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GIVEAWAY: Stock Your Pantry with Whole Foods Market Cedar Center

To be smarter about where my money was going, I’ve been embracing my inner Julia Child by cooking more meals at home. I’ve been depending on a lot of familiar/easy recipes as of late and needed to shake things up as I pledged myself to “more culinary explorations in my home kitchen” in 2012. Always out to help a healthier eater reach his/her goals, Whole Foods Market Cedar Center came to this foodie’s rescue.

Whole Foods is encouraging their customers to stock up their pantry with healthier options while on a budget. If you invest $50 into your kitchen’s stockpile, they say “you’ll be set for healthier meals and a healthier budget.” The company wants to help their customers with this task – check out their Whole Story blog post on how you can win some seriously great prizes just by sending them an email!

While planning for our January Ohio Blogging Association Meetup at the store (RSVP over on Facebook!!), WFM Cedar Center’s team challenged me to a task: spend $50 at the store to see what I can create from my haul. A culinary challenge? I’m down for that!

Since I know the deal with the little shopping carts they got, I grabbed one and filled it up with the following:

IMG_0491

  • 1 lb bag of quinoa
  • 1 lb bag of Arborio rice
  • 1 (32-oz) box of organic vegetable broth
  • 1 (32-oz) box of organic low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 (32-oz) box of organic beef broth
  • 1 can of black beans
  • 1 can of pinto beans
  • 1 can of garbanzo beans
  • 1 can of kidney beans
  • approximately 1.5 lb lentils from the bulk section
  • approximately 1.25 lb popcorn from the bulk section
  • approximately 1.25 lb quick oats from the bulk section
  • 1 box of Quinoa pasta for me
  • 1 package of linguine for Hans
  • 1 32-oz box sweetened almond milk
  • 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 36-oz jar smooth peanut butter
  • 1 jar pasta sauce
  • 1 jar salsa
  • 1 bottle of extra virgin olive oil

Some thoughts on my pantry-based shopping adventure:

  • I chose items that I knew I would use. We go through peanut butter and oats like it’s nobody’s business. I bought Hans’ favorite linguine. My air popper needed more popcorn kernels.
  • I didn’t choose items that I knew I wouldn’t use. I knew I wasn’t going to buy a huge bag of dry beans because I’m inpatient and wouldn’t take the time to properly prepare them.
  • I also chose items that would help me reach my goal to be more creative in my kitchen. Lentils, Arborio rice and quinoa are all things I’ve worked with before, but it’s been awhile and it’s time for a reappearance.
  • I utilized some of the coupons in the Whole Deal flyer – WFM’s Kate gives some great tips in her latest post on the Cedar Center store’s blog on how you can do the same.
  • Just like certain pieces of clothing, some items are investments in your culinary creations. Extra virgin olive oil – while $12.99 per bottle – was worth the splurge.

I left the store excited to dive into my soon-to-be well stocked pantry. The Whole Foods website has some great recipes that I plan to try, including the Beef and Quinoa Meatballs, the Overnight Oatmeal and the Sweet Strawberry Risotto, just to name a few. Hope Hans is hungry! I believe my purchases will last us a good amount of time considering the amount of servings you can get from some of these packages.

But the healthy pantry isn’t just to be found at PIP Headquarters: you have a chance to win a $50 Whole Foods Gift Card to build your own! The kind folks at the WFM Cedar wanted to inspire healthy eating by offering one lucky PIP reader a gift card to use for their grocery shopping needs!

SO… HOW DO YOU WIN A $50 WHOLE FOODS GIFT CARD??

  1. Mandatory first entry: Leave a comment telling me what your favorite pantry ingredient is. It’s that easy!
  2. Follow @poiseinparma on Twitter. Please let me know if you do by commenting on this post!
  3. Follow @WholeFoodsUHts on Twitter. Please let me know if you do by commenting on this post!
  4. Twitter users can get an extra entry by tweeting: “Make my pantry healthy: I want to win the $50 @WholeFoodsUHts Gift Card #giveaway from @poiseinparma! http://wp.me/p1303r-1qN”. Please let me know each day you tweet this by commenting on this post!

You have until Wednesday, January 11th at 11:59PM EST to enter. Make sure to leave a separate entry for each one of these that you accomplish. The card can be used at ANY Whole Foods Market across the U.S – no geographical requirements! Anyone anywhere can enter!

Now the big question: which recipe to try first? Let’s get cooking Cleveland!

Disclosure: In exchange for running this giveaway, I was compensated for this post via the groceries pictured above. As always, my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

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January 9th, 2012 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Cleveland, Food, Giveaway

181 comments to GIVEAWAY: Stock Your Pantry with Whole Foods Market Cedar Center

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