Food Find Thursday

“Who’s ready for a Flash SALE?!  Our Salad Bars and Hot Bars will be $5.99 per pound. Stock up on lunch and dinner… we know we will!”

I can’t believe I missed this event.

“Get out your cubicle, Long Island, and head to our Salad and Hot Bars! Lunch at $5.99/lb, ’til 2pm TODAY only!”

As if I needed the constant reminder whenever I checked out facebook yesterday that I was missing the Flash Sale.

I love a good sale. We know this. And a sale at the Whole Foods Food Bar would have been like a kid in a candy store experience for me.

Oh well, at least I can say I have my very own Whole Foods Food Bar bowl. Not many people can say that.

Why couldn’t I make the sale?

Well, I had plans to run a few easy miles (remember it is a taper week).

No, I did not suddenly decide to open up my alone time and share it with others. That’s my shadow.

Although sometimes when I am running I see the shadow and think there is someone near me that I need to start racing.

I also had a very important lunch date with my favorite little girlfriend.

Is she not the cutest? I watch my best friend’s baby girl on occasion so that she can run errands, go shopping and basically breathe by herself for a few hours (she has 3 kids – her son and my son are 10 days apart and she has another adorable daughter who will be 7).

Yes, of course I bought her that bib.

Baby food has come a long way in the last few years.

I bet there are parents that like to eat these Gerber Organic blends- they seem to mimic the Green Monster smoothie craze.

Anyway, I am hopeful that Whole Foods will have another food bar sale during my little foodcation– not that I know exactly when it will be.

I guess like planning a real trip, this foodcation needs some time to determine the logistics.

While I am figuring out my time away from the kitchen trip, I spotted some new, fun Dr. Praeger’s goodies that are easy enough to heat and prepare.

I normally have a box of Dr. Praeger’s veggie burgers in my freezer. I mixed things up a bit by getting the veggie pockets. It is simply the burger (a little smaller maybe) inside of a pita bread.

I heated one up for my son yesterday as a quick little meal/snack.

He loved it and referred to it as a “fun pocket”.

Unfortunately, his quick terminology made him think of Hot Pockets which turned into an interrogation as to why I can’t stock our freezer with them.

I may need to show the boy the above image from the Huffington Post regarding the 87 ingredients inside one Hot Pocket.

Nothing I ever buy, cook or bake will ever be good enough – or will it?

The other day we had an interesting little situation occur in my kitchen.

“Thanks mom, this looks delicious.”

Yes, those were his words.  I stopped short, felt his head and decided he must have still been feeling under the weather.

He never speaks so Leave it to Beaverish to me – especially regarding food.

I had taken it upon myself to make him chicken salad for a change. I was inspired to create it with the grapes and cranberries similar to the chicken salad available at Panera Bread as well as other restaurants where they charge you up the kazoo.

I doctored his sandwich up with his must- have toppings of hamburger dill pickles, a few pieces of lettuce and the hot & sweet mustard from Trader Joe’s.

I obviously can’t tell you from my own experience how it tasted but it certainly looked good and HE LOVED IT.

QUICK AND EASY HEALTHIFIED CHICKEN SALAD (serves two):

• Chicken ( I use the Trader Joe’s  individually frozen tenders. So easy to take out last minute and cook!)
• 1/4 cup Greek nonfat yogurt (please don’t tell him there was greek yogurt in this recipe)
• Tiny drop of light mayo (I bet you can leave this out)
• Grapes (cut in half)
• Cranberries
• Celery (chopped)
• Pepper/other seasonings

Directions: If using Trader Joe’s individually frozen chicken tenders, all you need to do is take a couple out and microwave for a few minutes. If using other chicken, cook it as you wish (boil or bake).

Once cooked, chop chicken up in a bowl and mix with yogurt and mayo. Add celery, grapes, cranberries and pepper. You can add additional seasonings but I stuck with just the pepper.

You can add as many grapes and cranberries as you wish and this recipe is easy to double, triple, quadruple.

You can even chop up apples and walnuts and add to the mix- remember, get creative!

Speaking of apples, Fairway sells a version of  my chicken salad and I am glad to say I no longer need to consider purchasing it from them for like $7.99/lb

Can you tell I am still annoyed with Fairway?

I may start a complete boycott soon if they don’t put my granny smith apples back into the circular sale rotation.

I need to know:

Do you make your own chicken salad?

Do you buy Dr. Praeger’s products?

Does the Whole Foods near you ever run a flash food bar sale? I don’t recall ever seeing one before!