Saturday, August 16, 2014

This Weekend's Finds at Costco & Sprouts Farmers Market

We awoke to a beautiful cool morning here. Of course, it's warmed up quite a bit and is close to 90 degrees now. We got up early and took a little walk and then began our outings for the day. We began with breakfast at Einstein Bros Bagels for breakfast. I took one of my thick grain-free sandwich buns (sliced in half) and slipped it into my purse. When I get there I buy their cream cheese to spread on it like a bagel and a cup of their hazelnut vanilla coffee. Last night I went to Sprouts and picked up a few things. After breakfast this morning, we went to Costco. I snapped a few photos of some of my finds at Sprouts and Costco below. Enjoy!

Here are a few of my Sprouts finds from yesterday:

Assorted baby heirloom tomatoes



$2.29 each
Dinner tonight...maybe?
My regular grocery store sells these for $13.99 EACH (yikes)...picked these up for $6.99 each (I have an idea for using these)
Marinated mozzarella w/ olive oil, garlic, red pepper, and parsley (they also sell these in humongous beautiful braided hunks)
Had to pick these up...Cheddar Cheese Curds...Cajun style!
This chocolate bar is sweetened with stevia and REALLY good...but pricey at $4.79

Here are a few of my Costco finds today:

Each bag of baby eggplants had one of the little stripey varieties inside...so pretty!

This is the first time I've seen their brand of macadamia nuts...so thought I'd try them. Wish they'd bring the Mauna Loa back though!

P.S. -- Does anyone know what kind of flowers these are?
Found them at Costco...they are beautiful but weird!



This morning's breakfast! Finally bought a "refill cup" since I plan on going back frequently now with my own grain-free buns!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I believe they could be a type of protea that were know for being grown on Maui and possbily the Island of Hawaii (Big Island).

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi there,

I just looked up "protea flowers of Hawaii"...how beautiful. I had never seen them before. You are right, it sort of looks like it could be a variety of those? For anyone else reading this that might want to see...here's the link about them. Thank you! :-) http://www.proteasofhawaii.com/shopcontent.asp?type=flowerfacts

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

Love all of your wonderful "finds"! I can see now, that we sure could use a Sprouts around here! We do have a wonderful farm market close by, though. I bought some lovely zucchini, eggplant, and green beans today. They actually had ripe tomatoes ... my hubby's plants are full of big green ones that seem to have gotten "stuck." For the most part, it's been too cool so far for them to ripen. The tomatoes might not like the weather, but I *love* it. For once it's not hotter than blazes! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis,

Lucky YOU with the cool weather! We had some cool mornings last week (61 degrees) that warmed up briskly to 90. They say our summer temps are returning this week and I see 90+ on the week's forecast over and over again. Yuck! I'd take farmers market tomatoes and cool weather any day! :-)

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

Today our Costco had *Avocado Oil!" We'd heard that another Costco much farther away from us was carrying it but this was the first time *ever* for the one we shop at. I hope it will be a regular item now. It was $9.99 for a liter bottle ... pretty good price, we thought.

On another note, did you see the report yesterday that there is a "potential" salmonella problem with some Maranatha almond & peanut butter? It's also sold under a few different brand names but the label will have "The Hain Celestial Group" on the back. Here's a link to the Maranatha site that has the full details. Scroll down a bit for a complete list of products effected. I have an unopened jar but the "use by" date is prior to the "best by" date range given on the web site, so I guess it should be OK ... makes you feel a little creepy, though. Anyway, the "use by" date on mine is Aug. 21, 2014 ... I'd better get cracking on it, eh?

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis...

Good news about the avocado oil! I will look for it in my area. I ended up buying a 16.8-oz bottle of avocado oil from our Sprouts.

OMG...thanks SO much for telling me about the Maranatha almond butter. I had actually heard something about it on the news but never heard which brands and I have been meaning to check. As soon as I read your comment...I went to my pantry...GUESS WHAT???

I actually have 2 bottles (Maranatha) of the recalled almond butter (both unopened). I have the 26-oz jar from Costco and a 12-ounce jar of the "no stir" from Sprouts. Thanks SO much for posting that. When you said Maranatha...my heart sunk.

I wonder if it is in any other brands not mentioned? I have a couple jars of Kolat w/ fruits, etc. I will have to check. And yes, you are right...creepy is the word. A lot of folks got sick from a peanut plant here in Georgia not too long ago. Thank you!!!! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis...

Good news about the avocado oil! I will look for it in my area. I ended up buying a 16.8-oz bottle of avocado oil from our Sprouts.

OMG...thanks SO much for telling me about the Maranatha almond butter. I had actually heard something about it on the news but never heard which brands and I have been meaning to check. As soon as I read your comment...I went to my pantry...GUESS WHAT???

I actually have 2 bottles (Maranatha) of the recalled almond butter (both unopened). I have the 26-oz jar from Costco and a 12-ounce jar of the "no stir" from Sprouts. Thanks SO much for posting that. When you said Maranatha...my heart sunk.

I wonder if it is in any other brands not mentioned? I have a couple jars of Kolat w/ fruits, etc. I will have to check. And yes, you are right...creepy is the word. A lot of folks got sick from a peanut plant here in Georgia not too long ago. Thank you!!!! :-)

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

There were other brands mentioned but they were all produced at the same place with different "brand names" on the labels, it sounded like. The main thing is that no matter what "brand" is on the label, it will say "The Hain Celestial Group" on the back.

I'm glad you caught your jars before you used any! Doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, does it?