Wren's bargain guide, week beginning July 23rd:

RECALL:  There's a voluntary recall on stone fruits grown in California, packed by Wawona Packing Company, including both organic and conventionally grown white and yellow peaches, white and yellow nectarines, black plums, and pluots.  Some of the fruits – which may be contaminated with a bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes, which causes the serious illness listeriosis – are known to have been shipped to Trader Joe's, Costco, Wal-Mart, and Sam's Club;  they have possibly also been shipped to several other stores, including (in our area) Fry's and Whole Foods.  More information including a complete list is available at my blog, http://wwwrentips.blogspot.com .  Listeriosis can be dangerous, but there have been no cases reported in connection with this fruit:  the recall is entirely precautionary.  I have continued to include stone-fruit listings in this handout and blog although I do not know whether the products listed are part of the recall.

At Fooducate, trivia about cashews, and why is ranch dressing so popular?  (It's easy to make your own!)  And a recent study suggests that exercise doesn't just relieve stress emotionally, but on a cellular level – it counters the physical damage caused by cognitive stress.  And it doesn't have to be much exercise:  as little as eleven minutes a day made a significant change!

Recipes!  Chow.com just can't leave Salade Niçoise alone this summer, but they've also got slow-cooker salsa, things to do with leftover BBQ brisket, and what they're honest to call “25 Recipes To Use Up Zucchini” (Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night isn't for another two weeks yet).  Smitten adds a summer-squash gratinee, and Sprouted a batch of summer-squash pasta (didn't someone recommend that here just a couple of weeks ago?).  Martha at Simple Nourished Living offers slow-cooker white beans and shrimp, new stuffed peppers with couscous in, leaner meatballs and sauce, and some blessed snark on a currently popular list of “52 Healthy Late Night Snacks”.  As she points out, “Bean-kale burgers with sweet potato wedges (17 ingredients, 1 hour 10 minutes cooking time”) or “Healthy General Tso's Chicken (14 ingredients, 45 minutes cooking time)” are not the sort of things that leap to mind when one thinks “late night snack”:  like most of us, she's functioning more on a “Triscuits and a wedge of Laughing Cow” level.  Simply Recipes has squash-blossom quesadillas which sound tasty.  And Snack Girl piles on zucchini-parmesan ovenfries, sugar-free homemade strawberry jam, PB2, grilled peaches, mushroom meatball parmigiana sandwiches, a sweet-potato smoothie, and the Top Seven Worst Weight Loss Tips.  (“5. Give up all added sugar. Yeah, that will work FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES … ”)

Next Tuesday is, for absolutely no reason I have ever been able to discover, Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day.  This may have something to do with sacrificing cheese in mousetraps.  It's also National Lasagna day, a better use for cheese.  And this fourth week in July is National Salad Week! 

July 23rd:  National Vanilla Ice-Cream Day, National Hot Dog Day
July 24th:  National Tequila Day
July 25th:  National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
July 26th:  National Coffee Milkshake Day
July 27th:  National Scotch Day, National Crème Brûlée Day
July 28th:  National Milk Chocolate Day
July 29th:  National Lasagna Day, Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day
July 30th:  National Cheesecake Day


Albertson's:

    Beef petite sirloin steaks, boneless, $10.99/lb, buy 1 get 2 free
    Beef ribeye/t-bone/New York steaks, bone in, $8.99/lb
    Beef top sirloin steaks OR tri tip roast, boneless, $5.99/lb
    85/15 ground beef, $3.49/lb
    Assorted pork chops OR country style ribs, bone in, family pack, $1.99/lb
    Center cut pork chops, boneless, family pack, $3.99/lb
    Sanderson Farms boneless chicken breast or thighs, $5.99/lb, buy 1 get 2 free
    Tilapia or cod fillets, 1 lb IQF bag, $9.99/lb, buy 1 get 2 free
    Rockfish or Dover sole fillets, wild caught, $5.99/lb
    Catfish fillets, farm raised, $5.99/lb
    WHOLE pink salmon, wild caught, $2.99/lb, good luck
    Albertson's milk, gallons, $1.88
    Albertson's eggs, AA large, 18 ct, $1.99
    Essential Everyday butter, 2/$5
    Albertson's cottage cheese, 24 oz tubs, 2/$5
    Deli:    Signature rotisserie turkey breast, $5.99/lb
        Dietz & Watson Santa Fe, Oven Classic, or Black Forest turkey breast, $8.99/lb
        Dietz & Watson sharp or baby-Swiss cheeses, $8.99/lb
        Healthy Ones oven-roasted or honey turkey, chicken breast, honey ham, $6.99/lb
    Libby's veg, 11-15 oz cans, 50¢
    Essential Everyday tomatoes, 14-15 oz cans, 50¢
    Ro*tel tomatoes, 10 oz cans, $1
    Essential Everyday chunk light tuna, 5 oz cans, 89¢
    Hunt's pasta sauces, 24 oz cans, $1
    Seedless (mini? it's hard to tell) watermelons, $1.99 ea
    Fresh mangos, 75¢ ea
    Prima nectarines or black plums, $1.99/lb
    Red cherries, $2.99/lb
    Red Delicious apples, 99¢/lb
    Vine tomatoes, $1.99/lb
    Eggplant, 99¢ ea
    Cut up watermelon/cantaloupe/pineapple, 24 oz bowls, $3.99 ea or 3/$10


Bashas':

    Beef crossrib/sirloin tip/bottom round roast or steaks, buy 1 get 1 free
    Beef top sirloin steaks, $6.99/lb
    Ground beef round, fat content not listed, value pack, $3.99/lb
    Assorted pork chops, bone in?, $1.88/lb
    Center cut pork chops, bone in?, value pack, $3.49/lb
    Sanderson Farms whole frying chickens, 88¢/lb (cut up, $1.49/lb)
    True cod fillets, $5.99/lb “weather permitting”
    Rockfish fillets, $3.99/lb “weather permitting”
    Food Club butter, $3.29
    Bashas' cottage cheese incl. Light, 16 oz tubs, $1.89
    Bashas' sour cream incl. Light, 16 oz tubs, $1.39
    Kraft cheeses, 7-8 oz chunk or shreds, 2/$5
    S&W tomatoes, 14 oz cans, 88¢
    Nabisco snack crackers (Triscuits, Wheat Thins), $2.99
    Bumble Bee chunk light tuna, 5 oz cans, 88¢
    Seedless grapes, green/red/black, 87¢/lb
    Chiquita bananas, 39¢/lb
    Bartlett pears, 87¢/lb
    Yellow peaches or nectarines, 87¢/lb
    Red or black plums, 87¢/lb
    Vine tomatoes, 2 lbs/$3
    Grape tomatoes, 12 oz boxes, 2/$4
    Zucchini, 99¢/lb
    Leaf lettuce, green/red/Romaine, 99¢ ea


Fry's:

    Beef chuck or crossrib roast, boneless, $2.49/lb
    Beef flat iron steak, boneless, $6.99/lb
    Beef t-bone steaks, bone in, $8.99/lb
    Pork sirloin roast, boneless, whole in bag $1.99/lb, single roasts 50¢/lb higher
    Pork sirloin chops, boneless, family pack, $2.99/lb
    Foster Farms chicken breast/thighs/drumsticks, bone in, 97¢/lb
    Sockeye salmon fillets, wild caught, $9.99/lb
    Fry's milk, half gallons only, 10/$10
    Kroger cheeses, 1 lb chunk or shreds, $2.99
    Simple Truth cage-free eggs, white or brown, AA large, dozens, 2/$5
    Chicken of the Sea solid white tuna, 5 oz cans OR 2.5 oz pouches, 10/$10
    Del Monte fruit, 14-15 oz cans, 10/$10
    Del Monte veggies, 11-15 oz cans, 10/$10
    Ro*tel tomatoes, 10 oz cans, 10/$10
    Healthy Choice frozen entrees, $1.88
    Yellow peaches OR nectarines, 99¢/lb
    Red cherries, $2.49/lb
    Red or black plums, $1.88/lb
    Whole pineapples, $1.99 ea
    Whole seedless watermelons, $3.99 ea
    Leaf lettuce, green/red/Romaine, OR spinach, OR iceberg, 99¢/bunch


Safeway:

    Beef London broil OR bottom round roast, boneless, $2.99/lb
    Open Nature beef London broil, $4.99/lb
    Beef chuck steak, boneless, $5.99/lb
    Beef t-bone steaks, $9.99/lb
    80/20 ground beef, $2.99/lb
    Assorted pork loin chops, bone in, $1.69/lb
    Safeway Farms chicken thighs or drumsticks, bone in, $1.49/lb
    Eating Right boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, $2.99/lb
    Honeysuckle White frozen turkey breast, bone in, 99¢/lb
    Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets, wild caught, $9.99/lb “weather permitting”
    Atlantic salmon fillets, farm raised, $9.99/lb
    Pacific rockfish fillets, wild caught, $7.99/lb
    Lucerne cheeses, 2 lb chunk or shreds, $8.49/lb
    Chicken of the Sea chunk light tuna, 5 oz cans, 75¢
    Libby's veggies, 14-15 oz cans, 79¢
    Mezzetta pasta sauces, 24-25 oz jars, buy 1 get 1 free
    Prego pasta sauces, 14-24 oz jars, $2.29/lb
    Whole cantaloupes, AZ grown, 79¢ ea
    Blueberries, 2 lb (!!!) box, $5.99
    Red cherries, $2.99/lb
    Bartlett pears, $1.49/lb
    Yellow peaches or nectarines, OR plums, $1.99/lb
    Seedless grapes, green/red/black, $2.99/lb
    Gala or Fuji apples, $1.99/lb
    Dulcinea mini seedless watermelons, $3.99/lb
    Vine tomatoes, 99¢/lb
    Sweet corn, 2/$1
    O Organics grape tomatoes, dry pint, $3.49


Sprouts:

    93/7 ground beef sirloin, $3.99/lb
    Beef carne asada, $3.99/lb
    Beef sirloin steaks, “New York cut”, $7.99/lb
    Assorted (“2 center and 2 end”) pork chops, bone in, $2.99
    Boneless skinless chicken breast, value pack, $2.99/lb
    Mahi mahi fillets, wild caught, $3.99/lb
    Coho salmon fillets, wild caught, $9.99/lb
    Red cherries, $1.98/lb
    Strawberries, 1 lb box, 3/$5
    Blackberries OR blueberries, 5-6 oz boxes, 3/$5
    Apple pears OR honey mangos, 3/$1
    White peaches OR white nectarines, 98¢/lb
    Braeburn or Granny Smith apples, 98¢/lb
    Navel oranges, 98¢/lb
    Organic Bartlett pears, 98¢/lb
    Green or red seedless grapes, $1.98/lb
    Apricots, 2 lbs/$3
    Whole seedless watermelons, $3.98 ea
    Vine tomatoes, 98¢/lb