Unpacking the Groceries with an Educational Twist…

by wayland, April 6, 2009 | Permalink

We all know how kids love to help unpack groceries. Here is an idea how to get more bang for your buck and win some oh-so precious time after a few hours spent at the grocery store.

With the exception of perishable foods that have to be refrigerated immediately, do not put the groceries away, with our without your kids’ help, right after you get back home. Last time I did big shopping, I unpacked everything, shoved the meats, cold cuts and milk in the fridge and hurriedly piled everything else on the kitchen table. I didn’t do it on purpose I just had very little time left to make dinner. My five-and-a-half-year-old son came up to the kitchen table and curiously started inspecting the piles. Then with a sparkle in his eye, he told me he was the store manager and whether I needed anything. I was just in the middle of peeling the potatoes but I jumped at the idea right away. The store manager used the vertical fan that was standing in the corner of the kitchen to scan boxes, cans and packages. He found the table placemat to be very useful for weighing bananas and lemons. We went back and forth ordering, scanning, weighing and delivering groceries. We had a chance to practice reading simple words, such as ‘peas’ or ‘pasta,’ and some basic math – “How much do I pay if corn is $1 and tissues are $2?”  Before we had to clean the table for dinner we had an hour or so of great, educational fun at zero cost. I bet many of you did that with your kids already, right?

Why I shop at Whole Foods Market (from a mom’s perspective)…

by wayland, April 6, 2009 | Permalink

By Kate Blaski

At this time and age it’s almost a cliché to say I shop here because I want to eat healthy food. This statement might have sounded right back in the 90s. If I just added that I want my family to eat healthy food or even want my children to eat healthy, the phrase still sounds a bit worn out. Nowadays we hear it everywhere – from our mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, doctors, teachers and dieticians. It seems there are magazines everywhere carrying slogans such as: ”Healthy recipes,” Healthy meals”, “Ten healthiest foods” and so on. This healthy food mantra is everywhere but unfortunately doesn’t always seem to make it to our dinner plates.

Of course, I am concerned about my health and that of my family. But I’m not a health nut. Even though I put spirulina in my smoothies, I only take a probiotic and a multivitamin supplement once a day. I’m not a granola person, but I have had my share of muesli back in the day when I was a vegetarian. And although I eat a lot of green leafy vegetables and even grow my own sprouts sometimes I’ve never had juice made out of wheat grass. And I have only very recently discovered kombucha.

Putting all this aside, I shop at Whole Foods Market for more important reasons. First of all, whenever I come food shopping here with my kids I never have to fight with them over a box of cereal with a picture of one of the latest superheroes or cartoon characters on it along with its highly overly processed and overly sweetened content. Shopping at Whole Foods lets me know my kids are safe and they can pick whatever they want really, whether it’s cereal, cookies or fruit snacks.

There is also the husband issue. Late at night, after the kids are asleep and I’m settling down with my book I often hear rumblings in the kitchen from the pantry doors opening and shutting, the fridge doors slamming followed by the quiet rustling of a paper bag and the secretive munching of potato chips. After a long and tiring day week at work my husband pulls out a bag of oven baked, no-trans-fat potato chips to unwind in front of a ballgame on TV on the weekends. Even if he does this sometimes during the week I still can relax and not get mad at him as I know the food he is snacking on is healthy.

And for me?  I also know that through the types of food choices I make, it helps support producers of natural and organic foods whether it’s a smokehouse on the Cape or a coffee plantation in Kenya. I shop at Whole Foods because it saves time – I don’t have to scrutinize labels, scan tiny prints of the list of ingredients in order to avoid harmful preservatives. Simply put, I do it for peace of mind. It is obvious that Whole Foods got the title of the Healthiest Store in America for a reason.

Welcome to the Wayland Blog Page!

by wayland, January 20, 2009 | Permalink

We have created this page for you…our valued customers, as a way of keeping the lines of communication open and helping us help you better.

We update our Calendar section of our website weekly, so please visit it to see what we have coming up for fun events.

If there is an event that you would like to see, please use this blog to convey that information to us!

Remember to set aside Thursdays from 4-5 for What’s Cooking in Wayland!, our weekly sampling event, in which we feature new and exciting products in every department that you may normally not get the chance to sample…

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