Earth Fare Giveaway!

I was lucky enough to be invited to tour the new Earth Fare supermarket in the Summit the day before it opened. Maria, my tour guide from the home office in Asheville, NC, was super enthusiastic and was clearly a dedicated customer as well as an employee. As she showed me around from department and department, she told me about all the stuff that she stocks up on when it goes on sale (chicken breasts and almond milk, for example). Everyone I talked to there was helpful and cheerful. Maria said they expect to employ around 80 people at first and then grow those numbers.

I loved the wall of beer where you can "mingle your singles"-- get 10% off when you fill a six-pack with single fancy beers. There's also a pizza kitchen where you can buy pies by the slice or by the whole pie. They have a hot food and sandwich bar, and the chain's first frozen yogurt bar. A charcuterie bar and a huge salad bar. Nothing is labeled local unless it came from less than 100 miles away from the store. Organic fruits and veg are displayed separate from non-organics and are washed and freshened with their own separate water supply. The "wellness" section is huge and has its own curator.

Earth Fare is a store in the vein of Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, but what sets the chain apart is how strict their food rules are. They have a "boot list"-- a list of ingredients that cannot be in food that is featured in the store. Their "Food Philosophy"is displayed prominently in the store. The "rules" include:

• No high-fructose corn syrup
• No artificial fats or trans-fats
• No artificial colors
• No artificial flavors
• No artificial preservatives
• No artificial sweeteners
• No antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones in meat & dairy
• No bleached or bromated flour

Impressive stuff. And dedicated-- if you spot something on the shelf that has an ingredient that Earth Fare has banned, they'll immediately remove all the stock from the shelves and give you $50.

Hey, speaking of $50, Maria was nice enough to give me a $50 gift certificate to give away to one of my readers!  

I've been trying to get a little healthier-- eat better, exercise more. For the first time today, someone noticed that I've dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 6lbs-- very gratifying. Makes me want to keep going. So, in keeping with Earth Fare's philosophy, here are the contest rules:

• I am looking for SUPER simple and SUPER healthy dinner recipes. Share with me your simplest, healthiest, most reliable dinner recipe.
• You can do this in the comments section-- just be sure you include some way that I can get ahold of you.
• You can send me the recipe via email-- lou [at] loueyville.com
• At the end of the day on Tuesday, August 14, I will allow random.com to choose a comment/email at random to win the gift certificate.
• Only one entry per person. 

Good luck to y'all-- may the odds ever be in your favor!

Disclaimer: Earth Fare provided gift certificates for me and for a reader. That was super nice of them because I would have toured their facility and written about it regardless. 

Chocolate Insanity @ Gelato Gilberto

I might be slightly more inclined toward Valentine's Day events this year... if I play my cards right and don't booger things up in the next two or so days, this could be my first Valentine's Day with a sweetheart in a really long time. Really. Long. Time. (Okay, to be fair, the Guy I am Currently Dating could likewise booger things up. Boogering things up is not my sole province. I understand that.)

I don't know how you coupled up people do it sometimes. I've been giving myself ulcers about what to get the Guy I am Currently Dating for Valentine's Day-- I agonized over Christmas too. Damn you men; you're hard to shop for. (And when I asked the Twitterfolk for advice on what to get him-- boy was that a mistake!  You people are dirty!)

Unfortunately, gelato from the lovely people at Gelato Gilberto in Nortons Commons is not the answer.  But they're having an event today (Saturday), Sunday, and Tuesday that might just solve some of YOUR Valentine's Day problems-- even those of you without sweeties.  Here's the description:

4th Annual Cioccolato Pazzo:  Chocolate Insanity Valentine's Event this Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.  We'll have over twenty different varieties of chocolate gelato especially crafted for this event as well as locally made Valentine's cookies and pink paper and glitter for making Valentine's cards. 

Twenty different varieties of chocolate gelato? That IS pazzo! Just like love. :)

Click on their website for store hours and location.