Just few days after we came to US (in this trip), I went to the Rivermark Safeway to do some grocery. We were in the check out line and I remembered we had to buy bread too for sandwiches. I kept the girls standing in the check out line with the cart and told them I will be back quickly. I went to the section where they keep all the breads and I was OVERWHELMED by looking at all the shelves with different kinds of bread. (remember I came to US after 1.5 years. Back in India you go to any store and it does not take much time to choose a bread from only few available varieties)
Then I started reading the ingredients and looked for whole wheat/7 grains/ 100% stone ground/ flaxseed etc. etc. And it took a while before I could choose a bread. (It was really good bread with flaxseed/whole grain and less salt, don’t remember the name though)
So here is the post to capture what kind of bread you usually buy. – whole wheat / white ?? Do you look for all those healthy ingredients in the bread? (and those healthy breads are not cheap) What different kinds of breads you you tried? – sourdough, focaccia, hot dog buns, burger buns, ciabatta etc. etc.
We have started buying bread at Farmers Market. Its by a company Acme. They have wonderful range of herb/green onion/cibata/sourdough/dinner rolls. Our favorite is green onion followed by herb bread. Green Onion bread is slightly moist as compared to herb bread (
is little dry).
We use this bread for sandwich or just serve with olive oil and seasoning.
However Acme bread is available at Whole foods but of course more expensive. Also at whole foods you dont find all the varities. Most breads served by Acme are Vegan.
We buy all 3 kinds of bread (white, 7-grains, sourdough). I like White bread for certain things. We use sourdough to eat with some dip like hummus or spinach dip or artichoke dip. Kairavi/Dimple eat 7grains mostly. I use 7-Grains bread in sandwiches.
Picking a bread has always been a challenge, its sometimes hard to give weightage between taste and healthy choice. I keep changing my choice, after every few times and have never settled with one.
WE usually buy Colombo or San Fransico Sourdough bread. whether its sliced , bun or with seasame seeds.
Recently I have also started getting Jalepeno or 3 cheese bread from safeway which is in the bakery section. it is small cheap and good for snack sometimes they slice it and give depending on the person . Even their small multigrain and sesame ones are good and cost is only $1.30.
And in all that time the kids were alone in the checkout line 🙂
I believe Kalpa read this thread and started buying Multigrain bread. We don’t have much bread on a regular basis – so usually it is just the White bread.
Whole wheat. Anything that has more ingrediants than necessary should be looked at with suspicion. the bread is suppposed to be just bread that we eat with something anyway. so, why have things pre added to it?
Here you will find a good interview http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104068820 with David Kessler, former head of Food and Drug Administration. It provides some food for thought. 🙂
Mostly Safeway Premium Wheat Bread. Like the taste. Tried TJ’s wheat bread but they don’t have much self life also found them little hard.
@ Amisha – Lagta hai tu tau puri mumbai waasi ho gayi hai 🙂
@Jaideep – I had the same thought as you, kids in line alone 🙂
Anyways you said it right, an important item on the grocery list. Keep rotating between various breads with “whole” grain options. Only non whole grain that we get from Safeway is the one with Hazelnuts. I usually try to get something with the lowest sodium per serving.
We keep trying various types of breads as we come across at places.
On regular basis as Prashant mentioned we typically get 3 types. Plain Wheat bread was not adopted by him. But okay with multi grain type. Pick one of the multi grain variety. For white also have started getting whole wheat white 🙂 Time to time have got French, ciabatta, Jalapeno, Olive, etc. Panera bread & Boudin Sourdough at Fisherman’s wharf are other places we like to get bread from.
If you buy bread loft, most bread places cut it for you. Recently I noticed Safeway has numbered slice thickness from 1 to 8 or so with sample. Hence easy to choose what number slice you prefer.
Most Whole Grain Bread has about 20-30% whole grain and the rest is white flour. Whole wheat with whole grain is rather tough to find outside of TJ, WF or Acme.
Acme also has a fantastic Cranberry Walnut WW with WG bread and they have 1 more that I cannot remember.
Are there any sodium-free saltless breads available?
We tend to keep bread consumption as minimum as possible, but we get bread from Safeway white and wheat.
We have noticed that white bread last longer than wheat bread so if are sure we gonna finish the bread within week or so we get wheat bread but mostly it white.
We once unknowingly got saltless bread from TJ .
Hey Purvi,
So when you buy a bread from Safeway it says 100% whole wheat it still has white flour?
I try to check dietry fibers, most of the time it is whole wheat or 7 grains, We both enjoy french bread with,if not watching calories (which is very rare though).
Mostly get breads that have the first ingredient as “Whole Wheat Flour” and NOT “enriched” or “fine” and somebody had suggested that was the real whole wheat bread. Sometimes we get Sourdough (for some sandwiches) and sometimes Buttermilk bread (instead of White bread) and tastes like white bread. We like “Bohemian Earth” and “San Luis Obispo” for Sourdough.
C – Earth/Hearth
I get 100% WW bread from whole food/TJ. Even at Safeway there are many brands that specifically say 100% WW. I think Orowheat is one of them. Even La Boulange at the farmers mkt tyically has 2 options of WW bread
I have also gotten WW Orowheat bread before. Since last time I have been getting Alvarado St Bakery bread – Essential Flax Seed bread from Safeway. And it is vegan bread and has less salt. (Not that we are vegan)
When I was in Rivermark Safeway, I asked the attendents in the bakery section and found out that all the items like donuts, bagel, bread, cakes –prepared in their bakery contains eggs.