Price cut - Basmati Rice

Trader Joe's always has reasonable prices.  Seriously.  You can save money by shopping at TJ's.

But one thing I really respect about the store is that, every once in a while, they CUT THEIR PRICE on something.

They don't have "sales" like other stores do.  They don't have an ad in the Sunday paper like other chains.  But they keep their prices down overall, and, like this sign says, sometimes when THEIR cost goes down, they pass that savings onto you, the customer:

As they say, "When our cost goes down so does our price" - now only $2.99!

I am not naive.  I mean, obviously they are still making a profit, and I want them to!  I want them to stay in business, employing lots of people and filling my belly with (mostly) healthy, great food!!!

But man, when they can sell super delicious basmati rice for only $2.99 a bag???  Yup.  That is when I sorta worship them.  Try finding this much delicious rice for this low of a price somewhere else - it'll be tough.

Last note:  the packaging still sucks.  :)

Original review of TJ's Basmati Rice
Original review of how hard the packaging of said rice sucks:  Packaging Fail

And finally, here is how I feel about scoring a big bag of basmati for under 3 bucks!!

Price:  $2.99
Rating:  still a solid 4.5

Basmati Rice BAG - Packaging Fail

We.  Love.  Rice.

We eat a boatload of it.  People who swear off rice as part of their diet always amaze me.  When they talk about cutting out rice, in my head I am thinking, "But whyyyy?  And HOW???".  Let's just say, if you and I were on the same team in Survivor, you would have to guard the rice pile...

And we think Trader Joe's Basmati Rice is a great deal and tastes awesome.  Why, in the original review of it we gave it an almost perfect score - it got a 4.5 ( link to review here ).

A bowl of rice, one of life's simple pleasures.

But when we ate it last night we were once again reminded of the goofy, incomprehensible PACKAGING of this stuff.  Check it out:

When full, it was very dangerous to open and handle this bag!  This photo is taken after some has been used.
See how the opening is like a third of the way down the bag?  WHY???

WHO DOES THAT?  Who puts the opening to a RICE BAG, remember, rice is made up of teeny tiny bits that like to jump around - who puts the opening part-way down the package??  Trader Joe's, that's who!  Yes, instead of opening at the TOP, their Basmati opens part-way down the front.  It is downright bizarre.

Poor David, working hard to try and pour rice out of this ridiculous bag without spilling any.

So, Trader Joe's, what say you?  Certainly we cannot be the only shoppers who are confounded by this!  Readers, have you noticed this oddity?  Let's speak up!  Let's make signs!  Let's have a protest!!  Let's make a petition!!!  (Can you tell the current political climate has gotten me worked up?)  Seriously though, I just want to understand the reasoning behind this odd packaging choice.

The product still ranks a 4.5 rating, but the bag gets a 1.

Shiitake Mushroom Chicken

I would like to clarify that I believe there is a typo on the packaging of this product.  I think it should be called Shit-Ake Chicken.

Ok, now for the review.  (Can you guess what we thought of it even before reading further??!  :) )

Looks tasty enough on the bag, no?  

I have BUYER’S REMORSE on this one.  Sigh.  It is my own fault, I should have read the bag more clearly before buying it, but I got excited!  It looked really good in the photo!!  And it looked like it would be so easy to prepare!  But if only I had taken time to read the ingredients list I would have seen that not the first ingredient, but the first TWO INGREDIENTS listed are dark meat chicken chunks.  Putting aside my preference for white meat chicken a moment, why did they list it TWICE??  And again, ignoring that if I have my choice I choose white meat chicken, why didn’t they use better QUALITY dark meat chicken in this meal? 

Dark Meat Chicken Chunks - the ingredient so "nice" they listed it twice...

OK, backing up; this is a frozen meal that comes in a bag.  It consists of dark meat chicken, more dark meat chicken, shiitake mushrooms, edamame, and green beans.  I was right about one thing with this product, it is easy to cook and make a meal out of.  But it does not make a TASTY meal, which is something we like…  I followed the instructions and cooked it in a wok and served it over jasmine rice. 

Lots of chicken...  Lots of bad quality chicken...

The two ingredients that made this product taste bad were the bad quality chicken and the very bland, poorly textured green beans.  The very best part of the dinner was the rice (cooked separately and not included in this packaged meal…).  But the best part of this PACKAGE was the edamame and the shitake mushrooms – those bits were good.  But those things can’t carry the weight of the whole meal.  I think something that would jazz it up would be GARLIC.  Give it a bit of flavor.

This does not taste like a dish you would get at a restaurant AT ALL.    Well, I take that back.  It DOES taste like something you would get at a restaurant, but the restaurant would be an all-day Chinese Buffet in Daytona Beach, Florida.  It would be in a pan that had been left out all day on the buffet line, and senior citizens who paid $4.99 for all-you-can-eat “Chinese” would be plopping it on their plate for their 4:00 PM dinner.  THAT is what it tastes like!  (And I do not mean any offense to Seniors, we are AARP members ourselves!)

Orrrr, it might also be found in a junior high school cafeteria. 

I couldn’t finish my serving.  I ended up eating more rice and heating up some Trader Joe’s edamame (which I love) to finish out my dinner.  As for the Shitake Mushroom Chicken dish, I give it a 2.0. 

David's take on Shiitake Mushroom Chicken BEFORE eating it...

Here is what David thought: “I agree, this is not as delightful as one might have liked.  In general, I do not have a problem with dark meat chicken, but this one...  The beans in this dish taste like canned green beans.  It would be much improved by the addition of green peppers, onions, maybe carrots…  For me the best part about this is the SAUCE.  So instead of getting this again I should just learn how to make a sauce like this – it is nice and savory but slightly sweet so it is a tasty sauce.  I would give this a 2.75.”

And David AFTER eating it...
Even DAVID didn't want second helpings, and David alllllways wants a second helping!

We won’t be buying this one again.  In fact, instead of putting the leftovers in a Fupperware (fake Tupperware) container we threw them out, which never happens at our house.  David will (hopefully) be figuring out how to make the sauce included with this package and we will put it with tastier stuff! 

Price – $4.99

Rating – 2.5

Day 308 - Masala Simmer Sauce

David was the more gentle reviewer of this Masala Simmer Sauce.  He said:  Mild.  Very SAUCY, which is good.  But I would prefer a more creamy or more spicy or more herby sauce instead of the tomato.  I’m a little “tomato sauced out”.  But I think it is a nicely balanced sauce and it is a quick, easy way to throw some chicken and vegetables together and get a very nice thing to put over rice.

 Susan – I think what you would actually prefer, David, is a sauce that had a TASTE to it.  This one was extremely boring and very disappointing.  There was really no flavor to it – just a color – RED.  It was RED flavored, and to me, a color is not a flavor (except in Gummy Bears).  We added salt and pepper after it was plated, those were required to give it any taste whatsoever.  The vegetables we cooked in it and the chicken were good – we put in chicken, onions, celery, mushrooms, and green pepper.  Those all tasted good, but the sauce itself was really a disappointment and I would not buy this one again.

Here is what it looked like on a plate.  Trust me, it looks more flavorful than it tasted. We served it over rice

This is really not worth buying or cooking.  I think this dinner would have been better if we just cooked all of the other ingredients in olive oil and skipped the sauce all together.  Even DAVID, who adores sauce, said this was pretty tasteless and he would have preferred something else. 

David was leery about this one when we bought it.

 Price – $2.49

Rating – 2.75

Day 269 - Southern Greens Blend

I wanted to try these.

  

Yippee - GREENS!

David did not.

Ewww - greens...

David ALWAYS thinks stuff like kale, mustard greens, and the like are gonna be gross.  But you know what?  9 times out of 10 he likes them.  (I still can’t convince him that okra is edible, but maybe someday…)

This Southern Greens Blend is a mix of collards, mustard, turnip, and spinach.  Can you say HEALTHY??  (And can you say, “Something different in our normal vegetable routine”??).  The greens were all ready to be cooked.  The package said it is four servings but for us it was more like three.  I quasi followed the directions on the package.  Normally when I cook spinach I just sauté it in olive oil and it only takes like 10 minutes, so cooking following the instructions on the package took longer (around half an hour), but was worth it.  I cooked them with celery, garlic, onions, chicken broth, and 21 Seasoning Salute (which got a glowing 5 star review that you can read here:  21 Seasoning Salute

Find these in the produce section

These were good!  They ALMOST tasted like something my Grandma Lee might have made.  I loved her cooking (as did the rest of the relatives!).  She would have taken the time to fry bacon and use the fat and meat, but I skipped that part.  Maybe next time I will plan ahead better and add bacon, too!

I adore this photo.  It is my Grandma and Grandpa Lee and their kids. They all packed into a car and
moved from North Carolina to Nebraska.  My mom is standing next to Grandma.  They look like such ragamuffins,
all except for Grandma's nice suit and hat.  I love this.  Only two people from this photo are still living.  Memories...

I served these greens over rice with black beans and topped them with fresh tomatoes from the garden and feta (with a splash of Tabasco over it all), and a garnish of radish.  The plates looked beautiful!  The greens tasted really nice.  They were not too hard or too chewy.  They were a good contrast to beans and feta.

The plates looked pretty!  Rice, beans, greens, feta, seasoning, and radishes all from TJ's.

David says the greens were surprisingly pleasant!  He said the mix “smoothed out the collard-ness” (which I do not think is a word).  He thought the feta spiced it up.  He said, “It is good at what it does, it is a MIX of GREENS.”

We ate this while watching Paula Deen “dance” on “Dancing with the “Stars” “.  That seemed appropriate, given her Southern roots.  I think she would have cooked these in lard.  And I also think she better get booted off that show soon, cuz girlfriend cannot dance.  (But on the other hand, doesn’t poor Anna, the partner of Gary Busey, look so mortified every time she and Gary do NOT get cut??  Oh my.  People are gonna vote for Gary just to see the craziness every week…  Not that I pay attention to that stupid show…  Umm…  )

Gary and Anna - I suspect this photo was taken before they actually DANCED the first time...  (Happier times)

Price - $2.99

Rating - 4

Day 261 - Brown Jasmine Rice

As mentioned previously in this blog, we eat A LOT of rice in our house.  We love rice.  Usually we buy Jasmine or Basmati (reviewed on days 198 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-199-jasmine-rice.html and 191 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-191-basmati-rice.html of this blog). 

This time we decided to SHAKE THINGS UP.  We saw this Brown Jasmine Rice at the Trader Joe’s in Cincinnati and decided to pick up a bag. 

Big bag, small price

I used to be in charge of cooking rice in our kitchen.  When it was my duty, I threw it in a rice cooker, turned it on, and called it a day.  J  Then David decided we should follow the instructions and RINSE it before cooking.  So he took over rice duty.  Then he came up with an elaborate method of frying the rice in olive oil BEFORE cooking it….  Let’s just say, rice cooking is now his assignment and not mine. 

He cooked this Brown Basmati Rice using his “fry in a bit of EVOO oil first” technique.  He then cooked it in water for 35 to 40 minutes (following the package).   So that is the first thing to point out – this rice takes longer than your average rice to cook, so make sure you prepare your meal accordingly. 

We normally don’t dig brown rice as much as white.  But we really trust Trader Joe’s so we gave this a shot.  Luckily for us, it is not as “brown rice-y” as other brown rices.  It is more like white rice but, as David noted, it has a “Little bit more of skin and texture to it.  Though I prefer white rice, I know that brown rice is healthier for me.  So if I have to eat brown rice, I would definitely suggest this.  In fact, now that I am eating the leftovers of it on the second day I am enjoying the taste of it with a little butter on it.”

Oh the sign tells us it is LUXURIOUS!

I thought this was a little crunchier than our regular rice but that wasn’t a bad thing.  I liked it.  The “kernels” were all very separate and there was not gloppiness.  It went well with chicken.  This is a good alternative to our normal rice when you want something a little bit different.  Like the other rices at TJ’s, it is a large bag for a remarkably good price.  This rice, from Thailand, was only $3.29 for a 3 lbs bag – that is only a little over a buck per pound! 

BONUS PHOTO!  I cannot for the life of me find the picture I took of this rice on a plate with a nice omelet we made,
so instead I present ARTWORK FROM THE CINCINNATI TRADER JOE'S!
Here is a piece that is in their foyer - it is the Tyler Davidson Fountain.  Nice, huh??

Price – $3.29

Rating - 4

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 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 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 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