Amazon

I did some pantry shopping on Amazon today, these are only Prime-Eligible products...

Almond Flour
* $7/lb for a 5lb bag of Anthony's Almonds Natural Almond Meal/Flour:
* There was also a "blanched" variety of this, but I don't know what that means & it was a little more expensive.
...well a few minutes later I got notice that this product was no longer available but the blanched was. So I learned that blanched means the almonds are soaked in water & skins removed.  Almond flour is finer while almond meal is coarser & usually has skin.
 *I'm changing my recommendation to the Anthony's Almonds Blanched Almond Flour 5lbs at $7.60/lb (Winco is cheaper and nuts.com is more for the same size.)
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Ghee
* There is a 56oz jar (3.5lbs!) at $0.64/oz ($35.85), Nanak Pure Desi Ghee.  But that seems like a lot.
* Whole30 recommends the Pure Indian Foods brand & that's available as both cultured ($1.64/oz) or not ($1.60/oz).  Don't know what cultured means or what the difference is.
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Canned Salmon
* Wild Planet Sustainably Caught Pink Salmon $0.92/oz (6 cans for $33.19) - the Sockeye is more expensive.
* The Kirkland Signature brand of Sockeye won't show the label so I can't confirm added ingredients, but it's $2.21/oz!
* The winner is Crown Prince Natural Pink Salmon Wild Caught - I can't see the ingredients list either, but it's a 12-pack at $0.46/oz. for $41.34. Here's the description:

• Case of twelve, 7.5-ounce cans with pull-top lids (total of 90 ounces)
• MSC Certified sustainable seafood; gluten free; kosher
• Contains 1.5 grams of omega-3; excellent source of protein; low sodium
• Traditionally packed to include the bones and skin for added calcium
• Sustainably wild caught; product of Canada

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Coconut Butter
* Artisana seems to be the leading brand (and recommended by Whole30.)  The large container is 16 oz at $0.83/oz, the smaller one at 8oz is twice as much at $1.87/oz. They also sell it in 10-packs (small pouches) at $1.33/oz.
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Coconut Milk - Randi already commented in her post & I got the same thing.
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Tahini - $0.72/oz, only one choice
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Sesame Oil - best deal is Kevala 8oz at $1.32/oz, assuming you don't want to buy gallons.
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Cashews - 5lbs raw for $29.45 ($5.89/lb)

Full Circle Review

After getting two full circle boxes, just wanted to let you know how I like it so far!  I love getting a box on my porch every Tuesday.  I also like that it is 100% customizable - they give you a list of what is in the standard box, and then you have about 20 options of things you can trade out for. And you have from Wed-Sun to do it. I haven't gotten anything that I didn't want, and the quality is really good.  With a few exceptions.  The avocados I got last week were bad.  I had to throw them all away.  And this week, one of my pears was mushy. They have a 100% guarantee, 

so if you don't enjoy something in the box, you call or email and they credit your account.  Though I really like the service and the quality, I do think it's pretty spendy and much of what I am getting is coming from Mexico and California because of the season.  It's all organic, but I'm trying to decide if it makes sense to keep doing it.  I am probably more concerned with getting good eggs and meat at this point, and I'm not sure we can afford the organic produce too. I downgraded my box size to save some money and am going to stick with it for another couple of weeks.  When more stuff is in season I will likely switch to Terra and try the clean 15 box from them.

WinCo Prices

WinCo has Organic Coconut Flour for $3.24/lb, and Almond Flour for $6.55/lb in the bulk section. The almond flour doesn't say organic specifically...

I would be willing to pick these up for anyone if you are not at WinCo regularly, and/or don't want to go there :)

Websites

http://whole9life.com/

http://whole30.com/

Balsamic & Rosemary Chicken

http://www.primalpalate.com/paleo-recipe/balsamic-and-rosemary-chicken/

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil, Extra Virgin
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 tsp Rosemary, fresh, minced
• 3 Chicken Breasts, boneless skinless
• 1/2 tsp Salt and Pepper, to taste

Process

1. Rinse chicken breasts under cold water, pat dry with a paper towel, and place in a baking dish.
2. Drizzle olive oil over all 3 chicken breasts, and lightly rub to evenly distribute the oil.
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken.
4. Press fresh garlic and rosemary into chicken breasts.
5. Roast at 400°F for about 20–25 minutes or until the meat yields an internal temperature of 170°F.
6. Remove chicken from oven and pour 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar over fully cooked chicken breasts.
7. Serve with a fresh sprig of rosemary.

Cookbooks

On cookbooks:  There are things I love about the first Well Fed.  Namely, her explanation of her weekly cookup (which I have yet to try), and a handful of recipes that we use regularly.  I've cooked probably 50% of the things in that book and we've loved some, not most.  Well Fed 2 has A LOT more variety and I've had more success with that one.  But it could be that I just had more of a feel for her style and was better able to pick out what I thought we might like.

One thing I absolutely love about the Well Fed books (1 and 2) is that at the end of each recipe she has a little text box that says something like "You know how you could do that?" and then follows with suggestions for different meat and spice combinations to change the overall flavor of the dish.  It's pretty cool for people who don't know much about how spices work together (like me).

My new books came Thursday.  Practical Paleo is the beautiful one that I bought based on attractiveness alone.  Lots of handy charts and neat visual displays.  If you are feeling overwhelmed, the charts help to take all that swirly info and tack it down.  She also includes pictures of cooking techniques that you may not be familiar with, like how to deglaze a pan.  Or the difference between chopping and dicing.  Also, she includes a really nice series on different dietary needs (blood sugar, autoimmune disorders, MS, thyroid support, etc.).  She talks about key nutrients to focus on, which foods you can find them in, and then puts together a 30 day (!) mealplan for each type of need.  Pretty cool.  

HOWEVER, the first half is a summary of WHY paleo... purely informational.  Once you've read it (or skip it because you already read It Starts With Food or GAPS or Grain Brain or The Body Ecology...), it's a lot of pages to lug around all the time as you sort through recipes.

I haven't had much time with The Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook.  Just enough to totally critique the family pictures she chose to include and to empathize with her very awkward teenage son who clearly DOES NOT feel comfortable with the whole photo shoot thing.

~Randi

Meat

I bought some grass fed ground beef at Tacoma Boys last night for $6.99/lb. 

Butcher boys didn’t have grass fed ground beef when I was there last.  I will be going there again today for some steak.  I’ll let  you know if anything has changed.

~Molly

Produce

I used Full Circle last year and LOVED it.  They deliver, and also have a pickup option now, but is totally worth it to me to have it delivered.  I signed back up with Full Circle today because I had a 40% promo code...when I reactivated my account, they gave me this code FCREFER which gets you 40% off the first box and gets me a $10 credit. 

I did a little bit more research and it seems like Full Circle is pretty comparable to Terra Organics.  The large box from each place look to have similar quantities...though Full Circle may have just a bit more.  Full Circle is $3.00 more, which accounts for the delivery (so they would be the same if you had Terra deliver).  

~Jen

Prices

Coconut oil:

It's $20-something at Costco for 78 ounces.  Nutiva organic is the brand.  Maybe $28, which works out to about $0.35/oz. I'll confirm the exact price next time I'm there.

Coconut flour:

I have purchased Let's Do Organic 6 pack (6, 1-lb bags) on Amazon (prime) for $31.02, which works out to $5.17/lb.

HOWEVER, I'm seeing that Nutiva (same brand as the Costco coconut oil) has a 3-lb bag for $11.54 (also Amazon prime) that is just $3.86/lb.

Coconut aminos:

Coconut Secret 100% Organic Raw is $7.99/8 oz bottle at Tacoma Boys (the only store I've seen it in).  Amazon (not prime, but still free shipping), case of 12 for $72.54 ($6.05/bottle).

Coconut milk:

GAPS has me make my own with shredded coconut (which I buy from Nuts.com). Paleo doesn't care, so...

Organic Native Forest is $3.59/can at Fred Meyer.  I found it on Amazon (prime), case of 12 for $29.88 ($2.49/can).

Almond flour:

It's close to $10 per pound at Fred Meyer.  Nuts.com sells in 1 ($8.99/lb), 5 ($8.72/lb), and 25 ($5.99/lb) pound increments. It's painful to pay $150 for almond flour, but I have only ordered twice in about a year and a half...

Cacao Powder:

Raw organic... Navitas Naturals is what I'm currently using at $14.54/lb.  I'm seeing Healthworks at $12.99/lb (both Amazon prime).

Almond butter:

We use the make-your-own machine at Fred Meyer for $6.99/lb.  Costco carries a creamy version, but we don't like having to stir the oil back into it.

~Randi