An outdoor company offers timely tips for taking care of your inner self

EDITOR'S NOTE: Cotopaxi sells outdoor products and "funds solutions that address the most persistent needs of those living in extreme poverty," according to its Web site. Noting that May is International Mediterranean Diet Month, the company also has prepared a graphic with tips on healthy living and eating.

I've supplemented that advice with a simple recipe that includes three major components of the Mediterranean Diet -- seafood, vegetables and olive oil.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON 

HEART HEALTHY: Fresh wild Atlantic Cod with Spinach, Organic Diced Tomatoes and Pitted Olives takes about 15 minutes to cook in a preheated 400-degree oven.

HOW TO ASSEMBLE: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile, place a half-pound of fresh spinach in a large pan lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper, drizzle with plenty of extra-virgin olive oil, add up to 2 pounds of cut-up pieces of cod fillet seasoned with a little sea salt, spoon on organic diced tomatoes from a can, add reduced-fat shredded cheese and then squeeze fresh juice from a lemon or lime over everything.

SHRIMP WORKS, TOO: We used the same simple recipe with 2 pounds of wild-caught shrimp, which we shelled and deveined.

FRESH TOMATOES: This time, we used fresh tomatoes, and the shrimp were ready in 10 minutes when we preheated the oven to 400 degrees.

Quinoa with creamy garlic, salsa-simmered cod, salad and more

In an electric rice cooker, I added three 8-ounce cups of organic quinoa, six cups of chicken broth or water, a drained can of low-sodium black beans, a can of organic diced tomatoes, lots of chopped fresh garlic, extra-virgin olive oil and a little sea salt, and mixed them well before I plugged it in. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Organic quinoa from Costco Wholesale is one of the whole grains I rely on to give me that full feeling on a no-bread, no-pizza diet.

It's a snap to prepare in an electric rice cooker with black beans and organic diced tomatoes, but it's even better when you include lots of chopped garlic cloves, which you can buy peeled at the Hackensack Costco.

The garlic turns creamy, lending moisture to the quinoa, which has fewer carbs than rice or pasta.

You can enjoy leftover quinoa at any meal -- reheated to eat with eggs in the morning or fish in the evening.

You can also use it cold as the foundation for a chopped salad.

The organic quinoa from Costco doesn't require any washing before it goes into the rice cooker.

This week, my wife picked up fresh, wild-caught Atlantic cod fillets from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack ($7.99 a pound). I prepared them in Roasted Chipotle Salsa from Whole Foods Market in Paramus, fresh lime juice, black pepper and other seasonings, above and below.

I cut up the skinless and boneless cod fillets, seasoned them with a little sea salt, added them to the boiling salsa and covered the pan. The cod was done in about 7 minutes, breaking into big flakes when I ate it with mashed and baked sweet potatoes flavored with the poaching liquid.

A chopped salad of tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden, plus celery, in a dressing of extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lime juice, balsamic vinegar, dried and fresh mint, parsley and other fresh herbs.

A salad of organic spring mix, fresh Jersey blueberries, and aged Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from Italy, all from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, dressed in Spanish extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. A pound of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix was $4.49 a pound. Two pounds of blueberries were $5.49, and the cheese was selling for a low $8.49 a pound.

Add a spicy Korean accent at any meal with crunchy cucumber kimchi from Arirang Kimchi at 1 Remsen Place in Ridgefield (1-201-313-7175).

Bring home the bacon, but don't forget to eat pasta with your eggs

An open-face egg-white omelet with smoked wild salmon from Costco Wholesale and sun-dried tomatoes, served for breakfast over leftover organic whole-wheat pasta corkscrews from Italy that are only $1.25 a pound at ShopRite.

Editor's note: Food prices in most stores usually go up periodically. At Costco Wholesale, they've been known to go up and down without explanation. Now, Trader Joe's, where prices have stayed the same for years, is starting to raise prices on some items, including bacon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm retired, but I still bring home the bacon for the meat eaters in my family from Trader Joe's, a reliable source of uncured, antibiotic-free pork.

For years, you could find Trader Joe's Uncured Bacon for $3.99 and $4.49, but on Friday and on a previous trip, I could not find that item in the Route 17 store in Paramus.

I did find a 12-ounce package of W-brand All Natural Uncured Bacon for $5.49.

Trader Joe's Uncured Beef Hot Dogs and Jumbo Uncured Franks are now $4.99 each, a hike of 50 cents.

Since I stopped eating meat and poultry more than five years ago, I eat pasta -- not bacon -- with my eggs, and enjoy plenty of wild-caught fish.

The pasta also is a good substitute for bread or a bagel at breakfast. 

An organic egg from Costco over leftover pasta made for a quick dinner with a salad and a glass of wine. I used 1 pound of pasta and a 24-ounce jar of Victoria Vodka Sauce, which gets its richness from cheese, not heavy cream. To the sauce, I added red wine, anchovies, extra-virgin olive oil and a can of organic diced tomatoes.

Fresh wild Atlantic Cod fillets from Costco Wholesale are boneless and skinless, and cost only $7.99 a pound. They poach in about 7 minutes in Whole Foods Market Roasted Chipotle Salsa, and can be served over sweet potatoes and peeled garlic cloves mashed with extra-virgin olive oil. 

Bring the sauce to a boil in a covered pan, then add the fish. The serving pieces, dusted with ground Turkish pepper, will firm up and turn snowy white in about 7 minutes in the covered pan. For a thicker sauce, omit the fresh lime juice I used, and add the lime at the table.

Fresh strawberries and 1% lactose-free milk over Bob's Red Mill Hot Cereal is a nice change of pace on mornings when I don't have eggs.

How sweet this comfort food is -- baked, mashed or boiled

I sliced a large sweet potato, boiled the disks until they were tender and added them to a 10-inch whole-egg and egg-white frittata with chopped scallions and garlic; grated cheese and a little low-fat milk. A few slices of reduced-fat Swiss cheese went on top of the potatoes, as did black pepper and no-salt seasoning.

Editor's note: Costco Wholesale sells many foods in packages easily consumed by a family of four, but sweet potatoes come in 10-pound bags. Here are a few ways to use them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At Costco Wholesale, you can buy 1 pound of organic salad mix, 2 pounds of tomatoes or three large hothouse cucumbers, all easily consumed by a family of four.

But sweet potatoes come in 10-pound bags ($8.49), meaning you'll have to get busy, if you want to use them all before they spoil.

Several years ago, my trainer at the gym suggested I go on a no-bread, no-pizza diet to lose weight, but added I could eat my fill of sweet potatoes.

I'm still on that diet and I still love sweet potatoes -- mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, sliced and boiled for use in frittatas or simply baked until the sugar oozes out of where you vent the skin with a fork.

At ShopRite in Paramus, 3-pound of bags of smaller sweet potatoes, washed and sized, are $2.99.

But the store also sells starchier yams, so make sure you get sweet potatoes.

If you Google the nutritional value of sweet potatoes v. yams, you will find contradictory entries.

A post on The Globe and Mail newspaper Web site says sweet potatoes have fewer calories and far more of an antioxidant called beta-carotene. 

"Sweet potatoes also have a lower glycemic index number than yams, meaning their carbohydrate is released more slowly into the bloodstream."

See: Which one's healthier?

I start the frittata on the stove and finish it under the broiler, above.

A filling breakfast of sweet-potato frittata and baked sweet potato, both accented with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Black Label), which is available at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street.

I boil sweet potatoes with the skin and whole peeled garlic cloves in a loosely covered pot until tender, about 45 minutes; drain them, return them to the pot and add extra-virgin olive oil and almost anything I have in my spice cabinet -- black pepper, red-pepper flakes, sea salt, curry powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and more -- before mashing them. At breakfast, mashed sweet potatoes are great with eggs, omelets and frittatas. 

Fresh Atlantic cod, long-line caught in Iceland, is only $7.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. The skinless-and-boneless fillets, cut into serving pieces, poach in only 7 minutes in hot Roasted Salsa Verde from Whole Foods Market with Costco's organic diced tomatoes and fresh lime juice. At dinner tonight, the perfect side dish was mashed sweet potatoes, above.

With kitchen-sink whole wheat pasta, almost anything goes

Organic whole wheat pasta shells from Whole Foods Market in Paramus are perfect for catching such ingredients as salted cod fish, chopped garlic, fresh baby spinach and organic diced tomatoes.

A serving of kitchen-sink pasta dusted with bread crumbs. Most of the ingredients are available at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss a pasta dish that can include as many or as few ingredients as you have on hand; shopping at Costco Wholesale and ShopRite, and waiting for the first fillets of fresh Alaskan wild salmon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With kitchen-sink pasta, almost anything goes:

Cook lots of chopped garlic in oil until fragrant, then add three cups of organic chicken stock and Italian white wine; and a can of rinsed anchovies, and bring to a boil to reduce and thicken.

Next, add big flakes of salted cod fish that was boiled in water and drained three times; a can of organic diced tomatoes with juice, and capers.

A full pound of imported organic whole wheat shells should be cooked in more water until al dente, drained and then added to the sauce along with as much as a half-pound of organic baby spinach.

If you have a large colander, put the fresh spinach in it, then pour the hot water and pasta over it, blanching the leaves.

Transfer everything to the pot with the sauce, and mix well.

Serve with grated cheese and bread crumbs on the side.

  

A couple of handfuls of Christopher Ranch peeled garlic from Costco Wholesale goes into the dish, made with a 1-pound box of made-in-Italy 365 Everyday Value Organic Whole Wheat Shells, which are $1.39 at Whole Foods Market.

Costco cod, berries

I went into Costco Wholesale in Hackenack on Wednesday, hoping the first fresh, wild Alaskan sockeye salmon fillets had arrived, but took home a consolation prize, Atlantic Cod.

Fresh Atlantic Cod Fillets are $7.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. I cooked them in about 10 minutes in two kinds of bottled Mexican salsa that I brought to a boil, and I served the wild-caught fish with a baked sweet potato, also from Costco.

On Wednesday, the Hackensack Costco was selling 32-ounce containers of Georgia blueberries for $6.99 next to 18-ounce containers of the same blueberries for $5.99.

ShopRite celery

Today, I picked up a Pacific-brand Celery Stalk at ShopRite in Paramus for $1.49, but in handling the plastic bags noticed some weighed more than others.

The one I bought weighed about a quarter-pound more than others on the shelf.

ShopRite also was selling 16-ounce cartons of 100% liquid egg whites for $3.29 each (see photo below), compared to six 16-ounce cartons of pure egg whites from Costco for only $8.79.

'Healthy' pork, Starbucks' hummus and more

Putting aside the debate over whether animal fats are inherently unhealthy, you can find ham and pork ribs raised with none of the harmful additives used by factory farms, including a Niman Ranch Applewood Smoked Uncured Petite Ham, above, and Homestyle Meals Pork Baby Back Ribs, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I spent hours on the road Sunday, but the rest of the family enjoyed an Easter dinner of uncured ham and antibiotic-free baby back ribs.

To beat the crowds, my wife drove the few miles to Whole Foods Market in Paramus around 8:30 on Sunday morning, and picked up an assortment of naturally raised meat and poultry.

A fully cooked Niman Ranch Uncured Petite Ham was $7.99 a pound; Homestyle Meals Pork Baby Back Ribs, also fully cooked, were $15.10.

She also bought frozen Pineland Farms Oxtails, $7.99 a pound; and frozen chicken backs and necks for soup, $1.29 to $2.99 a pound.

I missed the ShopRite sale on sweet potatoes (5 pounds for $2.99), and bought a box at the Paramus store this morning for $3.99 or about 80 cents a pound.

Starbucks' hummus

Homemade hummus in Brooklyn is a distant memory, but I still enjoy scooping up the chickpea dip with fresh pocket bread, as long as it's made with a little tahini and plenty of garlic and lemon juice.

In recent years, I have enjoyed a great substitute for my mother's hummus at Aleppo, the Paterson restaurant named after the Syrian city where my Sephardic Jewish parents were born.

On Sunday, on a road trip to Baltimore, I stopped at the Clara Barton Service Area of the New Jersey Turnpike, and saw that the shortest line was at Starbucks and the longest at Burger King.

I ordered a 12-ounce Starbucks Veranda Blend coffee, and looking over the prepared food, selected a refrigerated plastic clamshell with three or four small pieces of pocket bread, cut vegetables and a small container of hummus.

My friend paid just under $20 for my coffee and hummus, and for him, a ham-and-cheese sandwich and Naked-brand smoothie.

When you're driving long distances on a major toll road, you can't be fussy.

The thick, grainy hummus, with the bread and vegetables, was filling, but not very tasty.

In other words, certainly nothing to write home about.

I noticed the cut ends of the broccoli florets were brown, then popped them into my mouth.

The Starbucks on the turnpike are franchised to HMSHost, an American subsidiary of an Italian highway and airport food-service giant, Autogrill S.p.A.

The hummus package was stamped with the day it was prepared (Saturday), and a label stating that it was for sale until 2:45 p.m. Sunday.

I baked the ShopRite sweet potatoes on parchment paper at 400 degrees for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the natural sugar oozed out of them.

Paramus ShopRite

At the ShopRite in Paramus, the 5-pound boxes had "SWEET POTATOES" written on them, but the sign said, "SHOPRITE YAMS."

Elsewhere in the store, potatoes sold loose for 99 cents a pound were labeled "sweet potatoes/yams."

Yams are usually starchier and drier than sweet potatoes.

Half-gallons of ShopRite Lactose Free 1% Milk were $3.49, and I've found this milk sweeter than Costco Wholesale's Organic Low-Fat Milk.

I don't add sugar to coffee or tea. A little sweet milk is welcome.

ShopRite's 6-ounce containers of Fruit on the Bottom Low-Fat Yogurt were 50 cents each, not the cheapest, but the yogurt blend is made with sugar, not fructose.

Fresh Atlantic cod fillets take about 10 minutes to cook in bottled Mexican green salsa with added lime juice and Aleppo pepper, above. The mildly spicy salsa also is terrific for adding a savory flavor to baked skin-on sweet potatoes, below.

The meaty cod cooks quickly in a covered, non-stick pan, and flakes beautifully. 

Cod from Costco Wholesale

I wanted to pick up fresh fish for dinner at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, but I had skipped lunch and my stomach was empty.

Don't food shop when you're hungry, I've read, or you'll buy more than you need.

Of course, I could always try a few free food samples first before I started shopping.

When I walked into Costco around 3:30 this afternoon, I panicked -- no samples, not near the vitamins or the gum and snacks, not near the freezer cases. No cheese, no salsa, no crackers, no nothing.

I still managed to keep my purchases under $100.

A 2.26-pound package of wild Atlantic cod, long-line caught in Iceland, was $7.99 a pound.

Two 1-gallon bottles of Kirkland Signature Fresh Pressed Apple Juice were $7.99; 2 pounds of those incomparable Campari Tomatoes were $4.49; and 1 liter of Kirkland Signature Grade A Dark Amber Maple Syrup from Canada was $11.99.

Two liters of Sambazon Organic Acai Juice from Brazil -- labeled a "super food" -- were $8.99. 

A 28-ounce bag of organic, sun-dried Made in Nature Dates from Tunisia was $8.79, and a 5.5-pound bag of frozen Normandy Vegetables (organic broccoli, cauliflower and carrots) was $7.79.

After a dinner of cod prepared in bottled Mexican green salsa, with lime juice and Aleppo pepper, I had a salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix ($4.99 for 1 pound) with crunchy, skin-on Sunset English Cucumbers (3 cukes weighing a total of 2 pounds for $3.99).

No pits, no preservatives.

Snowy Atlantic cod all the way from Iceland, arsenic in food and more

Cod two ways. Fresh, wild-caught Atlantic cod coated in a homemade Super Spice Mixture paired with organic whole wheat shells and salted cod in marinara sauce.

Editor's note: Atlantic cod  fed the world for hundreds of years before the wild catch was severely restricted. Now, this wonderful fish is being long-line caught in Iceland, and sold at Costco Wholesale for only $7.99 a pound, along with salted cod from Canada. Today, I also discuss arsenic in food.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You have to love Atlantic cod, a wild-caught fish that turns snowy white when cooked and flakes beautifully.

This is the fish that fed the world for centuries. The U.S. commercial catch collapsed in the mid-1990s.

Now, Costco Wholesale in Hackensack is selling Atlantic cod from Iceland ($7.99 a pound), where it is long-line caught by a sustainable fishery, replacing the Pacific true cod I've been buying for a couple of years.

Costco also offers 2 pounds of Cristobal-brand salted cod fillets from Canada for $11.99 -- less than $6 a pound.

My two-cod dinner ended with a salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix with ripe pear and shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese.

Salted cod with cabbage and collaloo, which is similar to spinach, served with mashed sweet potatoes with extra-virgin olive oil, a little salt and a touch of cinnamon.

Fresh cod fillets are meaty and break into big flakes.

Every spice you have

I squeezed fresh lime juice on the cod fillets, coated them with a Super Spice Mixture and baked them at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

For the spice mixture, I start with Wick Fowler's 2 Alarm Chili Kit, and add every spice and dried herb I have at home, including chili powder, garam masala, garlic powder, five-spice powder, dried onion and black pepper.

I make a big tub of the spice mixture and keep it in the refrigerator to coat fish, chicken, beef and pork.

Shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano add flavor and texture to organic brown eggs from Costco, served here with leftover organic brown rice, one of my favorite bread substitutes at breakfast.

Say cheese

Costco Wholesale still has the best price in North Jersey for wedges of Parmigiano Reggiano, the hard, reduced-fat cheese that is one of Italy's great culinary gifts to the world.

Costco's Kirkland Signature cheese, aged 2 years, is $11.79 a pound. Costco also sells this cheese shredded.

We recently purchased a 10-pound bag of sweet potatoes at Costco for $7.99 a pound, but came across an old receipt that showed the same 10 pounds cost only $4.99 before Christmas.

On Monday, I picked up three 32-ounce bottles of
Classico Traditional Tomato & Basil pasta sauce for $6.79 or about $2.26 each, but these bottles hold about 6 ounces more than those sold in supermarkets.

Kirkland Signature Marinara was $7.99 for three 32-ounce bottles. Neither brand has added sugar.

I also picked up another 12-pack package of Kirkland Signature Roasted Seasoned Seaweed from South Korea for $7.89.

Each of the packages, larger than what is sold at Korean supermarkets, weighs six-tenths of an ounce. 

The thin, crinkly sheets can be eaten out of the package for a snack or used to wrap rice, barbecued beef or raw fish.

Organic whole wheat shells from Whole Foods Market with salted cod and fresh chopped garlic in bottled marinara sauce with added extra-virgin olive oil, red-pepper flakes and dried herbs.

Another great fish sold at Costco Wholesale is Alaskan sockeye salmon -- smoked and sliced -- used here in a frittata with cheese, sun-dried tomato and Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto, above and below.

Arsenic in food

The March 2014 issue of Consumer Reports says the Food and Drug Administration "has found arsenic levels in rice and rice products comparable to those" found by the magazine in its own investigation.

The FDA also found "another surprising source of arsenic: beer, which sometimes uses rice as an ingredient," the magazine states.

Arsenic is found in white rice and apple juice, as well as beer and rice beverages.

The magazine said medium-grain rice from California tended to have lower levels of inorganic arsenic than rice originating from other areas of the United States.

"One way arsenic might enter the food supply is through the use of arsenic-based drugs in feed given to chicken, turkeys and pigs to prevent disease and promote growth.

"Poultry droppings are used to fertilize many crops and can contaminate them with arsenic. And chickens that are likely raised with arsenic-based drugs result in chicken parts that can have higher inorganic arsenic than other chickens," the magazine reports, citing a 2013 study by the John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. 

Update

Here is a link to the only arsenic food certification agency:

http://arsenicsafe.org/

At H Mart, the sea bass doesn't pass the smell test

H Mart, the Korean supermarket on Lafayette Avenue in Englewood, boasts that it gets fresh seafood from the Fulton Fish Market, but doesn't say how often that is. Whole Foods Market in Paramus says it gets seafood deliveries six days a week.

Editor's note: Holiday food shopping is hit or miss, and you have to fight all that traffic and other shoppers who seem to be gathering ingredients for their last meal. Today, I discuss shopping at H Mart, ShopRite, Costco Wholesale and other stores.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I've purchased and enjoyed literally hundreds of whole fresh fish from H Marts in Bergen County in the past dozen years -- whiting, mackerel, sea bass and more.

But three plump sea bass I bought at the Englewood H Mart on Sunday for $4.99 a pound didn't pass the smell test.

Knowing I had a couple of other stops to make on the way home, I asked the man at the fish counter to give me a bag of ice to keep the wild-caught fish cool after he cleaned them.

I picked up two crispy baguettes at Balthazar Bakery on South Dean Street in Englewood that were still warm from the oven ($2 each).

Then, I continued down South Dean, stopping at Jerry's Gourmet & More for a 2.2-pound bag of coffee beans from Torrisi in Italy ($18.99).

The Italian specialty store hasn't had any Lavazza coffee beans for many weeks.

When I got home, I could smell the fish through the closed plastic bag -- not a good sign.

Wild-caught shrimp from Mexico at H Mart in Englewood.

I asked my mother-in-law to look at the fish, and she indicated they seemed to be OK. But when she started to cook them, she didn't like how they fell apart, so she asked me to return them.

The man at the H Mart fish counter apologized, and I got a full refund.

I didn't ask the H Mart employee when the sea bass had come in, but selected that fish because it is one of our favorites.

At home, as my mother-in-law was washing and cleaning parts of the fish the fishmonger had missed, I noticed the eyes weren't as clear as they should be.

After I got my refund of $22.85, I bought wild-caught shrimp from Mexico for $14.49 a pound (under 12 per pound).

Jinga-brand Fish Cake Roll (a seaweed-and-rice roll known as kimbap) was $2.49 or half price after 4 p.m.

I slice Balthazar baguettes and store them in the freezer, toasting them when I want to use them for sandwiches -- from canned fish salad with Dijon mustard, lime juice and cumin to peanut butter and jelly.

At the Rochelle Park ShopRite, a 40-ounce bottle of Victoria Marinara Sauce was $7.99, compared to $8.49 for two 40-ounce bottles of the same pasta sauce at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. Last month, an instant Costco coupon brought that down to $6.14 for two bottles, and I bought four.

ShopRite v. Costco

At the Hackensack ShopRite on Sunday, I picked up three 25.4-ounce bottles of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider on sale for $1.99 each, a savings of $1.50 a bottle, less than the same apple cider at the nearby Costco Wholesale.

Liter bottles of Adirondack Original Seltzer were two for $1.

Trimmed French green beans from Costco Wholesale can be prepared quickly by blanching in boiling water for about 5 minutes, draining the pan and adding extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lime juice, salt and other seasoning.

Costco's Atlantic cod

Fresh cod fillets showed up at my Costco Wholesale today after an absence of many months.

But this fish is from the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific, and comes all the way from Iceland, where it is long-line caught by a fishery certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

The wild-caught fish is from a company called North Coast Seafoods, and the price is an easy to swallow $7.99 a pound.

Atlantic cod is the fish that literally fed the world for hundreds of years before over-fishing prompted regulators to declare a moratorium on large commercial catches.

Other Costco purchases included three 32-ounce bottles of Kirkland Signature Marinara Sauce, made with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh garlic and basil, for $7.99 or about $2.66 a bottle.

A wedge of aged Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy was $10. 69 a pound, the lowest price in North Jersey.

Shaved Parmigiano Reggiano with Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, both from Costco. The delicious, triple-washed salad is $4.99 for a 1-pound package.

At the Seafood Road Show, I saw frozen wild-caught octopus from the Philippines for $3.49 a pound, and enormous frozen Black Tiger shrimp, which are farm raised in Vietnam, for $19.99 a pound. 

I also got a $5.49 refund for a large bag of hard pears that never ripened, even though we ate all but two of them.

Fairway goat meat

Before Fairway Market opened a Paramus store, we would stop at the Harlem outpost on the way back from dining out or seeing a show in Manhattan.

We liked the goat meat on the bone, and purchased it regularly.

But when it opened, the Paramus store never carried goat meat, even though North Jersey is as diverse as Manhattan. 

I was told several years ago I could call the Paramus store and ask the butcher to get the goat meat from Manhattan, but twice today, the phone rang and rang, and no one in that department ever picked up.

Whole Foods Market in Paramus occasionally has frozen organic goat meat, but this afternoon, I could not find a space in the lot, turned around and went home.

COMFORTING BREAKFAST: Eating the broken yolks of organic eggs prepared sunny side up with mashed sweet potatoes, which were plated and reheated in the microwave.

Canned fish salad -- yellowfin tuna, pink salmon and sardines -- dressed with Dijon mustard, fresh lime juice and ground cumin, and served with stewed tofu, tomatoes and cucumbers sprinkled with za'atar thyme mixture.