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Tag: Trader Joe’s (Page 3 of 6)

Trader Joe’s Organic Cheese & Tomato Pizza Review

August 27, 2024 / / 0 Comments

As generic as they come

Trader Joe’s Organic Cheese & Tomato Pizza is as generic a frozen pizza as you can imagine. It tastes just like every other frozen cheese pizza out there. The dough is on the thin side, so it was crispy even though I cooked it on a baking sheet. The sauce was inoffensive, the cheese a bit on the scant side. There was just nothing remarkable about it. My daughter liked it because she thought it tasted like cheeetos, but I definitely did not get that.

It’s made in Italy, which in this case is a minus – because if you’re going to ship something in an energy-guzzing frozen container all the way from Europe to California, it should be better than average. At $6, it was equivalent in price to supermarket pizzas when on sale.

In all, I wouldn’t get it again for myself, but my daughter might for herself.

Trader Joe’s Caesar Salad Review

August 23, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Better than Safeway’s

My daughter is a huge fan of Caesar salads, she’s gone through periods where that’s all she had for lunch. This was her first time trying Trader Giotto’s Caesar Salad with Caesar dressing and she became a fan.

The lettuce felt fresher and she thought the dressing was tastier. In addition, it had croutons, a big plus for her. At 8.5 oz, TJ’s salad is also considerably larger than the Caesar salad at Safeway, which is 6.25 oz and includes chicken, which my daughter doesn’t like. It’s also cheaper – $3.50 for this salad vs. $4.50’s for Safeway’s. On the other hand, the TJ salad had an expiration only three days after we bought it, which means we couldn’t stock up on them.

In all, I think we’ll pick up a couple every time we go to TJ’s

Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Hummus Review

August 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This hummus was very creamy. It had a mild roasted garlic flavor which wasn’t too overwhelming – always a danger with roasted garlic. It had the right amount of acidity. I’m not sure that I’d buy it over plain hummus, but it was pretty good.

The 8oz tub is $2.30, a great price vis a vis supermarket hummus.

Trader Joe’s Pancake Bread Review

August 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

A somewhat strange coffee cake

My daughter picked this pancake bread at Trader Joe’s and I was intrigued enough to give it a try. It’s very much like a coffeecake, only neither the cake nor the topping are as sweet. It’s supposed to taste like buttermilk pancake with syrup, and I really don’t get that. It is pretty good, however, and if I wasn’t limiting carbs I’d buy it again. It costs $4.50 for the loaf.

Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken Review

August 21, 2024 / / 1 Comment

My daughter is a huge fan of orange chicken with rice, and thus she had this frozen mandaron orange chicken when she saw it at Trader Joe’s. I’d gotten it in the past, though I tend to skew prepared food I can’t warm up in the microwave or the air fryer. You need to cook this in the oven or sautee it on the stovetop.

She wasn’t super fond of this, though I did overcook it. She thought it was fine, but not as good as what you can get in a restaurant. She wasn’t too sure she’d get it again.

The 22 oz package costs $5 and is enough for two meals. Rice is not included.

Trader Joe’s Family Style Meat Lasagna review

August 21, 2024 / / 1 Comment

I still prefer Stouffers

Trader Joe’s Family style meat lasagna is not bad. It’s a perfect acceptable dinner for two, when you add a side salad. It says it should feed four – maybe if they are children and/or are eating a salad and some bread to fill up. It’s not overly cheesy, not overly saucy and particularly memorable, but it will do. Alas, it isn’t as good as Stouffers. It taste more home made and less commercial, but not as good. It’s just $7, so it does make for an affordable meal.

Trader Joe’s Linguine with Pesto & Tomatoes Review

August 20, 2024 / / 6 Comments

Another failure

I like a lot of Trader Joe’s frozen pastas, but this one was a failure. The dish is pretty much what it sounds like: linguine with pesto and tomatoes – but the pesto just wasn’t very tasty, there wasn’t much of it, and I was thoroughly unimpressed. Adding Parmesan helped but not enough. I wouldn’t get it again

Trader Joe’s Chicken Shawarma Bowl Review

August 19, 2024 / / 1 Comment

Disappointingly insipid

Shawarma, in both its lamb and chicken varieties, has become quite common in the US, as Arab/Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food trucks and restaurants have become popular. And putting foods traditionally wrapped in tortillas or breads into bowls has been a thing here for quite a while. It’s thus not surprising that Trader Joe’s would offer a frozen Chicken Shawarma Bowl. What is surprising is how flavorless it is. The bowl has rice, spiced chicken, red peppers, tiny pieces of spinach and pickled onions and is supposed to have a spicy garlic sauce. There is some spice into the dish, but very, very little flavor either in the individual ingredients or in the dish as a whole. It’s edible, but I definitely would not get it again.

Trader Joe’s Pork Shu Mai Dumplings Review

August 13, 2024 / / 0 Comments

My husband loves them

Trader Joe’s has been carrying these frozen Pork Shu Mai Dumplings for a long time, so they must be quite successful. That’s not surprising because they are very good. The shells are soft and chewy, and work well microwaved. The filling is very flavorful, without the chewy, annoying texture of shrimp which I so hate. It has a fragrant lemongrass flavor which I really like. The dumplings did scream to be dipped in some soy sauce, however.

They were $4 for a 9-oz box.

Trader Joe’s Breaded Cheddar Cheese Curds Review

August 11, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Just OK


I’m a fan of fried Mozzarella, but mostly in theory. In practice, it often has too much breading, it’s too oily and the breading competes with the cheese for flavor. These Breaded Cheddar Cheese Curds from Trader Joe’s suffered from exactly the same ailment. Though I air fried them without adding any additional oil, there was enough of it in the breading that they tasted and felt oily. And the breading was too thick. Cheese curds have an even more subtle flavor than Mozzarella, so they really couldn’t stand up to the breading, and at times I forgot that I was eating cheese in the first place.

After eating a small batch several days ago, I haven’t felt compelled to eating any more and I’m afraid I’ll actually throw out the rest of the bag.

These were $5, which is not cheap.

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