Be Prepared
As you can probably tell so far from this blog, I enjoy cooking, making things from scratch and paying attention to all the details. But sometimes, you don’t have the time or the desire isn’t there — but you still want to have really good food. This hack can be for when people come to your house or when you are going somewhere and you are in charge of bringing a side dish. Whole Foods prepared foods counter.
Yes, other places have pre-made food that is delicious, but Whole Foods takes it one step further and has more interesting options than just your vinegar coleslaw and german potato salad. And, they also have some really high-end desserts that surprisingly won’t break the bank and come off as very impressive to guests.
They have a ton of options from pasta salads, vegetables, slaws and everything in between. I won’t give you a full menu of what they have. It also changes all the time and varies by location (a bit). This blog is not about an exhaustive list of everything, but instead my personal favorites that seem to be guaranteed crowd pleasers. Here are some of my favorites:
Garlic Green Beans - they are called garlic green beans but there is some other savory oil on them which I can’t identify but these are really good. And all you have to do, is take them out of the fridge and throw them in a low/medium heat skillet to bring them to temp and back to life.
Smoked Mozzarella Pasta Salad - this one has been a favorite for a while. It is not a wildly different pasta salad, but with the addition of chunks of smoked mozzarella it feels like something a little more special that what you typically get from store-bought pasta salad.
Pesto Pasta Salad - again, this one is not crazy different, but with it being pesto and also having small mozzarella orbs, it feels a bit more atypical from something people would expect you to bring.
Broccoli Crunch Salad with Bacon - one of the benefits of this is that it feels healthy, but with the addition of bacon, it is also just really good. And is a little off the beaten path from the typical options of some kind of mixed vegetable or salad you would bring.
Also, a tip I would suggest for almost all of them. Add a little salt. It may be from Whole Foods wanting to be more healthy, but their kitchen has a very weak seasoning hand. Just a light amount of kosher salt on these items, and it brings out all the flavor in those interesting ingredients.
One of my old favorites they would have was the Edamame Succotash. Not sure why they do not have it anymore, but I did find the recipe for it. It is a great go-to for a side dish — and does not take much more effort than mixing together a bunch of ingredients. And with the corn and edamame being available in frozen form, this can be a year-round dish. Visit my recipe post here for the recipe.