Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Whole Foods Visit #1

After work this afternoon, I ventured over to the largest and newest Whole Foods.  It also happens to be the furthest away of the three I shop, thus I get there the least often.  Nonetheless, I had so much fun! Prepare your peepers, people - this is a 19 picture post. (These are all via my Blackberry, feel free to click the image to increase size.)

Produce:
 So pretty!
 Prepackaged produce
 Hummus, anyone? (Yes, it's mostly hummus.)
Raw food happiness.
 For Sarah. . .
The Tofu / Seitan / Tempeh / Soy Product case:
 Right next to my beloved Bhakti Chai (Of course I bought one! They were on sale!)
 The halls of frozen food. . .
 Bulk Bins: a little blurry, as there were a lot of people - had to be fast!
Not much to offer vegans in the dessert case, but I can say these (vanilla 'cheesecake') are good:
 I shamelessly took pictures at the hot bar.  
 It's hard to get both sign and dish in the same shot! But you know what these are:
 It says: Vegan Potato and Garbanzo Curry
It says: Vegan Apple Cranberry Crunch
 Vegan Veggie Lover's Pizza (it's the best angle I could get! Employee wouldn't leave me alone.)
Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes these:
Where I get my Veggie Salad Rolls, Vietnamese Noodle Salads, and Tofu Spring Rolls.  I know this case well.
 There were four other pre-made meal cases like this, but none of them had vegan offerings.

The best part (other than the fun at stealthily taking pictures) was that I had less impulse purchases.  I went in for kale, potatoes, bananas, tofu spring rolls and a chai.  And that's what I bought.  If this was enjoyable, let me know! I'll make it a point to visit and post pictures of the other two.

Long day tomorrow, see you Thursday. . .
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12 comments:

  1. OOOOOOOOOOOOMG can we talk a little bit about how jealous I am of your raw and gf sections!?! Amazing, they are huge and have great stuff!

    The produce section looks huge and lovely and so colorful. I love the produce section, it is like shopping in a rainbow. The sushi case also looks great and I bet I could do a lot of damage at that hot bar! Vegan Mexican rice?! Yes please! Apple cranberry crunch sounds pretty great too. We don't have vegan pizza either, I want to switch hot bars with you!! :)

    I feel like I could spend hours in there. Thanks for the tour, definitely loved this post! I am still intrigued by the chai, I want to find it! Thanks for taking the photos for us, I remember what it's like to go into stealth photo mode at WFs ;)

    Hope the long day goes quick tomorrow!

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    1. This WF takes the gluten-free cake, for sure! I need to spend an afternoon alone, devoted to checking out all the items - I don't even know half the stuff they have!

      I love produce sections in general, but they did a great job prepping for the evening rush. I wish I had been hungry, as I could've picked up a few hot bar items to review! It changes so frequently, hard to know what they'll have next time. Vegan pizza does pop up pretty frequently - which I haven't tried (what's my deal?!).

      I'm so glad you enjoyed the post! I was absolutely inspired by your trip a while back! :)

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  2. WOO!
    I went to a Whole Foods for the first time in Portland Oregon last month. Lets just say - their hummus section had me hypnotized for five solid minutes. I literally had to be dragged away. I wanted to try every one! (I'm a hummus hoarder - I have a whole draw in my fridge dedicated to my hummus, and nobody else is allowed to eat it.. ;) )

    Anyway, thank you for sharing these photos! It is always interesting to see how the same stores vary in the options they have available. Go WF!

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    1. WF can be a dangerous, time-sucking vacuum. If I don't have a plan, I stay too long and spend too much! Ha,ha! Too funny about your hummus drawer!! Do you have a favorite flavor? I'm partial to garlic.

      So happy you appreciated the post! It was a lot of fun. :)

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  3. Wow that is one bigass Whole Foods. And there is our intrepid blogger Ingrid sneaking around taking pictures - hee hee. Definitely like this post. Happy Whole Foods-ing.

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    1. It is massive! There is only one other that can rival it, and it's in the western suburbs. It has a wine shop attached to it! I never shop there, so who knows if their volume = quality.

      I happily take the picture snapping assignment - there will be another!

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  4. Your big *ss WFs is similar to the really nice Whole Foods in Fair Oaks (Fairfax) but you have way more vegan offerings. There must be more of a market for these items out west. Awesome post. I would go crazy in that store.

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    1. This one is about 20 minutes away, so I figure with the near $4 gas prices, it usually isn't worth it. However, they have a lot of vegan friendly items not carried in closer WFs.

      This store is the creme de la creme, but I will still go to the other two at some point. The one with coconut kale is always packed, and in a trendy neighborhood - might have to go early. The other (with the breakfast burrito) is small, and used to be a Wild Oats.

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  5. This was great! Please post more like this in future.

    KathyD

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    1. Hi Kathy!

      Glad you enjoyed the post! I'll be sure to post another like it before too long. :)

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  6. Better off making your own hummus from scratch, it's so simple with a food processor. Our local WF store is beautiful but you need to have just won the lottery to shop there. I only go when I am looking for hard-to-find international items such as Indian foods. Otherwise, a poor slob like me can't afford their prices.

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    1. Hi Bex! Homemade hummus is really good! You're right - WF is expensive, so I try to just get high quality stuff there - and the rest from Sunflower Market or a local chain.

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