Day 289 - Persimmon Salad

We were heading out to the thea-tuh (that is how fancy people say it) and stopped at Trader Joe’s in Fairfax, VA to get something for dinner on the way.  Sadly, we spent so much time wandering the aisles, tasting pumpkin soup and pumpkin beer and (non pumpkin) wine, that we pulled into the theatre parking lot with enough time to rush to our seats, not to EAT DINNER.  Therefore we did something the fancy people do NOT do – chowed down on a salad with a plastic fork during intermission.  But hey, that’s how we roll.  Deal. 

Oops - caught you eating dinner during intermission.  SO not fancy.

This salad was new to us.  Apparently Trader Joe’s had it last autumn and it was a big hit, so they juuuust brought it back!  I am glad they did, and you should be, too.  It is in the Fearless Flyer this month.

The Fearless Flyer is TJ's newsletter.  I don't really get into it much, which is why I am making this photo small.  :)

This salad is a very nice combination of stuff.  The front of the package boasts this contains butter lettuce, kale, roasted almonds, goat cheese, and a pomegranate dressing.  Of course, as the name suggests it also has PERSIMMONS, which, hello, who buys persimmons??  We do not, but maybe we should!!  They were good in this context for sure.

Even before OPENING this salad I thought it looked good.  I was right.

The nuts and pomegranate seeds come in little plastic sealed cups that you open and dump in.  This keeps them fresh and they do not get mushy, which is cool.  The majority of the salad is butter lettuce and kale.  We normally do not eat raw kale and this salad really made me want to do that more often.  The kale was great!  It tasted “healthy”, if healthy is a taste.    

I think there could be a bit more dressing.  It is a super tasty pomegranate sherry dressing and by the bottom of the salad I was wishing for more.  David agreed about needing a bit more dressing.

See - FEARLESS FLYER item 

David says, “The dressing is great!  The mix of kale and butter lettuce is a nice balance.  The nuts are nice.  And I think it is Roquefort cheese??  It’s nice!  The kale is good because it is the TENDER LEAVES and not so much stalk.  I give this salad a 4.”

I at first thought the cheese in question was FETA, then realized it was chevre (goat cheese).  Well done, Trader Joe’s, well done. 

This salad would be great for lunch.  I give it a 4.5, so will average the two ratings together for the final number. 

Wade through the aisles of pumpkin products and get to the refrigerated section to pick one of these salads up.  It is nice to have an autumn taste other than pumpkin.  (Not that there is anything wrong with pumpkin…)

Price – $3.99

Rating – 4.25

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 205 - Kale and Cauliflower Curry Salad

I picked this one up because sometimes, when I know I am going to have a challenging work day, I squirrel away a tasty Trader Joe’s salad to have as a mid-day treat.  I was happy when I sat down for lunch today with my CNN on, an ice cold San Pellegrino Limonata in front of me (reviewed on day 141 of this blog – one of the most frequently read reviews, probably because of the shopping comparison “event” that happened at WalMart…), a fresh sliced tomato from our garden, and THIS KALE AND CAULIFLOWER CURRY SALAD.

Healthy lunch!

 The first thing I thought when I opened the container was, “Would it have killed them to cut the cauliflower florets up a little bit more??”.  They were some very large cauliflower hunks, I’m tellin’ ya.  Because of that, I recommend having a knife with you when you eat this salad.

Maybe the cauliflower hunks don't look huge here, but in real life they did.

The kale in it was quite good.  And there was a big surprise!  At least to me, who had not read the ingredient list but only the name of the product, it was a surprise.  Not only does this salad contain kale, curry, and cauliflower, it has WHEATBERRIES hidden on the bottom.  SURPRISE!  And then there was a single plump golden raisin, too.  (I could have done without that, but I can hardly complain when there was only one of them…)

The package says the recommended serving size is half a package – oops, didn’t read that until after I had devoured the whole thing.  It didn’t seem extravagant or piggish to eat it all, so if you are having it for a meal and not an appetizer then I think the recommended serving size is a bit off. 

See?  The wheatberries are not mentioned.  Shhh - they are a secret!

Taste wise it was good.  The kale was the best part, followed by the wheatberries.  I added a bit of freshly ground pepper and that was it.  It is not a strong curry flavor but the curry does add a nice touch.

Overall, it is a fine salad.  Not my very favorite from TJ’s but certainly not the worst.  J

Price – $3.99

Rating - 4

Day 202 - Black Beans

A can of black beans is a can of black beans, right?  I mean, how SUPERB or CRAPPY can a can be?  Maybe I just have never bought a super bad brand of black beans.

That being said, these are fine black beans. :)  They are black.  They are beany.  They are good.  As I have mentioned in previous reviews of canned vegetables on this blog, before buying Trader Joe’s brand, I always thought I “needed” to stick with name brand canned vegetables.  I clipped coupons and bought them on sale.  But now that I know TJ’s are just as good as the fancy name brand vegetables that pay for advertising (and coupons!), I will stick to TJ’s!

Not only are they tasty, they are an excellent source of fiber (insert fart joke here)

I served these over rice and topped with chopped green pepper, chopped onion, chopped tomato, and sliced avocado.  YUMMMMMM.  I added salt, pepper, and Tabasco to mine.  Sometimes I do the black beans over rice and kale (also with Tabasco) and that is also a really tasty meal.

See those black beans hiding under all of those tasty toppings???

If you have never tried a store brand canned vegetable, do it.  Cheaper and just as reliable. 

Price - .89

Rating - 4

Day 181 - Cruciferous Crunch Collection

When I first saw this bag of veggies at Trader Joe’s, I thought, “Hmm, I am surprised they did not go the cutesy route and spell that name with letter “K”s,”.  Then I thought about it again…  3 words.  Ohhh no – best to stick with the correct spelling for the alliteration in this one…  

  

This is quite a CRUNCHY COLLECTION man.

Anyway, this mix has kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, green cabbage, and red cabbage.  The bag lists these as possible cooking methods:  “This blend is delicious steamed, sautéed, roasted, creamed with some cheesy sauce, raw, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera,”.  I chose the sautéed route and cooked them with olive oil in our wok.

I was tempted to add some lemon juice, garlic, or soy sauce, but I decided that since this was our first time trying this mix, I should cook it “au naturel” so we would see exactly what it tastes like.

I liked it.  It was, as the name suggests, crunchy.  The Brussels sprouts were cut very thin to allow them to cook in the same amount of time as the other things in the blend.  I didn’t taste much broccoli.  The main taste (to me) was green cabbage.  It did taste “healthy” – in a good way. 

Here is what it looks like on a plate

I liked this better than David did.  We served it with steak (to be reviewed soon) and a baked potato (also to be reviewed) but I noticed that at the end of our (admittedly rushed) dinner the thing left on his plate was Cruciferous Crunch Collection.  He normally eats every bite of everything on his plate, so that is not a good sign.  Oh my, I just asked him what number HE would give that veggie mix and he said, “A 2.  In fact, a 1.5.  I didn’t eat it…”.  OH my!  He normally likes eveeeeerything.

Ok, so if I get this one again it’ll have to be for a meal that he is not sharing. 

P.S. – I just used the power of Google to see if any other folks were having this stuff for dinner.  It turns out that eating it raw as a salad is something loads of people dig…  Ok.  Now I think I will try it THAT way next time and see how it goes.  I shall post a comment on this entry when I do. 

Speaking of comments – post yours here and let me know what you think of this stuff.

Price - $2.29

Rating (my rating, you saw David’s dismal one above…) - 3

Day 113: Spinach and Kale Bites

I like spinach.  I like kale.  So what could go wrong with “Spinach and Kale Bites”???

Nothing goes spectacularly WRONG, but it doesn’t go amazingly RIGHT, either.  Turns out these are little blobs of super chopped up (blended almost?) spinach and kale, held together by a bit of egg and panko breadcrumbs.  There is a touch of parmesan (I think that is the tastiest part).

Here is what the box looks likes

And here is what a WHOLE BUNCH of the boxes look like

These really don’t serve the purpose I grabbed them out of the freezer for – to be a quick tasty dinner substitute when it is almost midnight and you haven’t gotten it together to cook anything.  (Note:  another Trader Joe’s frozen appetizer item DOES serve that purpose well – Mushroom Turnovers.  We pop those puppies in the oven around midnight a couple nights a month and have at ‘em and they make for a good super late night dinner (reviewed on day 21).  I guess we were spoiled by the experience of those…)

Spinach and Kale Bites (cooked) on a plate.

I think Spinach and Kale Bites would be okay if you were having a few friends over for dinner and wanted a little appetizer.  I wouldn’t recommend them for like, a fancy dinner party appetizer, unless the guests were the sort of people you don’t like all that much.   My partner David says, “They would be good for the kind of a party where you have a drink in one hand and you can just hold the Spinach and Kale Bite in the other hand and eat it in two bites.  You don’t have to have a toothpick or anything.”  (Note – David takes VERY SMALL bites.  Most people would snarf these down in one 

chomp.)

See - it says ONE BITE right on the sign.  David takes super small bites.  He is weird that way.

In the end these are just sorta little blobs of warm green.  Not very inspired.

Price – $3.99

Rating – 2.75

Day 70 - Greens, Beans and Grains

Less GRAINS, more GREENS AND BEANS needed!

I had high hopes for this single serving frozen meal.  I mean, how much further from TV dinners of my youth could this possibly be:  “A Savory Entrée of Kale, Garbanzos, Peanuts, and Couscous”!!  It looks fabulous in the photo on the box – it’s even served on a super fancy plate.

Alas, it is more couscous than beans ‘n’ greens.  There just was not enough of the veggie/saucy bit to mix with the dry couscous.  And the PEANUTS were non-existent IMHO – nary a nut to be had.  Granted, the serving suggestion says that to dress this puppy up a bit one could sprinkle with a “few more chopped peanuts”, but to add “more” there would have to be “some” to begin with, no? 

Such promise....  If ONLY there was a bit more sauce.

I added sriracha, which spiced and sauced it up a bit more.  I think one could also top it with roasted coconut and that wouldn’t go wrong.  But first Trader Joe’s needs to add more SAUCE. 

Overall it was a GOOD lunch that could be GREAT with just a tiny addition in the package.

Price - $2.99

Rating – 3.25

Day 36 - Kale Sprouts

I think internet acronyms are stupid, but OMG…  I mean SERIOUSLY, a new veggie is in town, and it frickin’ ROCKS!!!  Kale Sprouts, man!!!! 

I had never heard of them.  I stood and stared at them in the produce section, trying to figure out exactly WHAT they WERE…  A lady came up and assumed the same stance next to me, and I asked if she had tried them.  “Nope, but did you read the article in the Post about them???” she countered.  HUH??  The Washington Post did an article on a VEGETABLE??  Now that tipped the scale, not only did I need to find the article, I needed to taste the vegetable!!!

We invested in a bag (at $3.49 for a smallish 8 oz. bag it felt pricey), and went home for what I was sure was some over-hyped yuppy trend.

Oh no, no, no.  Kale sprouts are REAL, baby.  Real as in REAL GOOD J !!!  I cooked them following one recipe on the package – a couple tablespoons of EVOO in a large skillet, sauté until “golden” (though that term seemed dumb for a dark green/purple veggie, how does it get “golden” exactly??) around 3 minutes.  Add half cup of water, salt, and cover until however tender you want them (a few minutes for us). 

Run, don't walk, to Trader Joe's now and get some Kale Sprouts

They are heavenly!!!!  They will most certainly find their way to our house again (and again…).  The bag says 3 servings, which sounds exactly right.  We had them alongside a veggie/tofu stir fry, and just had the leftovers with lunch (just as good reheated the next day, folks).  They are not bitter, in fact there is a bit of sweet. 

You need these veggies.  It is not very often that a brand spankin’ new vegetable comes to town, and when it does, you have to invite it over for dinner.  By the way, here is the mention from the Washington Post (January 13, 2015), “Speaking of kale…kale sprouts, lollipop kale and the newly marketed Kalettes are basically identical…”.

Price - $3.49

Rating - 5