March 2009 -- Grocery Outlet

[Ruth Lafler]

Looks like no one has started a thread for this month yet.

At Oakland:

Stonyfield organic Oikos greek-style plain nonfat yogurt 6.6 ounces, -- 2/$1 exp 3/9, but yogurt keeps well after the exp. date. No additives, just milk and cultures.

Taste brand Italian roasted red peppers, $2.99/28 oz can

Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia and Peanutbutter Cup, $1.49/pint

Clif nectar bars, 59 cents, apple cinnamon, cherry pomegranate, and I saw a tag for chocolate walnut, but none on the shelf. There were some other good-looking fruit and nut bars from the U.K, too.

[rworange]

Berkeley

The real score here is 32oz Skyhill artisan goat yogurt for $2.49. It is certified Kosher too. More here
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6074...

Lots of stores are getting more boxed wine. Berkeley has the largest selection I've seen. They have lots of varieties of the Inglenook 3 liter box for $3.99. They are also selling some Corbet Canyon pinot grigio chenin blanc wine for $4.99. They have Hardy's cab for $5.99.

Real vanilla extract was $1.29 for 1 oz.

Lots and lots of boxes of organic cereal in various varieites for $1.99. It is mainly Health Valley but there is other stuff.

San Pablo

Needed to pick up some more of the vanilla and cream English shorbread for a freind who liked these best. Obviously another woman did too. She must have had about 20 boxes of that flavor in her basket. I got a dirty look when she put her armful in the basket and I swooped in for my three little boxes.

The friend has also been buying the boxes of organic tea bags ... 99 cents. He says it is good.

ANYWAY, they also had bags of small avocados for 50 cents. Four avocados and they looked great ... ripe or soon to be ripe. Didn't buy any because I don't have a use for them right now.

[chowmeaow]

At Newark GO

Light canola mayo (vegan)
cottage cheese with pineapple cups (exp apr 04), pretty good
Amaranth flakes cereal
Some 'Fit" bottled drink ( don't remember the exact brand)

[Caitlin McGrath]

Has anyone noticed the Arrowhead Mills peanut butter rworange mentioned at the Oakland or Berkeley GO? I have a friend who craves this brand, and the only place around that seems to carry it is Raley's, which is a bit out of his orbit (he doesn't have a car).

[Ruth Lafler]

I bought some at Oakland a couple of weeks ago, but I don't remember seeing it this week. If Raley's carries it Nob Hill probably carries it, and the Alameda Nob Hill is very accessible by bus: the 51 line terminates right outside the parking lot, and the 19 and the 50 both stop there on their way to and from the Fruitvale BART station.

[Caitlin McGrath]

The issue isn't accessability by public transit, but whether it's worth his time to get there *just* for peanut butter. Generally, his answer has been no. Thanks, though; I'll let him know about the GO possibility.

[Ruth Lafler]

Lots of good stuff today at Oakland.

The sausage section has been restocked. There were several different kinds of Saag's (including bockwurst, smoked brats and English bangers), a couple of Evergoods, and a line I don't remember seeing before: Beeman Gourmet Sausages in a couple of flavors. I bought the smoked mozzerella and the artichoke gouda -- the Beeman were $2.49/12 oz. and the Saag's were $3.49/12 oz.

Gardern of Eden organic mini yellow tortilla chips, 7.5 oz. -- 99 cents These are my favorite tortilla chips and I buy them regularly at full price, so I stocked up.

Key lime and marionberry Tillamook yogurt, 3/$1 -- has no HFCS

Haagen Dazs Sticky Toffee Pudding and Cinnamon Dulce de Leche -- $1.49/pt. I forgot to mention last time that they also have the Haagen Dazs coconut sorbet RWO liked.

The big find in the candy aisle: Dagoba Xocolatl bars (dark chocolate with cacao nibs and chile), $1.49. Not many of them of them on the shelf, so supply may be limited, but keep your eyes peeled.

Also:

Alba Botanica sunscreen, several different kinds, all $2.99. I bought this at someone's suggestion last time it was at GO and it's very good sunscreen and this is a great price. Lots of other good stuff in the toiletries aisle.

[rworange]

San Pablo has some really great deals that I'll write up today after lunch (a GO find itself).

However, if anyone is going out shopping I wanted to post this as this is one of the all time GO deals

Artisan Biscuits Elegant & English baked by hand all-butter biscuits - vanilla & cream, honey and almond, chocolate & raspberry

50 cents !!!!

These are WONDERFUL. Made in England, carefully packed in trays, a beautiful ingrediant list ... the cookies are 25% butter. Sugar and honey are used.

I listed them in the order I preferred. There's a lot of rapsberry taste, but I'm not a fan of raspberry-flavored things usualy. They use concentrated raspberry juice and raspberry flavoring.

Swell, swell, swell, swell, swell, swell, swell ... swell

Here's the website
http://www.artisanbiscuits.co.uk/

[sydthekyd]

What did you have for lunch?

[rworange]

Niman Ranch chipotle bacon and acorn squash.

$2.99 for 12 oz bacon. The squash is on sale for 25 cents each. I bought mine a few weeks back at the lofty price of 50 cents and wanted to see if I want more at the lower price. Yes. The squash is almost a pound, has a good taste and is a deal at that price.

I've been looking for the chipotle bacon, even at full price in regular markets, ever since someone reported finding it at a Redwood City GO. That poster said it didn't have any chipotle flavor. Still I wanted to try it. That poster was right. Can't taste any chipotle in it. I've never had Niman Ranch that I remember. It is one of the saltiest bacons I've ever tried.

With the lowered price on the squash this meal would cost 48 cents. The cookies average out to 3 cents each, so total price for lunch ... 57 cents.

Other items available today at San Pablo

25 cents Lightfill smoothies 8.5 oz (strawberry, peach or mango)
34 cents Kraft chocolate mallow bites
50 cents Pillsbury pecan swirl quick bread
50 cents Individual microwave cups of Stovetop stuffing
69 cents California Harvest peaches in pear juce
69 cents California Harvest apricots in heavy syrup
79 cents Bowl Appetit microwaveable Thai-style coconut curry
99 cents Philly cream cheese 8 oz
99 cents Healthy Valley organic amaranth flakes
99 cents Back to Nature cereal (cinnamon crunch or summer berry)
99 cents Simply Wiked naked ginger candied ginger
99 cents Canned peaches in heavy syrup 29 oz
1.49 Refrigerated organic flaxseed oil 8 oz (24 oz $3.99)
1.49 Hormel compleats beef and beans in bbq sauce shelf-stable microwave meal
1.50 Arrowhead Valencia Peanut butter (big jar)
1.50 Fresh sliced portabella mushrooms or whole baby bellas 8 oz
1.50 Fresh asparagus
1.79 Large container of fresh strawberries
1.99 Planters holiday tin 1lb 2oz (whole cashews, honey roasted peantus, roasted almonds)
1.99 Fearless Franks 16 oz pork and beef or 11 oz all beef
9.99 Idylwood Silver Magnolia Icewine 375 ml

The smoothies are in the bottled juice department and have good ingredients in them ... juice and cane sugar and other natural-looking stuff.

The box of the Kraft pecan bread mix boasted 'real pecans'. It looked like a coffee cake mix.

The coconut curry was marked down and drew my eye to the other nearby microwave stuff like the Hormel beef and beans and the individual Stovetop stuffing cups. Don't know how good any of this is.

The candied ginger looks good. Should have bought some. It said on the package there was less sugar now and that is pretty much all that was in it ... cane sugar and ginger.

Don't know much about flaxseed oil prices, but I'm guess this is a good price.

I have a big jar of that peanut butter that I bought at a higher price at GO and it is good. Only peanuts salt and oil are in it and it has a nice flavor.

There are two different tins of Planters Nuts. One was more expensive but still seemed like a good deal. The $1.99 tin looks like a swell deal.

Wines that are either cheap or expensive for what the are always catch my eye at GO. The icewine is a small bottle. Looking it up on the web, it is not such a great deal as it retails for $14 - $16. Anyone know if this is any good?

One thing to avoid that I bought last month are the 79 cent bags of Mariani prunes. They have pits and are on the dry side. The bette deal is the larger container of Sunsweet pitted prunes for $2.49.

[gordon wing]

At San Pablo I bough another jar of the Arrowhead Valencia Pnut butter for $1.50. It's just out of date but still tastes fine and I don't plan on having it for that long. Thanks for the tip about the British butter cookies. Very tasty and a steal for 50 cents a box. 28 oz can of tomatoes for 79 cents is a good buy also. 79 cents for a 3.5 oz bar of Cadbury's fruit & nut reminds of the ole Chunky bars!

[Melanie Wong]

Forgot to mention that I saw Puerto Vallarta reposado tequila for $19.99 at the Redwood City store yesterday. Doing some price shopping, this is $15.99 at BevMo.
http://www.bevmo.com/Shop/ProductDeta...

[choctastic]

If you see the Soy Delicious almond mocha fudge ice cream, it is really badass, and only $1.49 a pint.

[Ruth Lafler]

Oakland GO -- Haazen Dazs dark chocolate covered pomegranate ice cream bars. Box of three for $1.79. Delicious. Really delicious.

[wolfe]

Do you shop with a ice chest in you car?

[gordon wing]

it's pretty easy to carry one of the smaller coolers, softside or otherwise, in your car to take advantage of ice cream specials or when buying frozen items ..... or even buying fresh fish. I throw in some ice packs also. Although, you can get ice from most fish mongers.

[Ruth Lafler]

I try to keep my soft-sided insulated Trader Joe's zipper bag in the car. But the Oakland GO isn't that far from my house that it's a problem. I just have to make it my last stop.

I went back for more of the Haagen Dazs bars and they were gone. Instead, they had 15-bar boxes of the Sheer Bliss version of the same bars for $6.99 (which works out to less per bar). I also bought a package of the Sheer Bliss bon bon version which are much easier to eat in the car on the way home <vbg>.

[Melanie Wong]

Hmm, looks like what I picked up in Redwood City is something different. These are called Blisswich, four vanilla cookie sandwiches filled with vanilla and pomegranate swirls, weighing a total of 16 oz for $2.99. Pleasant enough but not super delicious.

[rworange]

The one thing Sheer Bliss does well ... and only thing is pomegranite ice cream ... or pomegranite ice cream with chocolate. The swirls are pretty awful and the other flavors like coffee or plain chocolate just aren't special. Anyway that is my experience from paying full $$$ a while back for what they were making.

[gordon wing]

Ruth, remember when stores used to have ice cream bags? Heavyweight foil lined bags for carrying ice cream home ........

[Ruth Lafler]

Yup! I broke open the Sheer Bliss bars tonight. I don't think they're quite as good as the Haagen Dazs -- they didn't make me go "wow!" -- but if I hadn't had the Haagen Dazs, I would have been pretty excited about these.

[rworange]

The Petaluma store has the Horizon Organic butter. They also have Land o Lakes for $2.29.

Continuing trying evey cheap coffee to please my SO's Nescafe coffee taste, if you ever wondered about the $1.99 (14 oz) bag of Marques Fair Trade Organic Coffee, San Pablo is selling both regular and decaffinated. It is a very mild coffee if you are into that. I'm not a mild coffee person. However, excellent price for a fair trade organic coffee.
http://www.marquesdepaiva.com

[choctastic]

Yeah, it's extremely mild. I ended up just using it in chocolate desserts.

[Columba]

Santa Rosa store has a new (for me) product.

Bhuja cracker mix 7 oz for $.99

No junk, just a tasty combination of multigrain noodles, crackers, peas, peanuts, raisins and mild spices.

Also NO gluten or cholesterol.

From Austrailia http://bhuja.com/
It's the green bag.

[PorkButt]

Two types of bhuja mix at Oakland, Original and Nut. Tried the Original, it's good and a bit spicy.

[rworange]

The onions this week are 99 cents for a 3 lb bag.

In my email this morning was this Chow recipe for Honey-Ginger Pear Trifle which has graham crackers in it.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/14107

Let me tell you those Pepperidge Farm chocolate graham crackers for 99 cents a bag work just swell in this.

The San Pablo store had the Oikos greek-style yogurt with honey so I modified the recipe to mix the brown sugar with the pears in this. It gave me the incentive to buy the fresh ginger at GO. I didn't use the cream. The layer of chocolate goldfish on the bottom gets soft and cakey while the smiling fish on top are nice and crunchy.

HOWEVER, even better Raley's has the new Haagen-Daz Five ginger ice cream on sale this week for $3.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/602989

The ginger ice cream topped with the chocolate graham cracker fish and fresh sliced strawberries ... fabulous ... just fabulous. Also, that ice cream is lighter than regular Haagen-Daz at 220 per serving. so topped with a few fish at 3 calories each and straweberries, you have a bulked up substantial dessert for under 250 calories. If you are really ginger crazy, you can first grate a little of that fresh GO ginger on top of the ice cream for an extra zing.

Berkeley Bowl has baskets of beautiful strawberries this week for $1.39.

[Melanie Wong]

$2.49 Ben & Jerry's organic vanilla pints
99¢ Ocean Spray, 6-pack, 10 oz cranberry cocktail
99¢ POM iced coffee
$1.99 Tropicana OJ half-gallons (new lot, exp March 30)

I noticed Alouette "reserve" baby brie that is a combo of cows and goat milk. Anyone tried it?

[Ruth Lafler]

I wonder if Tropicana is closing out the oj in the new packaging they dumped because everyone hated it.

[Melanie Wong]

Yes, I assume that's what's going on. Each week a new lot shows up, whereas it had been pretty scarce in the past.

And, for GO shoppers, I wanted to link to this thread about product dates.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/589648

[rworange]

San Pablo

34 cents - 3 oz Tropical Source raspberry dark chocolate, dairy free, gluten free
69 cents - Yankee Clipper sardines
99 cents - Yankee Clipper smoked oysters
99 cents - Aloutte creme fraiche
99 cents - Favorit Swiss preserves
1.29 - Del Monte pineapple juice 46 oz can
1.49 - Organic Horizon shredded mozarella 6 oz
2.99 - Sheer Bliss bites - pomegranite ice cream covered with chocolate

San Pablo and Berkeley

99 cents - Pepperidge farm chocolate graham goldfish
2.99 - Sabra hummus - various types
3.99 - Sinai hot dogs 3 1/2 lbs

Berkeley

69 cents - Mrs Smith's cheesecake singles - four 100 calorie squares
99 cents - JL Kraft Vermont cheddar and roasted red pepper spread
99 cents - Seeds of Change organic chocolate bar with hazelnuts
2.99 - Niman Ranch chorizo or andouille

I love Sheer Bliss pomegranite ice cream and while I didn't buy this, it is good stuff and a good price

The Swiss preserves I'm not sure of buying. They use sugar and glucose and dextrose.

The Sinai franks IIRC, are the brand Bette's-to-go uses. These are BIG franks

Them goldfish are really good and only 2.8 calories per fish. Pepperidge farm has named the fish ... Finn. Don't want my fish named even it is just a graham cracker.

The first bite I had of the raspberry chocolate I didn't like. It seemed too sweet and didn't like the raspberry flavor. Now I'm sort of into it. The freeze dried raspberries are crunchy, almost like Nestle crunch. Ingredients: evaporated cane juice, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, freeze dried raspberries, roasted soy flour, soy lecithin, pure vanilla extract.

Yankee Clipper sardines came out in the top group when I had my sardine tasting a few years ago. Usually only Safeway sells them ... for a lot more.

[choctastic]

Those Tropical Source bars have been in GO before. I like them because they're vegan, and so I don't have to worry about the milk making me sick, but most real chocoholics of my acquaintance would snub em. I like the mint ones best.

[Melanie Wong]

$2.49 for Horizon organic butter, 1 lb.
99¢ for English cucumbers, wrapped in plastic, grown in Mexico

[Ruth Lafler]

Yeah, the produce looked pretty good at the Oakland GO, especially a big box of greens that were going over well with the mostly African-American clientele.
Be aware, though, that since produce is sold by the unit it's hard to compare prices with produce sold by the pound -- sometimes when I think it through the GO price isn't particularly cheap and the quality isn't always great. Oakland GO also had four-inch pots of cherry tomato and bean (both bush and pole) plants for 99 cents, plus some bareroot berries and grapes ($3.99).

[Melanie Wong]

Absolutely. I noticed that GO had one pound bags of jalapeno peppers for a buck and notated as $1.99/lb elsewhere. At the rather toney grocery store, Big John's in healdsburg, they're $1.09/lb, and you don't have to buy a whole bag. On the cukes, several were kind of rubbery, but checking through the bin, I found two that were quite fresh.

[rworange]

Yeah, that per pound thing is something to watch. I bought an acorn squash (haven't tried it yet) that are 2 for $1. Great price for a regular supermarket squash, but these are small, maybe a lb at most, and I probably could do better at Berkeley Bowl ... slightly better ... but better.

Other produce

79 cents - 5 lbs of yellow potatoes from Idaho (Berkeley)
99 cents - 2 lbs of fresh ginger from China (Berkeley and San Pablo)
99 cents - Tricar grape tomatoes from Mexico (Berkeley)
99 cents - Good Dog Farm romanita tomatoes from Mexico (San Pablo)

Those yellow potatoes were interesting. If I was doing my $3 day thingy, I would have snapped them up, but I don't eat regular potatoes often and I'm trying to cut carbs. They look like regular russets but yellow. They didn't look like the normal yellow potatoes like yellow Finn or Yukon gold. If it wasn't five pounds worth, I would have picked some up out of curiosity. Berkeley also had a variety of other types of potatoes, but the price on this was a winner.

I've been contemplating the ginger. First, it is from China and with so many food problems from China, I'm reluctant to buy anything so labeled. Then it takes me a month to use a small piece of ginger, so I'm not sure I can use two pounds worth. The San Pablo ginger looked good. At Berkeley they kept it in a dark box and it seems to be starting to sprout.

The Good Dog tomatoes are quite tasty, but they are at the end of their shelf-life. Open to make sure they are good. The grape tomatoes look like they are waxed. They are acidic in a not bad way, but not much more flavor than a supermrket grape tomato.

[Ruth Lafler]

Correction: the yogurt is 5.8 ounces.