Fresh & Easy (and cheap too)

Dropped into the new Fresh & Easy market down the street. It's a different kind of grocery store - kind of like an expanded Trader Joes. Even the fruit & veggies are packaged...not sure how I feel about that - although one upshot is that your stuff hasn't been manhandled by a string of unknown persons. Somewhere Adrian Monk is smiling...

A lot of things are made fresh with no hardcore preservatives. They have a large variety of ready-to-eat & ready-to-cook entrees. The look of some of the sauces threw me a little but then they don't add any artificial colors or preservatives so that could be the difference. The portions are perfect for couples or single people like myself. People with a full house to feed might find it too pricy for family dinners but then again I guess that's relative. You could probably get 3 Ready to Eat entrees to feed 6-8 for $20-24. which is cheaper than most restaurants.

In the meat section, there were 2 perfectly portioned filets of salmon packaged with a marinade in a seperate pouch. I saw a package of 4 skinless organic chicken breasts that looked so fresh & appetizing I almost took them home. (While I eat meat, I generally don't cook it myself for a myriad of reasons...so this temptation was significant for me.)

On the front of the refrigerated packages there is a large use by date. It threw me at first because the dates come up so quick. Again it occured to me that the lack of preservatives would require you to consume it sooner...and that's a good thing. Kind of gets you into the Big City/Euro way of living - buying and consuming only what you need for the week.

The prices are pretty good too. Here's some things I purchased:

Organic Yogurt .98
Almond Butter 4.98
Garlic Hummus 2.19
Bowtie Pasta 1.09
Wheat Pizza Dough 1.19
Olive Tapenade 2.50
Honey Wheat Pretzels 1.38
Blue Corn Tortilla Chips 1.68
Tapioca Pudding Cups 2.89
Vanilla Almond Granola 2.69
House Ranch Dressing 1.59
Bag of 12 Key Limes .94


I had to try the Ginger Limeade - made with Water, Fresh Organic Lime Juice, Organic Cane Sugar and Organic Ginger Juice - the sugar was the third ingredient down and you can taste the difference. It's super tart with a nice amount of ginger to offset the citrus zing. Only 4 ingredients and no neon green food dye...gotta love that.

The Honey Wheat pretzels are great. The Vanilla Almond Granola is tasty - it sweetened up the Organic Yogurt which was on the tart side. I wasn't expecting to like the Tapioca but it was good - creamy & less starchy than the commercial stuff.

There aren't any checkers so you have to ring yourself up, which I don't mind. I didn't have to bag my stuff though. There was a nice guy at the end of the conveyor who split his time between me & the lane next to me. I was bagged & ready to go before I finished my transaction.

I plan to have the Hummus with Chips & Baby Carrots for lunch tomorrow - I hope it's good. I'm going to make a BBQ Chicken Pizza with the wheat pizza dough & the cooked chicken slices I got to go on it. I may have to freeze it until next week - no day off or night home until Sunday. My current work/life schedule doesn't allow for home-cooked meals. But when it does, I'm definitely going to be having more fun at the grocery store.