Whole Story

Thanks to everyone who entered! Congratulations to our 31 winners of $50 gift cards, and our 5 grand prize winners: Emily P. of Austin, TX; Gina T. of Minnetonka, MN; Lavona Q. of Reno, NV; Kathy R. of Naperville, IL; and Janice C. of Reisterstown, MD! To celebrate the New Year, we want to show you that eating healthy can be affordable. Make your choices count by picking up our list of pantry staples — that rings up at about 50 bucks — and you’ll be set for healthier meals and a healthier budget. Running the gamut from beans, grains and oats to broth, diced tomatoes and pasta sauce, you’ll be prepared to drive past that drive thru in favor of healthy meals at home. Just add fresh ingredients and spices to have everything you need to cook 14 of our favorite recipes (we’ve listed them below). To get the party started, we’re giving stuff away! All you need to do is send an email to pantrycontest@wholefoods.com by January 31st telling us what healthy foods are “must haves” for your pantry. We’ll select random emails in February for our pantry-focused giveaway. You might win: $50 Pantry Staples Stock Up – We’re giving away 31 stock ups. Winners will receive a $50 Whole Foods Market® gift card along with a list of suggested pantry staples needed to make 14 of our healthy recipes. Five grand-prize packages include:

• Pantry Staples for a Year – Each grand-prize winner will receive a Whole Foods Market gift card for $599 to use for stocking your pantry for a year.
• Customized elfa® pantry system from The Container Store ($500 value) – Each grand-prize winner will receive a customized pantry design from The Container Store and a $500 elfa Store More Card to makeover your pantry.

Regardless of whether you win a prize, our Pantry Stock Up List (download the list as a PDF) is designed to make you a winner when it comes to fixin’ dinner.

• 1 lb black beans
• 1 lb lentils
• 1 lb quinoa
• 2 lbs brown rice
• 3 (32-oz) boxes vegetable broth
• 1 (32-oz) box chicken broth
• 1 lb rolled oats
• 2 cans cannellini beans
• 1 lb orechiette pasta
• 1 lb pasta, your favorite kind
• 1 can black beans
• 1 jar unsweetened applesauce
• 1 (32-oz) box unsweetened soymilk
• 1 (32-oz) box unsweetened almondmilk
• 1 (5-oz) can tuna
• 3 (15-oz) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 package no-oil sundried tomatoes
• 1 jar pasta sauce

We priced these in our 365 Everyday Value® line and the list came in around $50. Feel free to visit our bulk department and keep an eye out for sales for even more value. Now that you have a well-stocked pantry, just add fresh ingredients, herbs and spices to be able to cook all of these recipes:

• Simple Black Bean Soup
• Beef and Quinoa Meatballs
• Zesty Quinoa with Broccoli and Cashews
• Lentil Chili
• Brown Rice with Chicken and Broccoli
• Oatmeal-Apple Pancakes
• Overnight Oatmeal
• Tuscan Tuna Salad
• Mexican Taco Stew
• Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe, Sundried Tomatoes and White Beans
• Almond Brown Rice Pudding
• Learn to Cook: Brown Rice
• Learn to Cook: Quinoa
• Simple Oatmeal

Some of these recipes make six servings and some make four. Altogether you’ll get a total of 66 servings with some leftover ingredients for future recipes. Don’t forget to send an email to pantrycontest@wholefoods.com by January 31^st to be eligible for our random giveaways. What are your “must have” healthy pantry staples? The fine print: No purchase necessary. Promotion ends January 31, 2012. Must be a legal resident of the US or Canada (except in Quebec, where it is void) age 18 or older to participate. Taxes on prize, if applicable, are the responsibility of the winner. Employees of Whole Foods Market, Inc., are not eligible. Void where prohibited. Note: Looking for comments? Due to overwhelming response (yeah for everyone who wants to eat healthfully in the New Year!) and the technical challenges it created with our website server, we’ve changed the contest so you enter via email instead of by commenting. If you entered a comment on this post previously, your entry has been recorded and you don’t need to worry about not seeing it below. Good luck!