Day 341 - BBQ Chicken Pizza

As  mentioned elsewhere in this blog, we do not eat a lot of pizza.  When we DO, we often make it ourselves using TJ’s dough ( reviewed here).  But because I wanted to try a product we had not eaten before, I picked up a frozen pizza – TJ’s BBQ Chicken Pizza topped with tangy BBQ sauce, chicken, mozzarella, Gouda, and red onions. 

 

Here's the box.  It is in the frozen food section.

I popped that sucker in the oven the other night when we had some friends from Kansas City staying with us.  They were on a cool quest – Tracy decided she wanted to see as many Christmas trees as she could this holiday season and Vince works for an airline (which means free flights!) so off they went!!!  I had tickets to the White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony so they put DC on their list to visit!  They had been outside for a few hours waiting for the tree to be lit, then had stopped in a pizzeria on the way back to our house (unbeknownst to me, or I would not have tried to feed them PIZZA!).  Anyway, of course I made them try it and help review it even though they weren’t hungry.  J  Cuz that’s  what friends are for, right?

David was the "limo driver" to pick up the guests at the airport.

The box said it was 3 servings of pizza.  We had 2 hungry people (David and myself) and 2 full people (the guests).  After a couple of bites I brought out the Trader Joe’s Green Dragon sauce for those who were interested.  Here is what people thought of the pizza:

After cooking, before eating.

David – “I like it.  It is nice.  I like the sauce and items like the chicken ratio in the middle.  As it gets toward the ends there is quite a lot of CRUST.  Thank God someone recommended Sriracha sauce and that makes it ok in the crusty area, otherwise it would be a little barren.  This could be a dinner.  It is convenient and it is tasty.  I would give it a 4.” (Editor here:  it was not sriracha, it was TJ’s Green Dragon sauce (not yet reviewed), and “someone” did not recommend it, I (Susan) went and got it out of the fridge and walked it allllll the way to the dining room (like 15 steps maybe!).  But TJ’s DOES do a good sriracha sauce, it was reviewed here .

Guest reviewer Vince (married to Tracy, from a small town that loves to shoot off fireworks near Kansas City, where they KNOW their BBQ sauce) – “I enjoyed it, it was very tasty.  But the sauce was lacking and it could use a little bit more BBQ sauce.  I give it a 3.” 

Guest reviewers VINCE and TRACY!

Guest reviewer Tracy (a very fun woman) – “I would give it a 4.5. I REALLLLLY liked it for a frozen pizza.  I am most impressed with the cheese ratio because I always have to add additional cheese to my frozen pizzas and this one I didn’t find lacking in that area at all.  The BBQ sauce was a little sweet for my taste but I got over that pretty quickly and the sriracha sauce was a nice tip!”  (Editor again:  IT WAS GREEN DRAGON SAUCE, PEOPLE!  J )

Me – I thought there was too much CRUST around the edge.  I wish the cheesey part would have spread out further so there was less naked crust.  I could have used more SAUCE on it, too.  I thought the chicken was good, but overall I thought the pizza was a bit boring.  The Green Dragon hot sauce helped a lot, but I do not think you should have to add hot sauce, I think the pizza should be able to stand on its own.  I give it a 3.5. 

Not a bad price.

Well, scores were pretty varied – from a 3 to a 4.5.  I will average them together and give it a final number.

Tracy on her quest to SEE MANY CHRISTMAS TREES - this one is at Union Station, Washington DC.  

Price – $4.99

Rating – 3.75

Day 316 - Egg Pappardelle Pasta (plus bonus news about our HALLOWEEN COSTUMES!)

Before I review today’s product, let me share some super fun news: 

WE WON 2 TRADER JOE’S HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTESTS! 

When we first went to the Bethesda Trader Joe’s on October 25th we saw this sign, which of course got me excited! 

  

We had already been working on our costumes – I was going to be a big piece of BACON and David was going to dress as a sunny side up EGG!  (Of course, ironically these are 2 things that we really like from TJ’s and got great reviews see bacon review here and see egg review here .)  We checked at the Clarendon TJ’s (very close to our house) and they were ALSO having a customer costume contest!!! 

We got the costumes all finished up (easier said than done) and went into the Clarendon store to get our picture taken.  It was a blast!  Walking around the store dressed as bacon and egg was not EASY, mind you, but very fun.  Everyone kept saying, “Hey!  Bacon and eggs!!” as we passed.  We had to wait in line to pay for our purchases and that was funny – standing there in costume as the line snaked forward.

Here we are in the underground parking garage of the Clarendon Trader Joe's - you can see David was sort of TALL...

The next day we went to the Bethesda store and got our photo taken for the contest there, too!  That store was even HARDER to walk around because it is smaller and more crowded.  But it was really cool because some employees were also dressed up (like the lovely Alison who was dressed as Carmen Miranda!). 

I wish I had a photo of the Carmen Miranda costume, but I don't, so here is another BACON & EGGS costume shot!  :)

Both stores called and said we were WINNERS!!!  We won gift cards, which of course we spent immediately on more TJ’s stuff.  J  Thanks Trader Joe’s!!!

THANKS BETHESDA TJ'S!

THANKS CLARENDON TJ'S!!

Now onto the review - Egg Pappardelle Pasta 

The package said four servings, which I thought seemed wrong because there didn’t seem to be that much in the package.  Of course, after COOKING the pasta I realized they were right – those puppies really plump up!  Four servings was indeed accurate.

Here is what the package looks like - find it in the pasta section

We served this pasta with a dollop of butter ( butter review here from waaaay back on day 49) and smothered with beef stroganoff which David lovingly prepared while I was at work, and a side of TJ’s broccoli cooked perfectly by yours truly.

YUMMY!  The broccoli was a nice side for this hearty meal

This pasta was DELICIOUS.  It balanced the beef stroganoff splendidly.  The pappardelle is noodle-y.  It is egg-y.  It is everything you would want an egg noodle to be.  It tastes “fresh” and is something different rather than rice or a traditional pasta (we eat a loooot of pasta).

Mid-bite.

David agrees and said they were good noodles.  They were rich and soft and “the noodles did their job”.  The egg noodle is a little richer than just having pasta all the time.

Note – these noodles are low sodium so if you are looking for that in your diet these might be a good fit.

Price – $1.99

Rating - 4

Day 311 - Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

Honestly, I thought I reviewed this little quiche way back in the beginning of this project, under day 60 for sure.  We used to always keep one of these in our freezer for a quick meal.  Between you and me, our TJ’s shopping has had to change some this year because of these reviews.  We need to eat new and different products all the time now to have items to review, so some of our old standbys have gotten a wee bit ignored, like this quiche.  But when I looked back in the blog and realized I had MISSED reviewing this, I needed to rectify that stat!  I cannot let the whole year go by and the project finish without helping you find this little quiche if you do not already know about it.

Find this box in the frozen food department.  It is a tiny box, like the size of a personal pizza

These quiche are great to have on hand for nights that you are not in the mood to cook, or days when you work from home and want a nice, hearty lunch.  The packaging (or was it the receipt?) says this is a “breakfast quiche”, which makes no sense to me.  Who decided that quiche was a BREAKFAST FOOD?  It is a lunch quiche.  A dinner quiche.  A midnight snack quiche.  I say quiche is an all day food. 

We ate this one for LUPPER – a 4 PM late lunch/early dinner – while sitting out on our front porch on a sunny day.  I recommend this setting for a tasty meal J.  

If you eat lunch on our porch you can see stuff like THIS!  A mamma dove with two babies in their nest in our Dogwood tree!

I usually bake these quiche in the oven, but this time I tried the microwave method. The packaging says this is one serving, but we always cut one in half and share it.  On this particular day I served it with cous cous and peas which made for a delightful combination.  We always plop some TJ's Dijon mustard (which I also thought I had reviewed but maybe I haven't, am I losing it???) on our plate for dipping the quiche in (it’s a French thing…) and this time I also did some dipping in Hatch Valley Salsa.  David was starving and wanted a bit more sustenance, so he also added a piece of HAM to the plate. 

Yum!

I have an announcement that simply must be made here:  REAL MEN DO EAT QUICHE.

This is a good product.  It is super easy and quick to make.  It is cheesy but not too cheesy.  The crust is good.  The inside filling (broccoli, cheese, and egg) is tasty and filling.  The side of Dijon mustard really makes everything pop.

After tasting this quiche cooked by both methods – oven and microwave – we think the oven is the way to go.  The crust turns out better using the old fashioned oven method. 

This is a good staple to keep in the freezer.

Price - $2.29

Rating – 4.25

Day 281 - Chicken Marsala with Mashed Potatoes

We recently had (and really liked, though I have not finished the review yet) Trader Joe’s Chicken Picatta.  Since that went over so well at our dinner table, we decided to grab this Chicken Marsala.  Both products are pre-cooked and ready to eat – they just need to be quickly heated.  They are found in the refrigerated (not frozen) food section.

The label on this chicken marsala says it contains 2 servings.  However, when you open it up, it is one big chicken breast/cutlet.  While that is 2 servings for US (we are rather small humans), I think for many people they would not consider it big enough for 2 people.  We just cut the chicken in half and plopped it on plates. 

Here is the package - it looks better on here than it did on our plates

I think the mashed potatoes in this dish are better than the chicken.  The breading on the chicken has a lot of what tasted to me like rosemary and the strength of that overpowered the other flavors.  The sauce was good but not what I expected as “marsala”.  To be honest, my favorite thing on my plate was the left-over spinach from going out for dim sum at a Chinese restaurant earlier in the day…

David liked this product better than me.  He thought the chicken was good, the breading nice and soft.  He liked the rosemary.  He said the sauce was, “Lovely with a lot of mushroom taste in it, and the mashed potatoes that go with it are a perfect compliment, particularly with the sauce poured over the top.”

We had a discussion about the marsala sauce.  We both expected it to be more “wine-ish” and less “chicken gravy-ish”.  When I look at photos online of chicken marsala it all looks darker than the sauce that comes with this dish.  Something just didn’t taste right…

See how the sauce is sort of tan/gray and dull looking?  No marsala excitement.
And this is "one serving" - so half a chicken breast (this was before I ate any)

All of that being said, this is a very easy, convenient meal in that you just bung it in the microwave.  But Trader Joe’s sells many other quick to prepare meals that are much tastier than this one.  I would go with a different one if I were you.  

The packaging for this chicken marsala boasts that this dish “replicates a restaurant experience at a fraction of the price”.  I would concur with the “fraction of the price” part but not the “replicates a restaurant experience” part.  This doesn’t taste like something from a restaurant, not a restaurant I would return to anyway.  The box even says, “Who needs a restaurant when dining in tastes this good?”.   Well if all Trader Joe’s food tasted “this good” (which is middle of the road and sort of boring) then I WOULD need a restaurant.

David liked it better than me, so this won’t get a horrible rating.  But it won’t be in our fridge again if I do the shopping.

Price – $6.49

Rating – 3.25

Day 204 - Organic Woodfired Sicilian Style Pizza

Look, we pulled into home around 1:15 AM.  When we got here, our grass was a mile high (we had been gone three weeks) and the fence in our front yard had been hit by a car and knocked over.  We unloaded the car, futzed around in our hot and musty smelling house, and finally got around 5 hours sleep before getting up and working a very hard day.

So FORGIVE ME if I wasn’t in the mood to actually cook something for dinner tonight, ok???

We went to a local Trader Joe’s (the Clarendon store in Arlington, VA) to get something easy to make for dinner.  This pizza seemed like just the thing.  The box boasts of red pepper, provolone, and pearl mozzarella.  Sounds good, no?

Here's the box.  Looks good, doesn't it?

Sounds good, but doesn’t TASTE good.  It tasted like a cracker with some crap on it.  Not literal CRAP, mind, you, but crappy food.  The tomato sauce was not luscious.  The red peppers were not amazing. Heck, even the two types of cheese were blah. 

Ready to cut and eat.

This pizza came with a little packet of olive oil with red pepper.  The box explains, in large letters, “Unlike a Sicilian Summer our signature style pizza let’s* (sic) you choose your level of hot-ness.  Drizzle the pizza with all of the oil for a spicy boost or use just a little for a milder flavor.”

HOWEVER, if you read the very fine print on the little olive oil packet, you are supposed to drizzle said olive oil on half way through cooking the pizza.  OH SNAP!  I wish the box would have told us that so we were have done that.  Instead, we drizzled after cooking.

Good ingredients, bad pizza

Crust – super duper hard (cracker-esque)

Sauce – boring

Red peppers – dull

Cheeses – not inviting

Half way through one piece David gave up and went into the kitchen to remake his pizza into something more edible.  He added olives (from another store), fresh tomato from the garden, and mozzarella balls (from TJs).  He says, “The “pearls” were smaller than oyster pearls, given the effect on the original pizza”. 

David, before he gave up and totally doctored his pizza trying to add flavor

I say - If we wanted to make our own pizza we would have done that from the get go!

Crappy, dull pizza.  Not worthy of the $5 or the calories.  Skip it and get something better.

*        Trader Joe’s corporate – grammar alert on this box.  Misplaced apostrophe.

 

Price - $4.99

Rating – 1.75

Day 201: Capellini

Look, either you LIKE capellini or you don’t.  It’s a super skinny Italian pasta.  I would say it is like angel hair.  So it is not a HEARTY type of pasta- it is delicate, quaint, and capellini-ish! 

Capellini meal 1 - served with olive oil, garlic, mushrooms, snow peas, and delicious shrimp

But if you like capellini, this is a fine one.  It is in the pasta aisle of Trader Joe’s alongside the other varieties.  I saw someone online worried that Trader Joe’s might have discontinued it, but I just called our local store to check in and make sure they still have it – Sally said indeed THEY DO. And it's pretty cheap, too.

Capellini meal 2 - served with a red sauce enhanced with onions, green peppers, and mushrooms with sides of zuchinni and snow peas

 Because it is so darn skinny it only takes 3 minutes to cook, which makes it a speedy little pasta! 

We recently served it with shrimp, olive oil and garlic for a delicate little dinner.  It is also good with pesto.  And we just had it AGAIN tonight with an Alfredo sauce (which I added mushrooms to). David really loved it and gobbled it up (well, he gobbled it slowly, he is a super slow eater).  In fact, he added butter and salt to the naked leftover capelli and gobbled that up, too.  This is a flexible pasta.

Capellini meal 3 - served with Alfredo sauce enhanced with mushrooms, fresh corn, left over Brussels Sprouts, and left over chicken (this was a "trying to clean out the fridge" meal)

I sort of wish this was a bad pasta, cuz you know I would love to write something about it being “crapellini”.  But I cannot do that.  So I won’t.  But I still got to say crapellini, so I am cool with it.

This is a good one to keep in your cupboard.

Price – $.99

Rating – 4.25

Day 198 - Jasmine Rice

Like the Basmati Rice recently reviewed on this blog (Day 191), this Jasmine Rice also comes in a weirdly designed bag.  You do not open it at the TOP, as one would normally do with a bag of rice, but a bit down the front.  Once you do the delicate opening trick, the bag makes a good pouring and storage system.

Here is our almost empty bag of Jasmine Rice

This rice is from Thailand.  It comes in a 3 pound bag and is only $3.29 (so like a buck a pound), which is much cheaper than you will find Jasmine Rice priced in other stores.  For some reason Americans seem to think anything that is not MINUTE RICE is fancy, therefore they should pay a lot of money for.  I am glad TJ’s doesn’t subscribe to that philosophy! 

The rice in the pan after being cooked, with 2 pats of butter.  We should have put something in there to make a smile, too!

Jasmine rice is nice (a little poem!).  Trader Joe’s guide to rice says it has a “delicate floral aroma”, but the idea of rice smelling or tasting like flowers is not appealing to me, so let’s not go there.  (I once ordered a LAVENDAR CUPCAKE at a fancy ass cupcake store in Seattle.  It was the prettiest darn cupcake you ever saw.  But BLECKO – cupcakes (or other foods) really should not taste like flowers.  But I digress…)

Another meal with Jasmine Rice

Dinner: Jasmine Rice, corn, squash, chicken, and Brussels sprouts

We eat Jasmine Rice a lot.  Like, a whole lot.  This is just as good as other brands of Jasmine Rice you get.  If you want to spend more money for it, by all means buy it all Whole Foods.  But if you want a good rice at a good price, pick up a bag of this the next time you are at Trader Joe’s. 

Price – $3.29

Rating – 4.5

Day 191 - Basmati Rice

I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating – we eat a TON of starch at our house.  Every dinner usually includes at least one green veggie and one starch, often RICE.  So we cook and consume loads of rice.

The variety I am reviewing here is BASMATI.  It is from India and it is good.  It has a nutty aroma and it long grained.  A couple of months ago David started a new technique (new to us) where he puts some olive oil (Extra Virgin) in a pot, fries it a bit (stirring a lot) until the kernels turn white instead of translucent, then adds the water for cooking.  This takes 2 – 3 minutes.  It results in good tasting rice.  We used to always just throw it in a rice cooker or pot to cook the regular old way, but this technique really does give you a tastier dinner.

David's fancy "cook a bit before you actually cook the rice" technique in action

This Trader Joe’s Basmati is really good.  It is long grained, if cooked correctly it does not all stick together (my bad the other night when we had a gloppy dinner…), and best of all, it is REALLY WELL PRICED.  This is much cheaper than other brands of Basmati.

Bowl of rice - see how it is not gloppy?

The one tricky part about this bag is OPENING IT.  Instead of opening on the TOP it opens a bit down the front.  Odd.  It does zip up to reseal, which is nice.

David worriedly opening the bag - see how it opens a bit down the front and not on top?

This is a good rice to keep on hand.  Because, as they say (I have never actually heard anyone say this…), RICE IS NICE!

Here is a handy guide to Trader Joe’s rice that I found online. 

http://traderjoes.com/digin/post/guide-to-TJs-rice

Price - $3.29

Rating – 4.5

Day 178 - Spaghetti

I guess, in the grand scheme of things, pasta is pasta.  I mean, if we are talking about just a bag (or box) of dried pasta that you are gonna throw in a pot of boiling water, drain, then throw sauce over.  Oh sure, you might find some FANCIER fresh pastas, but in the dried pasta department all the brands seem pretty much the same to me.  (Maybe it is because I have a cold today and am a little bit cranky…)

Anyway, we recently served this Trader Joe’s Spaghetti at a dinner with guests.  It was fine.  It is spaghetti.  It was no better or worse than the other brands of dried pasta that we cook.  (I will say that the sauce, homemade pesto made with basil from our garden, was tasty J ).

Product of Italy, so it can't be a bad pasta, right?  :)

Here are the reviews of some of the guests who ate it (not all guests wrote reviews, I assume their take is like mine, pasta is pretty much pasta):

-          3 - “Pasta noodles could be a bit larger and less stail (I believe this means stale) but overall pretty good”(written by a kid whose parents probably usually serve fatter pasta J )

-          4 - “A basic spaghetti that goes with everything” (also written by a cute kid)

So if you want to eat pasta and you are at TJ’s, just pick up some of theirs.  It will do just fine.  My rating if I did it on my own would be a 3, but I will average that with the 2 guests who rated it to come out with a final number. 

Front porch dinner party (one of the reviewers took this photo of the adults)

P.S. – sorry this review is not that great…  I promise more inspired ones to come.  I just do not feel well.  L

Price - .99

Rating – 3.25

Day 169 - Chicken Balti Pies

Chicken WHAT?

That was our first response, and maybe yours too, to see the name of this frozen product.  Being a resident of the Washington DC area, what I thought of was BALTI-MORE, however, it turns that is not what these are named after J.  The box tells us that BALTI is a traditional curry.  Because it is a CURRY, I mistakenly thought INDIAN.  But if you read the fine (pretty font) print on the side of the box you will learn that this was actually inspired by the “savory pies of the United Kingdom”.

Frozen food section - don't they look yummy?  Looks are not deceiving in this case!

Whew, glad I didn’t read that BEFORE we bought these!  Not sure I would have put them in our cart!  David lived in London for a long time and when we go back and visit I am amazed that a region can have such blaaaaaaaaand food. 

Not these Chicken Balti Pies, ain’t nuttin’ bland about ‘em!  They are really good! 

First off, they are not like Chicken POT Pies.  They are much thicker and sturdier than a chicken pot pie.  They do not need a little tin to hold them – they are hefty enough to stand on their own.  The crust is really nice!  Inside is curry, carrots, gold potatoes, and chicken.  We were afraid they might be very dry inside but they are not, the curry was just right.  Yum! 

We heated both up (mostly via the microwave because we didn’t even start prepping dinner until after 11 pm and we were not patient enough to wait an hour for the oven method).  The nutrition facts on the box say 1 pie per person, but I only ate half of mine (and the baby bok choy we served with it (reviewed on day 38 of this blog). 

All descriptions on this sign are correct.  These are, as the sign says, a delight!

These are a new product at Trader Joe’s and I hope they continue to carry them.  Get some and try them!  And if you want to learn more about BALTI, here is a link (though Wikipedia is hesitant about the validity of some of the info):  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balti_(food)

Price - $5.99 (so 3 bucks per pie)

Rating – 4.25

Day 161 - Alfredo Pasta Sauce

Another cute Florida Trader Joe's sign - flamingo!

I don’t often think of ALFREDO when I think pasta.  I always think of red sauce or pesto (we have a freezer full of little pesto packs we have made from garden basil, so it is an easy thing to make when we want pasta).  But we recently had Trader Joe’s Chicken Pot Pie Ravioli (reviewed yesterday, day 160, on this blog) and we wanted a non-red/non-pesto sauce to go over it.  Enter TRADER GIOTTO’S ALFREDO SAUCE.  It has Romano and Parmesan cheeses – yummmmm.

Grab a jar of this on your next visit to Trader Joe's

It was great on the ravioli!  All we did was heat it and pour it over the pasta.  Ahhhh – almost no work at all to have a tasty, creamy meal!!!  All I added to the sauce was freshly ground pepper.  We used half the jar on this meal which means we have another half jar to enjoy later!  It would be tasty on fettuccine, so maybe that will be the next pasta it goes over.

Alfredo being poured over ravioli - can't you almost TASTE the goodness?

I am going to broaden my sauce horizons and remember ALFREDO in the future.  It is nice to mix things up a bit, and this cheesy creamy sauce deserves some love.

Price - $3.29

Rating – 4.75

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

Day 114 - Filet Mignon Roast

Holy kamole!!!!  We had this for the first time last night.  Color me a happy eater!!

Let me explain – last night we hosted our first ever (maybe last?) TRADER JOE’S DINNER PARTY!  David’s cousin and her husband were in town visiting and we wanted to get together with them, so we invited them (Sheila and Paul) along with my lovely in-laws Greg and Joan over for dinner.  But instead of just having a “regular dinner party” I made it a TRADER JOE’S DINNER PARTY!  This meant everything served was from none other than, you guessed it, Trader Joe’s J.  Sheila and Joan follow the blog (and I think Paul might be kept up to date by Sheila) so they were keen to join in the fun! 

Here are the Trader Joe's ingredients BEFORE THE PARTY 

I made “score sheets” for everyone and they were elegantly displayed on the table (as elegant as stapled together pieces of paper can be).  Everyone was asked to rate the items listed (Joan counted – there were 26 different items to be served!) and write any comments they wished.  I have collected all the score sheets but HAVE NOT READ THEM yet.  I will write my review of the roast here first so my opinion is not “tainted” by the other reviews, but I will be sure to share their comments and scores, too!

I LOVED THIS ROAST.  We chose it for the dinner party because, as a household of two people, something as big as this roast is not normally practical for us.  But since we would have 6 people at the table, it looked like a perfect size!  And it was – we have a bit of it left over (which we are grateful for and plan to eat later today!).

David with the tasty roast in the store

It was super easy to cook – David roasted it in the oven following the instructions on the package.  He lifted it off the bottom of the baking dish using the little metal rack that came with our old, inherited crock pot.  The roast comes pre-seasoned, but he added a bit of olive oil before putting it in the oven.  When it was done cooking, he followed a tip a co-worker had given him to cover the pan with foil, then with TOWELS to keep the warmth and moisture in.  Boy howdy did that work well!  We didn’t cut into that roast for another 45 minutes after it came out of the oven but it was still warm, juicy, and dellllicious! 

The spices on it are just right – nice and peppery.  In my opinion Trader Joe’s hit a home run with this item.  It is more expensive than we would normally spring for, but hey, it was a DINNER PARTY and after tasting it, I realize that in this case, the cost is totally worth it! 

Yes, more expensive than some dinners but WORTH IT

If I were rating it myself, I would give it a 5.  But because of the dinner party set-up, I am going to now peek at the other guests’ ratings and I will average them together for the final number at the end of the review.

Here are some other diner’s comments on this filet mignon roast:

·         “Tender and peppery but a bit dry.”

·         “Tender, flavor is elegantly beefy.”

·         “Very tasty rub – lots of pepper flavor.”

·         “Wonderful texture; great flavor.”

·         “Instructions for cooking were accurate.  Roast was moist and flavorful.  Easy to prepare for dinner with guests.”

Price - $17.49 lb.

Rating (6 ratings averaged together) – 4.75