Yes, I couldn’t resist posting a Whole Deal tips post featuring Thanksgiving tips.  As you can see from our chosen tips below, we’ve got some creative customers out there!  From using whole turkeys year-round to spreading out your holiday shopping to planning for leftovers - there are many ways to make your food budget more manageable - even during the holidays!

Remember, each week, we choose tips to be featured in our weekly The Whole Deal™ blog post. Every chosen tip gets a $25 gift card, so submit you tips and recipes here.

Pamela W.
Use whole turkeys throughout the year, not just at Thanksgiving. I stock up on whole turkeys when they are on sale around the holidays then use them throughout the year. I thaw the frozen turkey, and cut the breast off. This can then be used the same way you would use boneless, skinless chicken breast, for stir frys or kabobs, etc. I then cut the legs off, roast them, then coat with bbq sauce and finish on the grill, just like at the fair. The rest of the turkey gets roasted and I remove the meat and use it for turkey enchiladas or turkey salad for sandwiches. Then I boil the bones for broth that I store in the freezer to use whenever I need it.

Jane V.
With the holiday season rapidly approaching, I have found a way to help with the extra food expenses. I like to plan out my menus several weeks in advance and then spread out my shopping for Thanksgiving and Christmas over several shopping trips. I then absorb the extra costs over several weeks, rather then taking a big hit all at once. This also helps me to take advantage of any special sales(stock up and freeze things if you can) and allows me to try some of the goodies I don’t normally buy.

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I’m one of those people who can wander a grocery store for hours, weaving in and out of the aisles, often times doubling back just because.  However, this means that sometimes wonderful and unintended purchases end up in my grocery basket and raise my total bill beyond what I’d expected to pay.  The best way to combat this?  Have a game plan.  This week’s tips are all about efficient shopping - for better health, a faster trip and a smaller checkout total.

Remember, each week, we choose tips to be featured in our weekly The Whole Deal™ blog post. Every chosen tip gets a $25 gift card, so submit you tips and recipes here.

And now for this week’s tips on speedy shopping.
From Hillary M.

I follow a meal time schedule Monday-Friday. I eat Breakfast at 7:30 Lunch at 12:00 and Dinner at 5:30 with a 10:00 fruit and another fruit/pretzel snack around 3:00. The times don’t need to be precise everyday and if it can’t be followed exactly a granola bar always comes in handy. Doing this allows me to see what I actually eat more clearly and helps me to plan my grocery list. I always prepare dinners at night making sure to leave left overs for my lunch the following day. You’d be surprised at how much you save at the grocery store when you get what you NEED.

I also bring a calculator with me (small enough so when people see me they don’t think I am too anal). I set a limit and get the necessities first, if I have money left over I let myself indulge.

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One of the great pleasures in life is enjoying a memorable meal with your loved ones. Restaurants eliminate the work that goes into preparing a great meal - but at a price. Preparing special meals at home can sometimes take more effort than you have time for. How do you find the balance?  This week’s Whole Deal™ customer tips focus on getting that great dining experience in the comfort of your own home without all the work of preparing everything from scratch or spending a week’s grocery budget on one meal dining out.

From Channon:

My favorite savings tip is to let Whole Foods cater a Saturday date-night for me and my husband. Rather than going out to a restaurant and having a sitter (which costs!), we can wait until our children go to sleep and have a late super filled with a variety of exotic foods (which are even more reasonably priced and result in less waste since we decide the portions) from the “prepared foods” department; we pair that with great cheeses, fresh bread, and a glass of the 365 label wine and taste the foods of the world - prepared with wholesome ingredients -from the comfort of our home without breaking the bank (or evening using our car).

From Katrina:

We have saved money by shopping the ready to grill section and prepared food section at Whole Foods instead of eating out. My husband and I both realize how we have no control with what goes into the food we eat at restaurants and it can get expensive eating out. So when we have the urge to eat out, we buy amazing already cooked dishes or ready to grill kabobs and burgers and enjoy a meal that is much less than if we went out to eat and virtually little to no effort.

From Sara:

My husband and I enjoy fresh, healthy foods and are always experimenting in the kitchen.

Here are some of my favorite budget tips:

1) A fancy dinner at a pricey steakhouse can cost over $100 for a couple. I recently made filet mignon (fresh from Whole Foods!) with a side of roasted red potatoes and salad for under $15. Certainly, this isn’t everyday cooking, but you’d be hard pressed to eat anywhere for two for under $15.

2) If you have a pricey meal one night , enjoy a less expensive meal the next. Tofu is a steal at $1.50 for the Whole Foods 365 Brand. Pair it with a ready made sauce (e.g. Seeds of Change), jasmine rice, and naan - yum!

3) Eat real food. Why pay $4+ for a 12-pack of diet soda when you could enjoy a 1/2 lb. of fresh salmon, a loaf of whole grain, organic bread, or a few cups of raspberries for the same price?

How do you enhance your dining at home experiences? Submit tips to The Whole Deal™ customer tips page.

One of my favorite aisles to walk down in any Whole Foods Market is the bulk section.  Towering clear bins brimming with grains, dried beans, dried fruits, nuts, spices and more - all waiting to be weighed out and taken home - in exactly the quantity you want and need.  Plus, everything in the bulk section comes with minimal packaging and can be stored without the aide of refrigeration.  It’s arguably the greenest, healthiest and most economical place to shop in the store.  So if you’ve never taken a spin down the bulk aisle, I encourage you to give it a try!

Remember, each week, we choose tips to be featured in our weekly The Whole Deal™ blog post.  Every chosen tip gets a $25 gift card, so submit you tips and recipes here.

And without further ado, our tips of the week, featuring some great tips on shopping in this great section.

From Claire:

Beans are a great way to stretch a meal and add protein to your diet. The best way to save on beans? Ditch the can! I used to buy all my beans in cans until I realized I could spend the same amount on dried beans and end up with 3-4 times more food! If you plan ahead and put them in a slow cooker over night, you’ll have all the beans you need for your recipes the next day. Whole Foods has a really awesome selection of dried beans and peas in the bulk bins that are even cheaper than the prepackaged dried beans!

From Ed:

When the money is running a little short, its time to make sure the perimeter of the store is on the radar. Many of the packaged foods we like can be made by hand and save a considerable amount of money. Instead of buying a fancy granola cereal, go to the bulk foods section and buy oatmeal, various nuts and seeds. Get some sugar cane or honey or fresh fruit (will need to dehydrate if you want to keep the cereal for any time). Then with a little creativity add the ingredients together. Congratulations: cereal. Then head to the dairy section and get yourself some organic milk. Eat and enjoy.

From Marissa:

I love the bulk section of the store. As a recent college graduate not making much money, this section is the place to shop. You can buy HUGE bags of quinoa or barley, even polenta, for a fraction of the price. I also love the 365 brand. Everything from their shampoo and body wash to their frozen fruits (which are AMAZING once that particular fruit has gone out of season, just buy and stock in your freezer!!) are sooo cheap that you’d be silly NOT to buy it.

In our Budget Recipe Challenge, we got some excellent recipes and money-saving tips from a seasoned group of food bloggers.  After going through our comments in The Whole Deal™, it’s clear that we’ve got some creative customers who’ve come up with their own frugal gourmet creations from the items on our shelves!  From simple, hearty, weeknight friendly recipes to making your own prepackaged foods - there are a ton of ways to save time and money, while still feeding you and your family nutritious and tasty food.

We thought we’d share some of our favorites with you this week…

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We know you’ve all been eagerly awaiting the results of our Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge and we’re pleased to announce that the winner, by overwhelming audience voting is….

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas from Karina Allrich of Karina’s Kitchen

Here’s what she’s got to say about her victory:

Thank you, Whole Foods! It was an honor to participate in Budget Recipe Challenge. I am thrilled to receive the Whole Foods gift cards. I plan on giving away several gift cards at my blog- Karina’s Kitchen. I’ll be sharing the rest with my two sons- both on their own, cooking on a budget, fans of Whole Foods.

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Can you say great deal?! Print out our new coupon — $5 off any $25 or more purchase in any of our U.S. stores – good from now until October 22, 2008. This coupon has now expired!

Want to save even more? Check out our Whole Deal pages, dedicated to highlighting our value products, sharing money-saving menu plans and featuring budget-conscious recipes. This is also where you’ll find great customers tips on saving while shopping with us. Send us your ideas and you may win a $25 gift card if we choose your tip to feature on this blog.

In honor of our fabulous new coupon, we’re featuring customer tips for saving with coupons:

From Catherine:

The best way that I save money is with valuable coupons. The coupons in “Whole Deal” save me a ton. I also look in the health-oriented magazines like “Delicious Living” and the “Taste for Life” that are free at Whole Foods. I always find more coupons there, and in many health-oriented magazines. Then, if you go to the various manufacturer websites, you can often get even more e-coupons, or search the web for them and get some e-coupons automatically sent to your e-mail. Often these coupons can save anywhere from $1.00-$5.00 a piece. These really go far if the item is on sale to begin with! Coupons are easy to find for teas, snack bars, and many shelf and frozen items. Then I have more money to splurge on fresh produce.

From Nicole G:

I lost my job in December 2006, and I was out of work for a year. Of course our budget shrunk, but I did want to buy the same quality of food for the kids and us like I was doing before. I had to come with some idea how to save money while still shopping at Whole Food Market, so in one day I went to the store and wrote down all the brand food they had on their shelves. I started looking for on line coupons, and now every week when I do my grocery shopping, I also bring my coupons with me. I am also getting 4 gallons of milk at once because you get 10% off and using coupons I only pay $5/gallon instead $6.69/gallon. If the shredded cheese is on sale (I usually buy Organic Valley brand) I get 3-4 bags (with sale price and coupons I only pay ½ of the price), and I keep it in the freezer. I take out one bag of the time and use it. I also freeze the butter. There are many ways to save money and still shop for good organic quality food at Whole Food Market. I also plan my meals based on the sales they have. They email me their weekly store sale deals, and I can plan ahead what I need to buy.

From Nikki K:

I have begun writing my favorite brands to ask for coupons or simply compliment their products. I print coupons off of manufacturer websites, sign up for newsletters, and have joined a group to exchange coupons and receive some that don’t come in the paper in my area. I’m also taking the Value Budget Tour at Whole Foods tomorrow and am stoked about it! And I shop without my husband, because things not on my list always seem to end up in my cart when he’s around And lastly, I love to try what the “Value Guru” has cooked up and get meal ideas from her.

We often get stuck in our own ruts without realizing.  We buy the same grocery items week after week, make the same dishes again and again and wonder why we get bored with eating at home.  This week, we challenge you to look at your leftovers through new eyes and see if you can put a new spin on what you’ve already got in your fridge.

Our pick for The Whole Deal™ tip of the week comes from Ann B. who offers up a creative solution for leftover produce and lunchbox staples:

At the end of the week on fridays we have pizza and smoothies. This is a great way to use up any veggies I have left over in small amounts…3 mushroom, 10 cherry tomatoes, and half an onion may have been a boring salad but make a very exciting pizza! I can even save time buy buying a whole foods pizza crust! For the smoothies I use any yogurt that did not get used in the lunch box along with any left over bananas, strawberries, and that last sip of juice. The kids think it is a friday feast and I just smile and know I turned frugal fun!

What do you do with your ‘random’ leftovers?  Post ideas on The Whole Deal™ for a chance to be an upcoming featured tip!

Each of our six of our finalists for the Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge will be featured in a blog post here. Read about them and check out their featured recipe. By posting a comment on their recipe page, you help determine the winner in our Challenge AND you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $500 gift card!

Jaden Hair is a self taught cooking teacher, food writer and food photographer. Her blog specializes in modern Asian cooking, and is designed to teach people how easy it is to cook Asian meals at home. Started in February 2007, Steamy Kitchen launched Jaden’s cooking career; she now has monthly guest appearances on local television and she writes a weekly food column for the Tampa Tribune.

Don’t lie: what did you have for dinner last night?

Last night I was LAZY! I turned leftover rice into fried rice. I had shrimp and frozen peas/carrots in the freezer, cold jasmine rice in the fridge. 15 minutes later, a one-wok dinner was ready, plopped the entire wok right on the dinner table and chowed down.

Remember: Don’t comment here if you want to support Jaden in our contest. You have to comment on her recipe page. We turned comments off to help you remember!

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Each of our six of our finalists for the Food Blogger Budget Recipe Challenge will be featured in a blog post here. Read about them and check out their featured recipe. By posting a comment on their recipe page, you help determine the winner in our Challenge AND you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $500 gift card!

Katy Zandy is a 26-year-old full time attorney and part time food blogger.  Her blog focuses on healthy, fresh, seasonal recipes with elegant presentations — all from a tiny Manhattan kitchen!  Having now posted over a hundred recipes, Katy spends a good portion of her nights, weekends, gym time, and lying-in-bed-trying-to-fall-asleep time filled with imagining new recipes, thinking of twists for classic dishes, or listing the traditionally “challenging” recipes that she can’t wait to try.

Don’t lie: what did you have for dinner last night?

Miso Soup, edamame, and vegetable sushi rolls (plus a few pieces of spicy tuna roll off my fiance’s plate).  And frozen yogurt with crushed peanut butter cups on top for dessert!

Remember: Don’t comment here if you want to support Katy in our contest. You have to comment on her recipe page. We turned comments off to help you remember!

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