Let them eat bread -- while you maintain your hard-won weight loss

A 10-inch frittata with smoked wild salmon, sweet potatoes and fresh spinach (folded into the egg mixture) starts out on top of the stove and finishes under the broiler. After you remove it from the oven, add Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale, where you can find most of the other ingredients.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Sweet potatoes, baked or mashed. Organic brown rice and organic quinoa prepared in an electric cooker. Organic whole-wheat pasta imported from Italy.

Let me count the substitutes I've enjoyed since embarking on a no-bread, no-pizza diet several years ago, and shedding 40 pounds.

I put back about 10 of those pounds after I gave up one of my two part-time jobs and became less active.

But the bread substitutes still work to help me maintain my weight loss, and they can be enjoyed at any meal where bread is served, even breakfast.

Of course, I don't drink soda, never touch dessert, eat reduced fat cheeses and try to avoid pasta sauces and other products made with added sugar, which is linked to the obesity epidemic.

A wedge of the frittata with baked and mashed sweet potatoes, the latter made with extra-virgin olive oil, cinnamon, curry powder and other seasonings.

Organic brown rice joins mashed sweet potatoes at another meal with a wedge of frittata.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Capellini, an Italian import available for $1.25 a pound at ShopRite in Paramus, complements an egg-white omelet stuffed with spinach.

Mateo's Gourmet Salsa and Earthbound Farm Organic Baby Spinach, both from Costco Wholesale, are perfect for stuffing a 10-inch omelet made with Kirkland Signature Egg Whites.

Mateo's Gourmet Salsa has no added sugar. A 32-ounce jar was $4.97 at Costco in Hackensack.

Some Kirkland Signature spices now have a new top, above, replacing a top that would sometimes come off, below, dumping ounces of black pepper, red-pepper flakes and other seasoning into the food you were preparing.

Here, I was seasoning the frittata egg mixture (16 ounces of whites and three whole organic eggs) after folding in the fresh spinach with a spoon.

Here, organic brown rice makes a nice foundation for a light dinner of salted fish prepared with sweet peppers, all accented with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce, below.

Organic quinoa (prepared in an electric cooker with organic black beans, organic diced tomatoes and olive oil), with Roasted Chipotle Salsa I used tonight to poach wild-caught Icelandic Haddock Fillets, below.

The fresh haddock was $8.99 a pound at Costco. A 16-ounce jar of the salsa was $2.69 at Whole Foods Market in Paramus. I used most of the jar to poach 1.8 pounds of the fish in under 10 minutes. Tonight, I added the fresh juice of a lime and a little red wine to the salsa, and brought them to a boil before adding the fish and covering the pot.

More fish tales from eating out and eating in

Lotus Cafe in Hackensack's Home Depot Shopping Center does a brisk takeout business. The Chinese BYO, which opened in 1993, offers free delivery within 3 miles, with a $12 minimum (450 Hackensack Ave., Hackensack; 201-488-7070).

Seafood Soup for 2 is filled with tender shrimp, squid, fish cake and vegetables in a perfectly seasoned broth ($7.50).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Saturday morning, I discussed with my wife eating out at either Wondee's or Lotus Cafe, two favorites near our home.

By mid-afternoon, my wife informed me that, on the one day we eat out, everyone had made other plans.

I flirted with the idea of driving to Fort Lee for sashimi -- which no one else in the family touches -- but decided it was time for a simple Chinese meal of soup, vegetable and rice.

I drove to Lotus Cafe, ordered Seafood Soup for 2, Chinese Broccoli Stir Fried with Fresh Garlic and brown rice.

Chinese Broccoli Stir Fried with Fresh Garlic is both deliciously leafy and crunchy ($9.95). Brown rice is available at no extra charge.

At home on Saturday morning, I prepared a smoked wild-salmon and Swiss cheese frittata with bottled Mexican green salsa and prepared pesto, above and below. The basic mixture included egg whites, whole organic eggs, shredded cheese, organic low-fat milk and sun-dried tomatoes, with most of the ingredients from Costco Wholesale, as was the salmon, reduced-fat Swiss cheese and pesto. 

Ackee and Salt Fish, the Jamaican national dish, can be made even spicier with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Black Label). The bland ackee fruit and boiled green banana are foils for salted fish from Costco Wholesale (Canadian cod or Alaskan pollock), and sweet and hot peppers, garlic, onion and scallions, below.

Seasoned and pan-fried fresh, wild haddock fillets from Costco Wholesale ($8.99 a pound) are especially good covered in sauteed sweet peppers and onions.

Why can't I find what I want at Costco Wholesale?

An open-face, egg-white omelet with sliced Campari Tomato, Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and shredded Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (all ingredients from Costco Wholesale), served with leftover baked sweet potatoes and organic carrots.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Where are those bleach tablets I bought for a couple of years at Costco Wholesale, and dropped into my toilet tank to keep the bowl white?

Where are those Kirkland Signature fruit, seed and nut bars I carried around to help me skip lunch?

They're not available at my Hackensack Costco.

Last year, Della-brand organic brown rice disappeared for a couple of months before it re-appeared.

By that time, I had switched to another brand, Lundberg, a non-GMO long-grain brown rice that is grown in California.

I found another great vegetarian soup from Cedarlane Natural Foods in California at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today.

Now you see them ...

In addition to stuff that disappears after you get to like it, Costco stocks "seasonal" items for only part of the year.

Refrigerated soups are nowhere to be found in the summer months. Sweet potatoes only show up around the holidays. 

Other stores sell sweet potatoes year-round. 

Today, I picked up Cedarlane Chopped Tomato and Vegetable Soup with Quinoa ($7.99 for two 32-ounce containers).

I also bought a package of frozen wild mackerel fillets caught in Norway and prepared with sea salt in South Korea (2 pounds, 3 ounces for $14.99).

I probably could do better buying fresh whole mackerel and having it filleted at H Mart or another Korean supermarket.

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Fresh fish fillets

Other purchases include Nature's Bakery Fig Bars ($8.49), Kirkland Signature Organic (Brown) Eggs (24 for $6.99), Kirkland Signature Multigrain Bread (2 loaves for $4.49) and 2 pounds of Jarlsberg Lite Sliced Swiss ($8.59), one of the three reduced-fat cheeses I buy at Costco.

I also picked up a 1-pound package of Kirkland Signature Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon ($15.59).

The sliced salmon is great for adding to omelets and frittatas or for eating rolled up with Jarlsberg Lite Swiss Cheese and dipped in Dijon mustard.

For dinner, I bought 1.74 pounds of flounder fillets from Iceland that were packed today ($7.99 a pound). 

The wild-caught haddock in the case was from Nov. 30, and I haven't seen any Pacific cod fillets in the past two months or so.

The thin flounder fillets cooked in about 5 minutes when added to a pan with bottled Mexican green salsa and fresh lime juice that were heated until they were boiling gently.

Flounder fillets in bottled Mexican green salsa.

I served them with boiled and mashed skin-on sweet potatoes, Kabocha squash and garlic cloves moistened with extra-virgin olive oil and seasoned with Kirkland Signature Himalayan Pink Salt and Organic No-Salt Seasoning.

Costco's Kirkland Signature brand is sending mixed quality signals

Chicken wings for under $2.30 a pound at Costco Wholesale.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Kirkland Signature is the premium house brand at Costco Wholesale, but members are discovering the quality of products carrying that name isn't always the highest.

Last week, my wife came home with a 10-pound bag of Kirkland Signature Chicken Wings for $22.99 or less than $2.30 a pound, an unusually low price when compared to supermarket wings.

For a reason that eludes me, supermarkets charge more for chicken wings than for other, meatier parts, including drumsticks and thighs.

But with the Kirkland Signature wings, only the price is special. 

The wings are from chickens raised on antibiotics that have proven harmful to humans.

The same can be said of Costco's wildly popular, fully cooked Kirkland Signature Rotisserie Chicken, which is raised on antibiotics and non-vegetarian feed.

The ingredients label of Costco's rotisserie chicken should give you pause.

 

It doesn't make sense for Costco to sell inferior chicken wings and rotisserie chicken under the Kirkland Signature label side by side with other, high-quality products, including:

Preservative-free, smoked wild sockeye salmon from Alaska; a spread made from organic fresh strawberries, and organic diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Kirkland Signature also offers premium Green Tea Matcha Blend from Ito En, made with 100% Japanese tea leaves; organic low-fat milk and other items. 

When my wife wanted to buy more chicken wings from Costco, I told her to get antibiotic-free Empire kosher chicken.

But she couldn't find any Empire wings, and I couldn't find antibiotic-free or organic wings at the Paramus ShopRite.

The first time my wife brought home the Kirkland Signature wings she said she has assumed all along that Costco sells only naturally raised food at low prices.

Sadly, she is mistaken. Costco is not above trying to hide low quality under its Kirkland Signature label.


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Simple accents brighten any meal

Coarsely ground Aleppo pepper and chopped fresh garden herbs are two of the simple accents that give extra eye and taste appeal to fresh wild salmon and organic eggs.

Editor's note: Summer brings fresh wild salmon, garden herbs, Jersey blueberries and other tastes of the season. Today, I discuss simple accents for home-cooked meals and present further adventures in food shopping.

I have mint and oregano growing in my garden, and a container of coarsely ground Aleppo pepper in my refrigerator, and I use them with a free hand.

The fresh herbs and the mildly spicy pepper work best with fish and egg dishes.

Wild-caught whiting need little more than seasoning and flour before frying, below.

I found the large whiting at H Mart in Little Ferry.

The run of fresh wild sockeye salmon from the Copper River in Alaska has ended at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, and now the packages just say, "Product of  U.S.A."

We bought another fillet on Monday for $10.99 a pound, and I prepared it using a simple recipe from Mark Bittman, whose New York Times column is called "The Minimalist."

Wild salmon with sliced tomatoes, capers, Aleppo pepper, olive oil and lime juice before I placed the pan in a preheated 400-degree oven set on roast/convection.

The leftovers went into the refrigerator.

For breakfast, I plated wild salmon with a cheese-and-smoked-wild-salmon omelet.

Bittman tells you to season the wild salmon portions, place the tomato slices and capers over and around them, and drizzle on some extra-virgin olive oil.

The recipe also calls for chopped red onion, but I didn't have that on hand.

I added the Aleppo pepper and chopped oregano from my garden, and roasted the fish for 10 to 12 minutes in a 400-degree oven.

I buy my Aleppo pepper at Fattal's Bakery, 975-77 Main St., Paterson. It is open 7 days.

Other simple accents are sun-dried tomatoes and bottled Mexican green salsa, shown here on an egg-white omelet with leftover brown rice from Lotus Cafe in Hackensack.

At Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Tuesday, I saw fresh wild sockeye salmon fillets for $16.99 a pound, compared to $10.99 a pound at Costco.

Wild Alaskan Sockeye Smoked Salmon was $5.99 for 4 ounces or about $24 a pound. At Costco, a 1-pound package of the same smoked sockeye salmon is $15.39.

But I found frozen Coleman Organic Ox Tails for $6.99 a pound -- an item I've seen in no other store.

Whole Foods Market is the only store I know that pledges its farmed salmon is raised without pesticides, antibiotics or growth hormones. Farmed salmon is artificially colored.

Whole Catch is a store brand at Whole Foods Market.

I didn't see this sign the last time I visited Whole Foods in Paramus.

$5 bowl of soup

Lunch at Panera Bread in Woodcliff Lake.

I stopped for lunch on Monday at a Panera Bread in the Tice's Corner Marketplace in Woodcliff Lake, and spent nearly $8 on soup and a medium coffee.

After I ordered a bowl of the Garden Vegetable Soup, the counter worker asked me whether I wanted chips, bread or an apple on the side.

I chose an apple, thinking how terrific it is that Panera Bread offers customers a healthy choice, then looked at my receipt: The soup was $4.99.

Tastes of summer

H Mart in Little Ferry had a 32-ounce bottle of Best Mango Juice Drink from Egypt for $2.99. This is the first mango drink I've seen in the U.S. that contains 50% juice.

New Jersey blueberries are one of the great tastes of summer.

Jersey Fresh Blueberries were $1.99 a pint on July 1 at ShopRite supermarkets, and 2 pints for $5 at Whole Foods in Paramus on Monday, where they are on sale through today (regularly $4.99 a pint).

At H Mart in Little Ferry, I picked up a 32-ounce bottle of thick, sweet 50% mango juice from Egypt for $2.99, and a box of 16 Champagne mangoes from Mexico for $9.99 with a store card.

A 15-pound bag of California-grown Kokuho Yellow Label rice was $8.99 -- a discount of $6. 

Speaking of mangoes, my wife used a couple of ounces of Grace-brand Fish & Meat Sauce from Hackensack Market on Passaic Street to make a gravy filled with vegetables, which we ate over rice and peas (kidney beans) as a side dish to fried whiting.

The sauce is made of tomato paste, mango, sugar and a few other ingredients.

Above, a gravy filled with vegetables goes well with rice and peas, below.

Sweet, seedless watermelons up to 22 pounds were $3.88 each at ShopRite on July 1 -- a discount of $2.11 per melon.

Costco is still charging $5.99 per watermelon. 

Also on July 1, my wife found a rare sale on Readington Farms chicken -- ShopRite's antibiotic-free poultry brand.

She saved 66 cents to 92 cents on packages of thighs and drumsticks.

Missing the target

The fresh produce section at Target in Paramus.

With no scale in sight, shoppers may wonder how much bananas are by the pound.

Refrigerated cases light up when you approach them.

On Tuesday, I saw half-gallons of lactose-free milk at Target for $3.34, compared to $3.39 at ShopRite. 

I saw fat-free and 2% lactose-free milk, but not the 1% milk I prefer.

Going wild over wild salmon

Image via Wikipedia

I combined fresh wild sockeye salmon and smoked wild sockeye in a superb breakfast sandwich this morning. 


The fresh fish was left over from dinner last night, when I baked the fillet I bought at Costco with a little salt, Aleppo red pepper, chopped herbs and lemon juice. At 350 degrees, I got rare pieces in about 7 minutes, medium in about 10 minutes.


I toasted whole-grain bread, spread one piece with homemade pesto, added the two kinds of wild salmon, tomato with za'atar thyme mixture, organic salad greens, a little parsley-and-red-onion salad and sliced cheese. Wow.


The bread, preservative-free smoked salmon, Campari tomato and organic salad greens also came from Costco.

(Photo: Sockeye salmon)