Anyone that has known me for longer than an hour, understands that I'm a Trader Joe's ADDICT. It is a rare week indeed, that I'm not there at least twice, usually loitering around the free sample bar or rifling through the "New Products" bin, just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Oh yea, I shop too.
Like any good brand - TJ's is a very positive experience. Everyone that works there is super helpful and dresses in Hawaiian shirts, which instantly puts me into good mood. They always have new items and the cashiers always know how to pack a shopping bag without having it break before you make it home. I feel about TJs, the same way that Holly Golightly felt about Tiffany, 'It's like nothing could ever go wrong there."
Besides having healthy items, everything tastes good as well and their prices are much more reasonable than Whole Foods.
There are new things and old reliable items that I incorporate into my shopping list, some you will know and others might be new to you, but all are great - period.
I thought I'd just give you my shopping list from yesterday & a few extra things - check these items out yourself:
Frozen Steel Cut Oatmeal - 2 servings (heat & serve) $1.59
Frozen organic blueberries (great to put in your oatmeal) $2.29
Meyer Lemon Very Thin Cookies (great with tea or ice cream) $3.99
Organic Red Pepper & Tomato Soup (put Gorgonzola crumbles on top) $2.79
TJ's Crumbled Gorgonzola $2.99
Gorgonzola Crackers $1.99 (great with soup or cheeses)
Seasoned Ahi Tuna Steaks (tasty marinade and healthy) $5-7
Seafood Mix with shrimp, scallops & calamari (great sauteed in butter & garlic over rice) $5.29
Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage (yummy for breakfast or on the grill) $3.99
Santa Maria Tri-Tip & Beef Kabool (both flavorful & great on the grill) Price ranges
Broccoli slaw (mix with ranch dressing , cashew pieces & dried cranberries as a side dish) $1.49
Bell pepper Melange a Trois (Frozen multi-color bell pepper strips for stir fry or side dishes) $1.99
Frozen pomegranate seeds (already plucked for you!) $2.99
Chocolate Lava Cakes (just like the restaurant) 2 for $3.99
Mochi Ball ice cream (small scoops of ice cream with a jelly-like shell -yummy!) $2.99
Frozen Chocolate Croissants (store and bake when needed) $3.99
Trader Joe's Baklava cookies (great middle eastern treat) $4.99
Olive tapanade (spread on crackers, bread or put in sauces) $2.99
Fresh whole grain pizza dough (make pizza, bread knots or appetizers) $1.29
Dark Morello Cherries in a jar (great for cherry crumble, pies or on top of ice cream) $ 2.29
Tito's Handmade Vodka (very smoooooth) $17.99
Almond Sparkling Wine (nice for brunch & dessert) $5.99
And finally, if you have a cat or two, the must-have Double Wide Cat Scratcher $6.99
The other nice thing about Trader Joe's is that you can put in requests with the shift Captain for anything that has been discontinued or that is out of stock. They will hold the item you want when it comes back into stock and will call you to let you know that you can pick it up. They really DO call you!
Over the course of about 4 years, I regularly requested the apricot Stilton cheese after it had been discontinued. I'm tempted to believe, my single-handed campaign to get that cheese back into the store, made some kind of impact. Not only do they have apricot Stilton cheese again, but I've seen cranberry and other flavors too, around the holidays. Now if I can just bring back the recently discontinued oatmeal flax cranberry cookies...
If you are as big a fan as I am, you can follow Trader Joe's on Facebook, they have a few different fan groups that offer recipes, new item info and other fun stuff. The TJ's website at www.traderjoes.com isn't the most dynamic site in the world, but you can find your nearest TJ's and some other info.
By the way, let me know what you've found at TJ's - anything cool or interesting that I should know about? Leave your comments below for me...
Enjoy the summer and see you at Trader Joe's!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
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