Tag: safeway (Page 4 of 5)

Safeway is a super market chain operating in Northern California under that name and in Southern California under the name Vons. From time to time it buys other chains or is itself acquired by others. It’s hard to keep up. It’s the closest full size supermarket to my house, and the only one that does pick-up/delivery without a third party, so it’s where I do most of my shopping.

Three Sausages: Gilbert’s, Open Nature & Aidell’s

April 21, 2014 / admin / 0 Comments

I’ve been kind of lazy about making dinner lately, and what is easier and tastier than grilling some hot dogs or sausages? Grocery Outlet, meanwhile, has had an explosion of sausage choices this week so we were able to try a few new ones.

open-nature-sausage-pork-171009 The winner of this batch was Open Nature Smoked Uncured Sausages. This is actually the Safeway brand of sausages. These are 100% pork sausages. They are pretty big, with four sausages in the 12 oz package, and very tasty. That’s probably because they are full of fat, 23 grams for one of these vs. 15 grams for one of the Gilbert sausages below (which are 1/2 oz smaller). Still, if you’re going for flavor, you can’t go wrong with these sausages. Mike rated them an 8.5.

gilberts Gilbert’s Craft Sausages is a very new company (started in 2010) offering “gourmet” uncured beef sausages. I got the beef & cheddar and we thought it was pretty good. Mike would rate it a 6.5. Camila, my 9 yo, liked it – and she can be picky. It had a nice flavor, not very overwhelming, and was pretty juicy. I think I might enjoy it more without the cheddar.

One convenient thing about Gilbert’s sausages is that they are individually wrapped. The bad thing is that they don’t have the type/expiration date printed on the plastic, so I still have to keep the carton in the fridge to remember what they are. A 10 oz package of 4 sausages was, I think, $3 at Grocery Outlet.

aidells Finally, one of my kids like chicken sausages and we often buy the Aidells kind. There were none at Grocery Outlet, buy they had Awesome Apple uncured chicken hot dogs. The 10 oz package has 5. Both kids really liked them and they seem marginally healthier, with 7 grams of fat each. But one kid had to eat two to get full, and the other 3 . Of course, the kids gave them a “10”. My oldest says she prefers these to the sausages as they are thinner and easier to eat, plus they look smaller. Less messy too.

One good thing about these chicken apple hot dogs is that they don’t have pork casings. Aidells chicken sausages don’t either, but other manufacturers do. If you are specifically avoiding eating pork products (as my daughter is), this matters.

Safeway Peanut Butter Chewy cookies – Review

September 8, 2011 / admin / 1 Comment

The Safeway in downtown San Leandro offers children a free cookie from their bakery. This is a great strategy by Safeway, not only does it create good feeling on parents but it means that kids rae eager to actually go grocery shopping with the parents. Parents shopping with kids are more likely to buy stuff they wouldn’t otherwise.

Yesterday, my kids (and I!) got a Safeway Chewy Peanut Butter cookie and I have to say it may very well have been the most delicious cookie I’ve ever had. As promised, it was very chewy, it almost felt like it had caramel inside (but I don’t think it did). The flavor was out of this world, not too sweet, not too peanut butterish, with a chocolate chip here and there to balance the flavor. Even though it was so chewy it did feel a bit dry (a common problem with peanut butter cookies), so I think it’d be best eaten with a cup of milk or coffee.

These cookies retail at Safeway for $4.50 for a dozen (I think) – almost twice as much as their “regular” cookies cost (on sale). But as they’re twice as good as their regular cookies, I can’t complain. I just wish they sold them by the unit, as good as they are I can’t expect to buy a box and not eat them all (so I won’t).

I found a recipe for chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies at the Safeway site, I’ll try it and hope it’s the same one they are using.

Petite sirloin steak @ Safeway

May 13, 2011 / admin / 0 Comments

Safeway had value packs of “petite sirloin steak” for sale this week at $3lb (a dollar less than top sirloin), so I figured I’d buy some. I wasn’t too sure what “petite sirloin steak” was, but a google search showed that this cut is also known as “sirloin tips”, “round tips”, “flap steak” or “flap meat”. It’s the part of the round that’s right next to the sirloin. The pieces at Safeway consisted of small, thick steaks, with a layer of fat on one edge.
I used them to make Beef Stroganoff. This required me to cut the petite sirloins into thin strips and then pan fry them on some oil. I was surprised at how tender the results were: perhaps not as tender as a tenderloin, but definitely more tender than a sirloin or similar steak. For this purpose, this was an ideal cut. Flavor-wise I wasn’t too thrilled with it, it wasn’t as gamy as I’d like it, but you don’t need much flavor when you have a sauce like Stroganoff. I’ll definitely buy this cut again when it’s on sale to use in dishes where I want tenderness for cheap.

Flat Iron Steak @ Safeway

March 7, 2010 / admin / 0 Comments

Safeway is now selling fresh flank steak, skirt steak and flat iron steak in vacuum packages – with expiration dates of a month or two in the future. I’m glad that they are available (these cuts have been hard to find at our local Safeway in the past), but I wish they were sold at more reasonable prices. These are supposed to be cheap cuts of meat, after all, but Safeway sells them at $6.50lb! You can often get rib eye steak at Safeway for less than that.
I tried their “Ranchers Reserve” flat iron steak tonight in a recipe for Maple and Soy-Glazed Flank Steak (they didn’t have any flank steak). I wasn’t happy with the recipe, the flavors were very tame, but the meat itself was incredibly tender – some of the most tender meat I’ve ever eaten. It’s not surprising, as flat iron steaks are supposed to be second only to beef tenderloin in tenderness. But I’m more of a “flavor” person than a “tenderness” person, so this cut didn’t really win me over.
One thing that did annoy me was how uneven the two “steaks” were cut. They range in thickness from about 1/6″ to 1 1/2″.
I probably won’t buy this cut again, just because of the lack of flavor, but I will give the skirt steak and the flank steak a try sometime.

“Bait and Switch” at Safeway?

November 12, 2009 / admin / 1 Comment

I’m beginning to wonder whether Safeway is now officially engaging on “bait and switch” tactics – advertising products at bargain prices but then having so limited a selection of them available that they run out before most costumers even make it to the store. Once at the store, customers have little choice but to buy something more expensive – thus increasing Safeway’s profits, at least in the short run. In the long run, customers hopefully will wise up and go shopping elsewhere.
My suspicions are founded on the fact that the last two times I went shopping at the Washington Street Safeway in San Leandro, they were out of the advertised specials. Tuesday night they were out of both top sirloin and whole chickens, and Wednesday they didn’t have any more large packages of London broil. I can understand Tuesday – it was the last day of the sale and I went late – but yesterday was the first day of the new sale and I went shopping shortly after 5, before the after-work shopping “rush hour”. A grocery store like Safeway, that has operated for decades, has an idea as to how much an item will sell at a given price, and there is no excuse for them to run out of that item by 5 PM.
Safeway is much closer to my house than Lucky’s, and I will give it a chance or to more, but if I find that this trend of not having enough products continues, I’ll definitely start patronizing Lucky’s instead.

Safeway chocolate chewy cookies

August 10, 2009 / admin / 0 Comments

Just got them today because they were on sale for $3 for 12. They were in the bakery section in a plastic box. They are *delicious*.

Safeway Meatloaf – Review

April 25, 2009 / admin / 1 Comment

Last night I forgot to cook. Really. Earlier in the day I baked a cake to eat after dinner – but the thought of actually cooking dinner did not occur to me until it was too late. I had bought the ingredients to make lime and coriander chicken, but I had to marinate it for 3 hours and had not done so.
Safeway had advertised meatloaf for $5 for Friday only, so I thought I’d give it a try. Lord, was that the wrong decision – the meatloaf was horrible. It has no flavor of meat, actually, it had no flavor a all, and it had an unpleasant, gritty texture. The sauce on top was disgustingly sweet – but you had to mix it in with the meatloaf, to make it edible at all. In other words, don’t buy it.

I HATE the Safeway on Bancroft in San Leandro

March 8, 2009 / admin / 5 Comments

I hate, hate, hate, the Safeway on Bancroft Ave. in San Leandro. Everyday I walk by it when I go pick up my daughter in daycare – so it’s very convenient to stop there and buy the ingredients for dinner. But they NEVER have everything I need – and sometimes *anything* I need.
Today, for example, I was shopping for a leek tart I’m making tonight – but they had no chives. I was also shopping for a chicken dish I’m making on Wednesday – but they had no cut-up chicken (they had whole chickens, but the cut-up chickens were supposedly on sale). I don’t get it – why do they advertise products at a sale price, if they don’t carry them? And it’s not just that – try getting boneless chicken thighs, or lemongrass or even a cognac at an affordable price (all things I recently needed for cooking).
Part of me wishes the store would go out of business so I’d be forced to go to the other one, rather than be permanently frustrated by their lack of products.

Scammed by Safeway

August 1, 2008 / marga / 0 Comments

I was just in the Alameda Safeway doing some shopping, and decided to see if there were any wine bargains to be had. Last year I got a wine for over 50% off which ended up being pretty good – so I thought I’d try my luck again. I found a deal almost as good – the 2005 Hawk Crest Cabernet Sauvignon was on sale for $10, $15 off the regular price of $25. So I bought it.
I come home to find out that all retailers sell this wine for about $10 – so either Safeway sells all its wines at 2 1/2 times regular retail prices, or just ups the prices of those it wants to put in sale, to make them look like a better bargain. Yes, I feel foolish – but I learned my lesson. I will never buy wine from Safeway again. I hope the wine is at least good.

Safeway Ice Cream Cake

May 4, 2008 / marga / 1 Comment

Yesterday was my birthday and my mom got me (by proxy) an ice cream cake from Safeway. It was a simple affair, a matter of vanilla ice cream sandwiched by white cake, and it wasn’t the most delicious thing ever, but pretty satisfying. I do think that I like their regular cakes better. They cost about the same, I think.