A Few MORE New Snacks From Trader Joe's

Our latest new snack tries from TJ.

Yogurt Stars - my kids LOVE these.  So much so, that I can't buy them too often because the kids eat them (with my husband's help) in a matter of about 30 hours.

 Old Fashioned Blister Peanuts - weird name, eh?  I would never have purchased these, based on the name, but a TJ employee was walking around handing out samples.  And my three year-old loved them.  My husband and I quite enjoy too.  They actually have little bumps on them!

 My little one loves these.  They are nice and soft which appeals to his young gums.

The Best Dark Chocolate IN THE WORLD

This review comes from my mom.  A lover of dark chocolate.  Like eats it every night.

Recently, she was on a trip to France, where her group toured a chocolate factory.  And she deemed this chocolate the best she had ever eaten.  And she's tried a lot of different chocolates.  The friend she was with told her that this amazing chocolate was sold at Trader Joe's.  My mom absolutely did not believe her.

After she returned from France, and finished her stash, She went to TJ's, to prove her friend wrong.  But, low and behold, there it was.  And now my mom is a happy camper.  Eating a few squares a night of this decadent dark chocolate.

Protein-Filled Easy-to-Make Kid-Friendly Snack

Last summer, I got so fed up with my then 7-year old CONSTANTLY telling me he was hungry.  He was summer doing swim team and after an hour of swimming, five days a week, the kid was famished.

I don't buy too many highly processed snacks, and there are only so many organic snack options.  Those, coupled with cheese sticks, yogurt and fruit just wasn't cutting it.

Sooo, I Googled something like "afternoon snacks" and came up with a few different ideas.  I adapted a few of the recipes and came up with one real winner.  I made it once, then forgot about it.  Until swim team started up again this summer...

The two must-have ingredients from Trader Joe's are the Crisp Rice Cereal and the Dried Berry Medley (also a tasty treat on its own.)  See recipe at the bottom of this post, along with a photo of the completed snack masterpiece.

Crispy Oat PB Balls

• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup crisp rice cereal
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup dried fruit

1.     Step 1

In a small saucepan over medium, heat honey, peanut butter, and butter. Stir until loosened and smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in cereal, oats, and dried fruit.

2.     Step 2
Drop mixture by the tablespoon into mini cupcake paper liners. Place on a rimmed baking sheet, and refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes.

SUMMER! Two Ice Cream Sandwiches. A YAY! and a NAY!

Everyone loves an ice cream sandwich, right?  My kids start craving ice cream and asking for it every June.  Here are two we tried.

A YAY!  These Sublime Ice Cream Sandwiches are appropriately named.  DEE-lish.

I love anything minty, especially ice cream.  But these fall short.  They don't even taste right.  I threw them out.  And if you know me, you know I usually eat mediocre sweets rather than throw anything out!

What's for Dinner? Indian!

I love good Indian food, even though I don't get to an actual Indian restaurant very often.  I love it even more if I can make it with one jar - at home.

So far, here are the sauces I have tried from Trader Joe's and how they fare.  I have always used chicken with any Indian sauce that I buy.

NAY!
Masala Simmer Sauce - somehow this was a little spicy and a lot bland.

 

YAY!

This one was delicious, although very spicy.  My kids wouldn't eat it (we rinsed off the sauce and forced them to eat the chicken!)

Check back as I try each TJ Indian sauce.

A Few New Kid Snacks from TJ's

We've had these before, but not this flavor.  This one was a very well received, and the whole box disappeared within a few days.  The one downside is that these pouches are super tiny!

Fruit wraps!  Bit hit.  You buy these individually, for $0.49 each.  Both of my kids loved them.  There are several different flavors.

 

Another new one to our house, my little one loved these and ate both.  My older one wouldn't even try it, so I can't say if he would have liked it or not!  They are really ugly and unappealing looking (brown and texture-y), so that could be why my very particular first born steered clear of these.  You also buy these individually, for $0.99 each and there are many different flavors.

Trader Joe's Banana Bread Mix

I don't typically buy baking mixes because I like to bake and do it pretty frequently.  My kids also love baked goods and my little one LOVES to help.  He cracks eggs very unsuccessfully!

My good friend from college is a chef and has an amazing (from scratch) banana bread recipe.  This mix was on an end cap at TJ's, and I bought it impulsively.

As a baker, I didn't love this recipe.  I made these as muffins, which requires that you substitute creamed butter for the oil.  And you are supposed to mix it in - this is impossible to do without a hand mixer.  I will say these bake up nicely and evenly.

Overall, the muffins were decent tasting, but don't really taste like true banana bread.  My little one liked them, my big kid did not.

We'll eat them, but won't buy this mix again!

Trader Joe's Grocery List - Your First Visit

I was in music class with my 3-year old, talking about this blog, and the music teacher said she had never been to TJ.  SAY WHA?!  She asked specifically what she should buy there.  And she isn't the first person to tell me they don't really know what to buy at the Teej.  Soo, Deborah et al, this one's for you!

GROCERY LIST:

Ezekiel Sprout bread

Chia Seed tortillas

Pretzel buns

Bananas

Grapefruit

Avocado 

D'Anjou pears

Persian cucumbers

Reduced Guilt chicken salad

Raisin bran

Vanilla Almond Granola

Organic blueberry jam

Cereal bars

1% organic milk

Buttermilk

Trader Joe honey yogurt and strawberry vanilla

Golden Round Crackers

Cookies (pick any, they all rock!)

Frozen Blueberry waffles

Frozen Meatballs

Tempura Chinese chicken

Uncured Black Forest Ham

Pancetta

Shredded mozzarella

Laughing cow

Babybels 

Taco shells

Canned corn

BBQ Sauce

Frozen green beans

Sesame honey cashews

Dried mixed berry packet

Blue corn tortilla chips

Pineapple salsa

Ground beef

Chicken

Classic Sliced Dry Rubber Uncured Bacon

Kid Lunch - Tortilla Paws

Another attempt to make a lunch other than sandwiches!  I accidentally arranged these on the plate to look like a animal paw.  Seriously, it was an accident.

I buy the three ingredients at TJ's.  Flour tortillas, uncured ham, and Laughing Cow spreadable Swiss.

Smear cheese all over tortilla.  Put 2-3 slices of ham along the middle of the tortilla (I use 2 for my 3-year old, and 3 for my 8-year old).  Roll into a long tube.  Cut and serve.

My kids love these!

Delicious Snack - Sesame Honey Cashews

I had these last weekend at my friend Molly's house.  They are divine.  I don't usually like cashews, but these really work.  They are a tiny bit sweet (the honey), but then the sesame counteracts the sweet - in just the right way!

I brought them to the this week's swim meet and every single adult I was sitting with LOVED them.

Bummer... a delicious candy from TJ's!

I have a huge, uncontrollable sweet tooth.  I've mentioned this before, but I've always been relieved that I haven't liked any of the TJ candy that I have tried.

UNTIL NOW!

The Milk Chocolate Jumbles are TO. DIE. FOR.

"Crunchy pecans & toasted quinoa with soft and buttery caramel enrobed in chocolate and topped with Himalayan pink sea salt."

Pecans and quinoa = protein
chocolate = anti-oxidants
Himalayan pink sea salt = it sounds really cool!

The little smidgen of sea salt is amazing.  Such an added dash of delish.

The fastest prepared dinner at TJ's - BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I picked my older son up from camp and had to run a few errands.  And make it home by dinner time, with dinner.

I grabbed this BBQ Pulled Pork, which can be microwaved.  I heated it up in a saute pan.  My husband loved it and I liked it.  And my kids ate it.  While I tend to dislike anything spicy, and prefer sweet (especially with BBQ sauce), I thought this was a little TOO sweet.  Go figure.

I served the pork on these bagel thins.  (I forgot about the hole.)

Then, we had these (new to me) Quinoa and Black Bean Tortilla Chips with Pineapple Salsa.  Both were delicious.  The Pineapple Salsa was restaurant quality!

 And finally, some Persian cucumbers on the side.  In hopes that my kids will eat a vegetable once in a while.

Classic Kiddo Lunch - The TJ Way

TJ does it again, this time with a kid-friendly lunch (that my husband and I enjoyed too.)

These turkey corn dogs might be the tastiest corn dog I have ever had.  Not that I've had many, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.  A little more than my kids even...

Of course, I had to try Joe's O's.  Organic canned pasta!  Awesome.  I LOVED these as a kid (the leading competitor.)  The sauce in the TJ variety was thinner than its competitor, but still very tasty.  My husband went wild over the O's.  Brought him back to his processed-food-filled childhood.

I paired the two main items with fresh pineapple from TJ.  My kids love to pick out a pineapple almost every time we go to TJ.  I HATE cutting them!  Luckily, my husband doesn't mind.

Seasoned Brussel Sprouts - Good, for Brussel Sprouts

I love brussel sprouts, when they are super seasoned and therefore super tasty.  I've never tried to make them myself, I've always bought them prepared.

The TJ sprouts are tasty.  I added Parmesan cheese at the end, as the directions suggested.  I also sauteed them in olive oil. 

The one issue I had was that the really large pieces didn't cook in the allotted time.  They were very hard and difficult to eat.  I loved the little pieces that had flaked off and were covered in seasoning.

I'll buy them again.

Sea Salt Brownie Petites - YUMMY!

Another winner in the dessert aisle!  At first, these sea salt brownies are strange tasting.  Salt and chocolate don't seem to go together.  But they do.  They really do.  And I am so picky with desserts, but the brownie is delicious - very rich and very moist.

No More Sandwiches! - Great Lunch Home or Work Part II

I'm tired of sandwiches.  I've said it before.

And this lunch is quite satisfying!  And has a decent calorie count.

Chicken Salad is one of my weaknesses.  Man, do I love it.  So I did not have high hopes for the TJ Reduced Guilt Chicken Salad.  I was pleasantly surprised!  It has lots of different herbs which make for great flavor, in addition to diced veggies.  I put it on crackers and a half cup is MORE than enough.  And somehow, it only has 100 calories.  Great source of protein!

I also eat one tablespoon of the amazing Caramelized Onion dip with just a few of the classic Potato Chips.  It satisfies my need for tasty fat.

Trader Joe's Produce - Cherries!

If you know me, you know I have very specific produce items that I buy at TJ, and very specific items I DON'T.

I was apprehensive to buy the cherries.  They were pricey for one.  Almost $4 for this pretty small container.

Secondly, I don't like cherries.  And either does my husband.  My 3-year old grabbed them because he had just seen a friend of his big brother's eating them at lunch the week before.  He really wanted to try them.  And be cool like the big kid.  So I caved.

My 3-year old refuses to eat a vegetable, but he loves fruit.  And guess what?  He loves cherries.  And my husband and I like these cherries.  They are really tasty.

BIG HIT!

Buttermilk Biscuits - good in so many ways

Something that I love about Trader Joe's, is when they take a popular product (Ritz Crackers, Oreo's BBQ sauce) and make it healthier and often tastier.

These Buttermilk Biscuits are no exception.  They have no preservatives and taste DIVINE.

My husband ate his with eggs for breakfast.  I liked them with some butter and cheese for an afternoon snack.

Cookies for Kids! The taste test proves it

As you might recall, I have a major sweet tooth.  So I try a lot of Trader Joe's different sweets.  While I don't really like any of the candies (so far...) I have loved almost all of the cookies.

Here are the ones my kids love, along with their opinion.

Joe-Joe's.  These are like healthier Oreo's.  But be warned!  Please take note!  The chocolate ones are awful.  Always go for the vanilla.

Another good one, for little kids, are the Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies.  My 3-year old likes these as a snack, but my 8-year old doesn't like these.  I don't think they are sweet enough for his mature taste buds.  ;-)

 Lastly, we all love these.  Again, they disappear in a couple of days!  The almonds are very subtle, which means my kids don't mind them in there.  And doesn't that make them a little healthier?  The texture is just divine and the sugar sprinkle on top is an added delight.

Trader Joe's Old-Fashioned Donut O's - Ooooo, Noooo...

Who doesn't love a Donut Hole?  We love donuts at our house, but obviously don't eat them all that often.  We tried these recently and will not be buying them again.  They taste like WHEAT donut holes.  Some things can't be made healthy...