Day 315 - Tofu Edamame Nuggets

Before disclosing my opinion of these Tofu Edamame Nuggets, I asked David for his opinion.  Here is what he said:  “Nice.  Umm, not terribly tasty, but pleasantly “substantial”.  With a nice sauce they are quite, umm, delicious.”

Then I told him how I FELT about them:  These are boring.  They are stupid.  They are a vegetarian excuse for chicken nuggets.    Why it has to be a “nugget” is beyond me.  Smooshed up tofu squished into the shape of a “nugget”.  I guess when you think about it, why the hell are CHICKEN NUGGETS in that shape they anyway?  They are just mushed up chicken. 

Here is what the bag looks like.  They are sold in the frozen food section.

Anyway, these things need WAY MORE edamame.  There is almost no edamame in them.  It looks like there is some carrot it them but it is tasteless.  The only thing that TASTES is the sauce that David made to dip these in.  The sauce is definitely the best part of this dish – it beats the nuggets hands down.  Really the only good things about the nuggets are that they are WARM and that they HOLD SAUCE.  If they had about four times as much edamame in them as they do, I think they would be better.  All you have to do is heat them in the oven so they are really easy to make.  But they are not worthy of being an appetizer at your dinner party, let alone your main course.

I guess if you are a vegetarian (maybe these are vegan?) – if they are, they are all YOURS, go for it!  They don’t taste BAD, they just barely TASTE.  I do not think they are worth the money or the wasted dinner.  (I do not count calories but I reckon if I did I would also say they are not worth the calories.)  If you are going to eat dinner you might as well have something that TASTES (and tastes better while you are at it).

Even this cheap I still say they are not worth the money.

After hearing my rant David said, “Fair enough.  More vegetables would be an improvement.  And a little chicken or pork would make it even better!”.  Hahahaha!  Ok, I think adding meat would sort of ruin the whole “vegetarian thing” they have going for them.  We like vegetarian food and eat quite a bit of it, but these are a fail.

I mean, honestly, these things need to come with a SAUCE.  David made sauce for ours and without that I would REALLLLLY have complained about these things! 

See the SHAPE?  Why must the world be nugget-ized???  This is actually a sad looking photo.  It looks like all we had
 to eat were these lame, dry things...  This was a late night snack and I think was accompanied by a salad.

I give them a 2.5 rating.  And after hearing my rant David was swayed and agreed that these are not worthy of a better score.  Skip these and use your money for something else at Trader Joe’s.

Price – $2.99

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 294 - Chicken Piccata

This was a very nice dinner!  It is a new product for Trader Joe’s.  I bought it in the refrigerated, not FROZEN, section (near the salads).  But when I came home and unpacked the groceries, oops, I accidentally popped it in the freezer…  So when it came time to cook it, we had to cook it longer than the instructions said. 

New!  The sign SAYS capers, but don't get your hopes up on that part.  I am just trying to keep you from getting crushed.

The chicken was succulent and reasonably tender.  The coating, as David said, was “Light and a bit delicate.  And the SAUCE!  The sauce is LOVELY and there is plenty of sauce!  So I am a big fan of this chicken picatta.”

David is the biggest fan of sauce of anyone I have ever met.  He adores sauce.  If he weren’t already married to me I am sure he would find a way to marry sauce.  And this dish has TONS of sauce – even more than you can put over the two pieces of chicken included!

Would you LOOK at all of that SAUCE???  It was great!  However, one cannot overlook the fact that there are ONLY 4 CAPERS on this plate...  That was half of the capers in the package.  Who votes for more capers?  THIS GIRL!  (Note - we also had tots, served on a differnt plate, cuz this plate was so SAUCY!  :)  )

The packaging says this has 3 servings, but when you open it up you see it is only 2 actual pieces of chicken.  If I was cooking for a family of 3 I think I would expect there to be 3 PIECES of chicken in this container.  The 2 pieces were BIG – for us it would serve 3.  But many Americans eat larger servings than we do, and it just seems a little awkward to have to cut a piece of chicken to make the servings.  Do you know what I mean?

Here is the package.  This one is worth a try - it is good.

I think the meat was good, the breading was good, and the lemony creamy sauce was really nice.  My only beef with this dish (a BEEF with a chicken dish!!) is the lack of CAPERS.  I mean, it SAYS there are capers…  But there were literally, like, only EIGHT teeny tiny capers…  And TJ’s capers are crazy cheap – we go through lots of them!  See the glowing 5 star caper review here  So would it kill them to quadruple the amount of capers they put in this dish?  Note to corporate:  ADD.  MORE.  CAPERS.

We served this with tots, which will be reviewed soon. 

Price – $5.99

Rating – 4.25 (would have been a 4.5 if they would have not been so damn stingy with the capers)

Day 250 - Coconut Shrimp

Find in the frozen food section

Here is David’s take on these puppies  – “They are okay, but a little dry…  They need a SAUCE.  I used a shrimp cocktail sauce but I think a sweet and sour sauce would be nicer.  I would give them a 3.25.”

A little coconut shrimp "drumlette" looking thing

And my opinion – They are easy to cook.  Just preheat the oven to 450 and put them on a baking tray.  We left them in around 14 minutes (our oven always takes a little longer than recipes say it will).  Not GREAT, but not HORRIBLE…  Like David said they are a bit dry.  It would be cool if they came with a little sauce in the box. 

The sign suggests serving them at your luau, but I don't think they are good enough for a luau.  For personal consumption only. 

The coconut taste is nice.  We do not eat a lot of seafood so it is nice to have SHRIMP, but I think this might not be the best way to get them.  We served them with leftover garlic mashed potatoes, and I have to admit the mashed pots were better than the shrimp.

Here David models the box while we are in the Clarendon, VA Trader Joe's. 

Would I serve them to guests?  Probably not.  Would I buy them again?  Maybe not.  Will I eat the remaining 5 that are still in the freezer?  Yup – that much I will do.  (Serving size is 5 and there are 3 servings in the box.)

Price – $5.99

Rating - 3

Day 190 - Punjab Choley

This is the second Indian Fare dish to be reviewed in this blog (the first was Punjab Eggplant on day 151).  Truth be told, we always have some of these Indian Fare boxes in our cupboard.  They are very quick, very easy to make, and tasty.  But I can NEVER remember which of them we like best.  So I hope these reviews help me keep them straight!

Here is the RED BOX, Punjab Choley

This one is made of chickpeas, tomatoes, onion, ginger, and a “spicy aromatic sauce”.  Normally we just plop it over rice, but tonight I am “fancy-ing” it up by topping it with raw chopped red onion and green pepper.  Maybe I am feeling the need for fancy because we are eating this on the 4^th of July.  Yup – nuttin says HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA like a good Indian dish!

See how I fancied it up???  Under all of that is rice.

Ok, so after I wrote that intro, dinner was ready and we ATE IT.  I can now clearly say – PUNJAB CHOLEY IS NOT OUR FAVORITE INDIAN FARE.  So for my future reference, not the red box, Susan!  I thought this was the one we didn’t buy often, but I thought it was out of respect for David’s “not love” of chick peas (though he adores hummus…).  But no, I think this is not our normal Indian Fare dish because it just isn’t all that great.  For starters, it is TOO SPICY.  And I do not say that often – in fact I don’t think I have said it one single time throughout this already more than half over review project.  I came to the dinner table with TABASCO last night in case this was not “hot enough”, but no hot sauce was needed.  It might have been because I put those red onions on top, but I really think the dish itself was super spicy.  I tried some bites without onion bits and they were still hot, hot, hot. 

But other than the taste of HOT, all you really get is CHICK PEA. 

We served it over basmati rice (to be reviewed tomorrow) and had a side of asparagus.  The box mentions naan or pita, but to tell you the truth it just wasn’t saucy enough for even the basmati.

This meal is cheap and fast to prepare, but not all that good to eat.  And isn’t EATING what a meal is all about? 

Price – $1.99

Rating – 2.75

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 40 - Peanut Satay Noodles and Sauce

Well, the name doesn’t lie…  It doesn’t say “Yummy Peanut Satay Noodles and Sauce” or “Tasty Peanut Satay Noodles and Sauce”…  So it is not technically false advertising.  But it certainly didn’t fit the ticket for what I was looking for.  I bought it to use as a quick lunch on work days – pop it in the microwave and have a hot lunch 2 minutes later. 

Lunch Fail

Let’s just say, it is not something to eat right out of the box.  It is gloopy.  It is blecky.  And it is plain not good.  I added some chopped green onion and Sriracha, and those additions were for sure the best parts of the meal.  Maaaaybe if you were going all out and wanted to cook some broccoli, tofu, chicken or something else to mix in it would help add flavor, but it still seems like the basic noodle/sauce combo would be subpar. 

For a quick meal this just doesn’t cut it.  Don’t bother with this one.  There are plenty of other cheap, more tasty lunch options out there.

Price – $1.99

Rating – 1.25