house will wreak havoc on my control-freak psyche (tendency to plan well might put it more gently). But Red Wagon Organic Farm, one of my favorite local farms in any case, has a CSA option that's simply irresistible. Of their several pickup options, one of them is at a location and time that simply could not be more convenient for me. Moreover, they even offer an every other week option, so I can take a half plunge this year to test it out. We'll see how this plays out. Intensive planning and reliance on recipes mark me as a totally ineffectual cook, so maybe improvising with whatever arrives will turn me into the next Julia Child. Yeah, right.

A New Book For The Literary Foodie

When reading a book, do the scenes with food remain as memories to haunt you? Gruel in Dickens? The cheese sandwich in Catcher in the Rye? Then a new book just out by Dinah Fried might be just the thing for you. Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals pairs beautifully staged photos of memorable literary meals with text to put them into their written and historical contexts. See how many speak to you.

Boulder Farmers' Market Today

Just a quick reminder that we have the Boulder Farmers' Market downtown today from 8 am to 2 pm. Spring greens, prepared foods, probably plant starters, and who knows what else to brighten your day. But if driving, beware the parking situation. The municipal lots one block east of the market have always been challenging anyway, and last week I found it has gotten all that much worse as the middle lot has been ripped out for some sort of construction. Best to head to the city's garages, or even better, just bike up the creek path.

Earth Day Celebration In Superior

A little after the official day, although every day should be Earth Day, the Whole Foods store in Superior will host an Earth Day celebration tomorrow. Here's what they say, with apologies about its cutting off on the right:

-

EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

• print

SATURDAY, APRIL 26TH

12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
SUPERIOR WHOLE FOODS MARKET, FREE

Saturday, April 26

12:00pm-3:00pm

Earth Day Celebration

Free [lunch $5.00 per plate]

Parents, kids and friends join us at the Superior Whole Foods Market and celebrate Earth Day. We will have live music, outdoor grilling featuring Sustainable Fish Tacos, grilled local hot dogs, a climbing wall, bee box building, plant seeds in compost to replant at home, compost give a way and more.

The Complexity Of Planning A Week Of Dinners

I've been thinking about my habit of planning out a week of dinners at a time, and there are just so many variables that influence the process. So many in fact, that I decided to liberate myself from it this week! But really, think about all the factors that go into a well-formed week of dinner plans.

1) Variety in the proteins - a mix of fish, poultry, and protein-rich vegetarian dishes, with some pork or beef making an occasional appearance.

2) Variety in the starches - should it be rice? pasta? potatoes? quinoa? some new au courant grain? Or skip it entirely in favor of protein and veggies?

3) What's seasonal - a particularly driving factor in the produce choices.

4) What are the healthy options - always looking for choices maximizing veggies, fish and poultry, and minimizing most pre-processed foods.

5) What do we just plain feel like? - that visceral reaction that sometimes overrules item 4.

6) What's a good deal at the moment - given how complicated the above variables are, this can be the driving factor to simplify it all, and in produce, the good prices usually coincide with item 3 for seasonality. It's why I started looking to Boulder's natural sales to begin with for my planning process, as they inherently help to channel my thinking to make the other choices above a little easier. Still, it's a complicated and under-appreciated process!

Still Searching For The Perfect Pepper Grinder

If anybody has a suggestion for a brand of pepper (salt too) mill that they really like, I would just love to know. I used to have one, surprisingly a cheap acrylic thing of unknown brand given to me long ago. It might have been cheap, but that grinder could navigate any size grind from the finest bits to big coarse cracks of pepper. Sadly, after many years of faithful service, it cracked its last pepper when the grinder itself cracked in half.

Not being particularly attractive, that grinder was confined to kitchen use, while a succession of Peugeot mills has adorned the dining table. I've always heard that Peugeot is the best, and while mine have always done well for fine to medium grinds, I've never been able to get a good coarse grind out of one. Seeking advice, I actually asked some time ago at the legendary Paris cooking supply store frequented by Julia Child, E. Dehillerin, and was told again that Peugeot is the only way to go.

So when I needed a new grinder set for the kitchen recently, I decided to experiment with going cheaper again, given the success of that original acrylic one of unknown brand. I picked up salt and pepper grinders by Cole & Mason, a British brand, that were quite inexpensive at Bed, Bath and Beyond (of course using their ubiquitous coupon with the expiration date they never care about). My new grinders can crack up a storm of coarse grinds, but I haven't been able to get them to deliver a fine one. At least now, between the Peugeot and the Cole & Mason, I can get the full spectrum from coarse to fine, but I'd so love to find that in just one grinder, like my faithful old acrylic one used to do.

Weekend Sale At Whole Foods

I'm not familiar with these supplements, but here's the news from Whole Foods:

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods

For today only, the 23rd, gluten-free battered Starfish cod/haddock is nearly half off at $3.99 each (doesn't say how big an each is). Battered and gluten-free a rarely found together in the same sentence.

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals

We have a new sale starting today at our Boulder Sprouts stores, while the current one continues at Whole Foods through April 29th and at Vitamin Cottage through May 31st. Click the links for prior reports.

In Sprouts' new sale through April 30th, the big news to me is the return of the Vitamin and Body Care Extravaganza, with everything in that department 25% off. I'm also liking previously frozen Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets for $8.99 a pound, whole, split or cut up chickens $1.59 a pound, chicken breast tenders are okay at $2.49 a pound, and stuffed clams (also crab or scallops) $1.50 each. Generally it seems to be a week of price increases, for instance the "sausage bonanza" now $3.49 a pound instead of $2.99.

In organic produce at Sprouts, Italian squash (think zucchini) or cauliflower are both $1.50 a pound, Cameo apples and Bartlett pears are also both $1.50 a pound, cantaloupe or honeydew melons are just 98 cents a pound, one pound packages (hate those prepackaged things) of green beans are $2.98 each, and four pound bags of either red grapefruits or Valencia oranges are $1.98 each. Elsewhere in the store, Fage Fruyo Greek yogurts are $1 each, and there's a "line drive savings" of 25% off all Cascadian Farms fruits and veggies.

Dream Kitchen Tour

Looking for some remodeling ideas or just to hang out in some fancy kitchens? This coming weekend, on the 27th and 28th, you can "tour Boulder County's finest 'dream' kitchens and enjoy some tasty treats" on the Dream Kitchens Are Cooking tour, a benefit for the "I Have a Dream" Foundation of Boulder County. You can read all the details, including how to buy tickets, on their website.

Happy Earth Day today!

Earth Day's Tomorrow Plus Electronics Recycling

Happy Earth Day tomorrow. To celebrate, Vitamin Cottage traditionally hands out one of their quality, capacious shopping bags for free with your purchase on that day. Their sale flyer has a coupon for one on the back cover, but I've never known them to require it, and besides, chopping up thousands of paper flyers for the sake of a coupon rather flies in the face of Earth Day, especially from a store that stopped asking "paper or plastic" so many years ago.

Also, the Whole Foods store on Pearl Street will offer an electronics recycling event from 4 to 7 pm on Wednesday, the 23rd. They say you can bring anything with a cord or battery, except no refrigerators, air conditioners, water coolers, light bulbs, oil or gas. Lots of items will be accepted for free, including computer towers, cell phones, and printers, while some items carry a small fee, like laptops at $3 per item. For questions, call 303 424-1719.

Laid Back Week For Dinners With Leftover Ham

Happy Easter, all. On Sundays I often post dinner ideas for the rest of the week, but tonight's ham will kind of give me a week off from thinking, since we'll be dealing with ham leftovers during the week, interspersed with something like a vegetarian pasta or a stir-fry with my new favorite flavoring, Korean gochujang sauce for variety. One preferred option around here for leftover ham is to do a frittata full of veggies, with ham either diced into it or sliced and browned to go on the side. If you're looking for more ambitious ideas for leftover ham, here are some ideas from Saveur, one of my favorite magazines.

Holiday Foods From Boulder Farmers' Market Today

With both Passover and Easter occurring at the same time this year, the Boulder Farmers' Market, 8 to 2 today in downtown, is inviting you to complete those meals with something fresh from the market. Here's what they say:

Complete Seder and Easter Meals from BCFM!

 

Spring has sprung at the Markets!!! 

Come and stock up on Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Spinach, Eggs, Breads, Potatoes, Fresh Cheeses, Flowers, Desserts, Carrots, Onions, Bitters, Honey, Wine and Greens galore!!! 

  

 

 

 

Big Cleaning Sale At Whole Foods

With Earth Day rapidly approaching, Whole Foods will be offering some eco-friendly cleaning products at a whopping 50% off for four days, tomorrow through the 22nd. As for the qualifying products, they say:

Qualifying Items: Your favorite Eco-Scale Rated Cleaning by Mission Greenology, Biokleen, Seventh Generation, If You Care, Mrs. Meyer’s, Method & GreenShield Organic. Stock up and enjoy your cleaning!

Four-Day Sale At Alfalfa's

Seems to be a new pattern for Alfalfa's doing a Thursday through Sunday special sale, but remember that if I don't mention a particular sale, it could still be happening and I either don't know about it or just don't have time to post. In any case, through this Sunday, the 20th, nine items are particularly showcased at Alfalfa's, including local Boulder Lamb bone-in leg of lamb at $9.99 a pound, organic spring mix very good at $3.99 a pound, organic Colorado red potatoes just 69 cents a pound, La Bonne Vie triple cream brie half off at $5.99 a pound, local Dragonfly Coffee's bulk coffee $8.99 a pound, and for spring color, a bunch of local daffodils for $4.99.

Weekend Sales At Whole Foods

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us both a one-day sale for tomorrow only, plus a three-day sale lasting through the weekend. Here's what they say:

Friday Only (4/18)
Whole Trade® Pineapples: 2 for $5

Fri Through Sun (4/18-4/20)
Made-In-House Deviled Eggs: $5/doz
Try our Sriracha Variety!

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Whole Foods stores, while the new one reported yesterday at Vitamin Cottage continues through May 31st. Here's what's looking good to me now.

In Sprouts' new sale through April 23rd, boneless pork loin chops (roast also) are $2.99 a pound, fresh whole turkeys are $1.99 a pound, standing rib roasts are $7.99 a pound, and three types of chicken sausage are $2.99 a pound, while the spiral sliced ham sale mentioned last week continues at $1.99 a pound. Large 21/25 count shrimp are $8.99 a pound, cod fillets are $7.99 a pound, and sockeye salmon fillets are $12.99 a pound, but Whole Foods has it for the same price (all fish previously frozen).

In organic produce at Sprouts, green curly kale or red bell peppers are both $1.50 each, a five pound bag of carrots is $2.88, cucumbers are 88 cents each, one pound clamshells of strawberries are down to $2.88 each, and Cameo apples or Bartlett pears are both $1.50 a pound. Elsewhere in the store, select Horizon Organic dairy products are 25% off, Voskos Greek yogurts are $1 each, Nut Thins are $2.50 a box, Near East coucous or rice pilafs are $1.50 a box, and some Seventh Generation cleaning products are 25% off. Plus, the hard copy of the ad has a coupon on the front for $5 off a $30 purchase during this week's sale.

In Whole Foods' new sale through April 29th, sockeye salmon fillets are $12.99 a pound, fine air-chilled split chicken breasts are $3.99 a pound, and several types of pork chops, including the brined that I like, are $5.99 a pound. The salmon burger du jour is poblano pepper jack, but I'm not thrilled with this change to pricing them individually instead of by the pound. The pepper jack ones are on sale for $3.99 each, whereas the sale price used to be $7.99 a pound, and since two burgers weigh in under a pound, that's an insidious price increase. Organic Swiss chard is $1.50 a bunch, but for a one pound container of organic strawberries, I'd head to Sprouts where they are $2.88 each instead of Whole Foods' sale price of $3.99 each. Belgioioso mozzarella logs look good at $6.99 for a one pound one, Nut Thins are $2.50 a box (same at Sprouts), Market Made lemon herb chicken breast looks tempting for a cook's night off at $8.99 a pound, $3 off, strawberry rhubarb lattice pies would be an Easter treat at $9.99 each, $5 off, and to clean up after the Easter cooking frenzy, Seventh Generation spray cleaners are good at $2.50 each.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Today

Not particularly caring for goat cheese, today's one-day sale at Whole Foods doesn't do a lot for me. Here's what they say:

Wednesday Only (4/16)
5oz Laura Chenel
Goat Cheese Pillows: 2 for $6

New Sale At Vitamin Cottage

Happy tax day. There's a new sale at Vitamin Cottage (aka Natural Grocers) that runs all the way through May 31st, practically summer. Items looking particularly good to me include Applegate's six ounce organic sliced turkey breast packages at $4.29 each, 10 ounce bags of Cascadian Farm organic frozen veggies $1.79 each, Horizon Organic butter $3.49 a pound and half and half $1.59 for 16 ounces, Pamela's yummy gluten-free cookies$2.69 a box, several Annie's Naturals products $2.69 each (including the organic salad dressings, a very good price on that), and the big 100 ounce size of Seventh Generation 2x concentrated liquid laundry detergents for $11.49 each, although I've ditched the liquid in favor of their new packets, much more convenient. Plus of course there are tons of supplements on sale.

Easter Recipe Guides

On this snowy, icy Boulder morning following two days in the 70s, it's time to start thinking about Easter, less than a week away. To help with the planning, here are a few guides for ideas: Easter Recipes, Gifts and Egg Decorating from Epicurious, Bon Appetit's Easter Recipes, Celebrate Easter from Cooking Light, and Easter Recipes from Food and Wine magazine.

National Grilled Cheese Day

Yahoo, today is national grilled cheese day, at least by somebody's estimation - I'll take it! To celebrate, the ever wonderful local shop Cured is offering this tasting, whiskey also included:

National Grilled Cheese Day. You’ve gotta love National Holidays, especially when they are designed to celebrate the king of all sandwiches - the Grilled Cheese!  Ooey, gooey, melty, creamy, buttery, crunchy, salty and sweet…there isn’t much better then a grilled cheese. Until you pair it with whiskey that is. That’s right, you read correctly. Forget the tomato soup. Call us crazy, but it’s one of our favorite combinations. This Saturday, April 12^th is National Grilled Cheese Day and in honor of our favorite sandwich, we are holding a grilled cheese and apple whiskey pairing tasting at the shop from 3-6 pm. Stop on by for a bite and a sip on us to honor this most wonderful of holidays.

Weekend Dinner Ideas

Super quick sketch. Tonight will be salmon of some sort. I love Whole Foods' salmon burgers for both taste and convenience, but they recently seem to have adversely changed their pricing structure, going from $9.99 a pound (always with one version on sale for $7.99 a pound) to a per burger price, which I think (but would like to verify) was $4.99 each when I passed by them at the Pearl Street store a couple of days ago. I wasn't paying the closest attention, but that would be a fair price jump if remembered correctly, since two burgers weigh in the two thirds to three quarter pound range. Sprouts has fresh farmed Atlantic salmon for $6.99 a pound this week, and Lucky's Market has previously frozen coho for $10.99 a pound in Boulder, and as they continue to favor Longmont in pricing, $9.99 a pound there.

Looking for ideas for the early spring bounty from the Boulder Farmers' Market for tomorrow, the current issue of Bon Appetit has a lovely article on "Green Power," featuring spring market produce, which is leading me to consider smoked trout with pea shoots and spring onions. That might do better as an appetizer, but in the right proportions with a crusty baguette, might also work as a main.

Sunday will veer 180 degrees away from earliest spring produce from the Farmers' Market, as Lucky's has just announced first of the season sweet corn from Florida, and at the great price of 25 cents an ear at both the Boulder and Longmont stores. Since we're a long way from our local corn in July, I'm going even further anti-seasonal by doing corn and green chile chowder from the Food Network, pulling some roasted chiles from last fall's season from my freezer. Sorry, all the lovely young greens at the Farmers' Market can't get me away from 2014's first mention of fresh sweet corn, even if it's conventional and comes from Florida.

Another Four-Day Sale At Alfalfa's

It seems to be becoming a regular thing, although unfortunately I don't always have time to get online to mention it. Alfalfa's is doing another four-day sale from today through Sunday, so if you're in their west Boulder location, or just travelling there for the second of this season's Boulder Farmers' Markets on Saturaday, consider some of the deals to be had. Alfalfa's own housemade mac 'n cheese is $4.99 for 16 ounces, $3 off, and their housemade foods are really, really good in my limited experience. Amy's organic cheese pizzas are $3.99 each, half price, Bunny Luv organic baby carrots are stunningly low at $1.29 for a one pound bag, local (Boulder County) grassfed ground chuck is $4.49 a pound, $2 off, and Alfalfa's housemade cookie four-packs (100% non GMO) are $3.79 each, among other specials.

Weekend Sales At Whole Foods

Our local Whole Foods stores will offer us both a weekend sale and a one-day sale starting tomorrow. For tomorrow only, the 11th, Ataulfo mangoes will be 69 cents each or $9 for a case (maybe -- their email says $9 a case, while their website says $10.99). Also, for tomorrow through Sunday, pineapple upside down cakes will be just $5 each, a pretty springtime treat if you're into sweets.

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

Good beautiful spring morning, Boulder. Temps should reach the upper 70s today, and it's light early enough in the morning that the birds start chirping before 6, love it. Meanwhile, we have a new sale starting today at our Boulder Sprouts stores, while the current one continues at Whole Foods through April 15th. There also should be something happening at Vitamin Cottage that I need to check out, as their last sale just ended. Here's what's looking good to me now.

Sprouts will do another 72 hour sale this Friday through Sunday, but the items they're advertising for it aren't ones I'm particularly familiar with. The 3.2 pound box of 'Lil Cuties mandarins does look good at $3 each, and they have a very good price of $1.50 a bottle for some R.W. Knudsen juice blends, but I'm more of a veggie than a fruit drinker.  In Sprouts' regular sale through the 16th, value packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts are $2.49 a pound, stuffed chicken breasts are $2.99 a pound, scallopini or stir fry chicken breasts are both $2.99 a pound, bone-in ribeye steaks are $8.99 a pound, and bone-in country style pork ribs are $2.99 a pound. In fish, fresh farmed Atlantic salmon fillets are low at $6.99 a pound. Back to meat, they have a spiral sliced ham for $1.99 a pound, but such a low price usually means read the ingredients list.

In organic produce at Sprouts, red bell peppers are a standout at $1.25 each, broccoli is $1.48 a pound, Cameo or red Delicious apples are also $1.48 a pound, four pound bags of Valencia oranges or grapefruits are just $2.50 each, and one pound clamshells of strawberries or 4.4 ounces of blueberries are both $3.98 each. Elsewhere in the store, Annie Chun's organic potstickers are $2.50 for 7.6 ounces, and Nature's Path flax plus cereals are low at $3 a box.

Free Ben And Jerry's Ice Cream

Today is free cone day at Ben and Jerry's, from noon to 8 pm. So celebrate last night's UConn win with some free ice cream from the Pearl Street Mall store, and cheer on the lady Huskies tonight!

Passover Seder Ideas

With the 14th quickly approaching for the start of Passover, here are a few guides for a Passover table: Passover recipes from the New York Times, Passover from Epicurious, and Passover Planning and Matzoh Mastery from Whole Foods.

Chicken Wing Bucket Sale Reminder

As previously mentioned, our local Whole Foods stores have buckets of their addictive chicken wings for $9.99 through tomorrow. With UConn's win over the Gators last night (hope my rabid Gator friend Ms. S. doesn't slip into despondency), we might just need to get another bucket to get us through tomorrow night's championship game. Go Huskies!

Boulder Farmers' Market Today!

Yahoo! Today is opening day for the Boulder Farmers' Market, 8 to 2 in downtown Boulder. (The Longmont market also opens today.) Despite the early date on the calendar there should be plenty to choose from, thanks to over-wintered veggies and greenhouses, now seemingly called hoophouses. Here's a bit from what the Market says:

We are happy to announce MANY MANY options available for your shopping pleasure! Tomatoes, Carrots, spinach, mache, rapini, totsoi, mustard greens, radicchio, treviso, escarole, arugula, gold turnips, magenta turnips, Detroit beets, grex beets, chioggia beets, chervil, chard, sorrel, burnet, pea shoots, cucumbers, head lettuce and cilantro and MORE!

Weekend Dinner Ideas

Super, super quick. For tonight, I want to try the salmon burgers the Lucky's Market in Longmont is advertising for $2.99 each this week. Having not had the best of luck with availability of such prepared items there recently, if they don't have them, it will be on to Whole Foods for their always-available salmon burgers.

For tomorrow, grilled sea scallops and tomatoes with olive vinaigrette from Gourmet. This one occurred to me because the salad base could be any spring greens from tomorrow's Boulder Farmers' Market opening (yay!), and Sprouts has 30/40 count (not the biggest but hoping they'll work) Peruvian sea scallops for $6.99 a pound this week.

The Lucky's Market in Longmont is back to $1.99 a pound for boneless skinless chicken breasts ($2.99 at Sprouts), leading me to chicken posole from Food and Wine magazine, since I prefer white meat to the dark in that recipe. The sale scallops first had me casting among my fish chowder recipes, but we've gone pretty frequently with those recently, so spicy chicken sounds like the perfect option instead.

And that's all the time available.

Vitamin Cottage Sale Through Saturday

Just a heads up that the current sale at Vitamin Cottage runs through this Saturday, the 5th. Some Organic Valley half pound cheese blocks are nearly half price at $3.69 to $3.89, evol frozen burritos are just $1.69 each, one pound bags of Cascadian Farm organic frozen veggies are very good at $1.99 each, Clif bars are very good at 89 cents each, Late July's addictive multigrain snack chips are dangerous at $1.79 a bag, and a bunch of other snacking options are available. Plus, being Vitamin Cottage, there are plenty of good deals on supplements. Only problem is that stocks of sale items tend to run low towards the end of the sale, at least at the Boulder store.

Chicken Wing Bucket Sale At Whole Foods

It's not just for Super Bowl anymore. Undoubtedly for March Madness (go Huskies!), Whole Foods will have chicken wing buckets for $9.99 each tomorrow through Monday. Here's what they say:

This Week's Hot Grocery Deals (IMHO)

We have new sales starting today at our Boulder Sprouts and Whole Foods stores, while the current one continues just through this Saturday, the 5th at Vitamin Cottage. Here's what's looking good to me now, IMHO as always.

In Sprouts' new sale through April 9th, avocado fans will enjoy conventional Hass ones for 49 cents each, but otherwise, I'm not finding as much as usual to get enthused about. I do like large Peruvian sea scallops (30/40 count, so not really so large) for $6.99 a pound, stuffed chicken breasts $2.99 a pound, three types of chicken sausage $2.99 a pound, and fresh ground chicken also $2.99 a pound. Boneless skinless chicken breasts are also $2.99 a pound, but that's not an outstanding sale price. Neither is previously frozen sockeye salmon fillets at $12.99 a pound (look below for MSC-certified sockeye for just $2 more at Whole Foods).

Organic produce is always good at Sprouts, but this week the focus is more on fruit, which unfortunately doesn't appeal to me as much as veggies. Broccoli or cauliflower are $1.49 a pound, and cucumbers are just 88 cents each. Valencia oranges look very cheap at 49 cents a pound (but I just don't have patience to do all that peeling), red grapefruits 88 cents each (ditto re preparation patience), and Bartlett pears are $1.50 a pound.

Elsewhere in the store at Sprouts, I'm liking Chobani Greek yogurts at $1 each, a line drive on Kashi products all 25% off (plus, if you buy three Kashi cereals and any milk, you can get $3 off), half gallons of Horizon organic milk for $2.99 each (a very good price for Horizon, but Whole Foods' own 365 organic is lower than that every day), and 24 packs of Arrowhead spring water $3.99 each (good to have around for guests as the weather heats up).

In Whole Foods' new sale through April 15th (tax day approacheth!), I'm liking Marine Stewardship Council sockeye salmon fillets for $14.99 a pound, very fine whole or split air-chilled chickens for $1.99 a pound, American Homestead boneless pork shoulder roast or steaks $3.99 a pound, and I'm curious about a couple of products with preparation already applied to them: Market Made breaded (Italian or parmesan) pork cutlets for $4.99 a pound, and Starfish battered cod $4.99 for a 10 ounce box. Organic green, red or Lacinato kale are all $1.50 a bunch, and organic slicing cucumbers are $1.69 a pound (tricky price comparison with Sprouts at 88 cents each). And if you are looking for a decadent treat for a celebration coming up in the next two weeks, Whole Foods' own 9 inch flourless chocolate decadence cakes are $19.99 each, $7 off.

One-Day Sale At Whole Foods Today

For today only, the 2nd, our local Whole Foods stores will have two pound blocks of Tillamook cheddar for $9.99 each, $4 off. Maybe you're thinking about nachos for March Madness this weekend (go Huskies!).

New Products To Imbibe

So in the space of maybe 30 seconds, I see intriguing  new products being introduced by two companies I've always liked, and both products are rather on the edge. Horizon Organic is announcing kale flavored milk, while R.W. Knudsen is introducing Root Veggie Blend, about which they say:  "Get down and dirty with our newest flavor of juice – Root Veggie Blend. An earthy blend of potatoes, parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas."
Okay, so the kale milk is surely an April Fool's joke (although it's possible it could fly in Boulder), but I'm not so sure about the Root Veggie Blend...