Wholesome Pantry Sweet Potato Tortilla Chjips from ShopRite… delicious!
I agreed to sample the Wholesome Pantry line from ShopRite because I wanted to explore this chain anyway. But it turns out these products are really good! Some wicked clever food designer has picked up on the attributes people crave in snacks and taken them to another level.
Example: Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips really do have sweet potato as their third ingredient, after corn and oil, plus a bit of sugar! (No worries, it’s organic.) You get the crunch and familiar corn flavor but with a deeper, sweeter note. We ate the whole bag right away, but I think these would be amazing with guacamole.
Wholesome Pantry Maple Granola Bar with Pumpkin Seed
And: snack bars that really strut their stuff, rather than grinding up their featured ingredients. The Cranberry Almond Fruit and Nut Bar is festooned with big fat cranberries. The Maple Pumpkin Seed Granola Squares are covered with whole pumpkin seeds. The binding agent in these is agave and puffed rice, giving them a Rice-Crispy-squares texture which is quite appealing. Even humble Mango Slices were big and fat and dried to a perfect consistency which is chewy but quickly yields to hungry teeth.
As part of my assignment from ShopRite’s PR agency, I am supposed to report “how I’m snacking smarter this Summer”. Answer: I am going to get me some more of these treats, even though my nearest ShopRite is a good 30 miles away. Check out ShopRite.com/wholesomepantry and you’ll find that ShopRite has converted all its organic products (including bread and entrées) to Wholesome Pantry and they are now certified to contain 100% USDA Organic ingredients.
On my visit, I’ll also dig deeper into why ShopRite has some avid fans. My home base in the greater Albany/Capital District of upstate New York doesn’t have a single Ethiopian or Burmese or Filipino restaurant, but we’re burgeoning with supermarket choices. Price Chopper, a local chain that is also closest, is where I most often shop. For Italian specialties like Pastene Crushed Red Peppers, I’ll periodically visit Hannaford. We also have two smaller chains, Fresh Market and Healthy Living, and an outpost of Whole Foods. And of course there’s Walmart and Target for those who want to buy their food along with their sweatpants. And let’s not forget Trader Joe’s and its beehive parking lot.
Wholesome Pantry packaging
ShopRite is different because it’s the nation’s largest cooperative grocery chain, according to their website, which means stores or groups of stores are individually owned but share corporate management and distribution. As with any such operation, one can expect some variability from store to store.
The Albany location on Central Ave mostly impressed me with its vastness, while the Niskayuna store had narrow aisles, nooks and crannies and specials stuffed onto end caps, and the possibility of live uni at year-end (Sicilians use it for holiday pasta, and ShopRite is based in the Italian-American heartland of upper New Jersey). I missed it last year but they gave me the seafood department phone number so I can call and check next season.
I worked in supermarkets in many departments in my teens and learned that while they do their best to present an image of retail efficiency, they are at their heart overgrown delis. I look forward to exploring my semi-local ShopRite stores as I am stocking up on Wholesome Pantry.
This is a review of free product which was gobbled up by yours truly.
[6/23. See important UPDATE at the end of this post. Please read before you cook from this book!] Our extended family includes a two-career couple with two small children and, as you might expect, they are very strapped for time. They have enthusiastically embraced the Instant Pot and, on a recent visit, whipped out the