Wren's bargain guide, week beginning October 9th:

Fooducate has an analysis of McDonalds' new “Mighty Wings”, and of the entire concept of chicken wing dishes:  “Those boney, meat-scarce and fatty appendages to the bird would have gone to waste had not someone thought of breading, deep-frying, and making it acceptable to eat with your hands in public.”  (I'm old enough to remember when raw chicken wings were sold in supermarkets for 29¢/lb.  Now they're so expensive it's cheaper for restaurants to cut up once-premium breast meat and sell it as “boneless wings”.)

With flu season approaching, Summer Tomato has tips for how to avoid colds and flu.  Stone Soup has six reasons not to count calories.  Grist and NBC provide information about the recent salmonella outbreak in Foster Farms chicken and how to deal with it while the CDC is on furlough (cook to 160°).

Recipes!  Chow.com have how to cook dinner in your coffeemaker.  (Chow.com are out of their flipping minds if they think I'm going to try and adapt these recipes for my electric kettle.)  Also slow-cooker chicken soup, twenty-one things to do with winter greens, a salad of greens and grapes with sharp cheese, and another – potentially polychromatic – involving beets.  Simply Recipes has a chicken peanut curry, and an endive salad with pears, walnuts, and gorgonzola.  Deb at Smitten Kitchen is preparing for a trip to England:  “Before one swan dives into a vat of thick cream and baked cheddar and passes out on a Yorkshire pudding pillow only to revive oneself with a deep inhale of horseradish-triple cream sauce, one must reset their system, so to speak. One must prepare. At the very least, one must dust off their gym ID” – and in this case, one must make a nice dish of sweet potatoes and broccoli with miso.  And from Snack Girl we have a way to make healthier meatballs without really altering the recipe, four-ingredient pumpkin gingerbread, and an analysis of the brown-rice-and-sweet-potato Triscuits – which turn out to have more fat, less fiber, and less protein than a standard Triscuit!

Today's Moldy Cheese Day.  This is a reference to bleu cheese or Roquefort.  I hope.  It's also National Submarine Day, National Hoagie Day, National Grinder Day, National Wedgy Day, or National Hero Day, depending on your own region's name for a sandwich made on a loaf of Italian bread.  Next Wednesday is National Chocolate Covered Insects Day, you can have mine no honest I mean it help yourself take a few more be my guest please.  And this second week of October is National Food Bank Week – if you didn't bring your donations tonight, you can always stop by later in the week.


October 9th:  Moldy Cheese Day, National Submarine/Hoagie/Hero/Grinder/Wedgy/long sandwich on a loaf Day
October 10th:  National Angel Food Cake Day
October 11th:  National Sausage Pizza Day, World Egg Day
October 12th:  National Gumbo Day;  Jean Nidetch, founder of Weight Watchers, born this date in 1923
October 13th:  National Yorkshire Pudding Day
October 14th:  National Dessert Day, National Chocolate Covered Insects Day
October 15th:  National Chicken Cacciatore Day, National Roast Pheasant Day
October 16th:  World Food Day, National Liqueur Day, National Oatmeal Day


Albertson's:

    Beef chuck, crossrib, eye/bottom round steak or roasts, boneless, $6.99/lb, buy 1 get 1 free
    Beef New York strip steak, bone in, family pack, $4.77/lb
    Beef t-bone steaks, family pack, $5.99/lb
    Beef petite sirloin steaks, boneless, $8.99/lb, buy 1 get 1 free
    85/15 ground beef, $2.79/lb
    93/7 ground beef, $2.99/lb
    Pork loin back ribs, $8.99/lb, buy 1 get 2 free
    Assorted pork chops, bone in, $1.99/lb
    Center cut pork loin chops, bone in, $2.99/lb
    Boneless skinless chicken breast, $2.49/lb
    Keta salmon, wild caught, $3.99/lb
    Alaskan cod fillets, wild caught, $7.99/lb
    Essential Everyday butter, 2/$5
    Essential Everyday cheeses, 8 oz chunk OR 6-8 oz shreds, 2/$4
    Essential Everyday cheeses, 2 lb chunk or shreds, $6.99
    Essential Everyday cheeses, 8 oz shingle pack, $2.99
    Deli:    Jennie-O “Blue Ribbon” turkey breast, $3.99/lb
        Dietz & Watson Black Forest/honey maple/“Gourmet Lite” ham, $7.99/lb
        Dietz & Watson Black Forest or “Homestyle” turkey, $7.99/lb
        Hard or Genoa salami OR pepperoni, $5.99/lb
        Muenster/Provolone/pepperjack/mild Cheddar cheeses, $5.99/lb
    Ragu pasta sauces, 16-24 oz jars, 2/$3 – buy 2, get a 1 lb DaVinci pasta free
    Essential Everyday olive oil, 17 oz bottles, $3.99
    Wild Harvest olive oil, 17 oz bottles, $4.99
    Del Monte fruit, 14-15 oz cans, $1.79
    V-8 or V-8 Fusion vegetable cocktail, 46 oz bottles, 2/$5
    Valley Fresh chicken, 10 oz cans, $2.99
    Chicken of the Sea solid white tuna OR pink salmon, 5 oz cans, 99¢
    Healthy Choice frozen entrées, $1.88
    Lean Cuisine frozen entrées, 4/$10
    Green Giant frozen veg, 9-10 oz boxes, 88¢
    Red seedless grapes, 75¢/lb
    Bartlett pears, 99¢/lb
    Gala apples, 99¢/lb
    Red/Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apples, $1.29/lb
    Slicing tomatoes, $1.69/lb
    Earthbound Farms organic box salads, 1 lb, $4.99
    Acorn squash, 79¢/lb
    Cauliflower, $1/lb
    Red bell peppers, $1 ea
    Iceberg, 99¢ ea
    Mini carrots, 1 lb bag, 99¢


Bashas':

    Bison London broil, top round steak or roast, boneless chuck steak or roast, $7.99/lb
    Bison top sirloin, boneless, $8.99/lb
    Bison 90/10 ground, $6.99/lb
    Beef top sirloin steaks, $5.77/lb.
    Pork picnic roast, bone in?, 99¢/lb
    Chicken breasts or leg quarters, bone in, 97¢/lb
    King salmon fillets, wild caught, $8.99/lb
    Swai fillets, farm raised, $2.99/lb
    Food Club cheeses, 1 lb chunk or shreds OR 10-12 oz string, $3.99
    Bumble Bee chunk white tuna, 99¢
    Newman's Own pasta sauces, 24 oz jars, 2/$4
    Pompeian olive oil, 16 oz bottles, $4.99
    Red seedless grapes, 77¢/lb
    Green or black seedless grapes, $2.49/lb
    Gala apples, 99¢/lb
    Navel oranges, $1.49/lb
    Asparagus, $1.77/lb
    “Tasti-Lee” tomatoes, 1 lb box, $1.99
    Winter squashes, acorn/butternut/spaghetti, 99¢/lb
    Green bell peppers, 2/$1 (red or gold, 10/$10)


Fry's:

    Beef NY strip steak, bone in, 50% off
    Beef chuck roast or steak, boneless, $4.49/lb
    93/7 ground beef, $2.99/lb
    Assorted pork loin chops, bone in, $2.79/lb
    “Pork shoulder butt or picnic roast” {sic}, bone in, whole in bag, $1.49/lb
    Boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, $1.79/lb
    Kroger 99/1 ground turkey breast, 1 lb pkg, $4.99
    Keta salmon fillets, wild caught, $3.99/lb
    Catfish fillets, farm raised, $6.99/lb
    Kroger cheeses, 12-16 oz chunk or shreds, $2.99
    Kroger pasta sauces, 24 oz jars, 4/$5
    Pirate's Booty, 4-6 oz bags, 2/$3
    Smart Ones frozen entrées, 5/$10
    Honeycrisp apples, $1.99/lb
    Whole pineapples, 2/$5
    Seedless grapes, green/red/black, $1.88/lb
    Yellow peaches, red or black plums, $1.69/lb
    Broccoli OR cauliflower, 99¢/lb
    Red or yellow bell peppers, 88¢ ea
    “Mini peeled” carrots, 1 lb bag, 88¢
    Leaf lettuce, green/red/Romaine, OR iceberg, 99¢ ea


Safeway:

    Beef chuck crossrib roast, boneless, $2.99/lb
    Beef bottom round roast, boneless, $2.99/lb
    Beef 7-bone pot roast, $2.79/lb
    Beef top round London broil, boneless, $3.99/lb
    80/20 ground beef, value pack, $2.79/lb
    93/7 ground beef, value pack, $2.99/lb
    Pork loin back ribs, $2.99/lb
    Coho salmon fillets, farm raised, value pack, $5.99/lb
    Tilapia fillets, farm raised, $6.99/lb
    Lucerne sour cream, 16 oz tubs, 3/$5
    Lucerne cheeses, 12-16 oz chunk or shreds, $3.99
    Classico pasta sauces, 15-24 oz jars, buy 1 get 1 free
    Bertolli olive oil, 25 oz bottles, buy 1 get 1 free
    Mezzetta pasta sauces, 24-25 oz jars, buy 1 get 1 free
    Progresso Light soups (with the WW logo), buy 1 get 1 free
    S&W variety (non-baked) beans, 15 oz cans, 5/$5
    Healthy Choice “Bakes” frozen entrées, 5/$10
    Safeway Kitchens frozen veg, 24-32 oz bags, $2.49
    Gorton's “Grilled Fillets”, $3.49
    Seedless grapes, green/red/black, $2.99/lb
    Honeycrisp apples, $2.99/lb
    Fuji or Gala apples, $1.49/lb
    Navel oranges, $1.49/lb
    Black plums, $1.49/lb
    Yellow peaches, $1.99/lb
    Bartlett pears, 99¢/lb
    Vine tomatoes, $1.99/lb
    Cucumbers, 99¢ ea
    Fresh Express OR Safeway Farms bag salads, 2/$5


Sprouts:

    Beef New York steak, boneless, $9.99/lb
    Beef chuck roast OR London broil, boneless, $4.99/lb
    Center cut pork loin roast or chops, boneless, $2.99/lb
    Boneless skinless chicken breast, $1.99/lb
    Ground turkey breast, $3.99/lb
    Pacific salmon fillets, wild caught, $4.99/lb
    Tilapia fillets, farm raised, $5.99/lb
    Honeycrisp apples, 98¢/lb
    Green seedless grapes, 78¢/lb
    Gala or Jonagold apples, 98¢/lb
    D'Anjou pears, 98¢/lb
    Red or black seedless grapes, $1.88/lb
    Organic Red/Golden Delicious or Gala apples, $1.49/lb
    Vine tomatoes, $1.88/lb
    Grape tomatoes, dry pint, 2/$4
    Organic butternut squash, 89¢/lb
    Leaf lettuce, green/red/Romaine, 88¢
    Cauliflower, 88¢/lb
    Celery, 88¢ ea
    Summer squashes, Italian/yellow/grey, 98¢/lb