Roundup

This is my weekly compilation of news and other links about Trader Joe's.


6 meal-prep recipes with products from Trader Joe's

50 things to do with Everything But The Elote Seasoning

5 tips for using Everything But The Elote Seasoning

10 delicious cookies from Trader Joe's

5 new Trader Joe's beauty products

What your favorite Trader Joe's product says about you

Founder of Trader Joe's dies



Best tweets of the week:

I miscalculated my annual #TraderJoes Thanksgiving Kettle Chip:Cranberry Sauce ratio and every time I open the lazy Susan the last jar of Cranberry Sauce jumps out at me & I’m reminded of my failure #SaturdayThoughts

— Kim (@meeks08) February 22, 2020

I made the mistake of going into #TraderJoes while hungry yesterday & it looked something like this. #groceryshopping #hungry #tuesdaythoughts pic.twitter.com/5U1jBczMIH

— TheMatureMan (@TheMatureMan1) February 25, 2020

And finally, here's this week's cute cat with its Trader Joe's advent calendar:

Day 2! #adventcalendar #cats #TraderJoes #adopt pic.twitter.com/64NBhUpuzS

— Ben (@benistoocute) December 3, 2019

Trader Joe's Protein Patties

I had been looking forward to trying these since I heard they were coming. Meat substitutes constitute a large portion of my protein intake. I've tried every veggie burger I've seen in every grocery store.

Sadly, Trader Joe's new offering in this segment isn't among the best.

• They barely brown at all, even if you cook them longer than the directions suggest. 
• The taste and texture are fine, though nothing special. 
• They're much thicker than most such products, which I'm sure some people will think is a plus. But for me it's a detriment, though only a minor one. My preferred burger buns are TJ's Brioche Buns, which are too thick to easily accommodate a thick patty. Or to be more precise, it's my jaws that can't simultaneously accommodate both. 
• They're much more expensive than the competition from MorningStar, Boca, and Gardein, which are my current favorites. 
• There's an inexcusable amount of unrecyclable plastic packaging here. 

Will I buy it again? 

I probably will just once, because I'm curious to experiment with cooking them a little differently and see if I can improve the browning. This is purely a cosmetic thing, though, so even if optimized wouldn't shift my overall assessment much. These have no chance of becoming my go-to plant-based burgers.

Trader Joe's Coconut Crispy Rolls Wafer Cookies

Pleasant enough, but nothing special. Strong coconut flavor, which is nice. A little bit large for comfortable single-bite eating, but if you try to bite one in half, it will shatter. The brittleness is probably why they come nestled in a thick-ish plastic tray instead of loose in a bag, the result of which is that there's a lot of packaging waste.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Roundup

This is my weekly compilation of news and other links about Trader Joe's.


Winning the Trader Joe's bag raffle

11 vegan Trader Joe's combos we love

I'm not doing Trader Joe's correctly

I found Trader Joe's products at Aldi

Four Trader Joe's meat substitutes

10 things I always buy at Trader Joe's

The 11 non-grocery items I never pass up at Trader Joe's

15 easy vegan Trader Joe's dinners

13 Trader Joe's hummus dips

5 Trader Joe's products for spring cleaning



Best tweets of the week:

just a heads up, trader joe's "heavenly villagio marzano tomatoes" are not "ethereal" as the packaging says, they are dreamlike at best #shame #shameonyou #traderjoes

— Adam Jetmalani (@adamjetmalani) February 17, 2020

Trader Joes is fcking flame. it all tastes like it was handcrafted by joe himself in the kitchen of his abode.the crunchy mochi? Amazing. Everything but the bagel seasoning? Fuck me. salsas!cookie butter!THE DESSERTS?! FIRE we’ll never see this in 🇧🇷!Only in America! #TraderJoes pic.twitter.com/ZEPCisiLKj

— Leonardo Leo (@REALeonardoleo) February 18, 2020

Bagger at #TraderJoes said she liked my shirt & asked if it's a picture of me. 😳 I said "No! It's #RuthBaderGinsburg!! We just have the same glasses." She didn't know who that was & said "sorry, I don't get it." I weep for the present. She was voting age. I weep for the future. pic.twitter.com/w1EmET6i0r

— Krista 😸 (@durantigger) February 18, 2020

And finally, here are this week's cute cats with their Trader Joe's advent calendar:

Getting advent started early with my children since we’ll be gone at the end of the month. #traderjoes Christmas stuff just gets more fun and more creative each year. pic.twitter.com/VoVNDcnCQB

— Brooklynn Wong (@WongBrooklynn) December 2, 2019

Trader Joe's Corn and Chile Tomato-Less Salsa

I passed this by in the store many times because of the prominence of "onion" on the label. I hate onions. But it turns out that that's not its biggest problem.

The instant the first scoop of this salsa hit my tongue, I registered the sensation of "sweet" before anything else. They do give you fair warning of this, I guess: "A sweet combination..." is right there on the front of the jar. And if you turn it around to look at the back, sugar is the second ingredient, after corn.

This is deeply wrong. Salsa has no business being this sickeningly sweetened. Corn is naturally sweet; leave it at that.


Will I buy it again? 

No. Nina and I together ate down to the level you see in the photo above (and most of that was her). The next night, I took it out of the refrigerator to have more as my evening snack, and I just couldn't bear the thought of eating it again. It has zero appeal to me. The rest is going back to the store for a refund.

Trader Joe's Spinach & Chive Linguine Pasta

I bought this even though the second ingredient, after wheat flour, is onions--which I hate. And you can definitely taste them. I could not specifically identify by taste either of the titular ingredients, spinach and chives. But after adding Sausage-less Sausage and Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce, any flavor from the pasta itself basically faded into the background.

It seemed to cook up faster than regular pasta, though not nearly as fast as the package predicts (2-4 minutes).


Will I buy it again? 

No. I see no advantage over plain pasta.

Roundup

This is my weekly compilation of news and other links about Trader Joe's.


6 Trader Joe's knockoff products to try, and 4 to skip

Healthy and delicious items at Trader Joe's

I tried six frozen appetizers from Trader Joe's

Host a plant-based dinner party with these Trader Joe's items

New items at Trader Joe's



Best tweets of the week:

Let’s not normalize waiting in line to enter a grocery store.
Let’s not normalize waiting in line to enter a grocery store.
Let’s not normalize waiting in line to enter a grocery store. #NYCLIFE #Brooklyn #TRADERJOES

— michealrayawesome (@queersnacknyc) February 9, 2020

You know you've reached peak adulthood / better lifestyle goals when you're excited af for your next visit to #TraderJoes .😊 #Adulting #FitLife #CleanFood

— 𝓑𝓮𝓬𝓴𝔂𝔂 👑 (@therecklessoul) February 13, 2020

The Trader known as Joe has betrayed me. I just wanted my raspberry rose chocolate and I'll I got was a good long cry all the way home.#TraderJoes

— Veronica Savage (@VeronicaRaeSav) February 14, 2020

Godzilla mural seen at a Trader Joe's store. Except this Godzilla doesn't have fire breath, he has laser beam eyes like Cyclops. #godzilla #gojira #kaiju #ゴジラ #traderjoes #kaijumonster pic.twitter.com/1dl75m9ZuQ

— Sean Harry (@SeanHarry) February 13, 2020

And finally, here's this week's cute cat with her Trader Joe's advent calendar:

Happy #December1st! Waveland is ready to start opening doors in her #traderjoes advent calendar. pic.twitter.com/7jYlLkXskY

— ✈️ 🍷 👩🏼‍🏫 🐾 (@kket2602) December 2, 2019