At the ones in Portland, there is a whole unrefrigerated wall of juices, waters, and assorted beverages.

new great find, trek mix granola! they have several different kinds: one with berries, sweet & salty, cranberry nut, and a few others. relatively high calorie, 2k calories a box (8 servings of 250), but the sweet and salty is excellent!

few things....

the frozen chimichurri salmon was unbelievably good. kind of a garlic flavor, but just awesome. i defrosted it in the fridge for a day or so, then baked for 12 minutes. ate a pound and a half of it!!! reccomend highly.

the frozen mixed fruit (blueberries, rasperries, blackberries i think) is good to add to smoothies. i haven't had it by itself.

the two frozen pizzas i got were alright, nothing special.

i don't like their yogurt as much as colombo, yoplait etc.

the indian lentil stew that comes in a glass jar was not bad, but lacked a lot of flavor. it is pretty high protein/fiber though, and low calorie.

the frozen chicken stiry fry---forget the exact name, but it came with a dark sauce, and cashews to mix in. just put it on a frying pan with vegetable oil for a few minutes and it came out really good.

nothing else i can think of now, but i trader joe's.


keep the reccomendations coming!

I really like the cookies that come in the clear plastic tubs. In particular, the dark chocolate + almond cookies are amazingly good. And the Southern style pecan ones are excellent too.

Green Kool Aid,

Did you get the Pizza Margherita? That's the good [censored].

Try the Fage greek yogurt with honey -- it can taste a bit foreign at first so the honey is nice.

I keep trying new frozen items and I keep coming out impressed at the quality. It's like some of this stuff was freshly made, not cooked in 4 minutes in my microwave.

- Pesto Mozeralla Tortellinis (or something like that): I love pesto, I love mozerella, and these didn't disappoint.
- Gnocchi alla Sorrentina: Gnocchi with tomato basil sauce and some mozerella. Sooooo good. The gnocchi's turn amazingly soft and freshlike.
- Frozen French Onion Soup: I don't have a bowl or cup that will fit it perfectly and it could use a little more cheese, but this is amazingly tasty. The bread pieces inside are remarkably in good shape. This tasted like FOS that I've had in restaurants, just with less cheese.

skunk,

i got the greek honey with yogurt. i prefer regular yogurt, and that it was v unhealthy.

My new find: TJ's Mango and Honey Shaving Cream. Really nice, creamy, slick stuff and it reminds me of the beach. All natural too. Provides an excellent shave...

good find: the veracruz chili, in the refrigerated section. I tried the vegetable version, they also have beef also. 300 calories, very tangy with a little spice (not much) and flavorful. this and a slice of bread is a great lunch.

-mediterranean style hummus is very good, especially with traders bean chips(jalapeno flavored)
-hickory bbq potato chips(kettle style), i'm not even much of a fan of potato chips in general but these are addictively good
-potato medley(frozen sec) veggies and potatoes with seasoning, just stir fry for a few minutes and you got a quick and simple hot meal.
-New York style cheese cake, probably the best $8 cheese cake around
-there version of ritz crackers is probably 3x better then the original and w/o the hydrogenated oils, great w/ cheese
-Tejava microbrewed ice tea is really good if you like unsweetened ice tea
-frozen marinated mahi mahi makes for some really good fish tacos

All,



That's an all TJ's dinner.

New items were the butternut squash and the sweet potato spears in pre-cut bags. Both came out great after tossing in olive oil/salt/pepper and roasting at 400 for 40 minutes along w/ some brussel sprouts, red peppers, and new potatoes.

I went for the first time last week.

I bought two types of burritos (Chile Verde and Bean and Rice), both were AMAZING. Much better than any frozen burrito I've had and better than a lot of restaurants.

The Pizza Margherita is also great.

I wasn't as impressed with the blueberry sparkling soda (or whatever it was). It was good, not great.

I need to try the yogurts I bought.

the frozen chicken chimichangas w/jalapeno are very good frozen fare. cheap too, i believe it's $2.49 for a pair. each one is 390c and is plenty for my lunch. my only problem is that, while it only has 2.5g of saturated fat, it doesn't list transfat. it clearly states that the product was fried in partially hydrogenated oil though, so that means it has up to 2.5g.

the mini chocolate peanut butter cups are que ridiculo. highly recommended, keep em in the fridge though because they can get kinda melty.

diablo, check out the "harvest medley" in the refrigerated section. very good mix of squash, turnips, etc. goes great baked w/maple syrup and all spice.

Finally tried TJ's canned turkey and it wasn't very good. Also compared the TJ's canned chicken with a can from Costco (my friend gave me one from a ten pack). The TJ's can was the same size on the outside but had a lot more meat once you pressed the water out. The quality seemed close on both.

Anyway, have had chicken salad made from TJ's canned chicken about five times since I wrote the above post and every time it's been good.

~ Rick

PS Definitely the kind of stuff (along with canned soup) you want to have in case of a serious earthquake or a not so nearby nuke wipes out the water supply and causes widespread panic.

You would probably also need a gun.

i enjoy world market's instant miso soup packets, but i don't like making a separate trip for them or the price. everything i've tried at whole foods has been abysmal. i ran into a brown box of miso soup packets at trader joe's recently, it's a 4 pack and i believe it was a few bucks. each packet has 90 calories, quite satisfying, and tastes great.

Some things that haven't been mentioned in this thread that I just picked up are salsa flavored organic white corn tortilla chips and garlic and cheese croutons.

Another couple things I bought and tried;

Garlic Chicken Stir Fry:
It was OKAY. I followed the directions pretty well and think I cooked it properly. The pasta was very well textured and the chicken and veggies were great... however the sauce left a little to be desired. I can't really explain why, but it didn't satisfy my taste as I would of liked.

It was easy enough to make that I may consider buying it again, but I'll try some other stuff first.

Pesto Pizza:
Made this on my Pizazz and it worked brilliantly. I love this pizza, almost as good as the Pizza Margherita. I would definitely suggest it.

Organic Strawberry Yogurt:
Fantastic. Reasonably priced, $2.59ish for a 3-4 days of breakfast.

TJ's Bavarian Hefewizen:
I am just getting into buying different types of beer, so take this review with a grain of salt. I thought it was mediocre (however less than $6 for 6). The nuttyish flavor of it came through too harshly and ruined the taste of the food I was eating with it. For the price, it's good beer, but I won't buy again.

I bought 2 bottles of cheap wine. I know nothing about wine, but enjoy the majority of what I drink. Feel free to tell me I am totally wrong and give me suggestions. Here are my naive idiotic reviews.

Villa Cerrina Chardonnay/Pinot Grigio 05:
Mmm, tasty. I drank this with my garlic chicken (see above) and loved it. It was very clean and slightly fruity. Also, it was dirt cheap (I think less than $4). Would recommend to an unsophisticated wine drinkinger.

TJ's Chilean Collection: Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 05
Again, I'm an idiot, but I really didn't like this. I'm usually somewhat impartial towards dark wines, but this one didn't do anything for me. I honestly thought I was drinking wine mixed with butter.

I'd like to stress that I bought the cheapest wines I could find that there weren't very many of. This logic is horrible, but I figured if there weren't many bottles it was indicative of popularity. Again, I stress, I know nothing about wine.

Disclaimer... I'm a pretty pickey beer drinker and don't enjoy strong flavors in my beer, but you can definitely find better beers than the TJs brand at competitive prices at any good liquor store. Especially when it comes to Hefewizen.

But Widmer Brothers or Blue Moon hefeweisen. Both awesome in their own way, not exactly expensive, and available at most grocery stores.

I definitely agree. I've been drinking Widmer Brothers lately.

Ahem, if you don't like your beer to taste like anything you should stick to Coors Light.

Here's a real review :

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/10707/21619

Their "Jumping Cow" is super excellente.

I stumbled upon this thread and surprised no one mentioned the cup-o-soup ramen noodles. I always get Garlic and chicken mushroom flavor. NO MSG!!! Also low on fat compared to most supermarket ramen noodles.

The Pad Thai that comes in a box is very delicious. The rice noodles come out perfect, just like a thai restaurant. I always add an egg, diced chicken, broccoli, crushed red peppers and crushed peanuts. It comes out excellent. The pad thai is $1.49. So for less than $2.00 my wife and I enjoy a very good and healthy dinner.

The creamy tomato juice in the big drink box is great and it goes awesome with TJ's pasta cheese raviolis. Just boil the raviolis and cover with the tomato juice. Again, cheap and healthy.

Vegetable Flax Seed Tortilla Chips - like these alot, slightly more tasty than the Flax Seed Chips (which I also enjoy) - lady at TJ's said they are a new product.

Artichoke & Jalapeno Dip is pretty good.

-Al

All,

I've recommended Gorgonzola Gnocchi and Fettucine Alfredo before. But both are pretty bad for you, so I don't usually get them. Just got Mushroom Fettucine, which was really, really good and far better for you. Frozen, just heat up in the skillet for a few minutes. I still can't believe this actually turns out decent tasting pasta, but it does! Anyway, definite thumbs up on the Mushroom Fettucine.

I recommend the Garlic Mashed Potatoes. The potatoes and garlic come chopped up in the bag. Just microwave until tender and mash in a bowl with milk, grated cheese, and butter. Makes about 3-4 servings. Much like the Garlic French Fries they have at TJs they really go heavy on the garlic. The taste was a little too strong for my liking but that can easily be compensated for by removing some of the clove pieces before you mash.