Hungry to start the new year with savings? In the latest issue of The Whole Deal value guide we have a week’s worth of budget-friendly meal ideas to fill your family’s plates without emptying your wallet. Here’s the plan:

MONDAY: Veggie Monday

Warm up some Organic Miso Soup with sliced carrots, mushrooms and green onions added to the pot. Serve stir-fried tofu and broccoli with 365 Everyday Value® Organic Peanut Sauce over pasta on the side. Blend EARTH University frozen pineapple and banana chunks for dessert.

TUESDAY: A Valentine’s “Date” for Eight

Invite your BFFs over for decadent Grilled Goat Cheese, Prosciutto and Asparagus Sandwiches, tomato soup with oyster crackers and Sweet Strawberry Risotto. Pour Harthill Farms Pinot Grigio – a Sure Deal! in the winter issue of The Whole Deal.

WEDNESDAY: Cook’s Night Off

Pick up a rotisserie chicken and California Quinoa Salad from our Prepared Foods area. (Don’t forget to use our online coupon or clip it from the in-store value guide.) Serve with a lightly dressed baby green salad and have some Pink Lady apples for dessert.

THURSDAY: Take That, Takeout!

Cook up Sweet and Sour Chicken (or Tofu) with Vegetables. Serve with prepared 365 Everyday Value® organic rice (from the freezer!) and then clementines or wedges of navel oranges for dessert.

FRIDAY: Fish Friday

Serve Tequila Lime Salmon with 365 Everyday Value® Black Rice (for the rice, print the online coupon or clip it from the in-store value guide.) and sautéed Beans and Greens Blend. Treat yourself to a bowl 365 Everyday Value® Ice Cream with fresh strawberries for dessert. Unwind with Piccolo Fiore Rosso di Sicilia.

WEEKEND: Game-Day Grub

Steamed farm-raised shrimp and serve with cocktail sauce, Set out Warm Broccoli Cheese Dip and a layered dip of beans, salsa and homemade guacamole. Want more? Add our Slow Cooker White Chili.

If these meal ideas have you inspired to save, then turn to the The Whole Deal value guide. With $46+ in coupons, more than a dozen Sure Deals, new budget recipes and much more, you can easily prepare budget-friendly and family-friendly meals plus have tasty leftovers in your fridge and something left in your bank account too. Remember to download the coupons before you hit the store!

What are your ideas for cooking winter meals on a budget?

2012 is knocking on the door — are you primed for another year of great value at Whole Foods Market®? We are! Choices count and we’re here to help so you can choose good health and a healthy budget. Just follow these 10 tips for shopping in our stores and you can count on savings!

1. Shop the sales — Thousands of items are on sale in your store right now; when you walk in, just look for the sale signs and save! Like to plan in advance? Locate your local store and download their weekly sales flyer or sign up for the Whole Foods Market News email newsletter and get the specials delivered to your inbox a couple times a month.

2. Click for coupons — All of the coupons in The Whole Deal value guide are online, so you can print just what you need before every shopping trip. If you forget to click print before you split, no worries, you can always clip them from the printed value guide in all of our stores.

3. Go for 365 Everyday Value® — Our own brand helps you save every day; it’s the broadest selection of natural and organic products at the best prices. Interested in learning more? A few months ago the Senior Global Coordinator for our Exclusive and Store Brands wrote about their team’s commitment to quality and organics.

Read the rest of this entry »

It may be halfway through the month, but there’s still time to plan a great gathering — one that’s easy on you and your wallet. True party-perfect recipes should make a big impact on your guests, not your bank account.

Consider hosting a “small bites” soiree or simply get your gathering going with wallet-savvy appetizers.

For the third year in a row, The Whole Deal value guide pulled together “small bite” recipes. These 10 budget-friendly starters ring in at less than 50 cents per piece:

Read the rest of this entry »

Does the list of people you need to buy gifts for this holiday season keep growing? Whether it’s a stocking stuffer or token of thanks, sometimes you simply need a high-quality thoughtful gift that still keeps the jingle in your pocket. In the spirit of the holidays, we’re sharing a few of our favorite budget-conscious gift ideas.

 

Gifts Under $10

These gifts are easy to give and fun to receive:  

• Rich and chocolaty, these addictive treats are made from an old family recipe by one of France’s leading chocolatiers. Share our creamy, dreamy truffles with any and all at a whim. An 8.8-oz box of Whole Foods Market™ Organic Chocolate Truffles is no more than $5.99.

• This year’s “Celebration” coffee is a sweet and spicy blend of beans from Guatemala, Costa Rica and Sumatra, carefully sourced, as always. Gift an 8-oz bag of Allegro® Celebration Caffè—Whole Bean or Ground, regular or decaf—for only $7.99.

• Stumped on a Secret Santa gift? Your only challenge will be choosing the right flavor of this incredible “cocoa for adults” for that lucky colleague. A 7.5-oz box of Allegro® Drinking Chocolate—Costa Rican, Indian Spice, Dominican White Chocolate, Dominican Republic, Peruvian or Mayan Spice—is $9.99.

• Organic lip balms in a special holiday 3-pack, available for a limited time in seasonal natural(!) flavors—Vanilla, Ginger Lemon and Wintermint. Pick up a Whole Foods Market^™ Organic Lip Balm Trio for only $3.99.

Gifts that Give Back

They say it’s better to give than receive, so giving these gifts must be twice as nice:

• Whole Planet Foundation® 2012 calendars cost only $3 each and include more than $20 in coupons.

• Whole Foods Market® gift cards give more! For each new card purchased online through December 31, we donate $1 to Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry program.

• Whole Trade® flowers and Whole Trade® chocolates support worker communities and are committed to ethical trade and the environment.

Gifts from the Heart…of the Home

From Rosemary Olive Oil and Tangerine Sugar to Lemon-Ginger Streusel Bread and Sweet Potato Apple Dog Treats, find simple, impressive recipes with printable gift tags at wholefoodsmarket.com/holidays.

Turn to The Whole Deal, online and in stores, for more tips for holiday gift giving. While we can’t shorten your shopping list, we can stretch your dollar.

Got any great ideas for gift giving on a budget? We’d love to hear them.

If you’ve ever sampled some of the fabulous fare in our Bakery or Prepared Foods areas during the holidays (or any time of year, really) you know we’ve got some very talented team members working for us.

For the holiday issue of The Whole Deal value guide, we challenged team members from these departments to send us their own best, budget-friendly, small-bites recipes. Here are the two winning recipes picked by our panel of judges and more about the team members who created them:

Bacon Jalapeño Stuffed Mushrooms created by Elizabeth Hernandez, Prepared Foods Team Member in our Willowbrook, Illinois store.

Elizabeth set out to create a holiday appetizer that incorporated all five taste sensations … sweet, sour, salty, spicy and savory. Plus, she wanted it to be wallet-friendly, simple to make, attractive on a serving platter and delicious. Voila! Bacon Jalapeño Stuffed Mushrooms were born.

Read the rest of this entry »

Great-tasting food really can be easy. And with recipes, tips and coupons from The Whole Deal value guide, you’ll eat well and have time and money to spare (you know, for all that other stuff you want in life). One of the secrets to top-notch eating and sure-thing saving is learning to cook.

Beef Pot Roast is one of those basic recipes every home cook should know. It’s much easier to prepare than you might think and makes a fabulous one-dish dinner…and even better leftovers. After a few minutes of browning and sautéing, you can do other things while dinners roasts in the oven. Easy!
Read the rest of this entry »

“Waste not, want not.” This bit of old-fashioned advice never gets old! And with the fall season’s prolific produce making an appearance, these ten simple tips from The Whole Deal value guide will have you preserving the best of the harvest. You’ll save money, learn some new tricks and eat well all year.

1. Quick pickle veggies such as carrots, radishes, beets, peppers and onions in white vinegar to keep a few weeks in the fridge. Download a coupon for $1.00 off of a 64-oz jug 365 Everyday Value® Distilled White Vinegar and if you’ve never pickled veggies before, you can give it a try with our Pickled Cajun Green Beans and Carrots recipe.
2. Hang or oven dry peppers and store them crushed or whole in airtight jars.
3. Store root vegetables like carrots, beets, onions, potatoes and turnips for a few months longer in a cool, dry storage area like a root cellar or basement.
4. Dehydrate and concentrate flavor in fruits and vegetables by drying them in the oven (or in thin slices all day in the sun); try homemade Dried Apple Slices.
5. Stew a medley of fruits in a splash of water with warm spices and a few chopped dates or a little sweetener of your choice. Serve warm or cold. You can also make your own applesauce.
6. Quickly blanch and freeze greens to use for quick sides and easy meal prep with less fuss.
7. Freeze purees, pestos and soups for big fall flavor payoffs later in the winter. Use our advanced search to find recipes with your favorite flavors or that meet any special dietary needs.
8. Line-dry herbs like lavender, rosemary and thyme by hanging them up in airy open spaces and then transferring to airtight jars or the freezer for storage.
9. Brandy fruits such as plums, apricots, peaches and pears by soaking in brandy for a few days or weeks to serve alongside roasted meats or over ice cream or pound cake.
10. Make jams and fruit spreads for the fridge without special equipment or canning knowledge; check out our Spiced Apple-Pear Butter recipe.

Take a look at The Whole Deal value guide, available in stores and online for coupons, deals, budget recipes and much more.

What money-saving tips and cooking techniques were passed down in your family?

Is the weather cooling down where you live? Here in Austin we’ve gone from a sweltering summer of triple-digit temps to what we now all consider the refreshingly cool high 90s. Hopefully, our outdoor thermometers will continue to dip because fall in central Texas really can be quite lovely.

Even though we haven’t quite escaped the heat yet, we’re all itching to put aside the “no cook” recipes and fire up the burner to cook up a big pot of something.

If you’re looking forward to some cool-weather cooking too, make sure your pantry is well stocked so you’ll be ready to whip up something warm when the cold front comes in. You can start by picking up these Sure Deals from the fall issue of The Whole Deal value guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

When you think “value meal” do you think of greasy foods served through a drive-thru window? Well, think again! Slow food – the opposite of fast food – is food that is good for you, good for farmers and workers, and good for the planet. It’s all that and it doesn’t have to cost any more than fast food! Now that’s what I call a value meal! And that’s why on September 17^th, Slow Food USA launches a Day of Action and encourages everyone to take their $5 Challenge and take back the value meal.

According to Slow Food USA, all you have to do is pledge to cook a fresh and healthy meal for five dollars or less, or you can attend a local event. It could be your regularly nightly meal with your family, a dinner party with friends, a neighborhood potluck or a slow food meal event in your area. The only “rule” is that the meals should reflect slow food values and cost no more than five dollars per person. If you’re taking the challenge you can find out more and register your event and share your story at SlowFoodUSA.org/5challenge.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, September…where summer meets fall and explodes with harvest-season flavor and value. It’s a great time for fresh seasonal produce and the purest, high-quality foods at the fairest prices. Which is why September is the perfect time to celebrate Organic Harvest Month! And celebrating we are, in the newest issue of The Whole Deal value guide in stores and online now!

It’s packed with quick and thrifty dinners,  more than $48 in coupons, 20 Sure Deals, 9 new budget recipes and loads of organic values for stocking your fall pantry.

Think you’ve got the 4-1-1 on organics? Take this quiz and find out:

1. What percentage of a product must be made of organically produced ingredients to be labeled organic?
2. When you want cheese, what is one way to stay away from synthetic growth hormones (rBGH/rBST)?
3. How can you keep irradiated food off your table?
4. What are some environmental benefits of organic farming practices?
5. Does an organic chicken eat organically too?

Find the answers to these questions throughout the September/October issue of The Whole Deal (PDF).

How do you plan on celebrating Organic Harvest Month?