There’s nothing like the holiday season for putting your home kitchen skills to the test. Whether it’s a house full of hungry out-of-town guests, family and friends dining at your place for a special meal or a crazy busy schedule of holiday events that leaves you little time to cook weeknight meals, beef roasts may be just what saves your sanity this season. From a show-stopping prime rib to a fabulous one-dish pot roast meal, here’s the scoop on how to get the most from a roast.

Our Best Tips

• Oven roasting produces a well-browned, flavorful exterior and moist interior.
• Slow cooking by roasting or braising (cooking in a covered vessel with some liquid) turns tougher cuts (like the shoulder or rump) and less common or value-priced beef cuts (like chuck roasts and round roasts) into something truly feast-worthy.
• Tender cuts with little connective tissue like rib roasts and tenderloin respond well to roasting or dry-heat cooking. You can do this by roasting meat uncovered in the oven.
• A general rule is to roast for about 20 minutes per pound at 350°F for medium.

Read the rest of this entry »

With Thanksgiving still a few weeks away, there’s plenty of time to get a jump on holiday meal planning. While taking the time to plan may seem like an effort you can’t afford, it really does pay off — whether you are cooking up an elaborate meal or looking to make things as simple as possible (takeout, anyone?).

Regardless of your plans for Thanksgiving, here are a few ways to simplify for a stress-free holiday while still making sure you’ve got a menu full of flavorful dishes to delight your guests.

Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing can disappoint a host(ess) like finding out one of their guests can’t eat the fabulous food they’ve prepared. Entertaining during the holidays seems especially fraught with challenges. No one relishes the thought of Aunt Sally munching on celery sticks while everyone else digs into the classics that she can’t enjoy. From vegetarian or lactose intolerant to gluten sensitivities or nut allergies, people have a variety of needs when it comes to food — some that are personal choices and others that are medically necessary. Whatever the reason, you’ll want to make sure all of your guests are well-fed and satisfied. I’ve got some special tips to help make this easy and delicious! Read the rest of this entry »

Oh my gosh, there’s nothing like a good squash! In Texas, winter squash shows up in the produce department long before I’m willing to turn on my oven. I keep an eye on the weather forecast, waiting for the first strong cold front to blow through. Once the temperature finally drops, I make up for lost time by loading up my fall menus with winter squash.

While winter squash used to be kind of intimidating, I’ve learned that cooking them is actually quite simple and forgiving. Here’s a rundown on the types of winter squash and some cooking ideas.

Read the rest of this entry »

At Oktoberfest in Munich, they generally serve more than ten million pints of beer and close to a million sausages. Of course, they have a reputation to uphold as the birthplace of Oktoberfest back in 1810 celebrating the wedding of Crown Prince Luitpold I and Princess Theressa of Bavaria. It strikes me a little odd that we are still celebrating that union today. But, of course, it may be that we are really celebrating the perfect union of wurst (sausage) and brew (beer) instead!

We have you covered with all of your Oktoberfest needs. Start off with Beck’s Oktoberfest, a Maerzen-style Lager characterized by a rich amber color and aromas of caramel, coffee and chocolate. It is full-bodied and slightly sweet, with notes of caramel and roasted malts.

Then add the wurst. From Bratwurst to Weisswurst, Knackwurst to Wieners, the Original Brat Hans is a line of truly authentic German sausages. Created by lifetime sausage maker—butcher Hans from Germany—they are made in small batches to assure the highest quality and consistency.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oh yeah, our team members know how to shop our store! While we weren’t eligible for the Living Social deal that burned up the internet Tuesday, a few of us got a sweet offer of our own. (In case you weren’t aware, it took only ten hours for a million lucky people to get in on a Living Social deal selling a $20 Whole Foods Market gift card for only $10. Wow! The deal sold out, so you can’t get it now, sorry!)

So, with all the online chatter about what you can get for $20 at Whole Foods Market (yes, we laughed at the jokes too), we decided to put it to the test. We sent real live team members from our headquarter offices to our store with $20 bucks to spend. Armed with The Whole Deal value guide, our online coupons, and a sharp eye for specials and our 365 Everyday Value® lines, these team members wowed us with their creativity and general awesome ability to shop.

I bet these whet your appetite as well as your desire to find your own great deals!

Elizabeth shopped for a “Taste of Thailand” meal for $19.13:

• Annie Chun’s Brown Rice Pad Thai Noodles, 8oz. box
• 365 Everyday Value® Organic Peanuts, Roasted & Salted, 12 oz. bag
• 365 Everyday Value® Organic Tofu, Extra Firm, 14 oz. package
• 365 Everyday Value® Organic Coconut Milk, 13.5 oz. can
• Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste, 4 oz. jar
• Fresh organic cilantro, 1 bunch
• 1 organic Italian eggplant
• 1 lime
• 2 serrano peppers
• 1 white onion

Vadan shopped for his pregnant wife’s smoothie ingredients and cravings for $19.45:  

• Organic Yobaby Blueberry Yogurt, 4-4oz containers
• 1 bunch organic kale
• 6-oz package of blueberries
• 2 organic carrots
• 3 EARTH University bananas (Whole Trade™)
• 2 red lunchbox apples
• 365 Everyday Value® Large Olives, 6-oz can
• 365 Everyday Value® Organic Baby Dill Pickles, 16-oz jar
• Nature’s Path Organic Flax Plus Frozen Waffles, 1 box
• Blue Diamond Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze, half gallon

Natanya put together fixings for a spicy tailgate party for $20.50:

• Frontier Blue Corn Chips, 10-oz bag
• 365 Everyday Value® Salsa, Tequila Lime, 16-oz jar
• 8-count buttermilk slider buns
• 1 head organic green leaf lettuce
• 1 medium red onion
• 4 small locally grown tomatoes
• 1.5 oz goat cheese
• ½ lb lean ground pork
• ½ lb pork chorizo

Michael shopped to make his veggie tacos with homemade salsa and guacamole dip for $19.40:

• 2 portobello mushrooms
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 organic zucchini
• 1 organic yellow onion
• 1 poblano pepper
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1 organic hass avocado
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 limes
• 1 bunch of fresh organic cilantro
• 365 Everyday Value® Whole Peeled Tomatoes, 28-oz can
• 365 Everyday Value ® Organic Flour Tortillas, 6-count
• Organic Oikos Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt, 5.3 oz

Kate grabbed natural and organic lunch box and snack favorites for her son for $20.20:

• 1 bag of organic red seedless grapes
• 1 bag of cut & peeled ready-to eat organic carrots
• 3 lunchbox apples
• 1 bunch of EARTH University Whole Trade™ bananas
• 1 bulk container of organic honey roasted peanut butter
• 1  jar of 365 Everyday Value® Raspberry Fruit Spread
• 1 loaf of fresh-baked sandwich bread
• 1 box of six organic Clif Kid Z Bars
• 1 package of six Organic Valley Colby Jack Cheese Stringles
• ½ lb organic Thompson seedless raisins

Rebecca bought all these “runner’s remedy” items for $20.25:

• 1 4-pack of Organic Valley Organic Chocolate Milk
• 2 8-oz bottles of Zico Coconut Water
• 1 2.75g pack of Tasty Orange fruit snacks, sport
• 4 Cliff Builder bars
• 2 1.3-oz Honey Stinger honey packs
• 1 2.1-oz Think Thin bar

We’ve got lots of ideas! We put together $20 bags for healthy snacking, Saturday cleaning, pantry stocking, ultimate breakfast, grilling, wine tasting night, Italian dinner, movie night, and tons more.

Let us know if you want to see some of the other shopping bags we put together for $20 bucks. What would you put in your bag?

Today’s the big day! All of our U.S. stores are helping shoppers celebrate Labor Day by offering ground grass-fed beef at a sale price of just $4.99 per pound. Get here early because the sale is today, Friday, September 2nd only, while supplies last — with a 10 pound limit. 

This is the perfect way to try out grass-fed beef if you haven’t yet; and if you have, a perfect opportunity to stock up!

Here are some of my favorite recipes that I think are perfect ways to shine the spotlight on flavorful grass-fed beef:

Or you can use grass-fed in any of these 28 ground beef recipes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Seems like kids are just as picky about eating as they were a couple of years ago when we first ran this blog. Enjoy this encore presentation!

We all know kids are picky eaters, right? Let’s teach them a new way to be picky. Pick whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies along with healthy proteins. Impossible? Not if you give them choices and very tasty food.

A good place to start is by talking to your kids. Anytime is good but natural launching pad activities are when you are grocery shopping or cooking dinner. Get their brains thinking about what food does for us – how it helps us grow, keeps us healthy, gives us energy for sports, helps our brains learn and keeps us feeling good. Those topics easily transition into why it’s important to eat healthy foods and not stuff that gunks up our bodies. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez, co-founders of Back to the Roots, a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm, for sharing their story. Read on to learn how this Whole Foods Market Local Producer Loan Recipient has launched a Facebook campaign to share the gift of growing with kids across the country.

During our last semester at UC Berkeley we heard an interesting fact in a class: gourmet mushrooms could potentially be grown on 100% recycled coffee grounds. Excited about the waste-to-food model, we started experimenting in a fraternity kitchen, eventually planting ten test buckets of coffee grounds mixed with mushroom spawn (seed). Out of the ten, only one grew — but we saw a huge potential in that one bucket!

Not knowing what a good mushroom tasted like vs. a bad one, we walked that paint bucket of mushrooms down to the best restaurant in town — Chez Panisse — whose founder, Alice Waters, happened to be there. Cal, one of the head chefs, tried some of the mushrooms on the spot. We still remember him sautéing the mushrooms and shouting, “Whoa, these are delicious!” That same day, even more excited, we walked that bucket over to our local Whole Foods Market store in Berkeley and talked to the first guy we saw in the produce department, someone packing the vegetables. Before we knew it, we were being passed around the whole store telling a lot of the team members about the sustainable mushrooms we were trying to grow! A few weeks later, we received an email from Randy Ducummon, the regional produce coordinator for Whole Foods Market’s Northern California Region, and he was really supportive about the possibility of a local, sustainable, urban mushroom farm. “If you figure this out, we’ll launch them in stores.”  We’ll never forget those words!

Read the rest of this entry »

That’s right! Today only, June 17^th you can get a pint of organic blueberry goodness for only $1.99.

Once you’ve stocked up on blueberries, how will you get your fill? You can, of course, eat blueberries straight from the basket (after rinsing), throw a handful in a morning smoothie or toss into a salad. But there are other meals of the day for which berries of all kinds are a perfect addition. Here are a few blueberry recipes that caught my eye.

$x.xx = amount of savings will vary

Find more great berry recipe ideas here. What will you do with your haul of organic blueberries? Don’t forget — on sale today only!