Sunday, March 15, 2015

Dinner for Breakfast & Costco Finds

Happy Sunday! This morning I had the best "brunch" using my leftover dinner I brought home from last night that hubby, daughter and I had at Genghis Grill. After a long day of shopping yesterday, we met my daughter on our way home at the Mall of Georgia to eat at Chow Baby. I won't go into details other than to say it was totally disgusting...but we left after ordering and went to Genghis Grill nearby. I have eaten at Chow Baby in midtown Atlanta and enjoyed it but I would not allow my dog to eat at the Mall of Georgia location. For those of you that don't know or have never eaten at either of those places, you basically choose and fill your bowls (separate for meat and veggies) with a large variety of uncooked veggies, meats (beef, pork, chicken, seafood, etc.) and then add small containers of whatever sauce or seasonings you want them to put in your food. I did a mixed bowl of veggies with chicken and beef. Before you give it to them to cook, you choose your "starch" for them to mix in (a variety of rices, or shredded cabbage). I have mine put on shredded cooked cabbage instead of rice. I ate half of my dinner last night and brought the other half home. This morning, I reheated the leftovers in a skillet with a bit of coconut oil and after it was sizzling hot, I broke an egg into my stir-fry and stirred it, breaking it up and mixing it in as it cooked (kind of like you do when you make fried rice). I added a little bit of grated carrot I had leftover in the fridge and then "Voila"...I had a delicious brunch using last night's leftover dinner!

Yesterday hubby and I ran errands and shopped most of the day (9+ hours). We headed out to the Northeast Georgia Premium Outlets and spent quite a bit of time there. I did quite a bit of "damage" at Le Creuset and Williams Sonoma; but they were all good deals (or so I tell myself).  ;-)

On our way back home, we stopped at one of the newer Costco's in the Atlanta area (it's been open since last summer) and I believe the only one in the area that I haven't gone to yet. We left the outlets so late that this Costco was really the only one we could make it to before they closed. I am so happy we stopped there. We got our usual stuff...but the one item I have been looking for at every Atlanta area Costco for over 2 years now was avocado oil. Some of you that live in other parts of the country have told me your Costco's carry it, but the 4 or 5 other Atlanta area Costco's I've gone to have not had it. Until yesterday, that is! I was so excited to find it. I usually buy it at Sprouts in 16-oz bottles when it goes on sale for $12.99...but yesterday I picked up two 34-oz (1 liter) bottles of it from the Costco in Cummings for $9.99 each! While I have cooked with it before, it is my favorite oil to make vinaigrette salad dressings with. I snapped a few photos of my crazy breakfast/lunch/dinner meal that I had as brunch this morning as well as a few of my Costco finds including the avocado oil. Enjoy!

Breakfast/lunch made using last night's leftover dinner mixed with a chopped up egg

I try to use only BPA free plastic, but I'm going to try switching to glass instead
If you belong to Costco, you can get these for $14.99 or from Amazon (see below) for $25
$15.89 at Costco for 2 pounds of organic pistachios ($26.95 at Amazon)
This was my personal "FIND" of the day!
   

11 comments:

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

Your meal looks incredible! When we have Chinese left-overs, my hubby likes to make a frittata with them the next day. It's very good that way, but I really love the looks of your "scramble." I think we'll do it that way next time for a change.

Sounds like a good time was had by all! Congratulations on all of your "finds."

I'm glad you decided to leave the first restaurant instead of putting up with deplorable conditions. If enough of us would only do that, they'd get the message and things would improve.

Yay for the avocado oil! Our Costco has been carrying it for quite a while now. It started at a Costco way on the other side of town and eventually landed at ours. So hopefully yours will be getting it soon.

Yay also for the glass water bottles! I paid at least that much for *one* bottle a few years ago at Whole Foods. I'll have to look for them at our Costco. I've been reading lately that BPA-free labels can be deceiving. Sure, the product may not contain BPA but it could contain something even worse, such as BPS! I'd like to see a return to glass containers, but that'll never happen, as more and more products are getting away from it.

Charlotte Moore said...

Seems you found good prices at Costco.

905lovestostamp said...

I LOVE it when you post your Costco finds!!! I live in Canada, so our prices are higher, etc and there are some items I cannot find and have to look for elsewhere, but others I CAN find. We do have Avacado oil, but the bottle is much smaller (cannot remember the price), but I haven't used it yet, bought it recently. GREAT to try in a vinaigrette. Lately I've been using Udo's oil in my vinaigrettes, and that has been a good one for me. Udo's oil is a blend of excellent oils, and it has to be sold and remain refrigerated, usually only available in health food stores, but I have also found it in a refrigerated section of a natural section of a regular grocery store too.

You are such an encouragement to me! I'm just getting back on the wagon so to speak, have been for a couple of weeks and am hoping I will lose around my middle again. I'm very inactive due to major health issues but hope to be able to start some light walking soon too. Especially as our weather improves. How I LOVE your recipes!!! I just wish I liked flaked coconut and coconut flour, don't mind coconut oil or coconut milk... Glad that in most recipes the amount of coconut flour is small and hopefully I will find some healthy substitutions other than all-purpose gluten-free flour which still has a lot of unhealthier stuff like potato starch and rice flour, etc. Would rather use something as healthy as coconut flour if I didn't mind the taste so much...

Thanks again for all you do for so many of us! Please know you are such an inspiration to me and I know to so many others. I often look on your pantry to see what brands you use of products I will need to try a recipe of yours, and have bought almond flour from Honeyville only because of your recommendation. I look forward to playing around in the kitchen and trying your recipes, I cannot wait actually!

GLAD you found your avocado oil! I wish there were Costco stores in the greater Buffalo area, unfortunately not as of yet, only Sam's Club, but I do check in there as I share a membership with a good friend who spends a lot of time in the US.

Best wishes,

Joanne

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Joanne,

Thanks so much! I wonder if in some of my recipes where I use coconut flour if ground chia seeds might work. It might not work in all of them but possibly in some. I buy it already ground most of the time (by Nutiva) but have also ground my own in the past, too.

I hope you enjoy the Honeyville almond flour. It is my favorite "all purpose baking flour" to use. I find it amazing how much variation there can be in Costco's in the same city, much less in the same country so I can only imagine how different it must be where you live. I'm sure also have things we don't here. Sam's Club actually has improved their inventory of healthy foods tremendously over the last couple of years, I belong to both but prefer Costco even though it's further away from me than Sam's Club. But, I must say that I am more impressed with the items Sam's is now carrying. I hope you enjoy getting back on track and see tremendous results and improvements! Thanks so much for the kind words. :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks Charlotte. I am pleased with the prices I found at Costco and with the annual rebate I get on my purchases, my membership fee is more than covered. :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis,

Never thought about making a frittata with Chinese food leftovers. I actually think a second egg would have been nice added this morning but it was more than enough food to eat as it already was.

I'm anxious to use my glass bottle. I plan to take one with me to work to keep on my desk. I hate to admit that I typically refill a plastic water bottle at work (I don't use plastic water bottles at home and always drink from a glass). I'm anxious to completely kick plastic water bottles to the curb now and know I should have done it years ago.

I hope my Costco eventually gets the avocado oil but regardless, I picked up 2 of the big bottles this weekend and also have one of the smaller bottles of it I just picked up from Sprouts a week ago or so...so I think I'm good on avocado oil for a while. :-)

unter der laterne said...

Hi Ayla, since Almond Flour came up in this blog, I am wondering when to buy it. There is a 10% off sale right now. I cannot find my receipt from last year and am wondering if there has been a better offer in the past. I only buy the 25 pound bag and noticed the price increase, The almond meal at Trader Joe has gone up too. We have a terrible drought and the Almond farmers are having a tough time .
So many trees in our area are dying, including our beautiful Monterey pine in the back yard. Very scary since its roots are keeping our hill from sliding .
We tried our best to save it, but beetles attacked it and our tree expert could not help.

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi Barbara,

In the past, I have seen it on sale for 15% off and if I recall correctly, and maybe on rare occasion even 20% off. If what you say about the drought there affecting the almond farmers is as bad is it sounds, 10% might be the best they will offer for now.

That's too bad about your tree, too! We actually had to have someone come look at our back yard because we have too much water when it rains heavily. We've gotten a lot of rain this winter. If it had been snow instead, we could have had a blizzard.

I had forgotten that you buy it in 25-lb lots but remember you telling me how you break it down into smaller quantities to freeze. That is a lot of almond flour at one time! Hopefully the drought will improve there. Are they predicting any end in sight for the drought? Hope you are doing well! :-)

unter der laterne said...

Ayla, I think that you are right about the almond flour. I buy the largest amount because it is the cheapest. I bag it in 2 lbs packages with the air removed.

CyberSis alerted us about the BPS-another thing to be uncertain about
I heard that BPA free was not all that worry free but I did not hear about BPS..

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC & Barbara,

Lately I've been ordering Honeyville almond flour online from Costco. They've had the best price I can find. I don't know how it would compare to the 25 lb bags, but it wouldn't hurt to check it out.

I've been concerned about the drought, too, especially as it effects the people living in that region. I've also been wondering how much longer our lovely almond flour will be available at all, at any price. These things tend to go in cycles, it seems ... sometimes very long cycles. One of these days things will begin to straighten out, but when that will be nobody knows, although I'm sure that there have been some educated guesses. GGC, don't you wish we could pack up all our excess rain and snow and send it off to CA?

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis & Barbara,

Barbara...I know, I didn't know about BPS either.

I have ordered the Honeyville online from Costco before too...I think it was in 3-lb bags? When I had ordered it, it was on sale at Costco and a good price.

Yes CyberSis...I would GLADLY send our rain to CA! You are probably right about the ongoing threat to almond flour and what the drought will ultimately do to prices. California is such a beautiful state.

Is the drought state-wide Barbara or only in certain regions of the state? Is it in Napa, Sonoma and wine country regions as well?

Well, now that I know that BOTH of you have the instapot, as soon as I get rid of some of my clutter, I will need to reserve a space for one of my own it seems! P.S. Our high temps here were in the low 80s a few days ago and today only highs in the mid-40s...and more rain. Nothing like temperature swings of 40 degrees, right? :-)