Marga's Food Blog

I eat!

Tag: safeway (Page 2 of 4)

Safeway is a super market chain operating in Northern California under that name and in Southern California under the name Vons. From time to time it buys other chains or is itself acquired by others. It’s hard to keep up. It’s the closest full size supermarket to my house, and the only one that does pick-up/delivery without a third party, so it’s where I do most of my shopping.

California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza review

July 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Not bad for thin pizza

I’m not a fan of thin crust pizza, but obviously carbs are bad for me so I could enjoy pizza more often if I could convince myself to go for the thin crust. California Pizza Kitchen might just convince me to do that.

I’d always liked California Pizza Kitchen, though I can’t remember going to an actual restaurant since my 22-yo was a baby. It’s not surprising, the only one in the East Bay is in Dublin, and if I’m going to go that way, I’m going to go to Zachary’s instead (and not for the thin pizza). Their frozen pizzas, however, are manufactured by Nestlé (a very problematic company). I didn’t realize that when I ordered this one, or that they also make DiGiorno and Tombstone pizzas). Hopefully I’ll remember and avoid them in the future.

These pizzas were on sale at Safeway last week for $6 (regular price is $10) and as we didn’t have particularly high temperatures forecast for this week, and I didn’t realize they were made by Nestlé, I decided to give them a try.

The BBQ chicken pizza tasted just like I remembered from long ao. I enjoyed the flavor combination of sweet (but not too sweet) BBQ sauce, chicken, red onions and cheese. The dough wasn’t too crispy, and it served the toppings well. Being so thin, it only required about 12 minutes in a pre-heated oven.

A pizza is large enough to serve 2 if you add a salad. At under 15-oz, it’s not a super great value, but probably better than filling yourself up with carbs. I’d get it again if it wasn’t made by Nestlé.

Signature Select Cranberry Walnut Salad Review

July 16, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Convenient and Tasty

I get Signature Select salads when they’re on sale at Safeway. My daughter likes the Caesar Salad, and I always go for the Cranberry Walnut one. The mixed greens come in a plastic bowl with a mini plastic fork an they are covered with a plastic insert with divisions for dried cranberries, chopped candied walnuts, feta cheese cubes and a raspberry vinaigrette. It’s easy to mix it all together in the bowl and not too messy. The proportion of greens to dressing and other ingredients is quite good and it makes for a tasty, if very light lunch as the whole bowl is just 4.5 oz (though the version sold at Vons is 4.75 oz for some reason).

Regular price right now is $4.50, which seems insane to me (as all grocery prices do), but they’re often on sale for $3 if you buy 3. If you order online, make sure to indicate a substitute as they will charge you the full price if you order 3, but they don’t have your choices. You can order more than 3 at the discounted price, however.

Bubbies Mochi Review

July 16, 2024 / / 1 Comment

The Ube Purple Yam flavor made me a fan

I’m not the biggest fan of mochi, a Japanese pastry made from glutinous rice, so I surprised myself when I added these Bubbies mochi ice cream treats to my cart after I came across them while online shopping at Safeway. I was also surprised at how much I ended up liking them.

The treats consist of flavored ice cream wrapped in a thin layer of mochi. The mochi is chewy and gelatinous, but thin enough that it actually complements the ice cream.

Ube, a purple yam from the Philippines, has a difficult to describe flavor, which to me is utterly forgettable – probably for this very reason. It’s sweet and somewhat fruity, pretty subtle and filled with umami.

The results were for a very enjoyable, not very sweet, treat. It actually made me think it’s something my grandmother would have enjoyed – which only confirms the fact that I’ve gotten old.

The treats come in a wide variety of flavors, though only a couple where available at my local Safeway. I’m totally intrigued about some of the others – blood orange, milk tea and passion fruit sound particularly interested – but I’ll have to wait to find them elsewhere. The package of 6 was $4 on sale at Safeway, but they usually sell for $7.50

Update

I also tried the matcha green tea mochi and I was surprised at how much I liked them. I’m not a huge fan of matcha, though the flavor has been slowly growing on me in the last few years. Here, I actually appreciated it. Once again I liked the consistency of the thin mochi and the light ice cream, but also appreciated how lightly flavored and sweetened the ice cream was. It was quite refreshing in a summer day. I won’t rush to order it again, I’m still not a matcha devotee, but I’ll finish the box.

The Pizza Cupcake Review

July 15, 2024 / / 3 Comments

I finally tried this Shark Tank product and it’s good.

Shark Tank, a show where budding entrepreneurs pitch investment opportunities in their companies to five billionaires, has been on national TV for fifteen years – but as I never watch TV per se, I didn’t really become aware of it until a few weeks ago, when YouTube started pushing episodes of it on me. After trying one, I got hooked on it – not so much for the pitches, but because it introduced me to some cool products, some wacky ones and some that everyone could see were destined to be failures. Several of the products pitched to the sharks have actually become popular since their appearance on the show, though so far, there is only one I’d actually bought myself prior to becoming acquainted by the show. I have been intrigued by some of the products featured, however, and when I saw that the Pizza Cupcake was available at my local Safeway, I thought I’d give them a try.

The pizza cupcakes are not cupcakes per se, but they consist of a pastry dough baked in a smaller-than-usual muffin tin, hollow in the center and filled with pizza sauce and cheese. They come frozen and you bake them in the oven. The secret of the cupcakes is the dough, it’s described as a mixture of brioche and sourdough and it’s light, airy and yet still chewy. It’s quite tasty and I loved he consistency. The pizza sauce was on the sweet side, it bordered on being too sweet an acidic – but as there isn’t much of it, it wasn’t a big deal. The cheese is just cheese, it could have used some Parmesan for a shaper flavor. The problem is that there isn’t enough sauce/cheese for the whole cupcake – only the shallow center has it. Fortunately, the bready borders are good dipped on ranch sauce, but you have to have some around to enjoy them that way.

I cooked my cupcakes in the air fryer, using the directions in the Pizza Cupcake website: preheat the air fryer to 350°, and then cook for 5-7 minutes (I did 6). That left me with some burnt spots on the top and cheese that was bordering on cold. Next time, I’ll try not preheating and doing 8 minutes, or maybe cooking it for 10 minutes at 300° – but I imagine all air fryers are different.

The package of 6 pizza cupcakes was $10 on sale at Safeway ($13 regular price), which seems way too expensive – though I find pretty much all food at Safeway too expensive nowadays.

Home Run Inn Cheese Pizza Review

May 24, 2024 / / 0 Comments

My new favorite frozen pizza

The final frozen pizza on sale at Safeway last week was Chicago’s Home Run Inn pizza. I got both a cheese and a pepperoni one and my daughter made the cheese. We both loved it. It’s hard to describe a pizza, but this one reminded me of the pizza served at La Vals in Berkeley when I want to college. It’s quite a bit thinner, but flavor wise it’s very close to what I can remember. It is probably my favorite frozen pizza ever.

Signature Reserve Wood Fired Gorgonzola & Bacon with Pear Chutney Neapolitan Style Pizza Review

May 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A success!

Safeway had a bunch of frozen pizzas on sale this week, so it seemed like a good opportunity of giving them a try. I’m not generally fond of thin crusted pizza (which is what I gather Safeway means by “Neapolitan style”), but it’s overall healthier.

This flavor particularly intrigued me, as pear and gorgonzola pair beautifully and bacon could only make it better. This time, I was right. The flavors actually all worked very well and the pizza was very good. I’d have it again (despite its crispy, thin crust).

Gorgonzola by itself would be overwhelming, so the pizza also has mascarpone and Mozarella cheeses – but I had to read it in the box, as it’s not apparent. The predominant flavor is gorgonzola, but in a reasonable amount. I did like both the bacon and the arugula, but felt it could have used more of both. The pear came in the way of a very sweet chutney. Of course, fresh pears would be better – or even a less sweet chutney, but it did provide a nice note to the pizza.

It’s made me want to try the other pizzas from this series – though only as long as they’re on sale for $6.

Gino’s East of Chicago Deep Dish Gooey Mozzarella Cheese Pizza Review

May 20, 2024 / / 0 Comments

The worst frozen pizza I’ve ever tasted

I absolutely love Chicago style deep dish pizza, so when I saw that Gino’s East of Chicago Deep Dish Pizzas were on sale at Safeway for $6, I had to give it a try. The reviews were so good that I got both a Mozzarella cheese one and a Supreme. Boy, was I disappointed!

The pizza tastes of one thing and one thing only: pasta sauce. And while it’s not a bad pasta sauce, it’s not a great one either. On top of some spaghetti, with some Parmesan cheese on top, I might even enjoy it. But it just does not belong on pizza. I am aware that the sauce for Chicago style pizza, unlike that for other pizzas, is cooked – so it lacks the fresh, fragrant flavor of raw sauce. But they still tend to taste different than pasta sauce. Zacchary’s, my favorite Chicago-style stuffed pizza chain in the Bay Area, uses a sauce very similar to just stewed tomatoes, which retains much of the freshness of the raw fruit. Gino’s sauce while still chunky, is really a melded sauce. It’s hard to describe other than it really makes you think of spaghetti sauce.

And while the sauce is on top, as is the custom for Chicago-style pizza, I couldn’t remove enough of it to be able to taste the other ingredients. It was just a mess. No one else in the family liked it either. I hate to waste food, but I ended up giving it to the dog.

It takes 45 minutes on a pre-heated oven to heat up this pizza. I was pre-warned by reading reviews, but you should be aware. At $6 for a 2 Lb pizza, it’s not a bad value while on sale. It should feed two people (or more if you are eating a salad or something else).

Safeway’s Signature Cafe Jambalaya Soup is Alright

August 29, 2023 / / 0 Comments

A tastier sausage would be an improvement

I had Safeway’s Signature Cafe Jambalaya soup today and it was pretty good. It’s basically a thick tomato-based broth with sausage slices, cubed chicken and rice. There is supposedly bacon and uncured ham, but it’s not really distinguishable.

The soup is quite good and it has a fair amount of umami. It is, however, a bit spicier than I would have preferred. The only problem is the sausage: it really lacks flavor. I’m not sure why they chose such a mild sausage, but it really could be improved. Still, it’s good enough to be worth keeping in your fridge for an improvised lunch or dinner. Unopened, it lasts about 6 weeks in the fridge.

I should note, however, that it’s *extremely* caloric. A single cup/8 oz of soup has 270 calories and no one, ever, in the history of humanity, has ever been filled up by a single cup of soup. A 24-oz container currently costs $8, when not on sale.

Safeway’s Signature Cafe Tomato Bisque is not Vegetarian

August 27, 2023 / / 0 Comments

In the “battle” between Safeway’s and Panera’s Tomato Bisque, Panera is the clear winner.

I have never been a fan of soup – ramen excluded -, but I became fond of Panera’s creamy tomato soup during the pandemic. It’s warm, creamy and hearty – and most importantly, not too acidic – and feels just like a hug. In retrospect, it’s not a surprise that I would like it. It’s really just a thinner version of pasta sauce, and we all know that pasta is just a vehicle for sauce.

During the pandemic, when I still had kids at home (insert empty nest tears here), we usually got the soup as part of a family feast – my vegetarian daughter didn’t really like the sandwiches, but she did enjoy the soup. Later, I found out that they also sell the soup at the supermarket, it’s almost as good, and at $12 for 32 oz, it’s considerably cheaper than at the store (unless you are ordering a family feast). The store-bought soup is also vegetarian and, as I mentioned, quite tasty. Here are the ingredients: Tomatoes, Water, Heavy Cream, Onions, Contains 2% or Less of: Butter (Cream, Salt), Sugar, Salt, Spices, Corn Starch, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Nisin Preparation and Garlic.

This week, Panera tomato soup wasn’t available at Safeway, so I decided to get their Signature Cafe Tomato Basil Bisque instead. It looks very much like Panera’s and, truth be told, it doesn’t taste that differently. It’s a bit spicier – something I don’t really like -, and seems to have less umami than Panera’s, but it’s also very comforting and good. What it is not is vegetarian. The soup contains chicken base and chicken broth.

Safeway’s soup also uses tomato paste instead of tomatoes, as well as a variety of other ingredients to, I presume, enhance the flavor. That, I imagine, is the purpose of the chicken base and broth. It’s thus interesting that it’s not as tasty as Panera’s far simpler one. For just $2 less for a 32 oz container, it makes little sense to buy the Safeway Signature Cafe brand, unless the Panera brand is out of stock, or they change it.

Here are the ingredients for the Signature Cafe tomato soup:

Water, Heavy Cream, Tomato Paste, Contains 2% or Less of: Butternut Squash, Onions, Sugar, Modified Corn Starch Tomato Concentrate, Butter (Cream, Salt), Chicken Base (Chicken, Salt, Rendered Chicken Fat, Dextrose, Sugar, Natural Flavor, Safflower Oil, Chicken Broth, Turmeric), Organic Canola Oil, Cultured Dextrose, Garlic, Organic Roasted Tomato Flavor (Organic Tomato Puree [Organic Tomato Paste, Water], Sea Salt, Organic Molasses, Organic Soy Sauce [Water, Organic Soybeans, Salt], Organic Onion Powder, Natural Flavor, Yeast Extract, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Natural Flavor, Organic Canola Oil, Organic Spice), Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Whey Protein Concentrate, Yeast Extract, Sea Salt, Basil, Beta-Carotene (for Color), Alpha-Tocopherols (Antioxidants, Citric Acid and Spice.

How much meat in a bone-in cuts?

April 11, 2023 / / 0 Comments

I just deboned a 4 lb “semi-boneless” leg of lamb from Safeway supermarkets, and I got about 2.5 lbs of meat out of it.

I don’t know why I never before bothered to note how much meat I get from bone-in and non-trimmed cuts, but I will going on, mostly for my own reference. In this case, the “semi boneless” description was a complete lie, the cut had a full bone (which my dog is now enjoying).

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Marga's Food Blog

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
Pinterest
fb-share-icon
Telegram
WeChat
WhatsApp
Reddit
FbMessenger
Copy link
URL has been copied successfully!