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Tag: Trader Joe’s (Page 4 of 6)

Trader Joe’s Mini Cheese Sandwich Crackers Review

August 4, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Close but no cigar

I’m a huge fan of Ritz bits cheese crackers, so when I saw these Mini Cheese sandwich crackers at Trader Joe’s, I thought I’d give them a try.

They are OK. The cheese is a bit saltier and more bitter, with a somewhat unpleasant after taste.

They’re still quite addictive, however.

At $3.30 for the 7.5 oz box, they’re 1/3 cheaper than Ritz bits, which sell for at Safeway for $5.80 for the 8.8 oz box (so 44c/oz vs 66c/oz) – though last time I got them at Safeway they were on sale for under $2.

Trader Joe’s Gnocchi al Gorgonzola review

August 3, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A favorite for over twenty years

I discovered Trader Giotto’s Gnocchi al Gorgonzola twenty years ago, when my oldest was a toddler. She loved them then and still loves now. And so do I.

Pasta often has problems surviving the freezing and heating up process, and Trader Joe’s solved this by freezing the pasta in little slices, which it then intermixes with the gnocchi. As they defrost, the melted sauce coats them.

This dish, as you can imagine, is on the heavy side, but the sauce is delicious. It doesn’t have a very strong Gorgonzola flavor – otherwise my kids wouldn’t like it – just enough to brighten the sauce. It’s ridiculously caloric, so something to eat only once in a while. It sells for $3.50

Trader Joe’s Beef Birria Review

July 30, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Pretty Generic

Birria, a Mexican dish of goat or beef marinated and stewed in a sauce made with vinegar, dried chilis, garlic and herbs, is having a moment here in the US. Quesabirria tacos, tortillas filled with birria and melted cheese, are suddenly all the rage and have been added to the menus of both Mexican restaurants and taquerias all over the place, while people try to recreate them at home. It’s thus no wonder that Trader Joe’s would come up with its own, frozen beef birria.

I tried it last week and I was unimpressed. The beef just lacked flavor.

The beef comes in large boneless pieces swimming in sauce. While you have to heat it in the plastic bowl it comes in (it’s frozen, after all), you do need to transfer it to a different plate to shred it. Obviously this is still less work that making your own birria, but I’d preferred if the meat was pre-shredded. That might also have helped it draw some of the flavor from the sauce. The sauce wasn’t super flavorful either, but a bit better than the bland beef.

Now, the beef does work well if you are going to add more flavorful elements to your tacos. I didn’t have any shredded cheese at hand – and I wasn’t about to chop anything – but I added some commercial sour cream and guacamole (not usual for birria tacos) and they were better.

The 16oz dish was $8, which doesn’t seem too bad, but I wouldn’t order it again.

Trader Joe’s Fettuccine Alfredo

July 25, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Exactly what you’d expect

Trader Giotto’s, aka Trader Joe’s, Fettuccine Alfredo is just that, fettuccine alfredo. It tastes like you expect fettuccine alfredo to taste. It’s not an espectacular fettuccine alfredo – it’s frozen, after all – but it does taste as close to home made as you can expect a frozen product to taste. It probably has as many calories as the home made kind, but I won’t look and confirm that.

Trader Joe’s Spizzico di Pizza Review

July 17, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Convenient and tasty pizza bites

Trader Joe’s Spizzico di Pizza are frozen two-bite pizza rounds that you can be heated up in the oven or the microwave – and, presumably, the air fryer. They are pretty basic: dough, sauce and cheese but my younger daughter really liked them – even more than regular frozen pizza. I wouldn’t go that far, but they were tasty enough. The sauce was slightly bittersweet, the cheese had flavor and they were surprisingly crispy even when cooked in the microwave. I’ll buy them again, because my daughter liked them. She ate the whole 9 oz package for lunch, which included 12 pizza rounds. The package was $4.

The whole package had 670 calories, 75g carbs, 8g sugar and 1390mg sodium. They’re made in Canada.

Trader Joe’s Cheese Blintzes Review

July 17, 2024 / / 12 Comments

Good flavor, bad texture

Trader Joe’s does many things well, but cheese blintzes is not one of them. These little crepes are sold frozen and meant to be warmed in a skillet or an oven, though I used the air fryer instead – which worked pretty well.

The crepes themselves were slightly sweet, soft and elastic, and I liked them. The problem was the cheese filling. They use a combo of farmer’s cheese and cottage cheese which tastes fine, but has an annoying, gritty texture. Both my husband and I hated it. The cheese is lightly sweetened, so you don’t need to add anything to them, but this actually bothered my husband, who would have preferred them less sweet. We wouldn’t order them again.

The blintzes are around 6″ long, they have 105 calories each, with 16g of carbs and 6g of sugar, all added. The box of 6 blintzes sells for $4.50. The package doesn’t indicate where they’re made, so I assume it’s in the US.

Trader Joe’s Cheese Filled Fiocchetti with Pink Sauce Review

July 14, 2024 / / 0 Comments

It’s all about the sauce

Trader Joe’s frozen Cheese Filled Fiocchetti with Pink Sauce are little egg pasta sacks filled with cheese served in an extraordinary not-really-pink cream sauce. The fiocchetti themselves are OK. Heated per instructions in the microwave, they were a little al-dente, and the cheese inside them felt liked hard, grated cheese rather than melted one. But this dish is not about the pasta, it’s about the sauce. And oh, what a sauce it is.

The sauce is a combination of cream, tomato puree and butter, seasoned with garlic, lemon juice, basil, parsley and salt and pepper. It’s bright and light, slightly acidic and just vibrant. It’s a perfect summer sauce. There is too much sauce for the included pasta, and I literally licked the plate when I was done eating.

From a nutrition point of view, this dish is as bad as you’d imagine. The whole 1lb package has 870 calories, 51g of fat and 78g of carbs. It’s supposed to be three portions, but that’s unrealistic. At best, consider it could serve two for lunch when paired with a salad. All in all, I’d see it as an occasional indulgency.

Trader Joe’s also sells a jarred pink pasta sauce. It has different ingredients than this one – it lacks lemon juice, for one, which I feel is an essential ingredient -, but I will give it a try and see if it approximates the amazing flavor of the one here.

Trader Joe’s Beef Bulgogi Review

July 13, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Better than mine

I love beef bulgogi. It’s delicious, easy to make (if somewhat laborious if you cut your own beef), and quick to cook by sautéing it. BUT, I am in a cooking strike until I get a new kitchen, so I haven’t made it for a long time. I decided to give Trajeder Joe’s beef bulgogi a try for one reason only: I didn’t look at the price. At $12 for the 16-lb package, it’s far beyond what I’d have comfortably pay for a frozen meal. However, now that I try it, I’m pretty sure I’ll get it again.

The plastic tray comes with one thing only: beef bulgogi in its marinade/cooking sauce. No rice, no veggies. If you want them, you’ll have to add them. At 40 grams of carbs and 27 grams of sugar for the whole package (which is enough food for two people) this is not precisely low carb, however.

But, and here is the but, it’s just delicious. The tender (but not too tender) beef has a smoky flavor that elevates this dish to the stratosphere. It really made me realize what I’d been missing by sautéing my bulgogi instead of grilling them over a wood-chip smoking box (given that I have a gas grill). Of course, it’s possible you could achieve the same flavor with just a dash of liquid smoke – I might try that next time too. Liquid smoke is not listed on the ingredients, however, so I’ll assume the meat achieves its smokiness naturally.

Trader Joe’s Spaghetti Carbonara Review

July 11, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Just not worth the calories

Spaghetti carbonara is yet another of my favorite dishes. Made with butter, cream, egg, bacon and cheese, it’s heart attack inducing. For the calories, the carbs and the fat, it should be delicious. This one wasn’t.

The pasta and the sauce were good enough, the pasta was soft and the cheese sauce was smooth and flavorful. The pancetta, on the other hand, was horrible. It was fatty and it had a weird, off-putting taste. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of it. I know that pancetta is traditional, but this dish would have been far better with bacon. I would not get it again. Instead of getting it, make my recipe for carbonara.

This dish is easy to heat in the microwave. It’s made in Italy and currently sells for $4.30 at the Castro Valley Trader Joe’s. It’s supposed to serve three people, but only if you have a Lilliputian appetite or serve it as a side. The whole 16-oz package (which granted, it’s too much food for just one person) has 860 calories, 42 grams of fat and 78 grams of carbohydrates.

Trader Joe’s Chicken Tikka Masala Review

July 11, 2024 / / 1 Comment

As far as microwavable tikka masalas go, this isn’t bad.

I love chicken tikka masala, but I’m pretty particular about it. I haven’t found many commercial versions that I like. Trader Joe’s tikka masala sauce and frozen chicken tikka masala entree are OK, but just that. This refrigerated version was better, it wasn’t as acidic and tasted closer to what you get at a restaurant. But it wasn’t quite there. The sauce wasn’t very complex, the chicken didn’t really have the smoky tikka flavor and I didn’t find myself licking the bowl as I otherwise would. It’s better than the
Sukhi’s Chicken Tikka Masala you find at the supermarket – but that’s not saying much.

It’s also not a particularly great value . It’s $6.50 (at the Castro Valley Trader Joe’s) for the 16 oz package, but half of it is rice. The 15oz package of Sukhi’s chicken tikka masala is $11 at Safeway (and it goes on sale occasionally) but that’s all chicken. And you can get a far better chicken tikka masala at Shef, for $11.50 for a 16-oz container.

In all, I won’t be getting it again.

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