After listening to all the bells and whistles about Sunflower Market, I resolved to finally go there and see what all the fuss is about.
I walked in and was met at the door by not one, but two employees who both offered different greetings rather than the typical “Hey, how are you? Can I help you find anything?” Instead, I got a “Hey, let me get that for you,” as one employee proceeded to get me a shopping cart. Another employee with a tray of cheese walked right over to me and asked, “Would you like to sample this one? Or perhaps another, maybe your favorite? I could get a sample for you.” I liked this place already, because who doesn’t want to feel like they’re the center of attention at some point in the day? And what better time than the beginning of it? So I took my cheese sample and walked into Sunflower.
This week I resolved to try something completely and entirely different. As mentioned in the past, I have an awful sweet tooth, and jeez, Louise, when I am passing the bakery department I am ready to buy every tart, pie, Danish, cake, cupcake, cookies and more. But I know I cannot do that, so instead I decided to mimic these dishes by way of fruits and veggies.
I went straight for the lettuce, green onions, celery, olives and tomatoes first. Then I saw the radishes, cucumbers and bell peppers. Maybe I was getting too carried away, as I hadn’t even started on the fruit.
After collecting all my veggies, I hit the fruit stands. Grapefruit, oranges, lemons, pineapple, blueberries, blackberries and honey dew. I stopped myself from grabbing the strawberries and raspberries, though looking back I probably should have grabbed them for my tab when I checked out, holy Moses, it was only $23.15. At other grocery stores I could buy maybe a fourth of what I did for that price. Needless to say, I left happy.
Now for the skinny: I created some fantastic foods that resembled the sweets I’d longed to buy.
Salad Cake
Ingredients:
1/2 head of lettuce
3 green onions
8 sticks of celery
10 green olives
3 tomatoes
Bushel of radishes
1 cucumber
1 bell pepper
Peanut butter
Recipe:
1) Pull apart lettuce leaves and stack them.
2) Slice the tomatoes, cucumber and bell pepper, alternating place slices between every five stacks.
3) Cut the sticks of celery to the height of lettuce stack, spread the peanut butter on one side and vertically wrap the lettuce stack with the celery sticks.
4) Spread peanut butter on top of the lettuce stack.
5) Chop the radishes, green olives and green onion to confetti the top.
6) Ta da! You’re all finished. Don’t forget the spatula to serve slices.
Honey DewBerry Pie
Ingredients:
1 honey dew
1 box of blackberries
1 box of blueberries
Recipe:
1) Slice the honey dew in half and shave out of the first rind.
2) Carefully cut the melon out of the second rind, leaving one inch of fruit still inside rind.
3) Dice the melon, then place it back into the second rind.
4) Pour berries into the rind.
5) Cover the second rind with the first one and place it in the oven for 20 minutes at 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
6) Uncover the pie and gulp down a slice of life.
Tiered Tart
Ingredients:
1 grapefruit
1 orange
1 lemon
1 pineapple
1 cup of low fat yogurt
Recipe:
1) Cut all of the fruits in horizontal, half inch thick slices.
2) Spread yogurt on each slice.
3) Layer the slices, alternating fruit pieces.
4) Munch on down, squint with the sour and smile at the sweet.
Sometimes trickery is quite the treat, especially when these imitations are delicious to eat!
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Julia Blyumkin at Julia.Blyumkin@colorado.edu.
Sunflower’s B grade produce is a wonderful thing, as long you as don’t want clean organic food, and you eat the stuff quick before the rot sets in! Hard to believe WF is 4x as expensive for same quality produce. Fact check much?