Whole Foods Product of the Week

I think that I will start posting a few of my favorite Whole Foods deals. I used to be totally against Whole Foods. I thought it was such a waste of money to shop there, and thought that everything there was ridiculously over priced. However, with a little investigation, I've found that there are several (countless - really) products that are an incredible value.


Whole Foods has a great website that highlights their services. My favorite feature is that you can call up at 617-723-0004 and ask for Serena Hsu and schedule your own tour of the store. They also have pre scheduled trips through the store to highlight certain values. I'm sure they go through the baking aisle and show you how cheap the flour is.


Anyways, the store is full of overpriced goods, but is also full of healthy values. (And if you can afford the nice expensive stuff - you can be sure it's preservative free).


My pick of the week is the organic 5 lb. carrot bag for (drumroll please) $3.99. Uses for these bad boys include:

- making fresh carrot sticks. This is a place where you can avoid a processing step and do it yourself, thus saving money. In the beginning of the week, I cut up an entire container of sticks. To save even more time, you could put them in individual containers or baggies (you're better off reusing a glass container to avoid throwing away all the plastic bags) and just grab and go throughout the week. I use them in Mike's lunches and we snack on them before dinner. They're so healthy and they really fill you up and curb your appetite before dinner.

- making baby food. Dylan goes crazy and loves him some carrots. I take aforementioned sticks and chop them up, but them in my steamer pot and steam until softened. I then pop them in the magic bullet (you can use the food processor or even the blender - but have fun cleaning the blender...I hate cleaning the blender) and voila! Baby food, fresh and organic. Just a note about making your own carrots...there is some concern over making your own carrots for baby food dur to nitrate content. To avoid this and make your own carrots safely, don't worry, just don't add the steaming liquid to make the puree, add fresh water...and use organic carrots, of course. I think all baby food should be made with organic food because babies' little bodies are much more sensitive to all the pesticides.

- roasted as a side dish or vegetarian main dish. Just drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper (and dried parsley, or oregano, or garlic powder) and roast in the oven at 350 until golden on top. These can be made into a vegetarian main dish by adding brown rice or quinoa and a salad.

- it's always great to have carrots around to make a soup. You just add celery and onion, and you have your own little base for a soup (more on that this week).

- they're just great to snack, snack, snack on! When reheating leftover soup, I sometimes throw some fresh carrots in so that they are nice and crisp in the soup (when you reheat soup, the original carrots can be pretty soft).


These carrots are one of the most affordable organic options at Whole Foods, and one of the most versatile vegetables I use. I buy a bag a week and enjoy every single carrot. Go buy a bag and let me know how you use them up!

(By the way, Mike just told me I was going "blog wild"...that's a good one).