FOOD + BEVERAGE, PRODUCTS, RECIPES, REVIEWS, SERVICES, SPONSORED

SAFEWAY SPONSORED RECIPE | Elevated Korean-Style Braised Soy Sauce Chicken

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.

HAPPY 2021! I hope everyone is having a safe start to the new year.

I’ll be giving my at-home meals a new flare this year with nutritious, delicious, and affordable products from Safeway’s Exclusive Brands. I’ve been featuring Safeway brands starting last year and have become a fan of these affordable alternatives that are high-quality because they have a wide range of products so it is easy to prepare meals at home.

Let me give you more info about the different exclusive brands available at Safeway. There are: O Organics®, Open Nature®, & Signature Brands. O Organics® offers high-quality, non-GMO and 100% USDA-certified organic products. Open Nature® provides high-quality, minimally-process high-quality products which are free from 110 food additives. It includes plant-based, high protein, and gluten-free options. Signature bands include Signature SELECT™, Signature Farms®, and Signature Cafe® options. They offer options for every meal and occasion including ready-to-eat, ready-to-heat, and cooking ingredients. These brands can be found in every aisle of your local Safeway so I suggest you try them out!

Today I’ll be adding soy-sauce braised chicken to my weekly rotation because it is an easy one pot meal to make and can last over several meals. This recipe is very filling because of the noodles and potatoes. I’m adding cheese to my recipe for an updated take on this classic Korean dish. Make sure to finish the noodles & cheese and the leftovers can be saved for another day.

RECIPE FOR KOREAN-STYLE SOY SAUCE BRAISED CHICKEN

3 Open Nature Chicken Thighs & 3 drumsticks, soaked for 30 minutes

1t ginger, minced

1T garlic, minced

2 O Organics potatoes, halved

2 carrots, 2” chunks

½ onion, sliced

6 O Organics Mushrooms, sliced

½ cup Signature SELECT Stir-Fry Rice Noodles, soaked

Sauce

¼ cup oyster sauce

¼ cup soy sauce

1T brown sugar

Garnish

2 O Organics green onions, julienned

½ cup O Organics Mozzarella, finely shredded

Sesame oil drizzled

Directions:

Combine the ingredients for the sauce & set aside.

On medium heat, add oil & sear the chicken on both sides.

Add minced garlic & ginger and cook until fragrant.

Then add the potatoes, sauce, & 2 ½ cups of water and cook with lid on for 15 minutes.

Add carrots & onions and cook for another 10 minutes with the lid open to reduce the sauce.

Add the soaked noodles and mushrooms and cook until the sauce has thickened.

Season with black pepper and sesame oil.

Add the cheese on top and cook until it has melted.

Garnish with green onions & enjoy!

Hope you will try this recipe out and let me know what you think! I personally think that it tastes even better the day after as leftovers when the chicken has soaked up even more flavor from the sauce. Also, the sauce goes well over some rice and the leftover chicken can be eaten as a side dish to the meal.

I shopped at my local Safeway. Shop these affordable high-quality products at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, Tom Thumb & Vons. Safeway also offers Grocery Delivery and DriveUp & Go™ for convenient ways to shop. I’ve seen the designated spaces at my local Safeway for DriveUp & Go and it is a good option if you don’t want to go inside the store.

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BAY AREA EATS, FOOD + BEVERAGE, PRODUCTS, RECIPES, REVIEWS, SHOP, SPONSORED

Best New Product Awards | Safeway Signature SELECT™ Spatchcock Chicken & Ginger Beer Review

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.

Albertsons Companies’ OWN Brands recently won 20 ‘Best New Product Awards’ from Store Brands publication and I looked through the list to share with you some of my favorite winning items from Safeway. Store Brands’ editors select top food & beverage and non-food items that stand out in various categories. Here is the complete list of items: https://storebrands.com/editors-picks-awards

For this post, I will be reviewing Signature SELECT™’s Citrus & Herb Spatchcock Chicken and their Ginger Beer. The Citrus & Herb Chicken sounded delicious and it was an easy meal idea so I definitely wanted to try it. I found it in the poultry section at my local Safeway. I was also curious about their Ginger Beer which was available in the drink aisle. The prices were budget-friendly and I was hoping the taste would be good as well.

I bought some Brussels sprouts and mini medley potatoes from Signature SELECT for my chicken as well as organic rosemary from to spruce up my meal. Instead of strictly following the instructions on how to cook the chicken, I decided to add a little spin to it & use a little bit of my own technique. I sliced the potatoes, and halved Brussels sprouts and seasoned them with some olive oil, and season salt. I placed the chicken, potatoes and Brussels sprouts in a half sheet pan.

The beauty of a spatchcocked chicken is that the chicken would cook more evenly since the chicken is flattened out and leveled. I turned on the broiling option on the oven and broiled the chicken for 10-15 minutes or until the chicken skin browned and looked crispy. Then I covered the chicken with foil and baked until the chicken had reached the internal temperature of 165 degrees. The broiling makes the skin extra crispy so I prefer that extra step before roasting.

I thought the chicken came out great! The meat was very juicy and tender. Even the breast was moist (which can be hard to achieve sometimes) and the chicken was cooked evenly. The potatoes and Brussels sprouts were cooked perfectly. The juices from the chicken permeated through the potatoes and Brussels sprouts so they were very flavorful!

I had noticed while I was at Safeway that there was a sweet and spicy spatchcock chicken flavor available as well. I will definitely be trying that one since I love spicy flavors.

I thought having a carbonated drink would pair well with this meal so I washed the meal down with some ginger beer. The ginger beer was sweet, carbonated and had a good level of spiciness. I liked both the items so I am excited to try all the other award-winning items from Safeway.

Shop Safeway store’s award-winning exclusive brands like Signature SELECT™, Open Nature® and O Organics® in store or online. I shopped at my local Safeway, but you can also find these items at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, Tom Thumb and Vons.

Safeway also offers Grocery Delivery and DriveUp & Go™ for convenient ways to shop. I saw designated parking spots for DriveUp & Go option at my local Safeway. I haven’t used it yet, but it seems like it would be a good option if you would rather not go inside the market. The grocery delivery option is perfect for if you don’t want to leave the house or if you prefer the convenience of a scheduled delivery.

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FOOD + BEVERAGE, PRODUCTS, RECIPES, REVIEWS, SPONSORED

Recipe | Pumpkin Mini Pies topped with Lucerne® Pumpkin Spice Whipped Topping from Safeway

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.

Fall is here and you know what that means! It is pumpkin spice season. I went to my local Safeway because I was craving pumpkin spice things. You can find fun, exciting, seasonal products and ingredients as well as holiday baking and cooking essentials exclusively at Safeway to make that special holiday dessert for friends and family during the holiday season. There were many different options available such as Safeway’s Signature SELECT™ Pumpkin spice Madeleines, Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake or even mini Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.

Those all looked amazing but I ended up deciding that I would make my own pumpkin spice dessert. I haven’t baked at all this year so I didn’t want to do anything that would be too overwhelming. I figured a simple no-bake-filling pumpkin pie would be just as good as a classic pumpkin pie. Plus, there would be less chance for mistakes. I was inspired from a banana pudding recipe and decided I would substitute pumpkin spice filling for banana.

I was able to get all the ingredients from Safeway which was very convenient. Most of the items were Safeway OWN brands which are high quality but at a more budget-friendly price-point. The only baking required would be for the pie crust. I wasn’t about to make a pie crust from scratch so I was glad that there were ready-made options available.

In this post, I am going to include a recipe on how to make simple pumpkin mini pies. Instead of whole pie, mini pies are easier for sharing especially when sharing is not encouraged this year. And mini is always cuter & more enticing.

I think they turned out better than expected! The filling was creamy and not too sweet. I definitely felt like I was eating a piece of fall when I took a bite out of these. These mini pies would pair really well with some hot chocolate with marshmallows or maybe some Signature SELECT Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream!

Here is my recipe:

No-Baker-Filling Pumpkin Mini Pies

Makes 8 mini pies

Ingredients

1 Safeway SELECT™ pie crust (9” crust x 2)

1/2 packet 5oz instant vanilla pudding

12 oz cup milk

15 oz can pumpkin pie mix

Garnish

Lucerne® whipped topping, pumpkin spice

Dusting of pumpkin spice

Instructions

Cut out 3” diameter circles in the pie crust and line each circle into a muffin pan.

Bake according to instructions.

While crusts are baking, prepare the filling.

Add milk to instant vanilla pudding mix according to instructions.

Fold in pumpkin pie filling.

If consistency is not set enough, freeze for one hour or until stiff.

After pie crust has cooled, top with Lucerne whipped pumpkin spice topping and dust with pumpkin pie spice. Enjoy!

I shopped at Safeway, but you can also find these exclusive fall pumpkin season items at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, Tom Thumb and Vons.

Safeway also offers Grocery Delivery and DriveUp & Go™ for convenient ways to shop! I have yet to use this service but it sounds like it would be very convenient for the times we are in. If you are hesitant to go shop in-store this might be the option for you.

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FOOD + BEVERAGE, PRODUCTS, RECIPES, REVIEWS, SPONSORED

Quick & Easy Weekday Dinners with O Organics® from Safeway

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Safeway. All opinions are 100% mine.

I was browsing the aisle at Safeway that had soups & broths and came across different flavored broths from O Organics®. The Beef flavored Pho broth & the Thai Style Curry Chicken broth caught my eye. They were rather inexpensive so I decided to make dinner with it!

It’s been a wild few months and I was cooking up a storm in the beginning of our stay-at-home order but then resorted to take-out for a bit to support our local restaurants. I realized that I needed a balance of home-cooking and eating out because eating out was starting to get pricey. But cooking sometimes just took too much time! So I started to think about creating easy and quick meals at home which were also budget-friendly and then ended up on making these noodle soups.

I love noodle soup dishes so I decided to make a simple Beef Pho & Thai curry noodles. I purchased some O Organics Top Sirloin Steak, rice noodles, limes, micro cilantro, cilantro, onions, jalapenos and O Organics Grade A Large Brown Eggs along with the O Organics Thai Style Curry Chicken Broth and Beef Flavored Pho Broth. I got all the products at my local Safeway which was super convenient! I didn’t realize that Safeway had such a good variety of Asian products to choose from.

I decided to make two different noodle soups because I like having options while I’m eating. I would normally order multiple items at a restaurant to share so why should it be any different at home?

For the Beef pho, I cooked the noodles and heated up the pho broth separately. I sliced the top sirloin beef into thin slices & placed it on top of the noodles. I made sure to pour the hot broth onto the meat slices so it cooked the beef. The beef cooks to a perfect medium rare or rare, which is how I liked to eat my beef. I garnished the soup with some lime slices, micro cilantro, onions, and jalapenos. The broth was tasty! It was so convenient that I might make it again next week adding different kinds of beef.

For the Thai Style Curry noodles, I used the same ingredients for the pho but only changed up the broth flavor. This made it very convenient! I cooked the noodles and poured the hot broth over the noodles just as I did for the pho. For an extra special touch, I garnished this noodle soup with a 6-minute egg. I liked the addition of a soft-boiled egg because, who doesn’t love some extra protein in their noodle soups?

These noodle soups were really easy to make and they actually turned out great. The broths were very flavorful and provided a good base for the noodle soups. I was surprised at the high quality of the broths and at the fact that they were also USDA-certified organic. The prices were budget-friendly as well without compromising quality & taste.

O Organics offers high-quality, USDA-certified organic products in every aisle of the store at a value; there are more than 1,500 products down every aisle of the store. I shopped at Safeway in my local area, but you can also Shop O Organics® products exclusively at the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, ACME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Randalls, Shaw’s Supermarket, Star Market, & Tom Thumb.

Safeway also offers Grocery Delivery and Drive Up & Go™ for convenient ways to shop! I have yet to try their service but it sounds very convenient & safe for anyone who is worried about shopping during these times.

Hope you like these quick and easy weekday dinner ideas. Please leave me a comment with your thoughts on them if you happen to make them!

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