<p>powerberries -my husband calls them crackberries. Choc covered dried berries.</p>
<p>Frozen Palak paneer, Chicken Tiki masala and
Mac and cheese</p>
<p>Their cornbread mix is great. It has little corn kernels in it. We also like the frozen bags of Japanese fried rice and the Bay Blend coffee.</p>
<p>I’m a student, not a parent, but I do all my own grocery shopping/cooking and I have a HUGE Trader Joe’s obsession. I’ve also never lived more than 15/20 minutes from one 
The Trader Joe’s thread is worth a read, though - people list a lot of great items. </p>
<p>I don’t tend to buy as many of what I consider to be their “novelty” products (though they are amazing!). </p>
<p>Things I buy on a regular basis include their Greek yogurt, chicken (great prices on all natural or free range/organic), almond butter (or occasionally sunflower seed butter), cheese (wonderful cheese selection, again at great prices)…hmm, so many more, it’s hard to remember! They just have such great prices and such interesting items.</p>
<p>Oh, the chicken apple breakfast sausages are great as well. Really good prices for bananas, if that’s something you buy a lot. For a special treat, I like Powerberries (those are the best!), and they have a really nice chocolate selection near the front as well. The espresso pillows are tasty, too. </p>
<p>I don’t really buy a lot of the frozen or prepared foods, but they do have frozen wild jumbo shrimp and scallops that are nice. </p>
<p>There are a lot of things I don’t buy, but that always look really good! For example, they have all kinds of really cool chips (sweet potato, taro, and other unusual flavors), spreads like fig jam and cookie butter, different kinds of pasta and rice (including some unusual things like corn pasta), and so on…</p>
<p>Oh, and I enjoy their teas as well! I like the Jasmine Green tea and the Black Mango…the White Ginger Pear is nice as well. </p>
<p>And the great thing is that they have such reasonable prices 
Thank goodness.</p>
<p>Frozen cheese pizza, olive oil, liquid hand soap, tortilla chips, naan, trail mix, frozen fruit, pizza dough, shredded cheeses, fresh tri-tip, frozen french fries, fresh tangerine and grapefruit juices
best price in town on eggs, milk, emergen C, hansen soda
Note that the bread products don’t have a long shelf life- I usually search and find the most recent delivery</p>
<p>Tofurkey italian sausages - $2.99. Good prices on Tempeh and Soy Chorizo too. They have lots of meat substitutes that don’t cost a fortune.</p>
<p>We are having a party tonight and serving the Trader Joe’s onion/feta pastry tarts as appetizers. They are really delicious, and all I have to do is pop them in the oven 25 minutes before serving.</p>
<p>What about their gluten free stuff, is there a big selection?</p>
<p>TJ is great for GF stuff! The waffles are Van’s, but $1 cheaper. They have Udi’s bread at good prices. GF Mac & cheese is same as Annie’s but $1 less. The ginger snap & chocolate chip cookies are addictive. There’s a GF chicken taco hors derves. Still hoping for a GF frozen pizza.</p>
<p>Besides the GF stuff, the milk is typically cheaper than the grocery store, same with the cheese & cold cuts. Bananas are $0.19 each. Love the bagged salads for $1.99 - best arugula out there!</p>
<p>I love their tea tree shampoo and conditioner.</p>
<p>Great place to pick up prepared salads for a quick office lunch–I love their Greek salad in particular, but I’ve never had any variety that disappointed me. I send DS stuff from TJ’s in his care packages; they’re opening in Medford next month, I hear, so he’ll have one a short ride from school when he goes back next year.</p>
<p>I love their mac n cheese–restaurant quality, but really bad for you. Their jarred bruschetta is great as an appie with goat cheese on a cracker, or poured over chicken and baked. The prices on olive oil, jam, humus, cheese, and cereal are better than most other places and their ice creams are delicious and better priced. I worked there for 5 years and loved working there while my kids were in school and I still love their products. That is saying something. Also, the price of their rice is better than other places. As for gf, they have a decent selection and if you ask at the front desk, they can print you a list of the gf products, although your store may not carry everything.</p>
<p>Finally, while I don’t eat a lot of frozen stuff, their shrimp are really good and their corn, roasted corn and petit peas are the best anywhere! I don’t even shuck corn anymore for salads, as this stuff is wonderful, and I eat the peas frozen for a snack, they are so sweet!</p>
<p>It took me a while to warm up to TJ, but now many of our kitchen staples come from there. </p>
<p>The frozen roasted corn is one of my favorites. Combine 2 cups with a can of black beans & a can of DelMonte chopped tomatoes w jalepenos and you have an instant side dish that’s worthy to serve at potlucks.</p>
<p>The prices on their sliced cheeses are great. I do miss the blue jack, however. </p>
<p>The only fish/seafood product I like is the calamari/scallop/shrimp mix. Toss that into a pot w red sauce & a few hot pepper flakes and you have a nice seafood fradiablo sauce to serve over pasta.</p>
<p>Love TJs. Can’t throw a party without it. I always get their bagged salads, olive oil and 10 yr balsamic vinegar. The nuts are great too, especially the sweet and spicy pecans (I crush them, mix them with some bread crumbs and then coat chicken or turkey cutlets dipped in an egg wash for an easy dinner–bake in the oven and spray with olive oil for less fattening crispy cutlets)</p>
<p>For the decadent, the almonds coated in dark chocolate, sea salt and turbinado sugar are amazing.</p>
<p>I also use the frozen berry mix (no straws) to mix with my yogurt in the mornings.</p>
<p>Their toasted oatmeal flakes are good too.</p>
<p>My only complaint is their parking is always bad (at least at all the locations in Socal that I have been to) and you do have to check the dates on the produce to make sure it is fresh.</p>
<p>We love their balsamic vinaigrette and champaign vinaigrette low fat salad dressings and their peach salsa which I just dump over chicken in the crock pot. The dark chocolate covered almonds -Way too good. They are also chepaer for milk and eggs than any of the big chain stores around here.</p>
<p>We use the seafood mix to make cioppino. They used to have a cioppino mix, but I think it is discontinued. I also have a family of meringue cookie lovers, and cat crackers were the required treat for my child.</p>
<p>Interesting how a company owned by the Albrecht family generates such a passion. The hard discounter Aldi does not usually get much praise for its private labels or its store design.</p>
<p>Their brownie mix – the one to which you add a cube of butter – is to die for. Of course, with all that butter, what’s not to love?</p>
<p>xiggi: I recently went to Aldi for the first time. I have a German friend who loves it, and I thought–how bad can it be, if it’s owned by the same people as TJ’s? My answer was: bad. It gave me the heebie-jeebies and I left without buying anything. I just did not understand it.</p>
<p>As for TJ’s: amen to the roasted corn–I put it in quesadillas and salsa. Also love the frozen tamales (especially the chicken and green chile ones). They come in a pack of two for $2.25. I keep them in the freezer at work and often make a lunch out of one with a little Cholula hot sauce–can’t get much easier or cheaper than that!</p>
<p>Other favorites:</p>
<p>Marcona almonds with sea salt and rosemary
Orange muscat vinegar
World blend (?) coffee
Sparkling water ($.79 a bottle!)
And my weakness…their orchids are beautiful</p>
<p>Balls of fresh pizza dough. We don’t order carry out or delivery pizza anymore. With TJs pizza dough, it’s easier & better - not to mention less expensive - to make our own pizzas.</p>
<p>TJ’s staples: Raw almonds, Grade B maple syrup, Spanish Extra Virgin olive oil, peanut butter (both creamy and crunchy), eggs and milk (both usually cheaper than the grocery store), uncured applewood smoked bacon, dark chocolate bar with almonds, beer, cereal (favorites are maple shredded mini-wheats and toasted oatmeal flakes), yogurt, light string cheese</p>
<p>TJ’s treats: Dark chocolate bar with caramel and sea salt (messy, but to die for!), sweet potato chips, meringues, specialty cheeses, Joe-Joes cookies (especially the peppermint ones they have around Christmas!)</p>
<p>I know I’m forgetting other things–needless to say, I LOVE Trader Joe’s!!</p>
<p>Here’s the other Trader Joe’s thread that I was talking about:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/565288-trader-joes-top-10-a.html?highlight=trader+joes[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/565288-trader-joes-top-10-a.html?highlight=trader+joes</a></p>