All you can eat.
Actually, I take that back. That phrase would be, all you can eat, on sale!
Oh yeah!
Ben and I had taken an unplanned hiatus from visiting our local grocery store’s (Hy-Vee) all you can eat salad bar, but we were back in full force tonight.
The lettuce was fresh…
The topping possibilities were endless…
and the fruit – oh the fruit! – ripe and sweet as can be!
I made myself a massive salad platter, chock full of good-for-me greens, protein packed toppers and sweet bursts of berries.
See?
I love seeing & eating colorful things like this, after a weekend of burgers and chocolate cake!
Topped off with some Balsamic Vinaigrette.
I’ve also found a couple pasta salads that I dig. They aren’t the nasty, slimy, typical pasta salads you’d find at most grocery stores. These were zippy and flavorful. Plus, one of them had cheese cubes. I love cheese cubes!
The Chicken Tortilla Soup was spicy and savory as usual,
but the berries really blew my mind. All you can eat for $4.99?! How does this place stay in business?
Each blissful bite was more delicious than the last, and I honestly don’t think I got a bad berry in the bunch!
There was some juicy, tropical pineapple wedged down in there too. I gobbled those right up. 
I AM SO FULL RIGHT NOW! Good full though, not greasy, Chinese food full. Know what I mean?
I’m going to go turn on the Bachelorette and drift off to sleep. Working out in the mornings definitely has its perks, but it sure makes a sista tired!!
Goodnight!
~~~~~~
Where do you grocery shop the most?
Hy-Vee is my go-to grocer!
I shop at Hannafords, which is local to New England. Your salad looks so good! That’s an amazing price, too
I am on the west coast and I shop at Ralphs for most items, I believe that is Kroger to you in the midwest / east.
Those berries are BEA.utiful!
In Minneapolis…Lunds and Trader’s Joes.
We do a lot of shopping at Fareway in eastern Iowa. The closest Hy-Vee is 45 mins away!
All you can eat is my nemesis unless it is a salad bar.
We shop at Stop & Shop here but my favorite grocery of all time is Wegmans in New York.
whole foods for produce and flowers…stop and shop for everything else. i work by a trader joe’s, which i mention a lot, but they’re crazy expensive so i only go there for when i need something only they carry or something for a party, like a unique beer.
Those berries look awesome! My mouth is watering just looking at the screen! Local stores here are Giant, Weis and Wegmans. Wegmans is my favorite though… that place is AMAZING!
I’m waiting for the day that they say we’re getting a Trader Joe’s within like 45 minutes of here… and by the way, if you haven’t tried the Trader Joe’s pizza sauce, it is SOOOOO good!!!
Mmmm I love all you can eat salad bars full of fresh produce!! My fave one is at Jason’s Deli, but grocery store wise we usually shop at either Kroger or Publix.
I am always so inclined to hit up our Hot Bar at the local grocery store but for some reason, I never remember it when we do take out. Last night, I thought about it, but then Thai won the vote. I really love a good salad bar!
Have a great night with the Bachelorette!
I really wish that the supermarkets by us had a salad bar besides whole foods!! I miss them SO much!
Here in tiny Brookings, SD, I shop at Hy-Vee. Whenever I go home to Ohio, I find every excuse in the book to go shopping at Kroger or Giant Eagle (I have a minor obsession with grocery shopping)!
im always so jealous of your grocery store! i usually shop at ACME when i’m in philly, but i love publix when i go to florida to visit my boyfriends family, and of course trader joes and whole foods are at the TOP of my list
Hy Vee, huh? WOW!!! I want to go there. Why don’t they have neato bandito things like this where I am?? Sheesh!!
I do a combo shop/spree each grocery day — it wears a girl out. Let’s see, WalMart (yes I know, but times are tough), SuperTarget (mine actually has some organic and interesting finds you’d normally see at Whole Foods or the like), Whole Foods, Sprouts, Kroger … goodness, I could go on. I had my first “OMG this stuff is gonna MELT” shop trip this weekend. I forgot the pleasure it can be to shop in the summer … out come the HOT/COLD bags.
That looks great! I’ve never actually eaten that salad bar at Hy-Vee, but it is my usual grocery store (with some SuperTarget and occasional Dahl’s thrown in). I’m looking forward to making Trader Joe’s a regular stop though.
I am a Super Target shopper with a little Sam’s Club, Trader Joe’s and a local Co-Op mixed in.
That dinner looks SO delicious!! and so colorful!
Okay, this is really funny–my Hy-Vee recently changed its signs to say, “All you CARE TO eat,” which I think is hilariously tactful in a watch-what-you-eat way. As if they are saying, “Please remember that you don’t have to eat everything in sight, even though this is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Only eat what you care to.” It always makes me smile!
But yours is still “all you CAN eat,” so I guess they aren’t promoting mindful eating yet?!
I shop at different stores depending on what I need and what kinda mood I’m in… anywhere from the farmer’s market to Tom Leonards to Whole Foods to Kroger!
oh yum, that salad looks SO GOOD!!! Gotta love awesome salad bars like that!
YUMMY! I was actually just at our Hy-Vee – no salad bar tonight though – where I tend to buy the majority of our groceries. I also head to Fareway for their meat department and anything else they may have on sale – added bonus is it is a few blocks away.
We had the $4.99 AYCE salad bar at Hy-Vee lfor dinner yesterday. LOVE IT!
Veggies and fruit after a weekend of indulgences is the best!
Hello from Sioux City! I live a few blocks from a HyVee salad bar like that, but try to do 95% of our shopping at Farway because is so much more inexpensive…
HyVee has some excellent specialty items, tho! 
Love your site! Thank you so much for the updates!
Hy-Vee! Couldn’t live without it! I also love to stop by their salad bar when I am on the road for work – a much healthier option than the countless fast food places.
Whoa! That is the best deal EVER! I love salad bars, and for $5 bucks I’d consider a road trip, lol.
Jenn
Wow – all of that for $5?! Especially fresh berries – ridiculous!!
Way to load up on those luscious berries! I would have done the same thing:)
I do most of my shopping at Publix.
I am so jealous! Do they have a “to go” box? At Jason’s Deli, they have all you can eat for $7.99 and they have EVERYTHING at the salad bar including breads, pudding, hummus, fruits, etc. AND they gave me a to – go box. So I basically had a meal and a meal for later for $8.
I shop at WF the most I think. I get my produce from the produce market though.
Gotta love Hy-Vee! I do some of my shopping there, along with WalMart and the food co-op in Iowa City.
LOVE Hy-Vee!! We eat salad bar there at least twice a month! Everything is always so fresh! I’ve often wondered how they can sell it at those prices too!
I like Hy-Vee for certain specialty items, but I have gotten some bad fruit there more than once! Very disappointing. So, I prefer Fareway–they are less pricey and they have a fabulous meat counter! I also frequent Super Target!
Hyvee baby! And sometimes Super-Target if I’m there. Which is practically every day..but..moving on.
I’m SO EXCITED for Trader Joes!!! I think I’m going to live there…
Fantastic!.. We don’t have Hy-Vee in Northern California.. So enjoy that “all you can eat on sale” for all of us here. Did they have avocados on the buffet line? (that would be awesome)
)
Here (grown in California) I spent almost 6 bucks on three (3) avocados…Sheesh! My husband and 11 mo old simply love them. So how could I say No.
I’m a Fareway gal. Personally, I think Fareway is cheaper than HyVee and has better meat and produce. Just my opinion. HyVee does have a better selection though for some things so I will go there ocassionally.
Hannafords or Shaws, both New England!
I miss Stop and Shop and yearn for Trader Joes
That was my go to stop for eating out because it could be healthy (and unhealthy for my husband!) but then I got sick! Now I’m afraid to give my son anything off the salad bar and I’m so depressed about it because we LOVED all the fruit and salad bar options.
[...] We’re talking creamy cottage cheese, stuffed inside a seeded cantaloupe half, then filled the rest of the way up with luscious berries, leftover from my salad bar extravaganzaaaa. [...]
HyVee is my favorite, too! In fact, one of the reasons I enjoy your blog is seeing those familiar store-brand products in your photos!
That said, I tend to split my weekly shopping between HyVee and WalMart. Enough of our staples are cheaper at WalMart that it’s worth the extra stop. But I do prefer HyVee’s store brands, plus there are some specialty products that I can only get at HyVee. Oh, and the bulk bins in the natural food section—that’s where I get most of my spices!
I also stock up on some things in bulk. We split a side of beef with my BIL in late winter, so that’s a good chunk of our meat. I get chicken breasts and thighs from CostCo, along with the nuts and oats that I use for homemade granola (one of my husband’s staples). And I loooooooove Trader Joe’s, but the nearest one is two hours away. Whenever we’re able to go, I load up, especially on the low-sodium chicken broth, canned smoked trout (so yummy in a white bean salad), and Greek yogurt. And my latest downfall, the black cocoa almonds—dipped in dark chocolate, and rolled in black cocoa powder.