Day 290 - Grilled Asparagus (frozen)

First off, let’s be honest.  This frozen grilled asparagus is NOT like fresh asparagus.  It does not taste as good as asparagus you buy in the produce section, wash, trim, and cook yourself.

But secondly, let’s be clear.  This asparagus is NOT as crappy as canned asparagus.  Growing up I actually liked canned asparagus.  I think it was sort of a treat in our house and I do not remember having it until I was older, but canned was the only asparagus I ever ate.  It came out of a tall, thin metal can and I thought it was expensive and exotic.  It was also, honest here, as mushy as all get out. 

When I became an “adult” (something I still don’t claim to be, though my birth certificate says otherwise) I thought canned asparagus was the way to go.  Then I met David, and he hated canned asparagus.  He introduced me to fresh asparagus and I loved it (though every once in a while I would still buy a can and snarf it down on my own…).  I have a dish that is one of my specialties – asparagus, brown butter, and capers.  It is amazing!

Reasonable price for a vegetable that is normally pretty expensive

 I saw this grilled asparagus in the TJ’s frozen section one night when I was shopping there alone and thought I would give it a try.  I had dinner ready when David came home from a late night of work and these spears were on the plate.  Here is what he thought:

“I like it.  It’s got crunch but it’s soft enough to cut with a fork.  It is flavorful, tasty.  In this case perhaps because we grilled it lightly (EDITOR’S NOTE:  “WE”????  We??  Ummm, YOU were at work when I made this meal…).   Ummm, and it is entirely NOT WOODY.  No part of the stalk have I encountered a kind of fibrousness to.  And I haven’t even gotten up to the tips yet - I presume those are gonna be even nicer!”

BAM – I PUNKED HIM!  He thought “we” grilled those!!!  Boy was he surprised when I told him they came in a bag, frozen, and I had just defrosted them in the microwave. 

The asparagus spears are quite pretty, eh?  I served them with grilled eggplant from our garden topped with TJ's feta
and a TJ's Chicken Balti Pie.

My opinion of these – they lost a bit of asparagus taste in the freezing process.  So they are not as delicious as fresh asparagus but they win hands down over canned asparagus.  If TJ’s carries these during the asparagus off-season they would definitely be something good to have in the freezer.  I agree that they were not woody.  They were a nice size and very “uniform”.  Fresh asparagus goes off really quickly in the fridge if you don’t cook it right away, so I think this frozen asparagus would be a good staple to keep in the freezer on nights when you haven’t gotten to the store to get a fresh veggie.  It would be the equivalent of the can of “emergency corn” I keep in the cupboard.  Overall, they are good but do not have the “vibrancy” of fresh.

David admitted I had totally fooled him and he would have never known they were not fresh if I hadn’t told him.  He did run into a bit of fiber (to be expected with this vegetable).

Price – $3.99

Rating - 3.75

Day 221 - Vegetable Panang Curry

When I was a kid, sometimes we got lucky and were served a TV dinner for supper.  Now that I am an adult, I realize those nights were probably times my mom was exhausted and not in the mood to cook meat loaf or cheesey chicken (which was her specialty).  But at the time, it felt a bit like hitting the jack pot to get that metal tray, piping hot, placed in front of me.  Oh that metal tray…  With the separate areas for the turkey with gravy and piping hot mashed “potatoes”.  Ahhhh…  Fancy!

Now I am an adult.  At least age-wise I am an adult.  And I do not find instant potatoes with a thin layer of crust on the top appealing anymore. 

BUT I HAVE FOUND A TV DINNER REPLACEMENT.  Trader Joe’s has an amazing assortment of frozen foods.  You could spend an hour just strolling down the frozen section, filling your cart with boxes and bags.  And one box you should put in that cart is VEGETABLE PANANG CURRY with Jasmine Rice.  It’s great!

Put this box in your shopping cart, stat!

It takes a total of 4 minutes in the microwave to cook (as opposed to God knows how long my mom had to leave our TV dinners in the oven way back in prehistoric before microwave times…).  The box has one serving so it was perfect when I gobbled it up just now for a very late 5:15 PM lunch. 

The Jasmine Rice is wonderful.  It is steamy, fluffy, with just the right amount of “stick”.  Veggies include zucchini, onion, asparagus, kale, green beans, snow peas, baby corn, and spinach.  See – it’s a far cry from the watery fake potatoes in the TV dinners of my youth!  And the curry sauce is fantastic.  The only bit of negativity is that the asparagus in this dish is sometimes “woody”. 

Here it is on a plate - I was a bit messy when I dumped it out cuz I was starving

Overall this is a terrific saucy, ricey dish and should be eaten by YOU (unless you are not a fan of slightly spicy stuff, then skip this and eat something boring).

Note – this is VEGAN, so if that’s your thing they gotcha covered.

Price – $2.69 (I think…)

Rating – 4.75

Day 106 - Gorgonzola Chicken

From the description on the box, this meal sounds like a HOME RUN – white chicken meat, bowtie pasta, asparagus and peas in a Gorgonzola cheese sauce.  Each of those items is high on our list of “delicious foods” (no, we do not have an actual physical list titled” Delicious Foods”, but you know what I mean, our theoretical list…).  Anyway, it sounded delicious, so we were psyched to try it.

Doesn't the description sound good?

And a reasonable price for 2 whole servings, too

Sadly, we were a wee bit disappointed.  I cooked it using the microwave method, because it is packaged like a microwaveable meal (there was another cooking method listed, too, which I have not tried).  And it smelled really nice as it cooked!  The Gorgonzola scent filled our kitchen – yum!  But the TASTE was a bit dull.  Somehow the SMELL was stronger than the TASTE.  Sure, all the things listed on the package were IN there, but they tasted so dull.  I am not even sure how in the world GORGONZOLA can taste dull, but it did.  Even salt and pepper didn’t jazz the dinner up enough to make it worth purchasing again.

I am not sure why David looks so skeptical about it in the store, but turns out he was right!

Gorgonzola Chicken in action - I served it with baby broccoli (reviewed on day 55 of this blog)

So, while this particular meal won’t be on our shopping list again, the Trader Joe’s we bought it at WILL BE!  We went to the U Street Trader Joe’s in Washington DC (1914 14^th St NW) and were very happy with the experience!  It was a Friday night, and not just any Friday night, a Friday night when WASHINGTON DC CHERRY BLOSSOMS were in PEAK bloom!  So we knew the U St corridor would be crazy busy, and indeed it was.  We wondered how in the world we would find a parking spot, then were happy to see that Trader Joe’s has an underground parking garage with FREE PARKING!!  And boy did they have a FANTASTIC parking lot attendant!  He danced a bit and JOGGED around telling cars to “wait” or “go”.  He was super fun, friendly, and efficient.  I mean, if you can make parking in a crowded underground lot exciting, you have MAD SKILLZ.  Trader Joe’s in La Jolla, CA needs to come study this man and clone him for their insane, headache inducing parking lot.

Parking lot guy - he ROCKS!  Here David takes a little jog with him

And the U St store is great!  Right off the bat I noticed how friendly the shoppers were.  I got into a conversation about kale with people in the produce section and ended up telling them how amazing kale sprouts are (reviewed on day 36 of this blog).  They put a bag of regular kale and kale sprouts in their cart and off they went! 

This store has the best artwork of any Trader Joe’s that I have seen – check it out:

Isn't this GREAT???  So fun and inviting

Isn’t it amazing?  I am guessing it is by a local artist, but I do not know for sure.  If someone from the U St location reads this can you tell me in the comments section?  I love that piece!!

I was also very impressed by this sign near the check-outs:

This kind of community action makes me happy to give Trader Joe's my business

It is concrete actions like THIS that make me even happier to shop at Trader Joe’s.  I bet lots of TJ’s stores donate food – I wish they all had clear signs like this telling everyone about it. 

More reviews coming from items purchased during our visit to the U St Trader Joe’s coming!

Price – $5.99

Rating – 3.25