PL here ...
If I were to tell you that I sometimes think the music playing in Trader Joe's is better than the food, believe me, that would only be a very high compliment about the music, because the food is superb. A few days ago, I heard the Four Season's Ronnie and the Beau Brummels' Laugh Laugh in the Trader Joe's on Central Avenue in Westchester - I'd say it's been decades since I heard either song anywhere, including on WCBS-FM, the great oldies station in New York.
But about Trader Joe's food - it's astonishingly good, healthy, and inexpensive. Here's is a little of what my wife Tina and I picked up on our last trip:
1. Chicken Drumettes ... boneless white chicken meat, already cooked, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients ... about 20 pieces - 3 is certainly enough for lunch and even a light dinner. Melts in your mouth.
2. Pomegranate Green Tea ... 64 ounces of tea, kettle brewed from green tea leaves, pomegranate juice, pear and eldeberry juice ... the cane sugar ingredient is not overwhelming (15 grams per serving) ... Delicious.
3. Trail mix of shelled pistachios, almonds, and cherries ... speaks for itself...
The first two are just a few dollars each. The trail mix can be a little more, depending on the size of the package.
By the way, if you like chicken, Trader Joe's also has delectable Mandarin Orange and Tempura chicken packages. Under $5 dollar each, and they make great dinners with Trader Joe's jasmine or frozen organic rice. The rice microwaves and comes our great. (On my microwave, 3 drumettes for 1 minute at 7 out of 10 power works perfectly. If you keep the drumettes close together, they'll not only be happy, but you will, too, because the heat in the microwave works more evenly. At least it does, in mine.)
A few things to beware of ... Not every item in the store is organic. Some of the nuts and dried fruits have sugar added. Some of the ready-to-eat dinners have a lot of sodium. So, in all cases, read the labels carefully, as you would in any store.
But the main problem with Trader Joe's is that the store is sometimes - well, often - out of stock, on one or more great items. They run out of items at the warehouse, temporarily discontinue them, then bring them back. (This happened this past summer with the Pomegranate Green Tea.) The remedy for this is stock up whenever you can, and/or go to the store often.
If I were to tell you that I sometimes think the music playing in Trader Joe's is better than the food, believe me, that would only be a very high compliment about the music, because the food is superb. A few days ago, I heard the Four Season's Ronnie and the Beau Brummels' Laugh Laugh in the Trader Joe's on Central Avenue in Westchester - I'd say it's been decades since I heard either song anywhere, including on WCBS-FM, the great oldies station in New York.
But about Trader Joe's food - it's astonishingly good, healthy, and inexpensive. Here's is a little of what my wife Tina and I picked up on our last trip:
1. Chicken Drumettes ... boneless white chicken meat, already cooked, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients ... about 20 pieces - 3 is certainly enough for lunch and even a light dinner. Melts in your mouth.
2. Pomegranate Green Tea ... 64 ounces of tea, kettle brewed from green tea leaves, pomegranate juice, pear and eldeberry juice ... the cane sugar ingredient is not overwhelming (15 grams per serving) ... Delicious.
3. Trail mix of shelled pistachios, almonds, and cherries ... speaks for itself...
The first two are just a few dollars each. The trail mix can be a little more, depending on the size of the package.
By the way, if you like chicken, Trader Joe's also has delectable Mandarin Orange and Tempura chicken packages. Under $5 dollar each, and they make great dinners with Trader Joe's jasmine or frozen organic rice. The rice microwaves and comes our great. (On my microwave, 3 drumettes for 1 minute at 7 out of 10 power works perfectly. If you keep the drumettes close together, they'll not only be happy, but you will, too, because the heat in the microwave works more evenly. At least it does, in mine.)A few things to beware of ... Not every item in the store is organic. Some of the nuts and dried fruits have sugar added. Some of the ready-to-eat dinners have a lot of sodium. So, in all cases, read the labels carefully, as you would in any store.
But the main problem with Trader Joe's is that the store is sometimes - well, often - out of stock, on one or more great items. They run out of items at the warehouse, temporarily discontinue them, then bring them back. (This happened this past summer with the Pomegranate Green Tea.) The remedy for this is stock up whenever you can, and/or go to the store often.
