Apr 2nd, 2008
Five Favorite Things from Trader Joe’s
We love Trader Joe's. It's our favorite place to pick up staples for the pantry. While the quality of the produce and meat isn't as good as Whole Foods Paycheck or our neighborhood supermarket, the remaining items are just as good or better. And it's definitely the best value among our local grocery stores.
Besides saving us money, we go to TJ's for their unique and interesting products. We loved the Emperor's New Cloves garlic, but sadly they don't carry it anymore because the garlic was grown in China. Anyway, there's always something new to discover at Trader Joe's and I'm constantly on the lookout for them.
My one complaint with TJ's is the overabundance of cookies, chocolate and candies in the aisles. It's so hard not to grab a box of treats with each visit. Damn you TJ, for constantly pushing your sweet crack on me!
Most of the time, I'm strong enough to resist picking up a box of cookies. But there are a few items I never leave without. So, here are a few five of my favorite things...
- Organic Clusters Cereal - a good combination of textures and flavors. Our three favorite cluster cereals are the raisin bran, vanilla almond and maple pecan. The raisin bran is the healthiest one.
- Organic Peanut Butter - by far the best store bought natural peanut butter. You won't go wrong with creamy or crunchy.
- Tempting Trail Mix - it has several types of nuts, dried cherries, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips! Salty, crunchy, chewy and sweet... yum!
- Cinnamon Swirl Bread - a thick wheat bread full of cinnamon. You can make a great open face peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich with it.
- Cheap, Interesting Wine - we can always find inexpensive, but good, wine at TJ's. From the slideshow, the question mark wine is a 2005 red table wine from Oreana Winery. The happy face wine is a 2005 syrah from Project Happiness. We have no idea if the wines are good, but we couldn't pass up the labels.
That's my top 5 list. If you shop at Trader Joe's, what are your favorite things? I would love to know.
I love TJs! I used to live in So Cal where there were 6 TJs within a 6 mile radius of my house. Now the closest TJs to me is in Santa Fe, NM - 7 hours away :( I remember when they used to only carry dry goods, frozens, booze, and some dairy. I even have TJs t-shirts from the good old days. Off the top of my head I really love their: juices, cereals, cheese, produce, coffee, chocolates, dried fruits and nuts… Pretty much everything (except the force primeval bars, I can’t eat those). Now I’m sad.
I get my staples at TJ’s like 99 cents eggs, 89 cents milk, carrot juice, olive oil, walnuts, chicken stock, frozen deboned chicken thighs. Then sometimes I get garbanzo beans, Middle Eastern flatbread, chocolate lava cakes, chocolate. I get my fruits and veggies from the farmers’ market. Every once in a while, I stock up on Asian supplies at the Asian grocery store. And even longer in a while, I stock up on household staples at Target.
I love love love Trader Joe’s. Hate that they recently got rid of one of my faves, The Emperor’s New Clove, a single clove garlic variety. To round out the top 5, their frozen mac and cheese rules, as does their mild salsa, sea salt brownie bites and their red wine sopressata.
I always love trying the new stuff as soon as it comes in.
Wasabi mayonnaise, affordable sulfur-free dried fruits, the mock-Oreo cookies (I can’t remember the name), triple-ginger cookies (the best!), and a habanero-lime salsa that is to die for. There’s no TJ’s in the entire state of Rhode Island, so I actually make pilgrimages to the Boston area stores to stock up.
Oooh. Trader Joe-Joes are the mock-Oreos. I couldn’t resist the dark chocolate covered ones on my last trip.
I love the Trail Mix granola bars, the very reasonably priced logs of goat cheese, the jarred tomato bruschetta, Island Blend coffee, and their frozen Bird’s Nest hors d’oeurves. I could go on and on but I’d like to pretend I don’t stock up chocolate, chips and frozen desserts when I shop there.
Too many to list! First, there are the staples that I buy there. Pasta, milk, bread, yogurt, cheese, tuna fish, etc. I also like their frozen pizza for those quick weeknight dinners when nobody wants to cook. Chuck, I like that organic peanut butter too. I also buy their citrus shampoo and lemon verbena soap. Oh, I also buy their vitamins and Omega-3 fish oil capsules. Trader Joe’s rocks. We even buy dog treats at TJ’s. My dog loves them.
I’ve never lived close to one, but every time I get the chance I grab a block or two of their pound plus bittersweet chocolate–great price, great chocolate. What more could one want? I agree that they’re a little heavy on the sweets and snacks, but love the price of their King Arthur Flour.
Having so many Trader Joe’s options is one of the many reasons that I like living in Boston. When I lived in Brookline it was really great because that TJ’s sold wine and beer. You can really find some excellent extremely affordable wines there. Unfortunately the TJ’s I live near now doesn’t sell booze (stupid Massachusetts and your stupid liquor laws)…but I still always stock up on their frozen chicken breasts, organic stocks, dried pastas, dried fruits, and their fake Pirates Booty. I can’t remember what it’s really called but I really love eating the whole bag.
That cinnamon bread is fantastic! It makes thick french toast and works really well just toasted by itself. I love everything about TJ’s from their 1lb bittersweet chocolate to their mushroom purses to their italian gelato. I swear, I could live in that store.
I LOVE TJ’s! I don’t get there nearly often enough though. Some of my fav’s are:
Panko Breaded Tilapia
Anti-oxident Trail Mix
Guacamole and the Salsamole (I think those are the names!)
The hand rolled flour tortillas
My kids love the fruit leather
Organic Raspberry and Strawberry jams (so good, you’ll lick the spoon!)
I’m going to have to try the cinnamin bread and the Organic Clusters cereal next time I go over… I love that type of cereal!
schoolhouse cookies! any any flavor of scone, but especially orange-cranberry. their frozen hors d’oeuvres are usually really good.
rounding out a top five, hmm…juice and coffee.
and pirate booty. i love that crap.
I never shopped at TJ’s until they opened one up by work. Now I go at least 2x a week. You are generally right about their produce and meat, but I do like their natural chicken (NW grown!) and they have Meyer lemons, which I can never find in my local market. The organic peanut butter is awesome as is the swirl bread.
I also recommend the cilantro pecan dip, Mediterranean Hummus and flatbread, agave nectar, Greek style fat free yogurt (topped with agave nectar), reduced salt cashews, Gorilla Munch, dark chocolate and hazelnut Rittersport…the list is much longer!
Thanks for sharing your favorites. I have many new items to try now. Keep them coming!
I just came from there tonight picking up their Tuscan Loaf bread and some free-range organic eggs for spaghetti alla carbonara.
I really like the fact that during the week, I don’t get run over by impatient shoppers’ carts!
And I agree with you 100% about the wine. Inexpensive and yet, tasty! I like that. I thought for sure you’d mention their 2 (or 3) buck Chuck wine. :-)
It is all about the wine for me! So much so that I started a blog just to talk about their wine. You can check out my Top 10 for Under 10 from February here
Mmm totally agreed about the wine…also the Milton’s whole wheat bread, yogurt (mocha, green tea, and Greek-style blueberry), Indian simmer sauces and the five seed grain and nut bars. I think that’s what they’re called…they taste like gingerbread, but with crunchy bits and actual nutritional value.
Oooh, and then there’s the dark chocolate-covered toffee with pistachios…
I always stock up on frozen pizzas (just in case)- they have a really good white pizza with prosciutto. I also love their Greek yogurt, tangerine juice and dried fruits & nuts. My son loves Granny’s granola, and I like the Multi Grain Hot Cereal. I just picked up some Organic Blue Agave Sweetener to try too.
seriously TJ is my favorite place to go grocery shopping ….
anyway, my top 5:
1. raw pizza dough in a bag (only 99 cents/ bag) — quick and easy dinner
2. hummus (roasted garlic!)
3. triple ginger cookies — actually all their cookies
4. dried, unsulfured and unsweetened mango strips — i hope they’ll get their shipment from thailand again, soon.
5. organic jams and jelly
it also helps that everyone who works at TJ is incredibly friendly and helpful, they’ve all got spunk to them.
totally <3 TJ
I love TJ’s. My favorites:
-Greek style yogurt in honey flavor.
-Trail mix with the cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, golden raisins. LOVE IT.
-Wisecrackers with brie smothered all over it.
-Their five layered hummus with their mini toasts. Delicious snack!
-Snap Pea Crisps (even though you can get these elsewhere.)
-Their pumpkin pie spice, makes a great pumpkin pie and pumpkin muffins!
-Fruit leather.
-Their dried bean mix that I make into vegetable and bean soup.
-Olive oil tortillas.
I could go on forever.
I love TJ’s. Mine is about 15 mins away, so not too far.
My kids love the fruit leathers and breakfast bars
TJ’s pizza sauce
Lemon Pepper Pappardelle
Coffee
Multi Grain corn chips
and of course the Charles Shaw Wine. You can’t beat it for value and it tastes good too!!
I live in Sacramento almost next door to the first TJ’s. My son is now twelve years old and his first grocery shopping memories is getting his smoothie drink from TJ’s. Also, his favorite item is the cinnamon bread. My husband is crazy about their carrot cake and I love their light chinese chicken salad. Hmmm…I think I need to make a TJ run! Great blog by the way. All the best, Laurel
Thanks again to everyone for sharing their favorites. I have many many new things to try out now!
Donald, I don’t know how I forgot to add Two Buck Chuck to my list. That should have been a no brainer!!!
I love Trader Joe’s too! Good think I live a 5 minute’s drive away from the one in Merrick, NY :D
Coupla things from there I love and a must-try for y’all:
-Tomatoe-less corn salsa (sweet & spicy!)
-Trader Ming’s (har har) frozen general tso’s chicken
-shade grown coffee
-dried white apricots and mangos
-frozen pesto pizza
I realized I forgot to mention my favorite 5! I would go for the Vanilla Almond Granola, the trail mix, pepper jack sliced cheese, ready-made pizza dough, pollo asada (easy ready-made fajitas) and (I know it’s six) of course the wine. Just posted my Top 10 for March here.
Their chocolate truffles are to DIE for - I once saw a woman have a TOTAL MELTDOWN and bitch out a TJs employee because they were out of them. Not that *I* would do that, but you better believe I had to try them afer I saw that! And they are meltdown-worthy!
The garlic naan in the freezer section; also their mandarin orange chicken (also frozen), my husband loves the low fat chocolate cat cookies; the fresh sliced mango, the frozen asparagus is the best when you can’t find fresh…the frozen already cooked brown rice…I could go on and on!
Thanks for all the great ideas to try.
Landlocked Dallas has no Trader Joe’s so it’s a pilgrimage and an extra suitcase when I travel to L.A. or Phoenix.
My 5 faves:
1) Corn relish - sweet, spicy, crisp
2) Oatmeal-Ginger soap - heavenly fragrance, great exfoliator
3) Panko breadcrumbs - cheap and fresh
4) Mango Chile trail mix
5) Blackberries - fresh and always so sweet
Here is NJ, my TJ’s doesn’t have wine. I am so jealous. I was spoiled when I lived in California.