Emphatically not recommended: the plastic pouches of cacao fruit pulp “fruit smoothies.” They apparently use no ingredents other than the fruit - but the lack of preservatives is not a selling point in this case. The pulp tastes nothing like fresh cacao pulp right out of the pod; the flavor is unpleasant and funky. My best guess is that the pulp in this case is a byproduct of the process of processing the seeds for chocolate, and that it has been allowed to ferment a fair amount before being scraped off the beans and into the pouches.
Renton Washington Grocery outlet today, nothing too spectacular.
They had the Mezzetta caramelized onion and butter pasta sauce still at $2.99 for 16.25 oz jars, as well as the plain tomato. I wish I had picked up every one of the truffle, porcini & cream variety the one time I saw it. Oh well. Best by March 2024
My store has finally sold out of the Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes. This may be partly my fault.
They have the Safe Harvest jarred dairy-free wild clam chowder again for $1.99 for 13.2 oz. I’ve had this before and it was very good, no sign of the salmon chowder this time. Best by 10/11/23
I was excited to see the Safe Catch sustainably caught Ahi tuna back at $1.49 for 3 oz. This stuff is excellent and claims every single tuna is mercury tested. Best by 6/23
Lots of cheese this time. Arla creamy havarti 7 oz $2.99. Kerrygold Skellig cheddar 7 oz $1.99. Cheese Brothers Adelheir alpine style applewood smoked cheese 6 oz $2.99. Garcia Baquero Spanish Cheese Plate with 2 types of goat cheese and one sheep cheese (Iberico, Queso de Cabra and Manchego) 5.29 oz $3.49.
No organic sourdough in stock again, no organic bread whatsoever in fact without enriched wheat and/or seed oils. Boo.
Such excellent tomatoes~ the crushed were good but the diced are like magic to transform anything into a worthwhile soup/stew/sauce. Glad this made you laugh! I was surprised every time I saw them still in stock, and whistled nonchalantly as I lugged a case of them into my cart
I was at my so cal GO today and they had Hunt’s San Marzano style whole peeled tomatoes with garlic, olive oil, and basil - 28 oz, two for $1, good through April 2024. And they just had seven cans on the shelf - so I grabbed them all.
Yesterday we went to the Bonney Lake WA store instead of Puyallup South Hill, and I think I’m calling it out as a destination store; worth the drive if you are already in Western Washington. Go on a clear day, Rainier is HUGE. I didn’t buy much, because fairly early in our trip I ran into one of my holy grail items and stocked up. It is a big clean store with tons of variety. NOSH had a full big aisle of food items, not crammed into a corner like some stores. They had the Sigdal Norwegian flatbread crackers that have sold out elsewhere. The cheese section is decent, and there was an expanded section with specialty items like a lot of salami, and even chocolate truffles. Produce had much more than my store carries, both wet and dry. The wine section was large and well labeled. I’ve seen the larger sort of funny signage (warning, sign may contain puns) at stores before, but this one seemed to have more than usual; and also hard alcohol with different items I haven’t seen elsewhere and a lot of beer. They had 4-packs of fizzy vodka lemonade or fizzy vodka green tea drinks for $1.64, which was surprising to see, but not worth picking up for me. Bakery was fully functional, with some items that weren’t full of junk ingredients. They were sold out of the organic sourdough, but had plenty of the Oasis all natural sprouted wheat bread so my freezer again has bread. Oh and the frozen section was significantly larger than most, although I didn’t dig around too much even though I brought a cooler. So, this is my holy grail item; the Stryve Spicy Beef Bites. No nitrates, no additives, just beef, vinegar, and spices in the 4 oz bags. I was dependant on these for work lunches for a long time, when GO had them coming in fairly often. Anyway, I was thrilled to see it, and they were $1.99 instead of their old price of $2.99 and instead of the new price, which is $9.99 for 8 oz and is too much and this product is better anyhow.
Went to South San Jose GO this evening. Azumaya tofu, both silken and firm, for $2.99 (and expiration dates in April and May!), C&H powdered sugar 2lb for $2.70, Crisco canola oil $4.99, Hebrew National beef franks $4.99. No Muir Glen tomatoes, but Contadina tomato sauce 8oz. $0.79. My most surprising find was a Chicago Metallic professional 8 inch springform pan for $8.99. I have a 9 inch one, and that’s the size in stock in all other stores. Now I can bake the recipe that calls for the 8 inch pan.
That fruit spread isn’t very good and the jar is 8.2 oz. The regular Bonne Maman jam jar is 13 oz. I bought the blueberry flavor, however, not the cherry.
