Trader Joe’s Go-To Favorites and New Finds

Hey there!

I went for an impromptu shopping trip at Trader Joe’s last weekend. Since I always love reading about what things other people have on their “must purchase” list for all visits to TJ’s and what new things people have discovered there, I decided to do my own similar post!

I’m linking up to Sara at Lake Shore Runner for her Tried It Tuesday link up, so make sure to head over to her blog to check out what other bloggers are trying out this week!

Now let’s start off with my must haves…

I first discovered this veggie mix from a friend I used to go to bootcamp class with. I love to have this on hand to sauté with some chicken for a quick, easy and tasty dinner option. Another awesome thing about this mix is that it’s under $5!

TJ’s Mediterranean Hummus is by far my favorite hummus. Even though they sell it solo, without the pita chips, I don’t think it tastes the same, so I always buy these snack packs as a treat when I go. They never last long though, so maybe I need to start buying two of the two packs from now on. At $1.99 for two, it’s much cheaper than getting a hummus snack pack else ware!

This Breakfast Trek mix is one of my guilty pleasures when I go to Trader Joe’s. This mix has nuts, cranberries, yogurt chips (YUM!) and granola clusters in it! Unfortunately, this particular mix only comes in the snack packs, so you get a little less bang for your buck than you would with their normal bags of trail mix. I don’t remember exactly how much this stuff costs, but I believe it’s around $6 for one bag of 10 snack packs of mix. Still, not too shabby!

I love love love this multigrain blend with veggies and like to grab a couple bags when I go shopping to have on hand because I go through it pretty quickly. I will usually heat this up in a pan (takes around 3 minutes) and add some chicken or other protein to it for another quick, easy and delicious meal!

Now for the new-to-me TJ items.

I picked up this Spicy Peanut dressing after reading many times about how much Janae at Hungry Runner Girl loves to top her salads with this. After all the hype, I HAD to give it a try!

The verdict: MUST HAVE! YUM!

I’ve just started getting on board with Sriracha lately and since I currently had zero condiments in my fridge for dipping, I decided to give it a try. Well that and it was also on sale last week and located close to the register, directly in impulse buy territory!

The verdict: Still haven’t made anything to try this on yet. 😦

These protein power banana chocolate chunk muffins and blueberry fiber mini cakes seemed like the perfect snack to have on hand that could also double up as a quick breakfast on the go.

The verdict: The banana chocolate chunk muffins tasted like cardboard and the blueberry fiber cakes got moldy before I even had a chance to try them. I’d say it’s safe to pass on both of these.

I picked up this trail mix because I thought it would be a good snack to have at work that was healthy and satisfied my sweet tooth also.

The Verdict: Turns out even chocolate peanut butter cups can’t convince me that I like trail mixes full of nuts. I ended up picking out all of the mini chocolate chips when I couldn’t take the nuts anymore. If you like nuts, then definitely pick this up. If you don’t, then check out my next purchase…

It’s the peanut butter cup trail mix without the nuts! Reese’s mini’s can’t even compare to these! I’m addicted!

The verdict: Pick these up now and make cookies out of them or if you’re lazy, eat them by the handful, like me!

Even though I didn’t really like the peanut butter cup trail mix, I did discover as a surprise to me that I actually enjoy some dried fruits, so I went back to pick up a couple different mixes to have on hand for snacks. I tried the berry mix pictured below and a mango/berry mix (not pictured).

The verdict: I’m now addicted to dried mango. It tastes like candy and I ate all of it out of the mix I had so next time, I’m just going to get a bag of dried mango and skip the other stuff.

Questions of the Day:

What are some of your Trader Joe’s must haves?

What is something you’ve tried lately? What did you think?