Confused customers trying to adapt to changes at ShopRite in Paramus

At the ShopRite in Paramus, shelving has been replaced with new refrigerated cases for milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy products, as well as orange juice and ice cream. Half-gallons of ShopRite Lactose Free Milk are $2.99 each.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite in Paramus has customers searching for such familiar products as lactose-free milk.

The store at 224 Route 4 east just finished replacing aisles of refrigerated shelving with refrigerated cases, and in the process, moved the store brand of lactose-free milk and many other dairy products.

This morning, I heard two customers say they were "totally confused."

Another annoyance is that the doors on the cases are inconvenient for left-handed people like me, but that's nothing new.

I stop at the Paramus store once or twice a week on the way home from the gym to shop for a limited number of items.

I continue to spend most of my food dollars at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and the Costco Business Center in Hackensack, where, by the way, the food court still has not reopened.

Even for large sizes, the Paramus ShopRite usually can't match Costco's prices.

I saw a 40-bottle pack of Poland Springs Spring Water for $6.99 at ShopRite or $2 more than at Costco.

Another change apparent in the front of the Paramus store is that shoppers are greeted by a display of cookies instead of Golden Pineapples and other fruit.

Like the smaller, more expensive Campari Tomatoes sold at Costco Wholesale, Big Taste Tomatoes are grown in hothouses in Mexico. At the Paramus ShopRite, 1-pound packages were on sale today for 99 cents each. I haven't tried them yet to see if they rival the Campari Tomato.

A 3-pound bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes is $5.99 or about $2 a pound, but organic baby yams and sweet potatoes are $3.99 a pound, below. I found a 3-pound bag of conventional sweet potatoes on another shelf for $2.99.

Yams are starchier than sweet potatoes.

A new item is Newman's Own for the Common Good organic pasta sauces. Instead, I purchased two 44-ounce jars of Classico Tomato & Basil pasta sauce with no added sugar, on sale for a total of $6.19 (about $3.10 each). A pound of Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy is now $1.29, up four cents, but still a better buy than similar products from Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market.

For breakfast: Seafood, pasta and sweet potatoes

Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli Pasta continues to be a reliable substitute for bread at breakfast as I try to maintain a 45-pound weight loss on a no-bread, no pizza diet. I made the pasta with Classico bottled pasta sauce and Black Tiger shrimp from Costco Wholesale.

The fusilli pasta and shrimp with a fluffy smoked wild salmon breakfast frittata.

To a mixture of whole organic eggs, egg whites, shredded cheese, low-fat milk and Costco's Organic No-Salt Seasoning, poured into a non-stick pan over medium heat, I add slices of beefsteak tomato, smoked wild salmon and Costco's refrigerated Basil Pesto. I then finished the frittata for about 15 minutes under a low broiler setting until the top was browned and the pesto was sizzling.

Cut-up Costco sweet potatoes with their skin are boiled, then mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, a little salt, powdered garlic and other seasoning for use as another bread substitute at breakfast, above left. I ate them with a section of leftover frittata and Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce.

Leftover pan-fried wild cod fillet from Costco Wholesale, plated with chopped collaloo, a collard-like green, and drizzled with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Extra Hot).

Minimize the salt, maximize the flavor

A less-salty version of pasta sauce with sardines eliminates anchovies.

But I added grated cheese, which has sodium, to my portion of rigatoni.

The biggest source of sodium in my hearty red pasta sauce with sardines is a 2-ounce can of anchovies -- so they were the first to go.

I've been adding anchovies to bottled pasta sauce for years to add a robustness without a fishy taste. The tiny fish completely dissolve in the bubbling sauce.

Instead of 32 ounces or 40 ounces of bottled sauce, I downsized to a 24-ounce jar of Classico Tomato and Basil, and that cut the amount of sodium further.

I poured the sauce over leeks I had sauteed in a large, non-stick pan with a glass cover; added red-pepper flakes and dried Italian herbs, and about 6 ounces of sodium-free extra-virgin olive oil.

I opened a can of Moroccan sardines with oil, drained them in a plastic colander and actually rinsed them under cold water to get rid of more salt.

I added them to the sauce and chopped them with a wooden spatula.

There is no need to salt the water or add more than enough to cover the pasta.

I cooked Colavita Whole Wheat Rigatoni ($1.49 for 16 ounces at Jerry's in Englewood) until a minute or two before it was al dente, drained it and finished cooking it in the sauce.

My wife gave me the thumbs up when she tried it, but I thought it could use a little more salt and added grated Pecorino Romano sheep's milk cheese to my portion.

Delicious. I drank a glass of Italian red wine to celebrate.

Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Sardines and Leeks.

Related article

• How I reduced salt in a favorite dish

'Health crisis' linked to animal antibiotics

ShopRite's brand of antibiotic-free chicken.

Consumer Reports has issued its strongest statement to date on the use of antibiotics to raise animals for human consumption.

The popular consumer magazine, which accepts no advertising, is calling on all grocers "to require their meat suppliers to reduce antibiotics in livestock production [on factory farms], and we urge shoppers to support those efforts by buying meat labeled 'no antibiotics' when they can."

On Page 6 of the August 2012 issue, Consumers Union -- the magazine's policy and action arm -- said it "believes that sharply limiting antibiotic use in animals is necessary to preserve the effectiveness of drugs for treating diseases in people."

"The declining effectiveness of antibiotics is becoming a national health crisis.

"A whopping 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. are used not for human health but by the meat and poultry industry to make animals grow faster and to prevent sickness in crowded and unsanitary conditions."

For more information, go to a Consumers Union  Web site: Meat Without Drugs

You can usually find low-quality Perdue chicken --which is raised on plenty of harmful antibiotics -- at 40% off in ShopRite supermarkets.

Can Can sale

ShopRite supermarkets offer antibiotic-free Readington Farms poultry, as well as products from Coleman Organic, but it still runs fire sales on Perdue and other low-quality chicken raised on antibiotics, as it is doing now during the Summer Can Can Sale.

I prefer to buy seltzer and pasta sauce at Can Can prices.

I've now amassed 144 cans of Adirondack Lemon-Lime Seltzer, enough to last until the next Can Can Sale.

Packs of 12 12-ounce cans are $1.99 during the 10th anniversary sale, a discount of $1.80.

I also picked up six 24-ounce jars of Classico pasta sauce at two for $4: Tomato and Basil, Spicy Tomato and Basil, and Cabernet Marinara With Herbs.

Bottled pasta sauce is just a base, because we add a can of anchovies and oil, red-pepper flakes and dried Italian herbs.

Last night, we also added capers to the sauce from one and a half Classico bottles, and used it with 1 pound of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti. 

 

H Mart

Baby mustard greens were only 68 cents a pound on Sunday at the Little Ferry H Mart.

Wash greens and blanch them in boiling water. Drain the pot, and add salt and other seasonings, and olive oil. For an Asian  flavor, try a little soy sauce and sesame oil.

For breakfast on Monday, leftover mustard greens went well with an open-face egg-white omelet of smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon and capers.

Mung-bean pancakes are among the many free weekend samples at H Mart stores.