Does anyone else have a favorite Trader Joes? I certainly do. I like this one because it’s big, they always have plenty of fresh flowers and unique produce, and I just really like the whole vibe. (Okay – so maybe I do sound a little crazy). My favorite Trader Joe’s is about 15 minutes away from my new house #firstworldproblems. But, you better believe that I go out of my way to hit up my favorite spot. I went recently, and I grabbed some of my favorites (Hint: it involves my favorite $7.99 bottle of wine).
But first, my window box flowers are blooming, and they are so pretty!
And, I’m still missing this guy. I need to go pick up his ashes this week, but I’m really dreading it.
Okay, but onto my Trader Joe’s goodies. I think that TJ’s has the best stuff for pizza night. Over the course of the last year, Aaron and I tried to make quarantine fun, so most Friday nights turned into pizza (and wine) nights. That cheese you see on the bottom left of that pic is the bomb dot com. If you are making your own pizza, its the best cheese. Delish.
I also always try to grab a jar of pizza sauce because it’s nice to have on hand, and if we are making our own pizzas, that salami you see in the back is a great choice.
Speaking of pizza night…. their garlic and herb pizza dough is delicious and super easy to make. If you are having pizza night, but want to make it fancy…. just grab some of this pizza dough. You’ll impress your husband with your skills. You can even tell him you made it yourself (or is that just me?).
Next up, I have some items for those of us who have a sweet tooth. I’ve got a thing for sour candy, and I just can’t quit it. There are worse vices to have in the world. These sour Scandinavian swimmers caught my eye, so I grabbed a bag, and they were delish. I’d buy again for sure.
I am very excited about this next TJ’s find. The mochi cake deserves its own paragraph. It was that good. I need to preface this: if you are one of those people who is weird about textures, I’m not sure you’ll love this. The mochi cake is freakin’ (and yes, I realize I am a communications professional who should probably come up with better words than freakin’, but here we are) delicious. I bought it because I was curious, and I’m pretty sure I made it right away. I used an 8X8 pan, and it took about an hour from start to finish. It is gluten free, and the mix is made out of sweet rice flour and coconut milk powder, among several other ingredients. It was like a butter-cake brownie with a hint of coconut. If you see this in the store, you have to try it. It’s a must buy. So good. I know some bloggers have a favorite things of the year list. If I had one of those lists, this would be on it. (I’m not sure what this says about my sophistication level). I was googling ingredients, and I found a recipe for a chocolate mochi cake here. Let me know if you make this.
Next up, I purchased two new (to me) items. I needed some BBQ sauce for a crockpot meal I was making, so I grabbed the Carolina Gold BBQ sauce. Stay tuned on the review on this one (I say this like I’m some kind of BBQ-sauce connoisseur). I’m making a recipe tomorrow with this sauce, and I’m excited to give it a spin. I am a big tomato soup kind of gal. So, this Calabrian Chili Tomato Soup with dumplings caught my attention. I did have it for lunch one day, and I did not love. I liked the tomato soup, but didn’t love the dumplings in my tomato soup. So, it’s a hard pass for me. If you are a tomato-soup traditionalist, this probably isn’t for you. If you like to experiment with out-of-the-box tomato soups, I’d give it a try.
BBQ Sauce+Tomato Soup
My Favorite $7.99 Bottle of Trader Joe’s Wine
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: I Thee Red is my favorite $7.99 bottle of wine from Trader Joe’s. Red wine lovers, hear me out. It is a red blend made up of: ZINFANDEL, CABERNET SAUVIGNON, MERLOT, SYRAH, CABERNET FRANC, PETITE SIRAH. It is the perfect red blend to serve for every day. It’s not sweet, it’s not too dry. It doesn’t give you a headache. It’s perfect. It’s description tells me that it has hints of chocolate-covered strawberries, plum and dark cherry. Aaron and I love this wine so much, we did almost consider serving it at our wedding. Now, I just got really excited, because I went to the Dearly Beloved Wines website, and they actually have two additional types of wine that I have yet to try (and now I’m really craving a glass of wine. On a Tuesday morning. What does this say about me?): A Chardonnay and Forever Red, which is marketed as I Thee Red’s older, bolder and badder brother. I’m intrigued.
So, we are going to end on a high note here. I hope you enjoyed my take on Trader Joe’s. I hope that you all have a wonderful Tuesday. I’ll be back here tomorrow for Work Wednesday talking about a big topic of discussion in my work world lately: employee engagement.
