Key Lime Cookies

I continued to use my family as taste testers during our family vacation since there was a such a captive audience and they didn’t have much of a choice being secluded without cell service or TV! I bought a container to Key Lime Cookies at the suggesting of a friendly TJ’s employee. They’re seasonal and were on the New Products rack at my local store. At $3.99 they’re reasonably priced. All in all about 10 members of my family tried the cookies – most were under 30 with the mean age of about 14 (just in case you care about the ages of taste testers).

There were two clear camps regarding opinions about these cookies: they were either loved or strongly disliked.

Those that liked the key lime cookies said:

“It tastes just like a key lime pie!” (and proceeded to reach for another)

“I REALLY like these, but I really like key lime pie.”

Those that didn’t like the key lime cookies:

“It has a weird after taste.”

“I don’t like key lime pie so I didn’t expect to like these, and I was right.”

“I just didn’t like them.” (and this family member LOVES key lime pie)

Another cousin and I agree on this: these cookies hurt our teeth! They are too sweet for me and after eating two cookies I’m happy to never eat another one ever.  Had I not been going away with 15 family members I would have returned this item.

My score is 4/10, those that liked this product gave it 9/10 and said they’d happily buy it again.

Stationery and a Giveaway!

8/5/2017 – the giveaway has ended.  Congratulations to Kristen!

Lots of choices…all 99 cents!

 

For any readers who are family members or friends you probably already know my love for stationery and letter writing runs deep.  I really, really love making stationery, buying stationery, and sending notes and cards at any opportunity.  I’d like to think my hoarding behaviors surrounding stationery is somewhat justified by the amount of mail I send out.  Right?  Are you buying that?

By far my most loved, non-edible Trader Joe’s item is their greeting cards!  Did you even know they sold cards?  They’re usually displayed in front of the “Captain’s Deck”/customer service area.  Their cards hit the major areas: sympathy, birthday, love, weddings, babies, and thank yous.  And a bunch of blank cards.  I rarely leave Trader Joe’s without buying at least one cards, and often I buy a few.  Here is the secret: if you see a card you love you need to buy them all!  Sadly, all TJ’s cards are limited run and once its gone then its gone.  At this point I have about 35-40 cards in my stock pile, but I really can’t resist picking up one or each shopping trip.  There are always new designs.

My stockpile.

All the cards are only 99 cents.  I think that’s a steal!  I was just telling a friend about TJ’s wonderful card selection and she had no idea!  And she shops at TJ’s frequently.  She went on to say she had just spent way more than 99 cents on a sympathy card at a conventional grocery store.

Here are a few cards from today’s shopping trip I really liked…

GIVEAWAY TIME!

This whole blogging thing is totally new to me, and I’m always excited when a stranger stumbles upon my little musings.  To enter: leave a comment about your favorite TJ’s item and how you found out about this blog.  I’ll select a comment at random using the random number generator at Random.org.  This post will be left up for a week and the drawing will occur on August 4th!

What you can win: 5 assorted greeting cards from Trader Joe’s and a bunch of TJ’s stickers to seal your cards with.  If you will I’ll contact you via the email you enter when leaving a comment!

Quiche

Keep checking back because there will be a giveaway coming up very soon!

I’m a pretty good cook.  I grew up with a Mom who never measured and rarely made a bad meal!  Learning from her I’m the kind of cook who is happy to get on without a recipe or measuring cups.  But, I’m kinda lazy sometimes.  It’s true.  I don’t mind making multi-course meals, but not just for myself.  When it’s just me I’m very happy to heat up leftovers or make something frozen from Trader Joe’s.

Today’s post is all about the humble, yet classic, quiche!  Quiche really are easy to make, and they’re a fantastic way to use up odds and ends.  Have a few misc pieces of cheese sitting in the fridge?  No problem!  Shred those suckers up, add a veggie or two to a mixture of eggs and milk (or half and half) to a pie shell, and you’re good to go.  But what if you don’t want to do that?  Or you don’t want a bunch of leftovers?  That’s where Trader Joe’s single serve quiches come in!  At $2.29 I think they’re a deal!  There are two varieties: broccoli and cheddar or spinach, mushroom, and cheese.  The quiche pictured is the broccoli and cheddar variety, but I usually buy both.

You can heat this up in the oven for about 40 min or in the microwave for just under 5 min.  I’ve tried both methods, and truthfully microwaving tastes just as good as using the oven.  The crust is wonderfully flakey and crisp.  The filling has good flavor and texture.  I’m a smidgen more inclined to buy the spinach, mushroom, cheese variety, but I usually buy one of each.  Pair this with some fresh cut fruit for breakfast, or a side salad for lunch/dinner, and you’re set.

I think these would be impressive for a brunch too.  Having individual little quiches just seems a bit fancier than one larger quiches cut into slices.

This is a staple item in my freezer and I’m giving it a 9 star rating!

Gorgonzola Steak Sauce with Mushrooms and Onions

I had a craving for this sauce a few days ago but didn’t have any steaks.  First world problems.  I took a trip to my local grocery store in hopes of finding a couple marked down meats.  Sadly, no good mark downs were found…but there was a flat iron steak that caught my attention.  It was $9.99/lb which is $5 over budget.  The sell by date was just 2 days away, so I knew it would be marked down the next morning.  So I walked away crossing my fingers hoping fate would come through.

Fast forward 18 hours…my sought after flat iron steak was indeed not sold and was now 40% off!  I snapped it up.  At about 2 lbs it was a little over $13, not exactly cheap, but I knew it’d be good!  I estimated it would serve 6 people – $2.16/person.

Step 1: Marinate the heck out of it!  I am not the type of cook that measures ingredients unless I’m baking, or trying to be mindful of blog readers.  I didn’t measure the marinade ingredients but I’ll make educated guesses.  Start with a small mixing bowl and gallon size ziploc.  I also bought a small t-bone steak so I added that to marinate with the flat iron steak.

Marinade Ingredients:

Dump them all together in a bowl

1/3 c dijon mustard (Trader Joe’s has CHEAP mustards!)

1/4 c mixed fresh chopped herbs – I used what I had growing in my container garden, thyme, rosemary, basil.  I added dried oregano to the party.

2 t smoked paprika

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

6 minced garlic cloves, I used the jarred stuff

2 jalapeños seeded and minced (I wouldn’t normally add these, but my little jalapeño plant grew them and I was just tickled to have anything grow)

1 t crushed pepper flakes

1/4 vegetable oil, you can use olive if you want, you might need a little more to thin out the marinade

Mix it all up, add your meat to the zipbloc bag, and pour it in.  Be sure all the surfaces are covered.  I marinated my steaks for about 48 hrs.  After that I grilled them up!  While they were grilling I started on the Gorgonzola Steak Sauce with Mushrooms and Bleu Cheese!

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the chunk of Trader Joe’s Gorgonzola, but I think you can imagine what it looks like!  You can also use a straight up bleu cheese.  They sell a pretty good already crumbled bleu cheese which would save you a little prep time.

Gorgonzola Steak Sauce with Mushrooms and Onions

1 large yellow sweet onion, thinly sliced

8 oz package of mushrooms, I’m partial to baby bellas, but white button mushrooms are fine too, thinly slice all of them

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 stick butter

1/4 t pepper

1/4 t salt

1 c heavy cream

1 1/3 c roughly chopped gorgonzola

I use a cast iron pan for most of my cooking.  Heat it to medium-low, add onions, mushrooms, garlic, and butter.  It takes a little time to get the veggies to soften.  You don’t want to turn the heat up because you don’t need them to brown, just soften.  Give it a good 15 min, stir every few minutes.

Once they’re soft add the salt and pepper, mix.  Then the cup of heavy cream, you can turn the heat up a little bit.  Let it get nice and bubbly!!  You have to be a little patient while it thickens.

Once it resembles more of a sauce and less of a liquid you can add the crumbled gorgonzola or bleu cheese.  Give it another minute or two, then remove from the heat.  The cheese should be nicely melted into the sauce.

Spoon over your steak and try not to lick your plate!

Pickle Popcorn

Earlier this week I was out of town with 15 family members…yep 15.  For three generations my family has been blessed to have a somewhat close mountain cabin to visit, and the tradition continued this summer.  It is probably my favorite place on earth.  The cabin has basically remained unchanged since I was little, save for a few newer (not new!) couches.  The dining table seats at least 25, the cabin sleeps 24, and there are 2,700+ acres to explore.

Knowing I’d have a captive audience I decided to take a few Trader Joe’s products up for taste testing.  It was highly unscientific taste testing!  One night a bunch of us were outside either playing Scrabble or Apples to Apples and I said “want to try some pickle popcorn?”

10-ish family members tried the pickle popcorn, and the average ave was under 14, with a few adults thrown in.  The overwhelming response was “I like it!”  Then I’d ask, “Would you buy this over other more traditional flavors of popcorn?”  The answer from all but one little cousin was no.  So it was liked and everyone was happy to try it, but it wouldn’t be a staple purchase.  I think it was more of a novelty.

I asked a few little cousins to describe it and they said:

“It’s really pickley”

“It’d be good with a hamburger if you’re out of pickles”

“It tastes like a dill pickle and popcorn had a baby”

It really does taste like a dill pickle!  For me the upside of this snack is that a little goes a long way.  I don’t want to sit down and eat the whole bag (the same can’t be said for other varieties of TJ’s popcorn).  A little bowl is just right to snack on and at $1.99 it will be purchased once in a while.

As a family we’re giving this product a solid 7 stars

 

Key Lime Pie

About 8 years ago a friend and I were on a vacation to Southern Florida and took a day trip to Key Largo to go snorkeling.  On our way back to Miami we stopped for slices of key lime pie at a place that swore they had the best key lime pie in the entire universe.  And it was really good!  If my memory serves me correctly I remember it being served with a hearty dollop of whipped cream and a thinly sliced piece of lim for garnish.

Trader Joe’s version of key lime pie is much more simple.  It comes frozen and the instructions say to let it defrost in the fridge for a couple of hours.  You get a small pie.  No whipped cream, no lime garnish, and no declaration that it’s the best key lime pie you’ll ever have.  But here is the thing…it might actually be the best.  Now I liked it, but didn’t love it.  But the true test was my Step-Dad.  I took over 3/4 of the pie  (I had already had a slice the night before) last night for dinner and prior to tasting it he said “I’ll just have a bite”, since he isn’t a key lime fan.  He initially cut the tiniest of sliver, sat down at the kitchen table, took one bite and proceeded to say “Oh my god its good”.  My Mom was shocked at this non-liker of key lime pie!  He quickly stood for a second helping to which my Mom said “Don’t eat all my pie!”  Everyone agreed it was an excellent value.

This is a very sweet but tart pie.  It was a little too tart for me to love it, but it was worth the $5.49 I spent on it.  The crust was crisp and had a light buttery flavor.  It easily serves 4 people without any leftovers to cause potential issues of family members fighting over the last slice.   You could easily pass this off as homemade if you added some whipped cream and lime garnishes.

I give it 7 stars

My Mom says it gets 9 stars

And my Step-Dad went all out with 10 stars!

And my cat Tulip even liked it – but I shooed her away after a couple licks because I didn’t want to share.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Mango Jicama Slaw

Summer 2016 is the summer of all things mango at Trader Joe’s.  They have over 40 new mango items and I’ll be chatting about one of my favorites…mango jicama slaw with a lime mango vinaigrette.  Including today’s purchase I’ve bought this 5 times and plan on buying 5 more!   At $4.99 it’s not the cheapest slaw mix you can find, but this has thinly sliced mango, jicama, and cabbage.  I only made 2 tacos with it tonight, but you could easily get 10-12 tacos-worth from it.  There is a hearty helping of cilantro and a pouch of lime mango dressing.  Warning: use a bigger bowl than you think you’ll need to mix it!  It’s pretty compacted in the container so learn from my underestimation of bowl sizes.  The ingredients are fresh, the jicama adds a great texture.  I do like the dressing mix, but I don’t totally love it.  It’s limey but doesn’t taste like mango once it’s all mixed together.  Every time I buy this I make the same meal to go along with it – you guessed it!  Chipotle Shrimp Tacos!

The point of this blog isn’t necessarily about being frugal, but I’m totally frugal.  Friends and family know this!  I like to be wise with my money and save for a rainy day.  So maybe you’re thinking “but shrimp aren’t cheap.”  No, their not “cheap” but I always buy them on sale and I cook exactly the quantity I want so there is no waste and little prep time!  The best price for extra jumbo (16-20/lb) shrimp is $7.99/lb.  Once in a while I’ve found them for $6.99.  So assuming you get them for $7.99, that’s 39¢ per shrimp.  I put three shrimp in each taco so my protein cost is $2.39.  And it took me 10 min to make!  I’m all about saving time.

I’m eating one as I type!  I give this item 8.5 stars but when added to the shrimp tacos it’s a straight up 10!

 

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos with Mango Jicama Slaw

You have to start with my favorite and go-to marinade.  When I make it I make a BIG batch, then portion it into 1/2 c containers and freeze it.  In the fridge it will last for weeks.  I’ve put it on fish, steak, tofu, and chicken.  But it’s best on shrimp.  The recipe below is for a single, small batch (if you want my measurements to use a whole can of chipotles let me know!)  I don’t want to open a can of chipotles and use just one pepper.

Chipotle Marinade

1 chipotle pepper

1 t adobo sauce (comes in the can with the chipotles)

1 T chile powder (omit if you don’t want too much spice)

2 t cumin

1 t oregano

1/2 t onion powder

1/4 t red pepper flakes

1 t pepper

1/2 t salt (add more after tasting)

3 garlic cloves

1/4 olive oil, you can use vegetable oil if you want

Add all ingredients into a blender, or use an immersion blender.  Blend until smooth.

Chipotle Shrimp Tacos (makes 2 tacos)

6 extra jumbo raw shrimp, thawed, and shelled (extra jumbo are 16-20/lb)

1 heaping teaspoon of chipotle marinade

1 t oil for frying pan

2 small tacos, flour or corn, your choice

Mango jicama slaw

Any toppings you want!

I added a little shredded cheese, sour cream, and lots of cilantro

Directions: After shrimp are thawed and shelled, added marinade and let them soak for 15 min.  Heat pan over medium high heat, add oil to pan, once the pan is good and hot add shrimp and get a good sear.  Shrimp cook super quick, which is why I like cooking with them so much.  Once the tails are turning pink you can go ahead and flip them.  This should only take 1-2 min/per side.  You’ll know they’re done when their pink all the way through and curled up.  Remove them from the heat and make your tacos!!!

Spanakopita!

Trader Joe’s Spanakopita has been a faithful staple in my freezer for a couple years now.  Spanakopita is a savory Greek pie.  I used to have neighbors who were Albanian and they made a version of this called Borek and it was amazing.  My sweet neighbor, who was the age of my Grandmother, would knock on my door Sunday evening with a little plate full for me.  It was the sweetest gesture.  What’s my point…that the European countries have their own versions of Borek and you shouldn’t miss out.

Anyway, Tj’s frozen Spanakopita is $3.99 for 12 pieces.  It’s packaged in a small aluminum tray which sadly you can’t bake them in – the pieces need to be separated and placed on a cookie tray (please excuse the state of my cookie tray – I need new ones).  They only take 25 minutes to bake.  My oven doesn’t bake very evenly, so I usually flip mine about 20 minutes in.

The pieces come out nice and crispy. The filling is predominately spinach with some feta and ricotta cheeses mixed in.  I didn’t realize there was ricotta in the filling until about 5 minutes ago!  I do wish the filling had a little more flavor, but it’s east to over come that with some feta and olives on the side.  I’ve made these when friends come over, but I mostly use them as a side item for a meal.

Breakfast: a couple scrambled eggs and sautéed veggies with spanakopita

Lunch: Greek salad with olives, TJ’s Israeli feta (which will be reviewed shortly), and a couple pieces of spanakopita (I like them cold as much as I like them right out of the oven)

Dinner: Kabobs, grilled veggies, and spanakopita

I give these 8.5 stars

 

 

Organic Coconut Milk

When I talk with people unfamiliar with Trader Joe’s I’m often asked “but isn’t it expensive?”  Generally the answer to that question is no!  I say “you’re confusing Trader Joe’s with Whole Foods! Today’s example is the 14 oz can of organic coconut milk I bought over the weekend.  It was a mere $1.69.  My neighborhood grocery store sells the Thai Kitchen version of organic coconut milk for $3.49.  I’ve consistently found Trader Joe’s to be less expensive on the everyday staple items, plus they have such fun products that you’d never find in your usual grocery store!  Did you know they have Dill Pickle Popcorn?  Yep, it’s a thing, and it’s good too!  I’ll save that review for another time.

Back to the canned organic coconut milk…

This summer I’m doing my best to use up the plethora of items in my freezer.  I’m a sale shopper and marked down meats are my jam!  But that had led to quite a pile up in my freezer.  So I decided I wanted to make a Thai red curry and use a package of 90% lean ground beef as my added protein.  I did a little googling and ended up with my own version of Thai Red Curry staring TJ’s organic coconut milk.  The recipe is below!  I used one whole can and it was as expected…coconutty!  I’d say it was average thickness and got the job done.  Now if you wanted a little something extra…TJ’s also sells canned coconut cream!  I also bought a can of this but opted to keep my curry less indulgent this batch around.  You could totally substitute a bit of the straight up coconut milk for the coconut cream and you’d have a curry that was even thicker!  I just let mine reduce a bit and was happy with the thickness!

While I don’t often cook with coconut milk, I’d still like to have a can at the ready in my pantry.

I give this item 8 stars.

 

Thai Red Curry with Ground Beef and Vegetables

Ingredients:

1 lb lean ground beef

3 T minced fresh ginger (divided)

2 T minched garlic

1 14oz can Trader Joe’s Canned Coconut Milk

1/2 c chicken stock (I used Better than Bullion Low Sodium Chicken)

1 T red curry paste (I used Thai Kitchen)

1 T fish sauce

1 T brown sugar

2-3 c mixed veggies (I used yellow peppers, eggplant, and onion)

Vegetable oil

Salt and Pepper

***optional: zest of a lime and juice of one lime and chopped cilantro for garnish (and flavor!)

Directions:

Add a little veg oil to a hot pan, add half the ginger and garlic, cook until fragrant (a minute or two), add beef, brown.  Season with salt.  Remove from pan and set aside.  I used eggplant in my curry, so I cut a small eggplant into 1 inch cubes, added to pan with a little veg oil, browned for 4-5 min, then removed to same bowl as the cooked ground beef.

Add more veg oil to hot pan, add remaining garlic and ginger, and curry paste, let cook for a min or two.  Add coconut milk, chicken stock, brown sugar, fish sauce, vegetables (including cooked eggplant), ground beef, and optional lime zest and lime juice.  Let it simmer until the veggies are tender.  If you like spice feel free to add more curry paste!

I served my curry over instant cooked coconut rice from Target (heats in its own bag in 90 seconds and tastes pretty good!).  Enjoy!

 

First Post: For the love of Trader Joe’s!

Hi!  I’m Sarah and I LOVE Trader Joe’s.  When I say love, I really mean it.  I’ve often said my affections for Trader Joe’s goes beyond what is socially acceptable, and that I never want to live in an area without a store close by.  Over the past few years I’ve followed a small handful of Trader Joe’s blogs, and today I decided to start my own.  I’m excited to share reviews on items that are long-time staple products as well as new items.  Just wait until closer to the winter holidays when Trader Joe’s is bursting at the seems with Thanksgiving and Christmas offerings!  Thanks for reading!