Tag Archives: vegetable

My own private Guacamole

9 Aug

I love avocados. I love cutting them open and eating them straight from the shell. What a well-designed food – it comes with its own serving bowl!

I’ll get TJ’s mesh bag of avocados and go through them quickly, trying to make them last through the week. The other day, I was ready to dig into my last avocado of the bag when I thought, “I’ve got part of an old onion, some withering grape tomatoes … hmm.” Add a sprinkle of salt, and, voila, a makeshift fiesta for one!

The meeting of healthy foods: avocados, tomatos and onions

The meeting of healthy foods: avocado, tomatoes, onion

If I’d been planning to make guac, I’d have had some cilantro on hand, I might have used more spices and even, (why not?), glance at a recipe. But this was tasty to me!

Then I started thinking, what else can I do with this tasty mixture? My thoughts about optimizing guacamole are in the the next post. : )

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Snow Peas: Snack of the day from Trader Joe’s

5 Apr

Coming clean: I sit at a computer during the day and at night. And on weekends. For work. For fun activity and personal projects.

It’s my writing tool, my publishing platform, my darkroom, my editing suite, and theater, television, radio, jukebox, newspaper, magazine, universal messaging system …

And then there’s the smart phone and tablet for those moments I stray from the mother ship.

The sad truth. There it is.

And when I’m working, playing, watching, listening, processing and creating, I often like to snack.

Even though my habits are more sedentary and less healthy, that doesn’t mean I don’t care about what I eat. I strive to live up to my mantra: “Snack smartly.”

This week’s smart snack from Trader Joe’s: Snow peas.

Snow peas, please

Smart snack: Snow peas

With bags of chips, cans of nuts and boxes of cookies, I have to ration my intake very consciously. If not, the entire contents of each container quickly and mysteriously vanishes. How does that happen?

Watching or rationing is not required when eating snow peas, the prototype healthy snack. Check out the related links below to find out just how healthy.

Thank you, Trader Joe’s!

And thank you for visiting Things I Love at Trader Joe’s!

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Twitter: @TraderJoesKC

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Related links:

Snow pea nutrition count

Snow pea recipes (allrecipes.com)

Spicy snow pea and sesame stir-fry recipe (Chow.com)

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The art of frozen food from Trader Joe’s

13 Feb

Frozen foods are really growing on me, especially the packages from Trader Joe’s freezer aisle.

When I was growing up, I preferred my veggies raw. I still do. Mom used canned vegetables, and those were tasty. But when the side dish was pulled from the freezer, it was going to be a flavorless clump of mush.

I’m happy to report a very different finding lately! In this package …

bag of delicious vegetables from Trader Joe's

Freezer aisle delicacy

not only are the cauliflower and Romanesco solid and delicious, but…I mean, what is Romanesco?! It’s like futuristic delicacy meets edible art!

Trader Joe's offers the coolest food

Edible art: Cool food in the frozen section.

Wikipedia starts its description of Romanesco as follows:

“Romanesco broccoli, or Roman cauliflower, is an edible flower of the species Brassica oleracea, and a variant form of cauliflower. First documented in Italy, it is light green in color and is a natural approximation of a fractal.”

Whatever it is, it’s yummy and pretty. And the garlic butter is just as tasty as it was for the serving of Beans so Green I enjoyed a week or two ago.

Thank you, again, Trader Joe’s!

And thank you for visiting Things I Love at Trader Joe’s! Have you tried/seen Romanesco? Any favorite recipes? What are your thoughts?

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Twitter: @TraderJoesKC

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Pinterest: Trader Joe’s

Related links:

Romanesco: How to choose, store and prepare (L.A. Times)

Try a new vegetable: Romanesco

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It’s elemental; “L” is for lentil

7 Jan

It’s soup season with a vengeance! Trader Joe’s stocks these pretty cans full of healthy ingredients to nudge us through the cold and flu season.

"L" is for lentil

“L” is for lentil

For instance, I learned that lentils contain vitamin C! There’s also iron and calcium inside. Who knew?! Eat up and feel good!

Related links:

Lentils, nutrition info

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It’s pumpkin time at Trader Joe’s!

3 Oct

Leaves changing color, school back in session, November elections just around the corner. Nothing says “It’s fall” like stores pulling out the pumpkin products!

And Trader Joe’s is no slouch in the autumn-alert area. TJ’s announces it jubilantly, and provides a tasty array of boxed, bottled and binned deliciousness:

The walrus knows: It’s pumpkin time at Trader Joe’s

Autumn announcement:  Trader Joe’s raises the bar in pumpkin products

Pumpkin bread made easy

Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Butter: Spread the joy

Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pancake and Waffle Mix: The better breakfast batter

And from the produce aisle…

Seasonal produce: Pumpkins in the raw

Thank you, Trader Joe’s.

And thank you for reading and following Things I Love at Trader Joe’s! Have you found other pumpkin products at TJ’s to recommend? If you’ve tried any of these, what did you think? What do you do with your pumpkins?

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Twitter: @TraderJoesKC

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Pinterest: Trader Joe’s

Related Links:

What’s Good At Trader Joe’s, pumpkin pancake mix review

Phoenix New Times recommends: TJ’s Pumpkin Greek Yogurt

Pumpkin recipes

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Trader Joe’s Edamame Hummus

1 Oct

When it comes to dips and spreads, Trader Joe’s is on a roll. And a chip. And a cracker. As often as possible.

Trader Joe’s Edamame Hummus

In several other groceries we’ve visited, a container of hummus is twice this price and not necessarily as tasty. And the edamame base ingredient is healthier than other choices. (Although, TJ’s sells a fabulous array of hummuses. It just happens that this base is one of the best for you.)

Highly recommended as one of those items that taste many times more decadent than it really is! A win-win product.

Thank you, Trader Joe’s!

And thank you for reading and following these posts! If you’ve had Edamame Hummus, what did you think?

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Twitter: @TraderJoesKC

Follow Things I Love at Trader Joe’s on Pinterest: Trader Joe’s

Related Links:

Nutrition info

Edamame Hummus recipe

What’s Good At Trader Joe’s: chips and Edamame Hummus

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