Displaying articles for: September 2009
One of my favorite indulgences during football season is buffalo chicken wings dipped in blue cheese dressing – fabulously delicious but messy. Since we only eat them 3-4 times a year I’ve never bothered trying to make them from scratch, we just go to our local place and order take out. And then my friend Karen made her chicken wing dip for a BBQ. Wow, talk about an outstanding dip! It tasted exactly like Buffalo wings but without the mess! The recipe is simple; it was passed to Karen by a friend so I’m not sure where it ultimately originated. You can find many variations on the web that include other types of dressings/cheese but I prefer sticking to the original ingredients. Here it is – mix in a bowl; 1¼ pounds chopped chicken (use leftover grilled chicken or cut from a rotisserie chicken, canned chicken can work too), and ½ cup of your favorite buffalo wing sauce until the chicken is coated. Then add in one 8oz package softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup blue cheese dressing (I used lite), and 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese. Stir together, place in an oven or microwave safe bowl and heat until warm. Serve with celery sticks, pretzels and/or wheat crackers – be careful it’s addicting! 
There are a lot of staples in the 10 for $10 promotion that I wanted to make sure you took advantage of – rice, pre-packaged salad, tuna, O Organic Beans, mac & cheese, fresh chicken leg quarters, canned tomatoes, and some fresh produce items too! And just in case you were unsure, you actually don’t have to buy ten to get the $1 each price. Check it out; you won’t want to miss this opportunity to stock up!
With fall comes the return to meals with those wonderfully warm comfort foods – like hearty soups. And just in time for fall, Safeway’s Signature Cafe brand (found in the deli/prepared meal section) has introduced an organic line with three items – Chicken Noodle, Creamy Garden Tomato, and Southwestern Style Bean. We picked up the Organic Southwestern Style Bean variety and gave it a try. I added a 14oz can of reduced sodium chicken broth to the soup to stretch it for five, and served it with cheese quesadillas for the girls and a side salad for Max and me. The flavor was really fresh and there’s an authentic spicy kick too. The girls enjoyed it as well, although it was a little spicy for the twins so I added some cheese and a dollop of light sour cream to cut the heat a bit. Give them a try and let me know what you think!
Friday night has become pizza night in our house. By the end of the week I’m out of meal ideas, low on energy, and running even lower on fresh items so making pizza is an easy way to transform those last small containers of leftovers into a new meal that the kids enjoy. We’ve started keeping refrigerated pizza dough on hand and always have plenty of cheese and pasta sauce so it really is low effort. And the girls love to help put it together too. This past week we had an additional “helper”, the mascot from Gabby’s class. Gabby came home with a school project; photograph and write about her weekend adventures with the class mascot (Fireworks the Red Snake). The following Monday she shared the story with her class and each week, someone else will get a turn adding their adventures to the book until it’s full. We had a lot of fun with this, snapping photos throughout our weekend and incorporating Fireworks into all of our activities. What are some of the creative school projects you’ve done with your kids?
Ok, I’ll admit the name is a mouthful but there’s a lot going on in the cleaning aisle over the next week or so. There’s a new promotion called “Clean it Like You Mean it” featuring over 100 items in the cleaning aisle from brands like Clorox, Swiffer, Hefty, Febreze and Lysol. Participating items are being offered on a “buy one get one free” deal AND you choose the items to mix and match (look for the special tag). The promotion runs through September 29th. I’ve put garbage bags, air fresheners, and disinfecting wipes on my list. With cold and flu season coming up I’m going to be even more vigilant about cleaning the surfaces in our home and car – kids toys, telephones, and door knobs/handles. I probably should bring some disinfecting wipes to the office as well.
Hard to believe, but September has been crowned National Coupon month (and National Life Insurance Awareness month, who comes up with these things?). Anyway, in honor of this “observance” the Promotion Marketing Association’s Coupon Council released a study which had an interesting fact that I thought I’d pass along in the hopes of nudging you non-couponers to the other side – those who spend 15-20 minutes a week clipping and organizing their coupons save on average, $5 - $10 a week! And, now there are so many more ways to get coupons. In addition to the manufacturer coupons in the Sunday paper and the Safeway Super Price Coupons in our store flyer you can also go online to our website and print out coupons and/or download them directly to your club card. The downloadable coupons (P&GeSaver, Shortcuts & Cellfire) automatically redeem at the store when you buy the products, so you don’t have to remember to bring paper coupons to the store! If you haven’t had the time to clip or click coupons, give it a try, in honor of National Coupon Month!
I have never been great at cooking beef (ground beef excepted) so when we’ve wanted steak Max steps in and grills for us. After Labor Day we found ourselves with a craving that just wouldn’t go away so I picked up some Tri-Tip at Safeway. Max was going to be late so rather than dealing with the grill I simply created a rub of salt, pepper, garlic powder and oregano and pan fried them in a skillet on the stove (4-5 minutes on each side). They were delicious! Perfectly medium rare, just the way I like it. There were plenty of leftovers too which made for some great quesadillas later in the week.
Tuesday, September 15th is the final day of the Safeway 10% Goes Back to Schools program, so get those last yellow bus tagged item purchases in to make the most for your school! Then, beginning Friday September 18th, look on your register receipt to see a print out of your earnings. To donate, simply bring your redemption receipt to your school or enter the redemption code on the Safeway website (Escrip members’ earnings automatically redeem to the school of their choice). Earnings will stop printing on October 9th and all donations must be redeemed no later than October 13th. I’d love to hear how much you earned for your school!
Folks around the office have been talking about these pizzas so I had to give them a try. They are found in the frozen section and they come in two flavors; Four Cheese and Spinach & Cheese. I’m a huge fan of spinach on pizza, actually, spinach in or on anything usually draws me into a dish so that was the one I tried. It was good! The stone baked crust came out crispy and there was plenty of cheese and spinach on the pizza. They are small, made for one, but Max and I split one and added a salad on the side for a complete meal. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
I wanted to make sure you were all aware that the fuel discounts you have accumulated will expire on Saturday, September 12th – so don’t forget to get to your Safeway fuel station to redeem your rewards at the pump! And, in an effort to provide even more value inside of our stores there will be some changes to the ongoing program effective September 13th - keep an eye out for the details in your area.
I ran out of the house without my lunch the other day and had a taste for something hot so I made a quick run to the Safeway Deli and ordered one of our new Hot Italian sandwiches. WOW! The new Italian Turkey sandwich is outstanding – pan roasted turkey, smoked Fontina cheese, pesto, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and mayo stacked on a focaccia roll and served warm. This is truly a craveable sandwich. And if you’re in more of an “old school” mood, there’s a new Italian Style Meatball sandwich too - hearty meatballs topped with marinara sauce and provolone cheese on a split crust roll. I’m going to have to go back and give that one a try!
Check out the Bright Green landing page on the Safeway website – information on the items in the line plus some FAQs and suggestions on some small changes that can make a big difference. Simple changes like waiting until you have a full load to run the dishwasher and washing machine - just two fewer loads of wash and one less load of dishes a week can save up to 4,500 gallons of water a year! And if each household in the U.S. switched just one roll of conventional paper towels for one made of recycled paper we would collectively save over half a million trees! That’s pretty impressive!
We’ve been grilling a lot of chicken, burgers, sausages, and hot dogs lately so for last weekend’s BBQ with friends we decided to try something different - salmon. As luck would have it salmon was on sale and there was an online coupon for even more savings - $3 off Fresh Salmon Fillets, 2lbs or more! It was simple to prepare – we cut the salmon into individual servings, brushed each side with olive oil and then rubbed with a mixture of brown sugar and cayenne pepper (I used 3-4TBSP of brown sugar & 1 tsp of cayenne, add more or less cayenne depending on the level of kick that you like). Once it was grilled I used a trick that I picked up from one of my friends – we served it on top of mixed greens dressed with a little balsamic vinegar (arugula would have been ideal but I already had the greens at home). We served the salmon with sides of grilled asparagus (also on sale) and tomato salad - delicious! Now I’m on a mission to grill more fish – I’d love to know what types of fish you grill and your favorite seasonings.
