OK, GroceryBagSavings.com has been going for a year now, covering the Big Island and the Pacific NW. The original idea was to enter, organize and sort grocery store prices in our whiz-bang database and then display it on the web in a way that would make it easy for you to compare prices on the same item between grocery stores. We’ve learned a lot and received many compliments on the site and on the info.

The problem is, we’re not making any money. Not even enough to support the host fees to keep the site up.

Faced with that, Glen and Henry have to ask: is there a way to make the site more popular and generate more traffic and revenue? Because if there isn’t, then GroceryBagSavings.com is going away.

We’ve identified two possible problems:

1. There’s a lot of data on the site, maybe too much for people to use easily.
2. We don’t list the prices from every single store in our coverage areas, so perhaps we aren’t covering the stores people would like us to.

 And here’s the two-part solution we came up with:

1. Reduce the amount of data by focusing only on high cost items and items that vary a great deal in price, which would essentially be meat, seafood, dairy and produce.
2. Expand the number of stores we cover in the areas where we are lacking, specifically in the Pacific NW, adding stores like Metropolitan Market, Top Foods, Haggen, and QFC.

Before we act on these ideas, we need to get YOUR opinion. Do we really have too many items to make sense of? Are we not covering the stores you care about? Will these changes help you use the site, and make you more likely to recommend it to your friends? Or are we missing the point entirely and need to take a completely different approach?

So, tell us what you think of our plan, or how YOU would change it so that YOU would be able to use it more easily. You can leave a comment right here on the blog, or send an e-mail to Henryd@grocerybagsavings.com

Thanks for visiting the site, and for taking the time to read this post. We hope to hear back from you.

If you think about it, asparagus is a pretty weird thing to eat. The shoots come out of the ground, and before they can get big, we snip 'em off and cook 'em. That must have been one hungry prehistoric tribe the first time they decided to try them. But, wow, aren't we glad they did? The spears you see here are in our garden. And started from seed just a little over a year ago, no less! Thank you, Tori!

• Cooking Sauce:
  • 1 tablespoon dry sherry
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock (or water)
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil (I love this stuff- you might start with 1 teaspoon if you're unsure)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir until sugar and cornstarch are dissolved, set aside until the very end.

Then, have all the following ingredients prepared and ready, like in the picture above, because there's no time to stop and chop anything after you start cooking.

• Main Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 cup cashews
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
  • 1 tablespoon fermented black beans, rinsed and gently smashed with the back of a spoon
  • 2 boneless/skinless chicken breast halves, cut into bite sized pieces and combined with a teaspoon each of soy sauce and dry sherry
  • 1/2 pound of asparagus (bases trimmed off if they are tough), cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths
  • 1 cup of green onions, sliced in 1/4 inch lengths
  • Extra water or chicken broth

Ready, Set, COOK!

Heat the oil in a wok or large deep pan over medium high heat, add the cashews and cook until they are golden brown. Remove and set aside cashews using a slotted spoon, so the hot oil stays in the pan. 

Reheat the oil if necessary and stir in the garlic, ginger and black beans until they sizzle but aren't brown. Increase the heat to high, add the chicken and stir fry until the chicken is completely opaque and is just beginning to brown. Lower the heat to medium high and add the asparagus. Stir fry, adding a little water or chicken broth if the pan is dry, until asparagus is bright green and still crisp-tender. Stir the cooking sauce briefly to remix the cornstarch. Add cooking sauce, half the green onions and the reserved cashews, stir-frying until sauce is thickened and coats the meat and vegetables.   

Serve over steamed rice and garnish with remaining green onions. Serves two with large appetites, four more modest eaters.  (I ate every scrap of the plate pictured.)

Earlier this week, I saw the "Good Eats" episode where Alton Brown explains how he lost 50 pounds. Good for him! Really! He made 'scientific' lists of what/how often he could eat, and you can find them (and a lot more) in this article: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-867-LowCarb-Lifestyle-Examiner~y2010m1d6-A-50pound-lowcarb-weight-loss-for-Alton-Brown-from-The-Food-Network

Now, don't get me wrong- I'm a big fan of Alton; he knows a lot about food and cooking and creating a successful media presence. His TV show is great, usually, and always informative. But, man, I can't eat like that!

Losing weight is simple in concept: eat fewer calories than you burn. (Calorie definition: the amount of energy it takes to raise 1 gram of water by one degree Celsius. They say there are 9 calories in a gram of fat, 454 grams in a pound, so to lose one pound, 9X454= about 4,000 calories. Now I have a headache. How many calories does that use up?)

The problem is, the food you eat has to satisfy more than just the calorie requirements of your body. Getting all your calories from donuts will satisfy the energy requirement just fine, but (1.) you're not going to get the proteins, minerals, vitamins, and all that other stuff your body needs, and (2.) nobody really wants to eat just donuts, no matter what they say. The lists Alton created probably do provide all the other stuff, being so scientific and all, but they're still not for me.

So, what I'm getting at (and you were beginning to wonder, weren't you?) is that everybody's different. We all like different foods in different proportions and are willing to eat more of some things and less of others to achieve our 'desired' weight. Alton Brown chose things that he was willing to eat more and less of, made a rule to eat breakfast everyday, and for him, those things worked.  

I'd like to lose some weight, too, though not 50 pounds; more like 10 or 15. (It was the holidays. I swear.) So here's the plan: eat less fatty stuff (for example, chips: a small handful with lunch sandwiches instead of a heaping pile); eat less salt (I'm a sucker for the red and white canned chicken noodle soup, but I can live without it, easy); eat more fresh vegetables of ALL kinds (the garden will help with this as it gets bigger); and watch the ice cream (but I just HAVE to have it once in a while). But I won't eat breakfast. Never have, never will. If I eat that early in the morning, I just want to crawl back to bed. But an hour before noon I'm starving, so lunch is a little early at our house. It all balances out, maybe.

That's it. No scientific list. No schedules or frequencies of consumption. No forbidden foods or drinks. Just a few choices to cut down the intake of calories, and keep using them at the same rate. (We're remodelling the 'fixer house' we live in, mostly by ourselves, so that's not going to be a problem.)

I'll report back in a month or so....and we'll see if Mr. Brown's way would have been better.

(Jeez, I hope not. I better do good on this, huh? I don't want to eat 'Brislings'.)