great finds at trader joe's

[Rick Nebiolo]

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I tried the TJ's house brand canned chicken. Big can was about $2.59 and was all white meat. Made an excellent chicken salad with some onion, mayo and celery. They also have turkey in a similar can but didn't try it yet.

Usually canned chicken is just awful, earthquake food at best. Yesterday while I was picking up some milk out of curiosity I checked the local Ralph's, and sure enough most of the canned chicken was part or mostly dark meat and a lot more expensive. I didn't even bother with a taste test.

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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. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

You would probably also need a gun.

[astroglide]

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.

[Sponger.]

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.

[lippy]

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.

[Sponger.]

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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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[DonkeyKongSr]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[lippy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[cbloom]

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.

[pokerraja]

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.

[Aloysius]

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