My Whole Foods Adventure

I don't shop at Whole Foods. I really dislike them. They are over priced for the most part. You can generally get everything you can find there elsewhere for less except for some of their very obscure veggies. Which come with a giant carbon foot print. Those funky exotic purple carrots that come from far, far away need to have their prices linked to that of a barrel of oil.

I have been trying to eat healthier, eat more organic, less meat, and buy local. We all eat too much processed food and too much red meat so I am trying to do better. One of the things I have started eating is quinoa. It is a grain that you can use instead of rice or bulger that contains protein. I had been buying it from Trader Joe's. But they have been out of stock. I asked and it is a harvest problem and won't be available for a while - did I hear September muttered?

Yesterday, under great duress, I went to Whole Foods to see if I could replenish my supply. I had been told that they sold it in bulk there. I had other errands that took me near by so I figured it was time to break down and go into a WF.

Now I used to work near a WF, where we used to joke how it was possible to get an $11 salad at their salad bar. I would go in occasionally (only when I had no other lunch choices) to get a salad or something. I was always underwhelmed by the salad bar - the fruit flies didn't help - but also the amount of mayonnaise based and high fat content items in the salad bar amazed me. If you took all the high fat, processed stuff out, its not much different than any other salad bar.

I am getting off track here. I went to WF and got a cart. First item, whole pineapple $2.99. Not a bad deal at all, marked down from $4.99. but not organic. Has a Dole label on it. No different from (and the same price as) the one I bought a local grocery store 2 weeks ago. But that one's long gone so I will get this one. Then tomatoes on the vine (from and I quote 'Gerogia') for $2.99/lb. I went with the plum tomatoes at $1.99/lb as I like them just fine. These prices were okay but none of this was organic. Then I went to look for quinoa in the poorly laid out store. I finally found it and filled up a bag (which ended up costing me $9.00 as it was just under $3/lb) because I just wanted to fill up my big container to have for a while so I don't need to go back.

Then the fun begins. I wanted to buy tahini sauce so I can make my own hummus. After asking twice and being misdirected to the wrong aisle, I find it next to the peanut butter. The regular tahini was either $5 something or $6 something a jar. Organic tahini (I am not sure you really need organic tahini) was $11 a jar. But after rereading the fat content, its not something I can eat these days. My hummus will be weird and not have tahini, just chickpeas, lemon, and garlic (gotta have garlic).

I checked out the seafood counter. Nice seafood. Slightly high priced. What I didn't understand was 21/25 shrimp, frozen, self serve, on sale for $9.99/lb with the same size shrimp, not frozen, behind the counter for $8.99/lb. I got some of those and will grill them tonight with some chili sauce to have with my quinoa tabbouleh.

I walked by the salad bar, lots of high fat things. I really liked the idea of deep fried tofu slices on a salad. I looked at the milk. The same milk I bought at TJ's earlier was $0.50 more for a half gallon at WF.

All in all, yes they had a nice range of groceries. but the store is laid out badly, poor nutrition evident in the salad bar, and prices too high for my tastes. I will only go back when my quinoa runs out.

Otherwise, it was a nice day but really, really hot. I was supposed to meet some friends but everyone else had conflicts so that didn't happen. I did run a bunch of errands, in addition to WF, and watched 'The Bucket List'. From the patient's point of view, I think they had a good grasp of what we go through. I also ended up going out for dinner with a friend.

Today I am off to another friend's and her 4 year old for a day of fun - unless it is too hot. I really over did it the other day as I am still tired. But maybe the being tired is partly due to Walter calling me when he gets back to his quarters - last night was 11:15 pm, the night before 10:15 pm, and the night before 10:40 pm. He has to wait until he is done to call me. Then it doesn't help either that when the sun starts to come up the cat comes up and walks all over me with his little delicate 15 lbs... Maybe I should just go to bed earlier....