This Mama Cooks! Reviews

Saving money at Safeway with new club pricing

Safeway has always had ways for you to save money from their club card to their weekly specials. Heck, in last weekend’s flier, there were coupons for their “free breakfast on us” special. All you had to do is spend $50 (not hard if you’re doing your regular shopping there) and use the coupons to get a free loaf of bread, a free dozen eggs, a free package of bacon and a free carton of orange juice. (All freebies were Safeway branded items.) That’s a pretty good deal.

If you’ve visited your local Safeway , you may have noticed the big yellow banners, the employees wearing yellow shirts and the thousands of yellow tags hanging off the shelves. (I’ve noticed this both at my local Safeway and at Vons while we were in San Diego.) It’s to draw attention to the new low prices on thousands of items at their stores for club card members.

The new yellow tags stand out on the shelves making it very easy to compare prices. (The yellow tags also have unit pricing.) And it’s not just a few pennies off from what the price used to be. Instead, according to my receipt, it’s anywhere from 22 cents for organic bananas to $1 for a 3 pound bag of Gala apples to 99 cents off the Celestial Seasonings tea I bought. My last shopping at Safeway totaled $27.73 for 11 items and I saved $4.69, almost 15%. With the coupons I used, I saved 28%.

You can learn more about the new club prices on the Safeway website. If you don’t get a local newspaper, you can still view their weekly specials online or get online coupons. If you have a cellphone, you can register for their Cellfire service, and you may want to check out the Safeway Fanbook Fan Page. Finally, check out my post, Hanging out at Safeway's Leftovers Lounge for other ways to use the Safeway website.

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Disclosure: Safeway sent me a grocery gift card to compensate me for my time and shopping experience.

Rosarita salsa comes to Denver, Colorado

Since the 1940’s, Rosarita has offered authentic Mexican-style refried beans and become the number one selling brand in the United States. I’ve been a big fan of their no fat refried pinto and black beans for years since both are high in fiber, low in Weight Watchers POINTS and delicious. Needless to say, Rosarita products are a staple at my house.

Rosarita has now added a salsa line of three authentic flavors Mild Salsa Mexicana, Medium Salsa Verde and Hot Salsa Taquera. The new salsas are only be available in four cities — LA, Dallas, Phoenix, and Denver — at select Walmart and grocery stores. (Use ConAgra’s product locator to find a store near you.) In my area, they’re available at Albertson’s, which is a shame because Albertson’s is starting to close most of their Colorado stores. I know Rosarita products are sold at Safeway, so I’m crossing my finger that the salsas will be available soon in their stores.

I’m not much of a hot salsa kind of gal, so I would normally choose their Mild Salsa Mexicana. But I do like a good salsa verde, so that’s what I chose when making some pork soft tacos for lunch today. (Pork and salsa verde are a great combination.)

I took some leftover Christmas pork loin roast, diced it up and heated it up in a pan with some salsa verde while I warmed up a few corn tortillas. After placing the pork in the tortillas, I added cherry tomatoes, cilantro, avocado slices and a bit more Rosarita Salsa Verde – yum! You could do something similar with leftover turkey, chicken, beef or even scrambled eggs or stir fried tofu.

The nice thing about Rosarita salsas are that they jazz up a plain meal and are very low in calories. If you’re doing Weight Watchers, salsa has ZERO POINTS. And they’re perfect with chips for your Super Bowl party, too! 

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Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Rosarita and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Hanging out at Safeway's Leftovers Lounge

I will always be thankful to Safeway for being the first major supermarket chain to build a store in my town. Before they did, I had to drive 25 minutes into the next town to go grocery shopping. Since I had a infant at time, you can imagine what a big production – and headache – that was.

Now Safeway is an easy 5 minute drive away and I still love shopping there for the good prices, their very reasonably priced green and organic store brands, and the friendly cashiers. However one thing I have not done, is use their website to do everything from checking out Safeway’s weekly sales, finding new recipes, or getting some healthy living inspiration.

This holiday season, Safeway.com featured a holiday section, which included recipes, festive projects, decorating tips and even a game of Build your Own Gingerbread Man which you could feature on Facebook. However, one section I found will be particularly helpful in the days ahead is the Leftovers Lounge since I have about four pounds of leftover pork from Christmas dinner. The leftover lounge features some pork, beef and chicken recipes but leans heavily towards turkey – perfect for after Christmas too or to give you some ideas for Super Bowl Sunday.

Cooking and shopping made easy

Here are two recipes I’m thinking of trying. Not only can you print out recipes from the Safeway website, you can add them to an online shopping list and print it out before you head off to your neighborhood store. It’s what I’ll be doing before I go to the store tomorrow. (Now if only my local Safeway offered delivery service…well, maybe Santa can bring that for me next year.)

Asian Pork and Rice Stir-Fry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Safeway Long Grain Rice
• 4 tablespoons Safeway Canola Oil
• 3 Safeway SELECT® Large AA Eggs, beaten
• ½ head green cabbage, cored and shredded
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 tablespoons Safeway SELECT® Spicy Ginger Dip and Grill Sauce
• 2 cups cooked pork loin, cut into ½-inch cubes
• 1 cup Safeway SELECT® Petite Peas, thawed and drained
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to package directions. While rice cooks, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small skillet and scramble the eggs until firm; set aside.
2. In a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat, add the remaining oil then add cabbage and carrots; cover and cook until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes (stir occasionally during cooking).
3. Add the cooked rice, stirring to break up any clumps. Stir in the cooked pork and the ginger grill sauce, cover, and cook 3 minutes.
4. Add peas and egg and stir, breaking egg into smaller pieces, then add green onions and soy sauce and cook briefly until heated through.

Easy Pork Tamale Pie

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups pork, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
• 1½ cups Safeway Steams In The Bag Frozen Corn, thawed and drained
• 2 cups Safeway SELECT® Three-Bean Salsa
• 2 teaspoons Safeway Ground Cumin
• 1 teaspoons dried chipotle chili
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 6 oz package corn muffin or bread mix (plus ingredients for making muffins)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Spray a large skillet with nonstick cooking spray, and place over medium heat. Add pork, cumin, chili, and salt and cook until spices become fragrant (about 4 minutes). Add salsa and corn; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until flavors blend (about 5 minutes more).
2. While pork mixture simmers, mix corn muffin mix according to package directions. Coat a 1½ -quart heatproof casserole with nonstick cooking spray; add pork mixture, then roughly spread muffin batter on top (it’s okay if it doesn’t cover completely). Place casserole in preheated oven, and bake until muffin topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

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Disclosure: Safeway sent me a grocery gift card to compensate me for my time and shopping experience.

Airwear lenses review: go lighter, safer and greener

It’s that time of year when I get my annual eye exam. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was 13, and am near sighted, which means I can’t see far away. So, while I don’t necessarily need glasses to work at the computer or read, my glasses are a must for me to wear while I do most things from driving to watching TV. That’s why my glasses, more than anything I wear, have become second nature to me. It’s also why they need to be light so I don’t notice I’m wearing them, which is why I was interested in trying out Airwear^® lenses.

Not only are Airwear lenses 43% lighter and 10 times more impact resistant than standard plastic lenses, they offer complete UV protection and are virtually unbreakable.

I recently had my the lenses replaced in a pair of old glasses with my new prescription using Airwear lenses, and I’m very happy with the results. The new lenses do feel light and don’t weigh down on my ears or nose and give me a headache. Plus, if you’re like me and occasionally send your glasses flying after knocking them off with a grand gesture or two, it’s an added benefit to know that they’re unbreakable and scratch resistant. (Wish I could say the same for the frames!)

Also, since I’m bad about wearing sun glasses and have light colored eyes, I’m glad to know that Airwear lenses have UV protection, something my doctor stressed having.

Airwear lenses are available in Varilux designs, and in Transitions lens technology, which allows lenses to stay indoors, but darken in the presence of UV light. The tint level of Transition lenses adjusts quickly as light conditions change to provide convenient protection from glare and 100% blockage of harmful UV rays. (I have Transition lenses in my old pair of glasses and love them. I hope to get the same in my next pair.)  Airwear lenses are also used in other vision brands such as Crizal, Xperio, and DEFINITY.

Mead Johnson, Maker of Enfamil, Loses Multi-Million Dollar False Advertising Case Against Store-Brand

This is a sponsored guest post written by a Press Release on behalf of PBM Products. Post powered by Sponzai.

GORDONSVILLE, VA., December  2 , 2009—PBM Products, LLC, a leading infant formula company that supplies store-brand infant formulas to Walmart, Sam's Club, Target, Kroger, Walgreens, and other retailers, has received a favorable jury verdict and a $13.5 million damages award in its false advertising lawsuit against Mead Johnson & Co., the operating subsidiary of   Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) (“Mead Johnson”), the makers of the national-brand Enfamil® LIPIL® Infant Formula.  Mead Johnson is 83 percent-owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb.

 

PBM’s lawsuit claimed that Mead Johnson engaged in false and misleading campaigns against PBM’s competing store-brand of infant formulas, suggesting they do not provide the same nutrition as Mead Johnson’s brands.  PBM’s store-brand infant formulas cost up to 50 percent less than Enfamil® LIPIL®.  The $13.5 million in damages awarded by the jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of the largest damages awards ever for a false advertising case.