There's a cool new feature at commissaries.com.
The Defense Commissary Agency's new dietician, Deborah Harris, has started a new tip box that feeds you healthy, time-saving, cost-effective meal ideas — using items currently on sale at your local commissary. Her tips are embedded in the sales flyer at commissaries.com.
The week I checked, the flyer, called "Thinking outside the box," featured a recipe for frozen Tilapia filets. A package was on sale for $2 off the regular commissary price. Her tip for a quick, healthy, low-cost meal included green beans, whole wheat French bread, and a dessert with strawberries and ice cream (also on sale).
She provides information on the total grocery cost at the commissary and the cost per serving ($16.43 and $1.83, respectively, for this particular meal, which makes enough to have some left over for another meal).
One of Harris' guiding principles is that she doesn't tell people what they can't eat, but wants them to be knowledgeable about what they are eating. She's developing ways for customers "to make the healthy choice an easier choice or perhaps even the default choice," she said, in a DeCA announcement about her hiring.
In her message about healthy eating, she notes that even ice cream and other desserts are OK in moderation. But she cautions to watch portion sizes and calories.
You'll have to dig a bit to find her "Thinking outside the box" message. At commissaries.com, go to "Shopping" in the top bar, then "Savings aisle" at the bottom of the menu. On the "What's on Sale at your commissary" page, click on "View" prices of sale items. Then "Click to see the current weekly sales flyer," and you'll find "Thinking outside the box" embedded in the flyer.
Gift cards
Commissary officials are reminding customers that gift cards are available in denominations of $25 and $50. They can be purchased by anyone online or in stores, but only authorized shoppers can use them.
It's best to buy them in a commissary, according to the gift card website. The online vendor charges a 3.95 percent processing fee on the dollar amount of the card — up from 3.75 percent last year — plus shipping charges of $1.95 for first-class mail. So for a $25 gift card purchased online, you'll spend a total of $27.94.
About $5 million in gift cards are sold each year, said Bob Bunch, DeCA's gift card program manager. And the redemption rate for these gift cards is higher — about 90 percent are redeemed, compared to the average gift card redemption rate of about 75 percent, Bunch said.
If you've got a commissary gift card sitting around, don't forget to use it! They expire five years from date of purchase.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
