Today started off like any other Sunday.
Ryan and I awoke just before 8 a.m. and made a delicious breakfast of eggs with cheese, Canadian bacon and a toasted sweet wheat bagel.
Unfortunately we each only got one egg because we only had two left in the carton. It turned out okay though because once we placed the egg, cheese and Canadian bacon on the bagel and made ourselves egg sandwiches for breakfast, neither of us seemed to miss the extra egg.
Once we were done eating, we changed, said goodbye to Sadie and headed to church. After church, Ryan drove to soccer practice (in the rain 
) while I hit up Whole Foods.
I was on a mission. A mission for fennel.
I saw a recipe in Clean Eating magazine that utilized the plant in a delicious-looking side dish and wanted to pick some up to give the recipe a try sometime this week.
I planned to do my weekly grocery shopping at Publix after my pit stop at Whole Foods, so I made a beeline for the produce department, grabbed some fennel and headed to the counter. (Well, I did get a little sidetracked by the fresh rolls at the bakery and some cool-looking seaweed snacks.)
When the man behind the counter told me my total, I almost pulled a Sadie and peed myself.
My bill was almost $12 and the FENNEL comprised $8.50 of the bill. What!? Is this some kind of a miracle plant?
All I can say is that I better like this stuff. A lot. In fact, I’m hoping Ryan and I can survive on fennel for dinner two nights in a row this week. I hope he’s game.
Once my all-too-expensive trip to Whole Foods was over and I downed a bakery roll in the car to soothe my irritation, I stopped by Publix, the mecca of buy-one-get-one-free deals, for the rest of our groceries.
After purchasing our weekly staples, I headed home, unloaded the groceries and complained to Sadie about the fennel.
She didn’t seem to care about my fennel blunder until I told her that the money I spent on the fennel was coming out of her chicken jerky budget. Ha!
Since I ate a roll in the car on my way to Publix and then enjoyed a lot of free samples at the grocery store (apparently Super Bowl Sunday means billions of free samples… I even got half of a hot dog for free!), I wasn’t too hungry for lunch by the time I arrived home.
I opened the fridge and grabbed the first thing that caught my eye…
The new mango-flavored Chobani Greek yogurt that the company sent me to try. I actually tried my first cup of this earlier this week as a snack, so it alluded the blog, but I must give credit where credit is due and say this stuff is the jam! It tastes so tropical… like paradise in a cup. I think it would be great in smoothies or enjoyed in a massive yogurt bowl with a cup of the pineapple Chobani.
I just got a call from Ryan saying that he’s headed home from soccer practice, so I’m off to to make him a delicious fennel sandwich for lunch with fennel salad and fennel soup… and for dessert? A fennel sundae.
Hope your Sunday is treatin’ you well!
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Fennel dessert can be done (and deliciously!): http://www.dirtcandynyc.com/?p=2311
lol this tends to happen to me in whole foods a lot. in fact, i spent $12.30 on sweet potatoes/yams yesterday. ??!! they were just so pretty and huge, and i love the extra large ones…adds up fast!
Sorry if this is a repeat comment, but I think you may be able to really stretch out the fennel by using both the bulbs, and the herby grass stuff on the ends (in different recipes). Getcho moneys worth! And never forget to look at the per-pound price!
Can’t wait to see what you make with it
Whoa! That’s pricey! It’s so annoying when there’s that one specific ingredient you need and inevitably it’s the most expensive item in the dish… what a bummer. I hope the recipe works out for you!
I do the same thing…I go to Whole Foods for odd items and then next door to Publix, I love bogo’s! I check their add online before I go so I can rein myself in=)
A tip for using the fennel: It works really nicely when you make a big batch of baked vegetables!! I use a mix of potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, turnips (whatever you fancy, really) and sliced up fennel (the bulbs) and bake it in a mix of vegetable broth & white wine plus added garlic and rosemary. About halfway through baking, I pour a mix of olive oil and honey on top and let it bake again.
The rest of the fennel you can sprinkle on top at the end!
Totally looking forward to trying that Mango Chobani! I always have a greek yogurt everyday…and a lot of times its Chobani 🙂
Yikes about the fennel price! I’ve noticed some skyrocketing prices on things lately…a recipe I had called for dry dill weed and a super tiny thing of it at my grocery store was close to 8 dollars!
I always find one item on every Whole Foods receipt that makes me almost pee myself. I think you should focus on the larger victory of getting out of Whole Foods for under $12. That is practically a miracle.
That is insane! I hate it when fruits and veggies wind up so much more expensive than they should be!
I hear it’s pretty common for folks to call Whole Foods “Whole Paycheck” for their prices!! Glad you liked it, though! Old response, just back from our honeymoon 🙂 and catching up on your blog.
Welcome back!! Hope your honeymoon was amazing!