Lissla, meet me in the MMP tomorrow or Tuesday.
*Frozen grilled chicken strips for my salad. I don’t have the time or inclination to make a really tasty grilled chicken strip topping for my salads and the ones from Tyson at the regular supermarket taste vile to me.
*Frozen mango & frozen tropical fruit. I started making my own fruit yoghurt for snack by defrosting a bit of frozen fruit and adding it to a 1/2 cup fat-free yoghurt with a half-teaspoon of honey. Yummy and cheap.
*Soups for lunch: I love the tomato-red pepper soup.
Make sure you get their sales’ flier. I’ve rarely been disappointed with what I’ve gotten there. Their low fat cilantro dressing is to die for, if you don’t mind garlic. Their cookies are great and their frozen meals are very tasty.
I love you, Bumba. Have I told you recently how sexy you are?
I’m addicted to their fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juices. Taste a hundred times better than Tropicana for about the same cost. Also their granolas, and Vanana yogurt. Haven’t tried the frozen fruit chunks yet, because smoothies are one of those things I just never bother making for some reason, but will probably try them the next time I want blueberry muffins in the middle of winter and the ones in the grocery store are pitiful-looking and $4 a half-pint.
Goat cheese! They have a couple of domestic brands which are just fine for most purposes, and which I can never find anywhere else. And they sometimes carry a goat’s-milk Brie which will knock your socks off.
I agree, though, that their produce prices are very high (at least compared to the produce market half a block from my house). But they are the only non-bakery I’ve found around here that sells halfway decent bread.
In addition to what everyone else said… frozen veggies. I got to do a side by side comparison of TJ’s frozen asparagus with a supposedly premium brand from a regular grocery store today. It was sad. The ones from TJ’s were small and thin and tasty. The others were pretty taste-free and had a couple of woody pieces that should never have made it into the bag.
Also…I love their green chile and cheese tamales.
GT
Three-cheese marinara sauce. Omigosh.
My Trader Joe’s still has a little sign up saying it’s not available yet.
I’ll let you know if I notice the yogurt reappears.
I have enjoyed reading this thread about the imaginary Trader Joe’s. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if such a cornucopia of comestibles really existed?
mmmmm…Trader Joe’s. I’ve actually never bought anything there I didn’t like, and this thread has reminded me that I should do my grocery shopping there this weekend. I live so close to Whole Foods (about 2 blocks away) that I forget about the much better Trader Joe’s that’s only about a half an hour walk from my apt!
I’ll second (or third, I’ve only had time to skim the thread) the vote for the frozen foods. Good stuff, reasonably priced and healthy! So much more flavor than other “healthy” and low-fat stuff you get at Shaws or other regular grocery stores.
Minor hijack: IIRC, kittenblue, didn’t you recently have some type of gastric bypass surgery? I may be thinking of someone else, but if that’s you, how’s that going for you?
They do! They do!
Hm. I thought it would be nice if an attractive Australian woman read my posts, fell in love with me, and lured be to Australia. But I’m jonzin’ for Trader Joe’s now, because 85 miles is too far for regular trips. If the nearest TJ’s was thousands of miles away… :eek:
Anyway…
I haven’t had the caffeine to go back and read the previous posts. Has anyone mentioned the Tamales? I can’t decide which I like better: the green chile and cheese tamales, or the beef tamales. They’re both good.
Whoaa… there is another Trader Joe’s opening in Cleveland? Where at? I’m an eastsider so I’ve been to the one on Woodmere, but I’m right on the lake so It’s kind of too far south to make it a regular trip. Is the new one on the near west side?
It opened in Crocker Park in Westlake today (just off I-90…one block south).
And this is what I bought:
Beef Shepherd’s Pie (the last one they had)
Pork Potstickers (need suggestions on how to serve these!)
String Cheese
Ginger Chews Candy
Asian Mushroom Blend
Broccoli Quiche
Spinach Quiche
Canned Artichoke Hearts
Honey Mustard Potato Chips (and yes, they are addictive)
Two-Buck Chuck Chardonnay ($3.39)
Gorgonzola and Pear Pizza
Chicken Portabella Wrap (ate half for dinner…very good)
Mini Babybel Gouda (for my daughter, and a dollar cheaper than Tops supermarket)
Fresh Guacamole (the one with the N-number thing)
Artichoke and Cheese ravioli
Snow Crab Ravioli with Dill
Sweet apple Chicken Sausage
The place was packed to the doors at 6:30 pm, and full of people I don’t know, but (bizarrely) I scored a parking space from a friend from church, and one of my best friends left just five minutes before I got there.
I spent more than I planned, but I have food for a week, and none of it is boring! It was hard to read labels in that crowd, but oddly enough the item I bought with the highest sugar content was the frozen mushrooms! 10 grams! Even the ginger candy was way lower! They had sold out of a few specials like gelato and Haricort verts, but most everything else was still well-stocked. I don’t know if the crowds had been like that all day, but it was packed! And the comment I heard most often was “now I won’t have to drive all the way to Legacy on the east side anymore!” so apparently I was the only one holding out for the local store to open!
And yes, whoever asked, I had gastric by-pass last summer and have lost 90 pounds so far. I’m doing well, but am getting frustrated with the protein sources I’ve been using, so I was really looking forward to some new tastes! As one of the other by-pass patients explained to us, “you can’t eat much, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t taste fabulous”. So tomorrow I will have some Chicken sausage for my breakfast, the second half of my wrap for lunch, and probably the Snow crab ravioli for dinner…can any one suggest a sauce? If I eat well at each meal I’m less likely to want to snack inappropriately…the wrap has kept me happily unhungry for hours now!
We love their simmer sauces, too! We solved the “really runny” problem by not adding any water at all, and simmering for 30 minutes. Or, you could do what I did last time I used the Punjab Spinach sauce, and it wasn’t enough sauce for the amount of chicken I was cooking; I added some water to a small (6 oz) can of tomato paste and mixed that in, and it was awesome – a much better way to expand the sauce than plain water alone, since it adds body and flavor.
Not mentioned and on my list of yummies is their “Cat Cookies.” And no, they’re not for cats, they’re for people.
We also love their frozen spinach pie and the Cioppino Seafood Stew (in bags in the frozen fish section).
That sounds really good. I’ll have to give it a shot. I like to add carrots and fresh tomatoes as well. It sure beats Hamburger Helper. But I do like my Cheeseburger hamburger helper every once in a while. Very white trash.
And congrats to you Kittenblue. Welcome to the Trader Joes family. It’s the only place I shop for groceries anymore. And just curious, how’s the parking situation there? It seems that every TJs around here (L.A.) has terrible parking. Not enough space and just hard to get in and out of. But that doesn’t stop me.
TJ’s is located at the very end of the still-unfinished “lifestyle center” so it has a huge parking area right by the front door, and two or three parking garages (all free) just a short distance behind it. I don’t anticipate having to wait for a space the next time I go…it was just the opening day crowds. And until the rest of that block gets built (Sur le Table hasn’t even broken ground yet) the lot is only for TJ’s customers and construction workers. Parking is rarely a problem here in the Cleve. suburbs, unless you define a problem as having to walk more than 20 spaces to get to the door.
Okay, you’ve probably shopped at TJ’s numberous times, Kittenblue, but tonight we had some terrific stuffed red peppers (stuffed with ground turkey and whole grain rice) and it is off-the-charts delicious. A must-try!
Moonchild
IT’S BAAAAACK!
Saw some last week in teh Trader Joe’s near my office.
Just now remembered to come back to the SDMB & post about it.
I have to add a rare cautionary note: do NOT try the chicken or turkey pot pies. I knew someday I would find something Trader Joe’s didn’t do right, and I found five boxes of it, three of which will probably get thrown out. They are awful! I was shocked! The Suace is thick and gummy, there is way too much dark meat in it, and the crust (upper only) falls apart in the box, leaving only the inner disk intact while the edges lay in the bottom of the box and have to be piled back on. The taste is pretty nasty, too. Mr. singular and I were sorely disappointed. We’ll stick with Marie Calanders.
But that is the only bad thing I have ever gotten there. The frozen asparagus spears are heavenly, triple ginger snaps are ambrosia and the Ahi Tuna Stir-Fry is quick and easy and very, very good.