Baby aspirin, egg whites, organic pasta, takeout, Can Can sale, more

If you take a baby aspirin every day, as I do, you'll be struck by the dramatic price difference at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro between 400 Bayer tablets for $12.49, above, and the 730 Kirkland Signature tablets for $4.49 that I bought last week, below.

Costco's Kirkland Signature Low Dose Aspirin tablets are supplied by LNK International. The Hauppauge, N.Y., company makes solid- and liquid-dose over-the-counter pharmaceutical products for retailers nationwide, according to the January 2017 issue of The Costco Connection magazine.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Although not everyone agrees on the health benefits of taking a baby aspirin every day, Costco Wholesale members are unanimously in favor of how much they save over a national brand.

You get nearly twice as many coated, low-dose aspirin tablets -- and save $8 -- when you buy Costco's Kirkland Signature brand instead of Bayer, a German pharmaceutical giant.

This is another dramatic example of how Costco puts added value in most of the products sold under the house label.

Everything from Kirkland Signature's 81-milligram aspirin tablets to such Kirkland Signature wines as California Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec from Argentina, both available at the Costco Wholesale in Wayne. 

On a visit to the Wayne Costco in December, I picked up eight bottles of wine, including a non-Kirkland Signature boxed set of four Grands Vins de Bordeaux from France for $29.99 or about $7.50 a bottle.

The one bottle of Bordeaux I tried so far was delicious, but I was disappointed to learn I could have found the same bottles elsewhere for about the same price. 

Kirkland Signature Organic Quinoa, on the other hand, appeared on Costco shelves last year in a larger package and at a lower price than the national brand it replaced.

A hearty breakfast includes an egg-white omelet stuffed with wild Alaskan smoked sockeye salmon and reduced-fat Swiss cheese, served over organic quinoa prepared with organic diced tomatoes and California garlic cloves -- all from Costco. Kirkland Signature Cage-Free Egg Whites are $8.99 for six 16-ounce cartons or about $1.50 each, below.

365 Every Day Value Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Italy dressed in a homemade, heart-healthy ragu of Victoria-brand Vodka Sauce, sardines and anchovies.

At Whole Foods Market, 1-pound boxes or packages of organic whole wheat shells and other shapes are $1.49 each, a better buy than non-organic brands sold in smaller packages. They also can't match the nutty taste of organic whole wheat pasta, which is also available at ShopRite supermarkets and Trader Joe's. Cooking time for the pasta is about 9 minutes, not the 14-15 minutes listed on the package.

I reserved a few ounces of sauce to use for poaching eggs. Victoria is one of the few brands offering a Vodka Sauce free of artery clogging heavy cream. All the ingredients are listed on the front label. I usually add a few ounces of red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, some red-pepper flakes and dried Italian herbs to the pan as the sauce is being heated.

Before adding them to the sauce, I rinse and drain the anchovies to reduce the sodium content of the dish, and mince the sardines (3 cans for 1 pound of pasta) with a fork before they go into the pot. Fattal's at 975-77 Main St. in Paterson sells Al Shark-brand sardines for 99 cents a can.

On Friday afternoon, Jerry's Gourmet & More at 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood ran out of complete restaurant-quality dinners to go, so I picked up two containers of Cheese Lovers' Tortelloni, made with five cheeses, for my wife and son.

As I browsed at Jerry's, I enjoyed several free samples of cheese and bread, including a chewy olive loaf, top.

Can Can Sale at ShopRite

On Thursday, I shopped the first week of the 2017 Can Can Sale at ShopRite in Paramus.

I made a few purchases, including five 12-can packages of Adirondack Seltzer for $10, a savings of $8.95 with a store card, according to my receipt.

The Can Can Sale doesn't offer the wide range of deep discounts it once did, and you can find great buys at ShopRite at other times.

For examples, I picked up several bottles of ShopRite Sparkling Cider from Spain (100% juice) for $1.67 each on Dec. 29.

Golden Pineapples were $1.97 each.

When it's too cold to go out: Stay in, cook comforting food, eat, drink

EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK: A Middle Eastern spice, Mexican-style salsas, reduced-fat Swiss cheese and smoked wild Alaskan salmon are among the ingredients in this 10-inch frittata, which warmed me on a zero-degree day.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We ran around on Saturday in the bitter cold, and when we drove home from a concert around 10 p.m., the temperature readout on my car's dashboard was 4 degrees.

Sunday morning was even colder -- zero degrees -- so we stayed in, cooked comforting food and drank a couple of glasses of red wine with our evening meal.

I've heard Italians don't use grated cheese on pasta dishes with seafood -- preferring bread crumbs instead -- but I've never understood why.

For dinner, I prepared a seafood pasta in a sauce made with Parmesan and Romano cheeses, and used grated cheese as an accent. 

Delicious.

And we had plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week, if we want to put a meal and a salad on the table in just a few minutes.

For the frittata, I used 3 cups of egg mixture -- liquid whites, whole organic eggs, grated cheese, 1% milk, chopped garlic, red-pepper flakes and other seasonings -- that I poured into a preheated 10-inch pan with olive oil. Once the bottom was set, I moved the frittata into the oven and finished it under a low broiler setting.

For dinner, I prepared Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Whole Foods Market with anchovies and sardines in Victoria-brand Vodka Sauce, which is made without heavy cream. I used 1 pound of pasta, about 35 ounces of sauce, three cans of skinless-and-boneless sardines, and one can of drained and rinsed anchovies. Optional is adding red wine, olive oil, black pepper and other seasonings to the sauce. For al dente pasta, boil for 9 minutes, not the 14-15 minutes listed on the box.

Big sale on family size Victoria Pasta Sauces at Paramus ShopRite

Victoria Vodka Sauce in a 40-ounce jar, above, and Victoria Marinara are on sale for $3.49 each at ShopRite in Paramus, compared to $4.50 for the same marinara sauce at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite in Paramus is having a 2-day sale through today, and Victoria pasta sauces are among the bargains.

Victoria Vodka Sauce, one of the few made without heavy cream, is $3.49 in a 40-ounce jar, a discount of $3.90 with the store's Price Plus Club Card.

The family size Victoria Marinara, which has no added sugar, unlike many others, also is $3.49.

None of the other Victoria varieties, such as Low-Sodium Marinara, are available at that sale price.

The 4o-ounce jar provides plenty of sauce to dress a full pound of organic whole-wheat pasta.

You also can use marinara to poach eggs or in an omelet with sauteed spinach and reduced fat cheese.

Out front on ingredients

The six to 12 ingredients in Victoria Pasta Sauces are listed on the front label.

On the back label, the marinara carries the stamp of the Non-GMO Project, meaning the sauce doesn't contain any genetically modified ingredients.

Even a great marinara sauce like Victoria can be improved with the addition of red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, anchovies, dried or fresh herbs and red-pepper flakes.

Besides pasta sauce, I picked up BPA-free plastic storage containers for $3.99, supposedly a discount of $4 (20 pieces).

ShopRite pitted olives, 3-inch basket coffee filters and Smart Balance Spread also were on sale.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Pasta from Italy in a 16-ounce package is always on sale at the Paramus ShopRite for $1.25. The package for the whole-wheat capellini, one of several shapes available, has been redesigned.

A 5-pound box of Clementines from Morocco was $4.99 on Friday. I prefer clementines from Spain.

A good buy on batteries?

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.

A 'sale' on pasta sauce, pricey Passover ingredient, wild sea bass

On Tuesday, I found 24-ounce jars of Victoria Vodka Sauce, one of the few that doesn't contain heavy cream, on sale for $2.99 each with a store card at ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east, Paramus. The store also had a rare sale on ShopRite Lactose Free Milk for $2.99 a half-gallon, a discount of 50 cents.

A 40-ounce jar of the same vodka sauce was on sale in late January for $3.99, but on Tuesday, the price was $8.49.

You probably couldn't get one of the dozen tables at Rao's, the Italian-American restaurant in the East Harlem section of Manhattan, so why pay an outrageous $8.49 for a 32-ounce jar of the joint's marinara sauce at the Paramus ShopRite?

A 2-pound jar of kosher for Passover Tamarind was $17.99 at the Paramus ShopRite. The concentrated sweet-and-sour fruit , from Thailand, is used in many Sephardic Jewish dishes, including stuffed vegetables.

The $3-plus price spike for Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon at Costco Wholesale didn't stop me from buying this wonderful fish, but the price has settled back to $15.99 for two half-pound portions. Here, I used a few slices to stuff a whole egg and egg-white omelet with fresh spinach, a slice of reduced-fat Swiss cheese and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa, all from Costco.

On Sunday, Fresh wild-caught black sea bass were $5.99 a pound at H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave., Englewood. My wife pan-fried them and dressed them in sweet and hot peppers, and onions cooked in vinegar. At the Little Ferry H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, a box of 14 Ataulfo Mangoes was $9.99 with a store card.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

'They were $3.99 last week,' says customer at ShopRite in Paramus

A 5-pound box of clementines from Morocco was $5.99 on Tuesday at ShopRite in Paramus, the same price H Marts in Englewood and Little Ferry were charging for clementines from Spain.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You could shop for food for decades and never figure out when and why supermarkets like ShopRite put stuff on sale.

ShopRite has Can Can Sales in summer and winter, but is that because people don't buy as much food in those months as they do the rest of the year?

At other times, ShopRite promotes its "Price Breaks," which usually last three days.

On Tuesday, the Paramus store off of Route 4 was selling 5-pound boxes of Moroccan Clementines for $5.99, but I overheard another costumer tell her friend, "They were $3.99 last week."

I bought boxes of Spanish Clementines on Saturday and Sunday at H Mart, and weren't interested in the ones in Paramus.

In fact, the only real bargain I found were 59-ounce cartons of Tree Ripe Orange Juice (not from concentrate) for $1.77 each with a ShopRite card (limit of four).

Free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia, on middle shelf, was selling at the Paramus ShopRite for $9.99 a pound side by side with the same cut of conventional U.S. beef for $12.99 a pound, top shelf. Last week, ShopRite had a sale on the same Australian beef for $6.99 a pound.

Late last month, I bought a 40-ounce jar of Victoria Vodka Sauce, which contains no heavy cream, on sale for $3.99 at the ShopRite in Paramus, below. ShopRite's own brand of Vodka Pasta Sauce, above, also is free of heavy cream, but contains xanthan gum, whey protein, and the Romano and  Parmesan cheeses in the sauce contain corn starch and cellulose. On Tuesday, Victoria Vodka Sauce was back to its regular price of $7.99.

Vodka Sauce without heavy cream, organic brown rice-quinoa combo

Victoria lists the ingredients in its pasta sauces on the front label.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm a big fan of bottled pasta sauces without added sugar, but usually avoid those made with cream, including Vodka Sauce and Alfredo Sauce.

For me, the draw is the taste of red tomatoes, not all that creamy, artery clogging saturated fat and cholesterol.

So, imagine my delight when I found a 40-ounce jar of Victoria Vodka Sauce made without heavy cream on sale at the ShopRite in Paramus.

The ingredients label on the front of the jar listed two cheeses and vodka, but no cream. 

The big jar was $3.99 or half-price, and there is enough sauce here to dress a full pound of organic whole-wheat pasta.

Unfortunately, I could find only one bottle on the shelves.

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack sells the highly rated Victoria Marinara in 40-ounce jars, but I have never seen Victoria Vodka Sauce in the warehouse store.

On the shelf at ShopRite in Paramus, a bottle of Bertolli Vodka Sauce boasts, "Now with More Cream." The label should add, "Now with More Saturated Fat and Cholesterol."

Bertolli Vodka Sauce also has added sugar and xanthan gum.

Seeds of Change organic Quinoa & Brown Rice with Garlic is already cooked, and only needs to be heated on the stove or in a microwave.

Heat-and-eat Brown Rice and Quinoa

My wife doesn't care for my habit of tossing handfuls of peeled garlic cloves into an electric cooker with organic brown rice or quinoa, even though the cloves turn out creamy.

This week, she found prepared organic Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice with Garlic at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Six 8.5-ounce pouches in a box -- a total of 3.2 pounds -- were $8.99, and each pouch yields about three servings.

It's a tasty combination of 100% whole grains, but the garlic taste isn't that evident.

The ingredients label lists brown rice first and then quinoa (say KEEN-wah), but the product is called Quinoa & Brown Rice.

Those labels are supposed to list ingredients from greater to lesser amounts.

At the Paramus ShopRite, blemishes in these organic apples might explain why they are labeled, "Manager's Special."