I was trying to remember what got me started cooking Brussels sprouts as I don't remember having this vegetable when I was a kid. I think I can trace it back to a restaurant we ate at in San Francisco - not only did they sauté them but they included fried basil as well. I never could recreate that exact recipe but I did find one that has become a family favorite, courtesy of Emeril so I'll share it here with you.
Cook 2 pounds of halved Brussels sprouts in boiling salted water until crisp tender (about 5 minutes) and drain. Melt 6 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan (medium-high heat) and cook ¼ cup thinly sliced shallots and 2 tablespoons minced garlic for about a minute. Next add the sprouts in one layer and cook until golden brown (about 5 minutes) and remove from pan. Add another 2 tablespoons of butter to the saucepan and when melted add ¾ cup roughly chopped walnuts and cook until golden and fragrant (about 2 minutes). Add 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon black pepper, and sprouts to pan with the walnuts and stir to coat. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese to serve. Delicious!
Have you seen all the press about Vitamin D recently? This past month two of my health magazines (Nutrition Action Health Letter from CSPI and Consumer Reports on Health) featured articles on this wonder vitamin. We've all heard how vitamin D and calcium are good for bone health, and I think most of us know that dairy products and the sun are sources for this vitamin (fatty fish like herring and wild salmon too). But did you know that recent studies have also associated this vitamin with muscle and cognitive function and that low levels of this vitamin have also been associated with depression, cancer, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases as well? And, unfortunately studies indicate that the majority of Americans are deficient in this vitamin. Given the research, many experts agree that the current recommended amounts are too low and they are suggesting that adults increase their intake to 800 - 1000 IU per day. Given how tough it is to get this from food and sunlight (especially in the winter) I've started taking a calcium/vitamin D supplement along with my multi-vitamin (which already has 800 IU) to make sure I get enough.
With the holidays come many get togethers with our friends. It seems like we are always going somewhere for an open house or dinner. We like to arrive with something in hand so we often bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift. I stock up a few times a year on wine to make sure we have enough in the house for such occasions. The great thing about this time of year is Safeway's wine sale - 30% off bottles that are $20 or more (excludes champagne and sparkling wine). And, if you buy 6 or more bottles (at any price) you get another 10% off - that's a 40% discount on some great wines! What I love about this is it gives me the chance to buy & give wines that are typically outside of my price range. I love great deals like that!
This year we find ourselves going to a friend's house again for Thanksgiving. I have to confess, while I miss the leftovers and I kind of miss putting everything together, I also love not spending the entire day in the kitchen. There are three families getting together and I've been assigned "non-traditional" stuffing (has some added ingredients beyond bread), Brussels sprouts, and pumpkin pie. Pretty straight forward but of course I'm doing a lot of research to look for recipes with a "twist" that sound like they taste great. I already have a favorite Brussels sprouts recipe (this one has been known to convert sprout non-eaters), and I found a pumpkin pecan pie recipe that I want to try. The one that I need help with is the stuffing - there are so many variations out there! The sausage and artichoke recipe on the Safeway website sounds awesome - what are the "secret ingredients" in your favorite stuffing?
For those in a grocery delivery service area, Safeway.com has a fabulous offer this Thanksgiving. Place a $200 or higher order on our website and receive free delivery and a free turkey. Simply order your groceries, include a Safeway turkey (value up to $7), and enter two promotion codes at checkout (“SMART” and “FREEBIRD”) to take advantage of this offer.
See the website for offer details. http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/default.asp?bra
One year ago today this blog was launched! Hard to believe it’s been a full year already. A big “thank you” to the readers, and those who’ve taken additional time to post comments along the way. Your feedback has been helpful in shaping the direction of this blog! I’d love to hear more about what you would like to read – please share!
Nothing makes me feel like baking more than crisp fall weather and I was very happy to see that we brought our Home for the Holidays promotion back again this year. From now through November 29th, every time you purchase $25 or more in participating products in a single transaction with your Club Card you’ll receive a $5 reward coupon. In addition to baking ingredients like chocolate chips, sugar, nuts, spices, and flour, you’ll also see items like baking mixes, broth, soda, and snacks. Look for the specially marked tags throughout the store.
Have you started thinking about the holidays yet? Well, here's something to throw into the mix when you're working out your plans. Safeway is offering Complete Holiday Dinners - Turkey, Ham, or Prime Rib, complete with sides, rolls, and dessert. Everything is fully prepared - all you need to do is heat and serve after you bring it home! Just call the Holiday Hotline (1-888-358-7328), place your order by the Sunday before the holiday (11/22 for Thanksgiving), and then pick it up at your store (on the date and time you choose). Dinners serve 4-8 depending on the main course and prices range from $39.99 to $64.99 (a little more in Hawaii and Alaska). These Complete Holiday Dinners will be available through Christmas!
Here's some great news, many of the coupons you print from our website, and brought to you by Coupons.com are now available to electronically download to your club card. Not all the "print from home" coupons have the download option yet, but more and more will eventually have it and we just couldn't wait to bring this new feature to you! Just like the Shortcuts, Cellfire, and P&G eSAVER coupons - no more printing and cutting, simply download the savings right to your card and when you make the purchase the savings will automatically be applied to your bill! Once you download your coupons, don't forget to go back to the "print at home" area in the Coupon Center to pick up any additional coupons you may want to print (the ones you've downloaded will automatically show up as "added"). Super Price Coupons will still be available in the weekly ad, and of course there are still the manufacturer coupons that come in the Sunday paper - plenty of ways to save!
Check out the Thanksgiving recipes and tips on our website for your Thanksgiving Holiday. You'll find helpful videos on our 2 hour Turkey Recipe (yes this really does work!) and turkey carving techniques. There are also recipes for sides and desserts for the big day as well as easy recipes for transforming leftovers into new dishes. Plus, easy decorating ideas for your table, and a planning guide that maps out the prep in the weeks ahead for those who are making a full Thanksgiving dinner.
If you haven't seen this past Sunday's ad, you should take a look. It's loaded with Super Price Coupons, 33 to be exact, across a wide range of products. Family favorites like peanut butter, and mac & cheese, cereal, snacks, frozen foods, dairy, personal care, bath tissue, and laundry! There's even a coupon for deli meat and diapers too! With so many coupons I just had to do the math on the savings - it was nearly $40!
Even though I have been at Safeway for a few years, I continue to discover more and more about the company that makes me proud to work here. By now I’m sure you all have seen the signs and tags in-store for the breast cancer fund raiser that is currently going on (Safeway has donated nearly $60 million over the past seven years to the cause!). But did you know that because of the generous contributions of customers like yourself and our employees, Safeway helped BreastCancerTrials.org become a nationwide program? This free service was developed by the University of California, San Francisco, the National Cancer Institute, and a group of patient advocates to give patients access to information about breast cancer research studies in the U.S., and the opportunity to identify the studies that may be a good fit. You can even sign up for alerts that will notify you when newly listed trials fit your situation. That is pretty amazing. If you, or someone you know, is at risk for breast cancer, has recently been diagnosed, is actively managing the disease, or has treated it and is now disease free, please have them check it out.
We’ve created a new tradition at our home, merging our Midwest Sweetest Day upbringing and the Halloween season by making caramel apples. I remember doing this when I was a kid, fun to swirl, lots of leftover melted caramel for some extra fondue dipping, and there was always a lively discussion about “nuts or no nuts?” on the apples. It was a little trickier to manage with the girls than I remembered but still a lot of fun! You really have to move fast dipping the apples while the caramel is really warm as it starts to stiffen as soon as it begins to cool. Gabby could handle holding the apple and swirling but that part was a little awkward for the twins. What they all loved more than the dipping was the decorating. We got a little creative coating our dipped apples with crushed banana chips, sprinkles, and trail mix (Safeway Select has a great one with raisins, peanuts, almonds, chocolate candies and peanut butter chips). We left a couple of the caramel apples plain too. What Halloween traditions do you have?
We have a great sale on Halloween candy right now, prices good through Tuesday, October 27th. Buy any four bags of Hershey’s or Mars fun size candy and it’s just $2 a bag! I have to confess, Max and I use Halloween as an excuse to buy our favorite treats, since we rarely buy candy during the rest of the year (too tempting to keep in the house!). The fun size bars are perfect for portion control, one is just enough to satisfy a craving without putting you over your calorie count for the day. What are your favorite Halloween treats?
I am constantly on the look out for ways to eat healthier. Sometimes this takes the shape of eliminating certain foods from our meals, but frankly, that only lasts so long until we just can’t stand it any longer and “give in”. I’ve found it much easier to find healthier options of the things we love and establish that as “regular” early on, then the girls have the healthier product as their reference point for how it should taste. Turkey bacon is our most recent example win. The girls have probably eaten bacon on a half dozen occasions over their short lifetime. We were craving pancakes one day so I decided to complete the meal with some turkey bacon. It was good and the girls loved it! And only 40 calories and 1 gram of fat per slice (0g saturated fat). This one just might become a “regular” on my weekly shopping list!
The girls have been on me this year to get our house ready for Halloween. Some of our neighbors started putting their decorations up at the end of September, so in my kids’ eyes I’m “way behind”. I thought all was going to be ok when I finally hung our ghosts and spider outside only to find that some of our neighbors have decided to kick it up a notch and create elaborate scenes on their front yards – graveyards, ten foot inflatables – Halloween is starting to approach Christmas with all the outdoor decorations! For us though, simplicity drives everything so we’re going to stick with our ghosts, cobwebs, and spiders. Carved pumpkins too once we get to the pumpkin patch. What do you do for Halloween?
Have you seen this new item in the Bakery yet? They are delicious! I’ve been adding chocolate chips to my pumpkin bread for years, something about the warm spices and the chocolate just works for the fall. And honestly, what doesn’t taste better with a little chocolate! This cookie is soft, kind of muffin like, with plenty of chocolate chips. Baked fresh right in the store, they will be available through December. Give them a try and let me know what you think!
There are some great deals in the ad this week, prices good through Tuesday the 20th. Beverages, breakfast sausage, rice & pasta side dishes, canned beans, and toothpaste, all for $1 or less! And did you catch the Kraft Macaroni & Cheese 48 hour sale this past weekend (5/$2)? I took advantage of that price to restock my pantry, a favorite comfort food for the girls now that the weather is cool and the rain has started. They love it topped with Romano cheese, sometimes we’ll add in steamed broccoli too. What creative twists and recipes using mac and cheese do you have?
I am pleased to say that I checked off another New Year’s resolution this month, having run my second half marathon this year. It’s definitely getting easier; while I’m not necessarily running any faster I am recovering more quickly which I am thrilled about. And, I think I’ve finally figured out my “nutrition plan” pre, during, and post race which has made my runs more comfortable as well. Nothing is better than seeing the girls and Max cheer me on at the finish line and now that the twins understand that I’m not running away from them when they see me, I just need to cross the finish line and then we can all be together, the finish is getting easier too (there were many tears with my first race as we had forgotten to explain that beforehand, oops)! How are you doing on your resolutions?
We don’t drink much juice in our house, for the girls it’s primarily water and milk and for Gabby’s school lunches she’ll get a flavored water pouch. Fortunately the girls love their fruit so it’s not hard to get them to eat enough servings. But vegetables? That’s another story. Carrots will work one week, green beans the next. Currently broccoli is on the “don’t like it list” (whereas it’s been on the “approved list” for the past year). Talk about frustrating. So I continue to look for ways to incorporate veggies into our meals – chopped spinach in taco meat or spaghetti sauce for example. I picked up a new juice the other day that helps me out with this “stealth health” approach – Eating Right Kids 100% Fruit & Veggie Juice. It comes in two flavors, Strawberry Banana, and Pineapple Orange and contains a full serving each of fruit and vegetables in each box. Plus no added sugar or artificial sweeteners and 100% of the daily value of vitamin C! The girls loved it! The Looney Tune characters make them feel like they are getting something fun and I know that it’s good for them! Give it a try!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and through the generosity of our customers Safeway has raised over $60 million over the past seven years for medical research to improve the detection and treatment of breast cancer. $18 million dollars in 2008 alone! That’s impressive – thank you customers! The funds are distributed to leading cancer centers in North America, including the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The funding has also made possible a small fleet of mobile screening units which make these screening tests more accessible and affordable to more women in the states where Safeway operates and to underserved areas where women may not have immediate access to screenings. This year Safeway has three easy ways to support the cause – 1) $5 will be donated to support local and national breast cancer charities when you purchase $30 in participating products (look for the pink ribbon tag), 2) purchase a reusable shopping bag for $1.99 and $1 of the purchase price will be donated to the cause, or 3) donate at the check stand. Every contribution makes a difference!
After seeing the new sugar guidelines I decided to find a healthier substitute for my cereal bar snack. Something more beneficial nutritionally, equally satisfying from a taste standpoint, and with a similar cost per serving. No easy task. But after searching on our website I found a great article that inspired me to try nuts (“Nuts to You” under Healthy Living). That decision was then reinforced by the October issue of my Nutrition Action Health Letter (CSPI) which ran a feature on nuts. So for the past few weeks I’ve been eating an ounce (1/4 cup) of unsalted almonds or walnuts instead of a cereal bar as my snack. While the nuts are somewhat higher in calories per serving, they have zero sodium, very little sugar (1g), and they are higher in protein. Almonds and walnuts are also rich in unsaturated fats, the good fats that may help to reduce the risk of heart disease and lower blood cholesterol levels. Given the calories, portion control is key, so I measure into a snack bag, and bring them along with me to work. Very satisfying!
