Day 151 - Punjab Eggplant

Trader Joe’s makes these “Indian Fare” dishes that are perfect to have on hand.  They come in small boxes so are easy to store in the cupboard, are super easy to cook (we just put the foil-like pouch in boiling water while we are cooking whatever we are going to serve with the Indian dish), and are a perfect size for 2 servings.  We always have at least one of these packages in our cupboard for easy dinners.

These are sort of  hidden on the bottom shelf at our Trader Joe's, but worth crouching down to get

Tonight’s dinner was this Punjab Eggplant served over TJ’s Basmati Rice (to be reviewed soon) with sides of yellow squash, a fried chicken finger (which David was craving) and broccoli.  It was a really good combination.

Tasty, cheap, fast and easy dinner

The Punjab Eggplant is a tiny bit spicy, which we like.  It is super saucy which makes it nice over rice.  And it is filling.  Oh, and did I mention, it is CHEAP, too? 

So to recap:  easy, cheap, tasty, and saucy!  All good things!

Grab one of each of the Indian Fare dishes off the shelf at Trader Joe’s and try them out.  Find your favorite and keep it on hand for nights that you just don’t feel like cooking (or nights when you want something saucy!).

Price – $1.99

Rating – 4.25

Day 150 - Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Pasta

I have said it before and I will say it again – the best thing Trader Joe’s does to promote sales in my opinion are their SAMPLES.  They always have a good sample area open and are giving away tastes of REAL food – not just cut up granola bars that other stores sometimes hire women with hairnets to dole out.  At Trader Joe’s, REAL TJ’s employees cook in the store and do the tastings.  And they totally get into it!!  And the OTHER TJ’s employees also get into it and stop by the sample area to see what’s (literally) cooking.  I can’t tell you how many times we have purchased an item after tasting a free sample, and I know loads of other shoppers are the same.  And do you know what?  Trader Joe’s is probably the only store I shop at where I DO buy what I sample!  I mean, think about BJ’s (or maybe your version of that warehouse-like membership only store is Costco or Sam’s Club).  They often have sample people at the ends of aisles.   We have even joked that you could go to BJ’s on a Saturday afternoon and get enough samples to call it LUNCH.  But we NEVER buy the stuff we sample there.  We just eat it, then buy what we came to the store to get.  But at Trader Joe’s, the samples are prepared and served with what feels like CARE, and they actually introduce us to new products that we might like and add to our regular purchases!  TWO THUMBS UP FOR TRADER JOE’S SAMPLE PROGRAM!

So, all that being said, this Lemon Pepper Papparedelle Pasta is an item that we probably would have never thought to put in our cart had I not tasted it when they were sampling it one day.  I was in the store one early evening and they were sampling this pasta.  There was no sauce, but they had added tuna to it and I think I remember it being served cold.  It was good and I bought some!

Here it is on the shelf in the pasta department

 Last night we made it for dinner.  It is not a type of pasta we normally cook – I don’t think we have ever made a flavored pasta at home.  We served it like the package encouraged – with just a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.  Near the end of our servings we also tried some with tuna on it.  Both ways were good.

Here it is on a dinner plate!  See how it is THICK pasta?  It's tasty

I would say this is a SUMMER DISH.  I can imagine eating it out on a patio or deck while sipping chilled white wine.  It is quite lemon tasting, but it doesn’t taste “fake” like most lemon flavored items do, it tastes (and smells) like real lemon.  It might also be a good side dish for chicken or fish.

Overall, nice pasta. 

Price - $2.29 (which seems really cheap for the amount of “fancy” that this pasta brings to the table)

Rating – 4

Day 149 - Organic Sumatra Coffee

In the ever elusive search for Trader Joe’s best coffee, we invested in yet another can.  This one we bought at the Orlando Trader Joe’s.  It is the 8^th Trader Joe’s coffee we have tried this year (we usually each drink one cup of joe every morning).

Organic Sumatra Coffee on the shelf in Orlando

Gotta say, we still haven’t found it (“it” being the ideal, delicious, amazing cup of coffee).  The last one I reviewed (Ethiopian on Day 138) was the best so far with a 4.25 rating.

This one, Organic Sumatra, is boring.  It bills itself as having “smooth, earthy notes” but the “notes” aren’t strong enough to really be tasted I guess.  It is not that it is BAD, it is just that it is blah.  Not enough taste to get me jump started in the morning.  (Note on how I prepared this:  freshly ground the beans right before making coffee, heated water in a kettle, and used a French press.  See??  It SHOULD have been delicious! J )

Sure, it'll do, but it is not an amazing start to the day

We will keep trying!!  As soon as this can is gone I am sure another experiment awaits us.

Price – $7.99

Rating – 3.5

Day 148 - Chariot Gypsy California Red Wine (2013)

Ahhh, another cheap red wine from Trader Joe’s!  This one is a mix of reds from Chariot Wines (who list their website on the label as www.chariotwines.com, but that site has NOTHING on it but their logo and a big “SOLD EXCLUSIVELY BY TRADER JOE’S” message, which, if you click it, takes you to Trader Joe’s main site).  Yeah, so that site doesn’t really give us any more information on this wine…

Exclusive to Trader Joe's and only $4.99 - cheap, cheap, cheap

 We opened this bottle last night and had it with steak, Jasmine rice (review coming soon), corn on the cob, and kale sprouts (which got a coveted 5 star review on day 36 of this blog!).  This Chariot Gypsy was a nice fit with the meal.  It has a bit of a dark berry taste (cherry is what I get).  I WOULD think that is a particularly STRONG wine because I didn’t drink all that much before I started snoring on the sofa instead of watching “Survivor” as I had planned…  But I think that was more about my exhaustion than the alcohol content in this cheap wine.  J

The Spirit of Wine Review Blog gave it 3 stars (though that was an earlier vintage, 2011).  Other wine sites also seem to think it is fine for a cheap bottle of wine.  My partner David uses these adjectives to describe it, “Hearty.  Earthy.  A little candy-ish.  (He takes another sip.)  Nothing particular that sticks out.”

A bit of California (drunk in Florida)

All in all, this is a RED TABLE WINE.  It is fine to have with dinner.  I like gypsies, which is what drew me to it in the first place (you should hear about the gypsy circus we went to once on my birthday!  It was fabulous!).

Price - $4.99

Rating – 3.5

Day 147 - Mandarin Orange Liquid Dish Soap

This is dish soap.

  

I am looking at the label now, it says "LOTS OF FOAM" (in all caps like that).  See photo below...

As in, it cleans alright.  It bubbles a bit.  It works.

It is nothing spectacular (and by SPECTACULAR, I probably mean the cool dish soap I had last time that squirted tiny soap bubbles in the air each time I picked it up to use it and whose name I wish I remember because I would like to buy it again!).

The mandarin orange scent is fine.  Again, nothing amazing.  It is not TOO orange, nor is it not orange enough. 

The bubble-up factor is okay.  I, personally, prefer more bubbles, but those are likely bad for the environment so this stuff is probably assuaging a tiny bit of “killing the earth” guilt for me.

This is the foam I got from washing the coffee pot - does it look like LOTS OF FOAM to you??

I will use this bottle up.  Dishes will be clean.  Life will go on.  (And I will try and remember the name of the FUN ONE we had last time!)

Reasonable price, reasonable bubbles, reasonable scent - overall reasonable but not HOLY COW THIS IS GREAT!

Price – $2.99

Rating - 3.25

Day 146 - Carrot and Cilantro Bulgur Grain Salad

Ok Orlando Trader Joe’s, you have some false advertising going on…  When we popped in the other day for a healthy bite to eat during a festival where we were subsisting on fried foods (including FRIED CHEESE CURDS and FRIED PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICHES) for 12 days, I thought I had hit the tasty jackpot with this Carrot and Cilantro Bulgur Grain Salad (with garbanzo beans).  I mean, I love cilantro!  And I really like garbanzo beans.  Carrots are nice.  And bulgur grain, well, sure, I can eat it.  And your sign, your sweet little handwritten sign, specifically said, “So good!”.

"So Good!" - got me!!

 You so lie.

Avoid this salad.  Unless you enjoy eating dry, bland, yucky stuff.  If so, stock up on this salad.

This salad is BLECK.  The main problem is that it is dry.   Sure, if I had been at home instead of under a festival beer tent, I could have doctored it up with a bit of olive oil and lemon or something, but really, when one invests $3.69 into a tiny container of salad, should one be expected to “doctor it up”??  I think not.  And I would have had to add A LOT of stuff to give it any sort of taste.  And, if I could add one more complaint here, there was not nearly enough cilantro!  That was the ingredient that might have saved this wreck of a salad, but it was barely in there.

Thumbs down for this overpriced, under tasty salad.

David also thought this was crappy, as you can see.

Bleck.

Fool me once, Orlando Trader Joe’s signs, shame on you…  I am not going to be duped by you again!

Price - $3.69

Rating – 1.5

Day 145 - Strawberry Chia 100% Juice Smoothie

I thought it was just ME who was childish.  But no, lucky for me, it turns out my partner David is, too J. 

We rushed into the Orlando Trader Joe’s today with only a few minutes to shop between seeing plays.  We wanted a SALAD so that we could have a healthy meal (as opposed to the poutine, pizza, and other meal choices available from vendors at the festival (though we did have a good Greek salad from a vendor one night…).  Anyway, it was super hot out (as Orlando can be in the summer time…) and I decided a cold, healthy drink was in order, too (to balance out all the beer from the festival).  So I grabbed this Strawberry Chia 100% Juice Smoothie.

If you do not know from previous reviews on this blog, we are not health nuts.  We do not go out of our way to buy things with fancy organic ingredients, and CHIA, in my mind, is only for pets, as in the Willy Nelson Chia Pet I saw on the clearance table at Office Depot recently!  (Why a gem like that would be on a clearance table is beyond me!!)  Anyway, I thought it was just me who would think something so silly, then David quipped, “If I drink this will chia grass grow in my belly?”.  Haha – see why we get along so well?

A pint of health - strawberry chia smoothie 

So this “strawberry puree flavored blend with apple juice and chia seeds” is pretty good.  It mostly tastes like strawberry.  But there are strange little BUMPS all up in it…  At first I thought they were the little bits from the outside of strawberries, then I realized, duh, those are the CHIA SEEDS!  They are actually a bit more fine and delicate than a strawberry seed thing would be.  This drink is chock full of them.  After the first sip or two I got used to them, but still, if I am going to have “bits” in my drink, I would rather they be tapioca bubbles (yum – bubble tea!!).

I would say this snack drink would be better consumed not in the hot humid sun.  I can picture it going down better while a person is sitting at their desk and needs a bit of an afternoon pick-me-up. 

Price – $2.99

Rating – 3.25

Day 144 - Lemon Kitchen Hand Soap

First off, why a special soap for the KITCHEN…  Aren’t your hands equally as dirty when you wash them in, oh, I don’t know, the bathroom??   Sure, your hands may be touching things with strong ODORS in the kitchen – onions, shrimp, etc – but does that warrant a specialized SOAP?  It just seems so, so, so…  LIMITING I guess! 

Natural, nice scent, and soapy - what more can you need?

But that philosophical point aside, this Lemon Kitchen Hand Soap is good.  It is lemon without being overly scented, and the lemon smell is FRESH and not FAKEY.  It makes a nice lather, too.  And the PUMP on it is great!  Nice squirt mechanism.

The label is sort of funny – it has a “G” monogram on it, and I wondered if it was made by someone other than Trader Joe’s or what.  But no, the “G” seems to be God’s monogram, as around it, it says “Next to Godliness”.    Classy – this is like GOD’S soap or something!

Lemon Kitchen Hand Soap in action - tough shot to capture!  Had to rinse and dry my other hand to work the camera!  :)

One last point, I also like the COLOR of this soap.  It is a nice pale yellow.  The label tells us it has lots of nice stuff in it – coconut oil, lemon peel oil, and earth salts – so it must be good for us, eh?

Price – $3.49

Rating – 4.5

Day 143 - Rene Barbier Mediterranean Red

Ok, how many times am I going to be swayed by a LABEL?  I mean, how many bottles of wine can I pick just because they are pretty???  Apparently, quite a few.  Because this one, exactly like the Rene Barbier White Wine reviewed on day 131, was chosen only because the label looked beach-like and we were heading to the beach…  And, just like the bottle of red, I planned to serve this at our “Beach Bash Party”, but did not…  People drank beer, white wine, and a red that a guest so lovingly brought. 

Cheap red wine with a pretty label

 So now, 3 nights after the party, here I sit, alone, drinking this bottle…  Pitiful, huh?

I exaggerate….  I am not sitting here chugging wine out of a bottle.  I have a tiny juice glass with some of this cheap wine in it.  I mean, a person has to TASTE THE PRODUCTS to write the reviews, right??

Mediterranean Red in action

This wine is “okay”.  When we opened it last night, neither David nor I liked it.  Maybe it was because of what we were pairing it with (which, if memory serves me correctly, was raw baby carrots, potato chips and buffalo wing flavored chip dip…  yeah, now that I write that, I see THAT could have been the problem…  But it was 2 am and we had just gotten in from a night at a theatre festival and were too tired to COOK…)

So tonight, with a fresh palate and mind, I tried this one again and it is not so bad.  It is a blend of grapes, no single note stands out.  It is super cheap - $4.99 – so the line on the label bragging that this is made of “Spain’s finest grapes” must be taken with a grain of salt.  How FINE can a grape be to end up in a bottle of wine costing less than a fiver?? 

But I can see this wine pairing well with pasta or pizza.  Just not buffalo wing flavored chip dip. 

Price - $4.99

Rating – 3.25

Day 142 - Teeny Tiny Potatoes

These Teeny Tiny Potatoes, served at our Trader Joe’s dinner party a while back, lived up to their name.  They were indeed teeny and yes, they were tiny.  Maybe, since potato starts with a letter “p”, they should do the alliteration with “p”s instead of “t”s and call them “Petite Puny Potatoes”.  But I guess “puny” has a sort of negative connotation, and these were not really negative.

They are pretty cheap for such delicate little items

They are adorable little potatoes – so delicate and sweet.  Not really Barbie sized, but maybe Cabbage Patch sized potatoes. 

They are SMALL I tell you, teeny!

 As far as taste goes, they were fine.  Nothing “wooooow” like extra special potato-ey, but I mean, they did taste like potatoes. 

Bowl of teeny tiny dinner party potatoes

If I were to rate them on my own, I would give them a 4.  But since they were part of the infamous Trader Joe’s dinner party, I must take into account the opinions of the guests and then average our ratings together.  Let me peek at the guest comments now:

-          “Tasty, fun, nice texture”

-          “ksfkdl;akdlfj” (this guest had bad handwriting and I cannot read their comment)

-          “Fun, tasty”

-          “Okay for what they are.  But who needs potatoes to be that small?”

-          “Kind of ordinary, good crisp bite of skin, tender potato”

Price - $2.29

Rating (average of 6 raters) – 3.75

Day 141 - San Pellegrino Limonata

Wow, was THIS a great surprise treat to find on the Trader Joe’s shelves recently!  Either they just started carrying this drink) (which I think is the case because the sign says "new", or we have missed seeing it there for years.  San Pellegrino Limonata is a drink we buy at Safeway when they have it on sale, because we really like it but it is usually pretty expensive. 

  

Look how excited David is to find Limonata at Trader Joe's!

So as far as the PRODUCT REVIEW goes, yay!  This “sparkling lemon beverage” is delicious!  Yummy!  Amazingly refreshing!  Bubbly without being TOO bubbly.  Lemony without being over-the-top-crazy lemony.  Best served very cold.  Has a sweet little foil “cap” to feel off before drinking, making you feel like the can you are putting your naked lips on is not dirty.  18% fruit actual juice, so feels healthier than drinking a can of soda.  We had some for guests yesterday at a party and they really liked it, too.  It is a really nice summertime drink.

YES!  San Pellegrino Limonata at a very reasonable price at Trader Joe's!

A tasty, refreshing treat

So we know how this reviewer feels about the product (2 thumbs up!), which just leaves the issue of the best place to PURCHASE the product…

Like I said, our normal point of purchase is Safeway, but only when it is on sale.  However, Trader Joe’s had the 6 pack for the low, low price of $4.99 (which comes out to only .83 cents per can).  This seemed like a great bargain so of course we grabbed some.

We brought it to FLORIDA with us, which is where I did my very scientific, rigorous price comparisons.  First, I checked how much the same product sold for at the Publix Grocery Store in Ormond Beach.  Publix is a nice store and typically prices things much higher than other places, so we were really surprised to find San Pellegrino Limonata for the exact same price that Trader Joe’s was selling it for!

Publix, normally expensive but in this case not

I wanted one more price point to compare, so we went to the most Florida store of all, WALMART, and we had the most WALMART-ISH experience a person could ever have.  No lie, this was like, uber Walmart.

Before we could get back to the canned drinks section, we had to pick up a couple of greeting cards.  But when we turned to enter the greeting card lane, you will NEVER GUESS WHAT WE SAW…  (Well, it is Walmart, so I bet you could guess LOTS of things, but I do not think you would ever guess correctly, so I am going to flat out tell you here…) – WE SAW HUMAN EXCREMENT!  Yes – POOP!  Human poop in the greeting card aisle!

And before you ask, no, it was not BABY poop.  And no, it was not DOG POOP.  It was full grown adult human freshly plopped poop.  And there was not just one plop, oh nooooo…  There were 2 large “plops” and a small one.  Not to mention the skid marks where someone had run their Walmart shopping cart THRU said poop, and (close your eyes if you are easily grossed out…), A FOOTPRINT from where some unfortunate soul, probably wrapped up in looking at greeting cards, stepped in it… 

It didn’t take long for a Wal-Mart associate to show up and “stand guard” at the end of the aisle, trying to prevent more poop spread.  But the gawkers kept gawking, including my partner David who for some reason could not take his eyes off the whole fiasco.  “Poop….” We kept repeating…  “Poop!  In the GREETING CARD AISLE!” as if the location made the whole thing even more egregious.  Pretty soon the Wal-Mart janitor showed up, perched atop his Walmart-esque zamboni machine, and sucked or whisked away said poop.  Even he was a bit disgusted by the whole affair, and you KNOW a Walmart janitor has seen it all before. 

Lucky for you, gentle readers, I do not have a photo to place here of the human poop in the greeting card aisle.  That is not for lack of trying – David decided he really needed photo documentation of this experience and tried to get one but couldn’t get his cell phone out and organized fast enough.

But I DO have this proof – the sign from the same San Pellegrino Limonata being sold at Walmart for ONE PENNY less than we paid at Trader Joe’s.



There you have it folks, a whole penny cheaper at Walmart!

So here’s the thing…  How much is a pleasant, clean, friendly, POOP-FREE shopping experience worth to you??  To me, it is worth much more than a penny.  I will gladly pay one cent more for my drinks to have a sanitary shopping floor.  Heck Trader Joe’s, you could even come in at a nickel over Walmart and you would still have my business.

Price - $4.99

Rating – 5

Experience in the greeting card aisle at Walmart in Ormond Beach, FL - priceless

Day 140 - A Midsummer Night's Cream

I ran out of lotion.  We are in Florida.  We went to a new Trader Joe’s for us - the one in Orlando!  I was verrrry tempted to buy the amazing lotion I purchased recently (which I do not currently have with me) that got an awesome 5 star review on day 120 (Lavender Hand and Body Lotion).  However, I have a commitment to this blog, and it means one new product review per day.  So purchasing NEW things is a requirement!  And it was in that spirit that I picked up this Midsummer Night’s Cream (well, I really liked the name of it, of course, and that made it easier to choose this and not the Lavender one, too…).

Very reasonable price - check out the signage - this is from the ORLANDO, FL TRADER JOE'S

Anyway, this cream says it is the “extra dry formula”, and they ain’t a kiddin’!  By “extra dry” I think they mean “you want this if your skin is made of cardboard”.  This is toooooo moisturizing.  I know, I know, that sounds impossible!  How could something possible moisturize TOO MUCH?  Try this cream and you will understand what I am trying to put into words. 

It is not that it is GREASY, per se.  It is not THICK, per se.   It is just, well, TOO DANG LOTION-Y!  I put it all over my body after my shower yesterday and today and both days I just feel like I have a COATING on me.  I use lotion every single day, so I KNOW lotion.  And let’s just say, this one is not on my list of favorites.

A bird's eye view of the cream

Then I thought, perhaps since it is called A Midsummer NIGHT’S Cream that it was only meant to be used before bed (at night) as an extra emollient extravaganza or something!  So I read the label, which clearly says, “For best results, it should be massaged thoroughly into the skin morning and evening, and as needed”.  Well, I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt!

It says it is an herbal blend with aloe, and I have been in the sun, so perhaps this will be good for my skin.  It is unscented.

Price - $3.99

Rating – 2.5

Day 139 - Honey Nut O's

First off, let’s get this out of the way – “O’s”???  Really?  “O’s”?  “O’s” WHAT?  Like, what do the “O” possess?  I guess if I read a bit on the box they do possess (i.e. are fortified with) six B vitamins including 50% DV Folic Acid…  But still Trader Joe’s, I think the apostrophe may be incorrect on this one.  What say you?

Grammer police - weigh in here...

But enough with the grammar policing, let’s review the PRODUCT.  I do not eat a whole lot of cereal, but David eats his fair share, so we grabbed these to bring to Florida with us.  He has been eating them and reported that they are, “Just like Cheerios basically”.  Today I gave them a shot.  I would agree – they are like CHEERIOS, and not Honey Nut Cheerios*.  I expected more honey flavor. 

Good value, taste like plain labeled Cheerios

So they are fine.  Nothing to write home about.  At $2.49 I am guessing they are way CHEAPER than name brand Cheerios, so if it is Cheerios taste you are after, grab yourself a box of these Honey Nut O’s (sic) ( J ).

And just like Cheerios, there are always a few left floating in your bowl at the end of breakfast

*I Googled Cheerios, thinking that MAYBE Trader Joe’s was parodying a General Mills grammar faux pas by making the “O” possessive.  Nope.  Cheerios are Cheerios, not Cheerio’s.  J

Price - $2.49

Rating - 3

Day 138 - Ethiopian Coffee

I am STILL on the ever elusive hunt for the perfect whole bean coffee from Trader Joe’s.  This is the 5^th coffee review on this blog (days 22, 47, 73, 119, and TODAY) – but one review was actually for 3 smaller cans that came as a trio but reviewed on one day, so I guess we have tried 7 TJ’s coffees this year.

This one is one of the better coffees we have found on the Trader Joe’s shelves.  It is rich and tasty but does not have the bitter quality that infected some of the others.  It is a medium dark roast and has all the politically correct bells and whistles – organic, fair trade, and they also throw in SHADE GROWN.  J  David’s adjectives for his cup are, “mild, gentle, and smooth”.

A bit pricier than some other cans you will find on the shelves, but tastes better

Normally we make coffee either in an automatic espresso maker.  Some days we make what I call “camper fire coffee” – you know, using an Italian metal coffee maker on the stove.  But when we are in Florida (where we are currently) we use a French Press, and I wonder if THAT is what is making this coffee taste better.  Well, THAT or the fact that I am making coffee like my friend Malonda (who never reads this blog so will miss this shout out to her) makes – strong French Press coffee with a big dollop of sweetened condensed milk in it, yummmm…. 

So I guess I fear I have given this particular can of Trader Joe’s coffee a leg up on the others that I reviewed because of HOW I am brewing the coffee (plus the fact that I am drinking it in a relaxed, sunny, warm dining room every morning instead of rushing around or in a “to go” cup while commuting). 

A warm, sunny, tasty way to start the day

Well, whether it is because of the actual TASTE of this coffee or because of the relaxed environment it is being drunk in, I guess I cannot know at the moment.  But what I do know is, it is good – dare I say better than the other 6 I have reviewed this year.  I will buy this can again.

Price – $9.99

Rating – 4.25

Day 137 - Concord Grape Juice

“Slurp”

“Ahhh”

“Man, that’s good!”

These are the sounds/words I hear as I sit across the table from David eating breakfast.  He adores this Concord Grape Juice! 

Ahhhhhh

We do not normally get our juice from Trader Joe’s, but we needed to stock up on non-perishable products to review while we are in a town with no Trader Joe’s (sad, I know, NO TRADER JOE’S!!).  Anyway, one thing we chose to bring is this grape juice, and we are glad we did!

It comes in a small bottle (1 quart) and it is not cheap ($3.99), but boy is it yummy.  It is “certified organic, pasteurized, and made from fresh pressed organic Concord grapes” (all from the label) but what we care about is “IS IT DELICIOUS?” and the answer is “YES IT IS!!”.

Not cheap, but grape juice never is really

The only downside to this product is that every time we have poured a glass, it somehow dribbles down the side of the bottle and gets onto the bottom of it.  That means when you put the bottle down on the counter or in the fridge, you get a ring of very hard to remove purple grape juice as a stain.  Something is not quite right with the design of the bottle.  I recommend always WIPING the bottom of the bottle after you pour so you do not have to do a clean up later.

Were it not for the messy grape juice rings, this would get a 5 star rating.  Alas, like Carrie Ann Inaba on Dancing with the Stars always dinging couples for doing lifts in their dances, I must ding this product a tiny bit due to the malfunctioning bottle.

Price - $3.99

Rating – 4.75

Day 136 - Dried Apricots

We got these as a “road trip snack” but have ended up eating them (and sharing with other artists) as a “theatre festival snack”.  They are nice!

Last minute addition to our shopping cart - dried apricots from Turkey

They are dried, but not “shriveled-up-no-liquid-left-dried” like some dried fruit.  I thought this was exciting and unique, but when I shared one with a fellow artist he declared that no, this was not unique, this was indeed how most (all??) dried apricots are, and that these were, in his opinion, average.

Way to be a Debbie Downer! 

I will follow my original opinion of this snack and not be swayed by a dried apricot connoisseur.  J 

Not all shriveled up and dried

These are plump, moist, tasty apricots.  The bag (1 lb) is plenty big to share with friends old and new.  I have not tried cooking with them, just munching them straight out of the bag.  They make me feel like I am eating a healthier pick-me-up than, say, a bag of Doritos (which, let’s face it, happens sometimes…). 

Good snack. 

Price – $3.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 135 - Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce

Can you say, “Really tasty, healthy dinner that is easy to cook”??  If so, then you should try this Thai Green Curry Simmer Sauce!  We had it for dinner last night and it was excellent.

This is the jar you want to get

Here is how we prepared dinner with it: 

1.        Sliced up some mushrooms

2.       Sliced some green pepper

3.       Sliced some onion

4.       Sautéed those

5.       Sliced some thin chicken breasts

6.       Sautéed that

7.       Poured some of the curry simmer sauce on the chicken, let it heat up

8.       Added the veggies into the pan

9.       Simmer, sauté, simmer

10.   Served over rice (also from Trader Joe’s, review to come soon)

We added a side of snow peas (which matched our plates!)

See how easy?  And healthy?  I know, you can’t see how YUMMY it was, but you should make some yourself to experience that.  The sauce is really tasty but not super spicy.  All we added was freshly ground salt and pepper!  And the price is really good, too, the nutritional info label says it is 6 servings and that seems about right for what we ate last night.

The sign says it is complicated to make, but TJ's has taken all the complication out of it for you!

I am looking forward to dinner tonight, because I know it is going to be leftovers of this stuff! 

Price – $2.49

Rating – 4.75