Day 245 - Fage Greek Yogurt

Greek yogurt is the bomb. 

Man, I have been reviewing a lot of GREEK items lately, haven’t I?  I never realized how much Greek food we consume – yogurt, olives, that recent bizarre cheese spiral (reviewed on day 212 

http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-213-5-cheese-greek-spiral.html ), tzatzaki (reviewed on day 129 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/05/day-129-tzatziki.html ), and one of my favorite cheeses FETA (reviewed on day 232 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/08/day-232-authentic-greek-feta-in-brine.html ).

  

Fage Greek Yogurt (2%) (but 100% tasty)

But man, if you like yogurt, you really need to try Fage Greek Yogurt.  It tastes more sitting on an outdoor patio having breakfast in Koufonisia than any other Greek yogurt I have had.

Yummy - Fage toped with loads of pomegranate seeds

I like it with pomegranate seeds (reviewed on day http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-12-pomegranate-seeds.html but if you are cooler than me you can buy a whole pomegranate and get your own seeds out).  It is also good with peaches or nectargines cut up in it.  And look – here it is with just plain HONEY on it (from a new bottle we just opened that will be reviewed soon!). 

Fage drizzled with honey....

You can also use Greek yogurt in smoothies or recipes.  We buy the one with the most fat we can find (2%) but if you are not into fat you can buy the lower fat one. 

So by this point in the review you must understand that this particular Greek yogurt is really good (you can compare it to my review of Trader Joe’s brand Greek yogurt that came out the very first week of this blog on day 6 - http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-6-greek-yogurt.html ).  But here is the kicker:

On a shopping price comparison trip FAGE YOGURT WAS A WHOLE BUCK CHEAPER AT TRADER JOE’S THAN A NEARBY SAFEWAY GROCERY STORE.  A dollar!!!  For the exact same product.

Rip Off ALERT - if you want to spend an extra dollar on the same product,
make sure to get it at Safeway instead of Trader Joe's

Either Safeway is royally ripping shoppers off, or Trader Joe’s is being ultra kind.  Either way – you know where I am going to grab my yogurt!

P.S. – the container tells you how to pronounce this brand.  It is pronounced Fa-Yeh! (exclamation point theirs – they obviously are as excited about their yogurt as I am).

Price – $3.59

Rating – 4.75

Bonus photo for anyone who scrolled down this far!  Me snorkeling in Greece in 2007!

Day 232 - Authentic Greek Feta in Brine

 I’ve said it before and I will say it again – I am not ashamed.

I LOVE ME SOME FETA.

I am home alone – I had to come home and work a few days and leave my main man in Indianapolis.  So tonight I decided to splurge and treat myself with some really nice feta.

Here is the packaging for this fancy feta

At least, what I presumed would be nice feta.  I fell for the “it’s expensive so it must be good” trick (I like to think I do not usually fall for that…).  The feta we normally purchase at Trader Joe’s is $2.99 for 8 oz.  This feta was $6.49 for 10.5 oz – see – comparatively it was PRICEY!  (You can see the review of our normal TJ’s feta on day 105 of this blog.)

What the hell- put it on a credit card!

So this afternoon I was craving feta.  I neeeeeeeeeeeeded feta.  And really, as far as cravings go, if you are going to crave something, I think FETA is a mighty healthy craving, don’t you?  So I went straight to Trader Joe’s in Clarendon, VA to hook myself up!

Now, earlier in the day I was stuck in traffic.  Like, BAD Washington DC traffic.  So I had time to hear the news on NPR not once but two or three times.  So I kept hearing about the Prime Minister of Greece resigning today.  And you know, Greece is in a boat load of financial trouble.  That poor country is a messy mess!  So I guess what I am saying is, yes, I splurged and spent way more on feta than a girl needs to spend, but it was AUTHENTIC GREEK FETA from GREEEEEEEECE for heaven’s sake!  And if anyone needs my money, it is Greece, right?  So there.  Not only did I satisfy my craving, I helped out an entire economy with my purchase.  (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

David taking the plunge in Koufonisia, Greece (2007)

Me swimming in Koufonisia, Greece - isn't the water beautiful???

So, was my splurge on this feta worth it?

Uh-huh.

This cheese is amazing!  It is a kick ass feta.  It comes in brine, which seems to ensure it is not dry and blecky like some fetas are.  However, the brine also means it can be MESSY, as evidenced by when I tried to pick it up after “closing” it (oops, it was not closed) to read the bottom of the container…  I splashed brine all over the counter. 

It has 2 chunks of feta in it - here I stood them up for you to see

This is what it is like when you open the tub

The thing I need to ding the rating on a bit for this product is the packaging.  It is super hard to OPEN.  You pull off a little hard plastic bit, then theoretically you can pull the lid off.  Maybe it is because I currently have long nails and need to cut them, but I had a really hard time getting the lid off.  I resorted to jamming a fork around until I could squeeze it open a bit.  And of course the whole time I was trying to rip the lid off, I was afraid the lid would POP off and give me a brine shower.

This totally satisfied my craving for feta.  Ahhhhh....  

I am glad I splurged.  Greece needs our help – go buy this feta.  J  Just be really careful opening and closing it. 

Price - $6.49

Rating – 4.75

Day 212 - 5 Cheese Greek Spiral

We bought this one night when we were shopping while hungry, which we always tell ourselves we should never do.  If you go to the grocery store, any grocery store, on an empty tummy you will always walk away with heavier bags than if you shopped after dinner.  But when you eat dinner after 10:00 PM every night and Trader Joe’s closes at 9:00, well, you see our problem…

Anyway, we grabbed this one night when we were strolling down the frozen food aisle.  When we got home I unpacked groceries and put it in the freezer (we got a new fridge this year and it has a bottom freezer, which is amazing!) and promptly forgot about it.

Here is our new fridge - IN OUR ENTRY WAY!  They carried it through the dining room and living room to get it to our kitchen.  Anyway, here there are no doors on it, so see how big the bottom freezer is?  Holds lots of TJ stuff!

So it nice a nice discovery in the freezer the other night!  “Hey, we got this cool Greek thing, let’s have it!” I said.  It was really easy to cook – just popped it in the oven.  It is a cool looking spirally thing – a bit snail-ish (and, for the immature among us, the end of it looks a bit, well, poop-ish…). 

Here is what it looks like on the front of the packaging

And here is what it looks like in real life after you cook it.  See how the end is, well, a bit, umm...

But it doesn’t taste poop-ish!  It is good.  The flakey filo bits are oh so flakey and the cheese is super cheesey.  In other words, all parts do their jobs very well.  Here is what the package tells us are the cheeses you will find inside this dish: “gouda, kasseri, kefalotyri, semi-hard cheese, (huh?  Isn’t “semi-hard” an adjective describing a cheese – like, don’t we need an actual NAME of a cheese?), and blue cheese”.  The mix of cheeses is quite good.  It tastes like you are on a Greek island, but without the cost of airfare and without having to try and read menus in Greek… 

This is not a MENU, but this is what it looked like when I tried to read Greek when we went to Greece is 2007....

This would be fun to serve at a dinner party as an appetizer.  It is a little messy to cut into – flakes fly – but it’s cool.  It is something a bit unusual and fun.

Bonus photo of GREECE - has nothing to do with the 5 Cheese Greek Spiral but here is David jumping into the blue water of Greece!!  Isn't is gorgeous?

Price – $3.99

Rating - 4

Day 129 - Tzatziki

My friend Heidi turned me on to this product.  She said they get it a lot at Trader Joe’s.  And if Heidi likes it, chances are I will like it!  And I do.

Tzatziki, if you have never had it before, is, as the lid says, a “Creamy Garlic Cucumber Dip”.  It is a Greek sauce and when you eat it, if you close your eyes, you can imagine you are on a small Greek Island enjoying the sea breeze!!! 

Hard to spell, but easy to eat

We had it with our falafel (reviewed yesterday) and I also had it with Pita Bite Crackers (reviewed on day 127).  It is really tasty – adds some zip to what you eat it with.  The chunks of cucumber are a nice size.  It says it is “low fat”, which would normally be a bit of a turn off for me, but it didn’t TASTE low fat, if  you know what I mean.  It IS runny, which means it can get messy, but licking it off your fingers is totally acceptable (at least at our house it is).

Reasonably priced

This is a good summer food.  Enjoy it in warm weather and dream of Greece.

Price – $3.49

Rating – 4.25