Goodness is EASY! Now pack your lunch & get outta here...

The good people at Fresh and Easy have come up with a new line of foods called, the GOODNESS line. Why? Because it's just that and to help get the word out I teamed up with Fresh and Easy (my favorite grocery store on the planet, btw) to throw a Goodness party at my house.

Mmmmm... food...

We even had Fresh and Easy Balloons!

The whole point of the Goodness line is to give parents/child caregivers nutritious, easy and affordable options when picking foods for kids. The line includes breakfast cereals, animal shaped mac & cheese, prepackaged fruit, baked chips, kettle corn and more and most importantly they contain no artificial colors, sweetners, flavors or preservatives, no added trans fats or caffeine and no high fructose corn syrup. This is real food your kids will love and many of the items are grab-and-go ready for snacks and lunch bags.

Aubrey & her friend get busy cooking up some more food for the party!

We tested the Goodness products out on my daughter, 3 year old Aubrey, and some of our friends and it was thumbs up all around. The mac and cheese was especially a hit and Aubrey loves the cereals for breakfast or an after school snack. Not gonna lie, so do I.

The happy Goodness testers

School season is in full swing, so if you're a busy mom, make your life a little easier and check out the products. Now go pack that lunch, guilt-free, and eat the rest of the Halloween candy before the kids come home from school. Oh come on, I'm not the only one... right?


Fresh and Easy stores can be found in California, Nevada and Arizona. If you're one of the lucky people to live in these states, here's a link to find a Fresh and Easy near you!

Summer With Fresh and Easy!

My display of Fresh & Easy YUM!

I LOVE it when I get a new Fresh & Easy delivery to my po box. I know there's some awesome stuff inside and, of course, I get to brag about it and share the info with my friends. Then, I get to EAT it!!

The fine folks at Fresh and Easy are helping us get ready for all those summer barbecues with grill packs, chips, buns, condiments, cookies, booze and more! YEAH!

For under $10, grab a ready-to-throw-on-the-grill "Grill Pack" that includes nearly five pounds of hamburgers, chili-seasonsed chicken and Italian sausages. Top them off with the basics like Fresh and Easy's organic ketchup, yellow mustard or Original BBQ Sauce, all for under $3 each!

Then toss your meaty McMeaterson on a Gourmet Wheat Hamburger Bun ($2.99) - baked daily at Il Fornaio, btw - and grab a handful of F&E Malt Vinegar & Sea Salt Kettle Chips and VOILA!!!! You have some serious kind of yum for social noshing.

Aubrey's a fan of Fresh & Easy!

I also got a small vat of F&E Soft Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies with Walnuts ($2.99) and a bottle of The Vine Yard Pinot Gris ($6.99). I have yet to crack the bottle of wine and the cookies were ok, but I have to say the Malt Vinegar & Sea Salt Kettle Chips ($1.49) are some of the best I've ever had. You can really taste the malt flavor of the vinegar and they have just the right amount of tangy bite. Surprisingly, my 3 year old daughter even loved them, so we have another new favorite to add to our F&E list of loves!

As usual, I can never say enough about Fresh & Easy. They are absolutely, hands down, my favorite grocery store on the planet and I can't wait for them to expand around the US so more of my friends and family can experience the love.

For those of you lucky enough to be here in SoCal, Fresh and Easy is partnering with award winning Grill Expert Neil Strawder (aka Bigmista) at four of their store locations to kick off the grilling season with special grilling tips and recipes and the first 100 people will receive a free reusable bag!

Fri, June 4, 5-pm

Fresh & Easy

4211 Eagle Rock Blvd, L.A. 90065

Fri, July 30, 5-7pm

Fresh & Easy

10930 Rosecrans Ave, Norwalk 90650

Sat, Aug 21, 4-6pm

Fresh & Easy

2121 W Main St, Suite 300, Alhambra 91801

Sat, Aug 28, 4-6pm

Fresh & Easy

19350-A W Nordhoff St, Northridge 91324

Eating WELL at Fresh & Easy!

Bloggers at Fresh and Easy

My readers know how much I LOVE Fresh & Easy and for those of you not in California, Arizona or Nevada, I really hope they decide to open a store in your hood soon. They're such a great company and I'm happy to support them!

Last night, a group of local writers/bloggers were invited to the Fresh and Easy offices in El Segundo for a tasting party, introducing their new EatWell line of prepared, individual meals, soups, salads, sandwiches and sushi. If you're one of those people eating a microwaved Lean Cuisine or Lean Pocket every day for lunch at the office, listen up! Fresh and Easy is pioneering a new way of daily eating that is convenient, REAL food on the go. Grab and go meals that aren't frozen, all natural and no preservatives.

Based on a 2000 calorie diet, these meals have limited calories, sodium and fat while still providing taste and filling portions. Yes, people, it can be done so why settle for crap? With prices ranging from $1.99 - $4.99 you have no excuses. Jamie Oliver is revolutionizing school meals, you can revolutionize yours!

Mmmmmm! Food!

We were treated to a lovely sampling of seven of the seventeen new EatWell items that will launch next week on April 7:

- Arroz con Pollo

- Creamy Basil Chicken

- Bruschetta Chicken

- Teriyaki Salmon

- Turkey Chili

- Spicy Tuna Sushi Square

- Veggie Hummus Wrap

They even had nice plates & silverware

I can honestly say that every single item was delicious! The Spicy Tuna Sushi and Teriyaki Salmon were among the best tasting items, however, I do have some concerns over the seafood suppliers - not just for Fresh and Easy - but from any grocery store and restaurant. Most shrimp that we eat is farmed in Asia and is full of anti-biotics and most of the salmon we eat is farmed as well which contributes to the destruction of our oceans and total ecosystem. Wild salmon is healthier than farmed salmon but is being fished to near extinction. We are destroying our oceans! OK, this is a whole other blog entry, but you can read more about salmon here and about the overfishing of our oceans at EndOfTheLine.com.

Bottom line, I personally, would not purchase the seafood items, nor do I eat seafood in restaurants anymore unless I know it's a sustainable seafood that's not endangered or farmed. As much as I love Fresh and Easy, I hope that they will put some consideration into the sustainability and healthfulness of the seafood they choose. It's a really serious issue and they've been outstanding leaders in other eco/green/health areas. I LOVE seafood, but I love the ocean and the 70% of the oxygen it supplies us even more!

So back to the EatWell line. The chicken dishes were great. The Veggie Hummus wrap was awesome and fresh. Fresh and Easy hummus is one my daughter's and my favorite. Yum! The list of new items also includes a few I can't wait to try, like Singapore Noodles and the Veggie Breakfast Bowl! Cool, huh?

Please visit Fresh and Easy and check out their new Eat Well products. Americans are obese and diseased and I firmly believe it's mainly because of the "food" we eat. Or actually, the real food we are not eating. It's time Americans realize we have real, healthy, delicious food options and we should demand that our stores do better. Enough is enough folks! Thanks Fresh and Easy for taking the lead!

FRESH & SUPER EASY! And Awesome!

Fresh & Easy: Bring your boyfriend. Wear matching shirts. Have a great time!

OK, first off my sincere apologies for posting this blog SO embarrassingly late, but I'm just now getting my personal blog, FunnyYellowMom, in order after a whirlwind of traveling and whatnot earlier in the year. Telling you of my true love for Fresh and Easy is something I couldn't just let fall by the wayside, even if it is five months too late, so... here goes...

Waaaaay back in July 2009 (yes, 5 months ago... time flys when you have a toddler), I was lucky enough to attend a Fresh and Easy cooking demo with their Head Chef, Mike Ainslie at Sur La Table in the Los Angeles Farmer's Market. I can not begin to tell you how much fun I had at this event, but let me begin anyway...

First off, if you're not in CA, NV or AZ, then you probably have never heard of Fresh and Easy... I think it's best described as Trader Joe's meets Whole Foods but simpler and more affordable. The employees are friendly and helpful, the stores are basic and food is natural with lots of organic, they have yummy free samples every day, recycle bins on the way out the door, two sizes of shopping carts... I could go on and on. SIMPLE and AFFORDABLE! LOVE IT!

Back to our cooking demo night: upon arrival there were appetizers and drinks and then we broke up into four groups and prepared four simple and affordable dishes with ingredients entirely from Fresh and Easy. My group made mini pizzas and I think mine were quite spectacular! They look like amoebas, don't they?!

The other dishes were baked honey dijon chicken fingers, salmon with soba noodles and beef fajitas. All of the dishes were prepared and cooked and then, the best part, we all got to eat together. Everything was delicious and at the risk of sounding like a complete cheeseball, I was really impressed by the affordability of the complete meals. One of the things I loved about this event is that we each received printed copies of all of the recipes with itemized prices of all of the ingredients.

Since this event, I've made the beef fajitas, pizzas and chicken fingers several times. I even had my friend, Marsha (aka Sweatpantsmom) and her family of four, over for Fresh and Easy pizzas last night! I'm not kidding, I'm really in love with this store.

And I'm lucky that I have a Fresh and Easy about 3 miles from my front door and since discovering it, I haven't set foot in a Trader Joe's. Their parking lots make me want to shoot myself in the eyeball. So good on ya, Fresh and Easy. Once again, I'm sorry this is so late, but I'll keep throwing pizza parties in your honor!