Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan Cheese

Trader Joe's recently started carrying these roasted seasoned Brussels sprouts with parmesan cheese. Not sure if they're here for good or seasonal, but they were an interesting addition to the frozen section on a recent trip.

Ingredients were fairly straightforward - grilled Brussels sprouts halves, parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic. They were easy to make on the stovetop - less than 10 minutes in a skillet. We were really excited to try them, but our excitement quickly turned to disappointment. They were so, so salty. I didn't look at the nutritional facts when we bought them, but if I had, I would have noticed that the entire package had 1560mg of sodium. That doesn't sound that terrible in the realm of prepared foods, but even portioned out, that's a good amount of your recommended daily intake when you consider that it's not even that many sprouts in the package, so you would be eating other food (and sodium) alongside it. Flavor was okay, some hits of parm here and there, but mostly just salty.

Buy again? No, too salty for us. Prefer just taking the frozen petite Brussels sprouts and seasoning them ourselves, even though it takes more time and effort.

Hatch Chile Cheddar Popcorn

Remember when I said I was going to try to catch up on all the outstanding posts when I was sick? Yeah, me too. That didn't happen. But hopefully, with less than 4 months until the end of the year (how is that so soon?!), I can pick up the pace a little bit.

First up, this hatch chile cheddar seasoned popcorn from Trader Joe's. The ingredients list there had nothing surprising - just popcorn, sunflower oil, cheddar, and spices that included green bell pepper powder, hatch chile pepper powder, onion powder, and garlic powder.

Overall, we thought it was fine. Tasted a little bit like cheddar, a very light hint of spice, but the flavors weren't very strong (and not because I was getting over being sick). We've definitely had better hatch chile products from Trader Joe's (like the mac and cheese), so it was just okay for us.

Buy again? Not for us.

Cheese Empanadas with Cassava Crust

It's been a long, long time since we've written about something new we've tried at Trader Joe's (since January!), but I've noticed that, without these posts, we really do forget if we've tried something and whether or not we liked it. So, time to get back into it!

We picked up these cheese empanadas with cassava crust ($2.99) on a recent visit. We're no strangers to empanadas, but the cassava crust here sounded unique, and the filling of cheese, caramelized onions, and spinach sounded delicious. The ingredients list on the box was simple and had everything you'd expect to find based on the description - a basic crust of cassava flour and starch, water, oil, and salt, and filling of ricotta cheese, caramelized onions, mozzarella cheese, spinach, salt, and pepper. No additives, nothing you couldn't pronounce, very straightforward. There were instructions for both the oven and the air fryer, and since I kept forgetting to make them while preparing the other components for dinner, we went with the air fryer, which took 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, they were just okay. The spinach was visible but didn't really add much to the flavor, and we completely forgot there were supposed to be caramelized onions in it until we re-read the box. You couldn't taste them at all. It mostly tasted and texturally felt like a ricotta cheese-stuffed empanada. The shell wasn't as crispy or crunchy as other empanadas we've had, but if that's not the cassava, maybe we just needed to air fry it a little longer. It was a good complement to the much stronger-tasting ceviche that we ate for dinner, but on its own, it was not that exciting.

Buy again? Probably not. They were fine, but we didn't love them.

Sparkling Honeycrisp Apple Juice

I'm not a huge fan of carbonated drinks, so I've mostly ignored the seasonal sparkling beverages at Trader Joe's, despite the raves for previous flavors like watermelon and strawberry. But when the sparkling honeycrisp apple juice cans came in last fall, I knew we had to try them. We hadn't bought any honeycrisp apples during the season, and this sounded like it might be their version of Martinelli's, which was popular in my family during lots of holiday dinners.

The ingredients were simple - just honeycrisp apple juice, water, and carbon dioxide - and the flavor was great. It tasted just like a sweet, ripe, crisp apple, but not too sugary sweet. We found it really refreshing, although A noted it might not be the best use of so many honeycrisp apples. (It's been so long since we've had actual honeycrisp apples!) It was also nice that they came in four cans instead of one big bottle, so that you didn't have to drink too much at one time. (I thought the news said there was an aluminum can shortage, so I'm not sure how they got their hands on so much of this when beer distributors are having issues, but I'm glad they did!)

Buy again? Sure. I think we could pick up a box of these every fall and be happy with a nice bubbly treat. If all the other flavors are as good as this one, we might even try some of those too!

Kung Pao Chicken Mochi Balls

We don't often post more than once a day, but with 10 days left to the end of the year, we still have about 17 more posts on the 52 week cooking challenge, all the posts from two different geographic locations in the Around the World Cooking Challenge, and lots of other WorldEats and Trader Joe's posts we just haven't gotten to yet, besides the usual year-end round-ups. Going to post as much as we can to try to preserve as many memories as possible and wrap up the year!

These kung pao chicken mochi balls are the type of hors d'oeuvres I'd expect to see closer to New Year's/end of the year, but they appeared at Trader Joe's back in the late spring/early summer. They've been sitting in our freezer since then, and we finally got around to trying them recently. Since we haven't been doing many grocery haul photos this year (thanks, COVID), I have no idea how much we paid for them, but the TJ's blog says they were $3.99 for 8 balls.

Inside each ball was a chicken and vegetable filling consisting of chicken, cabbage, red bell peppers, water chestnuts, celery, green onions, soybean oil, rice wine, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and chili oil (according to the box). Not sure which components were part of the sauce and which were part of the chopped filling, so I'm not going to guess, but they were all in there somewhere.

Each mochi ball had a crisp exterior (they were fine, probably would have been crispier if we cooked them longer, but we followed the box instructions), and then the shell got chewy once you bit into it. It definitely had the chewiness of a mochi baked good, and it stuck in our teeth. The filling was actually spicy like kung pao chicken, so between that and the sticky chewiness, it was probably good that we didn't share them with baby B for lunch. The balls weren't that filled with stuff, although they did have good flavor. Together though, A thought that the sweetness of the mochi didn't always pair well with the spicy chicken filling.

Buy again? Probably not. We thought they tasted good and we were glad we tried them, but just didn't feel that excited about them. If you really like kung pao chicken, you'd probably enjoy them.

Strawberry Oat Frozen Dessert

Between my lactose intolerance and B's allergy to eggs, we don't buy very much regular ice cream anymore. Lucky for us, Trader Joe's keeps coming out with new vegan ice creams to try, made with different types of plant-based milks. One of the ones we tried earlier this fall was this strawberry oat frozen dessert with almond brittle and candied strawberries ($3.99). 

The base of the ice cream was oat milk, and the ingredients also included tapioca syrup, coconut oil, and agave syrup, with color provided by beets, annatto, and strawberries. This was the second vegan ice cream we tried from Trader Joe's, and we didn't like it as much as the other one (the vanilla one made with almond beverage that we still need to write a review for). A thought it felt more crystal-like and icy in texture because of the oat milk, while my biggest issue with it was the almond brittle. I found that I was still chewing the hard little bits of almond brittle even after all the strawberry flavor of the ice cream was gone, and I just wasn't a big fan of the almond brittle on its own. We liked the flavor of the strawberry ice cream itself, but noticed few candied strawberries. The overall ice cream was fine because the strawberry was good, but it wasn't as good as some of the other flavors, especially the vanilla.

Buy again? No. This was fine, but we prefer the vanilla-almond ice cream. If they were out of that one, we'd probably wait for it to come back or see what other new flavors TJ's comes up with next!

Hardwood Smoked Ahi Tuna

We love smoked salmon in our household, so when we saw that Trader Joe's had a new product that was smoked ahi tuna, we knew we had to try it. The full product name was "sesame crusted hardwood smoked ahi tuna," and it was indeed crusted with lots of white and black sesame seeds. The ingredient list was pretty simple - just tuna, salt, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and hardwood smoke (but which hardwood? Curious minds want to know!).

The back of the package listed several suggestions for how to use the tuna - chopping it up for a salad, adding it to a rice bowl, making smoked tuna sushi, eating it with a bagel and cream cheese, or just eating it plain. Although smoked tuna sushi sounded like a great idea (haven't had sushi in forever), we decided to just pair it with some white rice, edamame, soy sauce, and sesame oil for a very simple bowl lunch. (I don't know if I would call it a poke bowl - haven't had one of those in a long time either - because there weren't really any other toppings, but I guess it could be a very barebones one.)

The tuna looked really good coming out of the package, but we didn't love it as much as we thought we would (especially considering all the internet raves). It tasted fishy, and the texture was a bit tougher to chew than we expected. Also, we knew it would be somewhat salty since it was smoked fish (and one package is 1210 mg of sodium), but it tasted really salty. Combined with plain edamame and rice, it did make for a nice, light, healthy lunch, and the other parts of the bowl did temper the salt and fishiness a little bit, but we probably wouldn't recommend eating it plain.

Buy again? Not for us. I wasn't a fan of the fishiness, and for both of us, it was just not as good an option as other products at TJ's. We prefer the smoked salmon that TJ's sells. Not 100% sure what the price comparison is between the two, since that's the one TJ's receipt from the past couple of months that we can't find, but the internet tells me it's $5.99 for the tuna (50 cents cheaper than the smoked wild sockeye for the same portion size). That's not a huge difference, so between the two, we'd pick the wild sockeye instead.

Almond Beverage Chocolate Bar

One thing we really like about Trader Joe's is that they keep coming out with more and more vegan and dairy-free products. This almond beverage chocolate bar ($2.99 for 2.5 oz) is one of those, substituting almond beverage (almond flour and water, basically almond milk but you can't say milk!) for the milk, great for people who are vegan or lactose-intolerant. The chocolate was creamy and tasted like a regular milk chocolate bar, which is good since that seemed to be what they were going for. We didn't really taste any almond flavor to it at all.

Buy again? Sure, if we were in the mood for a chocolate bar. I didn't eat that much of it, since I'm not a huge plain chocolate fan, but A thought it was a good substitute for milk chocolate if you wanted something without dairy.

Dutch Spicy Kaas

We haven't reviewed a Trader Joe's cheese here in a long time, but our most recent taste test was for the Dutch spicy kaas. We love Dutch cheese, so we were excited to try this one, especially since it said it was made with peppers, which sounded unique.

First thought was that the cheese was so pretty! It was speckled throughout with orange and green, which we thought was from the peppers. The flavor tasted a little bit spicy (only in parts and not really that much), but no real definitive flavor of bell peppers that we could find. Oddly, the ingredient list didn't list any peppers - just milk, salt (it was very salty), starter, rennet, "flavour," and coloring from beta carotene and spirulina. Are the peppers just part of the flavor catch-all? They weren't even the direct source of the coloring. Maybe it's just because we're cheese novices, but it was all very confusing.

This cheese was a combination of cow's milk and goat's milk cheese, but for a cheese containing goat milk, it was a lot harder than we thought it would be. The texture was kind of similar to a hard cheddar cheese. In the end, we thought it was fine, but nothing we'd go out of our way to try again. Especially since it was $15.99/lb (and only in big blocks, so ours was $9). Maybe our expectations were too high because the description was so intriguing. Glad we tried it, especially because it looked so interesting, but it was just okay.

M's rating: 7/10

A's rating: 6.5/10

Buy again? Probably not.

Saddle Potato Crisps

One of the new snacks at Trader Joe's this summer was the sea salted saddle potato crisps ($1.49). Made from potato, sunflower oil, corn meal, rice flour, sea salt, and other corn products, they looked like the TJ's answer to Pringles, even using the same type of container.

We don't really have much to say about these. They were fine, but kind of boring, especially since they only came in the plain sea salt flavor. A liked them more than I did, but wasn't very excited about them since he usually prefers flavored Pringles. I do too, but I also thought regular Pringles tasted better than these and had a better crunch/texture to them. The photo on the TJ's blog (which we looked at after finishing the crisps) topped them with salsa, cheese, and cilantro, and while that does look tasty, you could do that with any type of chips, and I'm not sure how much these crisps would really add to that combo. Nothing necessarily wrong with these, but the most interesting thing about them was the package illustration.

Buy again? No, not for us.

Lemony Arugula Basil Salad Kit

Trader Joe's came out with a very summery-sounding salad this year, the lemony arugula basil salad kit, and we've picked up a bag on each of our two most recent trips. The salad combines arugula, carrots (looked like shaved carrots of many colors, if you're familiar with their produce), chopped almonds, and shaved parmesan with a basil lemon vinaigrette. According to the nutrition facts, it makes about 4 cups of salad, and the entire package is 430 calories for $3.99.

We really liked this salad kit. Unlike some others we got recently where all the greens were wilting or the lettuce had turned red, the arugula and carrots here were fresh and crunchy, probably because those vegetables themselves are heartier and more durable than some others. The vinaigrette was light and delicious, and it was a good match for the very peppery arugula. (Main flavors/ingredients of the very tasty vinaigrette were sunflower oil, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, honey, lemon, shallots, dijon mustard, orange, coriander, and a bunch of different types of pepper.) The addition of parmesan cheese also made the salad so much better, and we're not sure we would have liked it quite as much without it.

That said, there were some not-so-great things or things that we thought could have been improved on. The parmesan cheese was good, but we wished there were more! Also, the way that arugula bunches up sometimes when you mix it made it a little more difficult to make sure everything was spread around evenly, and it would have probably been easier if the carrots were grated instead of shaved. The worst though was probably the first time we got the salad kit, when one of the roasted almond pieces I had was hard like wood, and I felt like my teeth cracked after I bit down on it. Very unpleasant, and I was thankful that this wasn't my last piece of almond/last bite of salad, or that would have been a really disappointing end to the meal. So, if you get it, just be careful of the almonds!

Buy again? Yes, we would and we have. Not sure if this is seasonal, but we'll keep getting it as long as they keep selling it!

Falafel Mix

We made a falafel mix from Trader Joe's recently, one that was sitting in our pantry for over a year, mostly because it didn't expire until March 2020 and we had so much else to eat in the meantime. We had been putting together a lot of pantry meals this month since we had some long stretches without grocery shopping, and the falafel mix sounded like the perfect thing to try out for a Mediterranean dinner, paired with some other TJ's sides that'll be in another post at some point - the dolmas and the giant white beans.

I hadn't really paid much attention to the nutritional content of the falafel mix when we bought it, and since then, only checked the ingredients to make sure there was no egg (there isn't any; it's vegan) and we could give it to B. We figured that we would make the whole box, and if there were any falafel left over, it would be good for lunch. I started mixing, and since I had nothing else to do, started reading the nutritional facts. My jaw dropped when I got to the sodium number. That couldn't possibly be right, could it?


(Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is intended to be health or nutrition advice, but just our take on what was provided on the package.)

One serving size according to the box was 180 calories and 810 milligrams of sodium. 810 milligrams of sodium?! That's a lot in my book, especially considering a serving size is 1/3 cup of mix. The box has 9 servings (3 cups of mix), which meant that the entire box was 1620 calories and 7290 milligrams of sodium. 1620 calories isn't nothing either, but if you divide that by 3 (two adults, one toddler, and maybe some leftovers), that's 540 calories each, so not that terrible. But even if you divide that sodium number into thirds, that's 2430 milligrams of sodium and much, much more than any person should really be eating in a day (not my judgment; it surpasses the American Heart Association's recommended daily max) and far more than any toddler should be ingesting. Sometimes things with high sodium counts on the package don't taste that salty though, so I hoped for the best. I don't think I realized when I picked up the box at the store that the sodium content could be this high. I am so glad the new FDA labels this year recommend giving the numbers for the entire package and can't wait to start seeing those become more common.


Putting together the falafel mix was easy. One cup of mix, 3/4 cup of water, mix well, let it sit for about 45 minutes, shape the falafel into balls or patties, bake for 25 minutes, done. Far easier than making falafel on your own from scratch. They smelled so good as they baked in the oven, and when I pulled them out after about 25 minutes, they had puffed up nicely and texturally were dense but soft. (We weren't going for crispy and opted not to fry them.)


Then we tried them, and they were more salty-tasting than we thought they would be, even knowing the sodium content. All we could taste was salt. So much salt. All those delicious spices we could smell when they were baking? Gone and overpowered by salt. We had an entire tray full of baked falafel patties, and after having a few each, couldn't bear to eat any more. We put on some hummus to try to kill the salt, but it didn't work. We unfortunately didn't have any yogurt or tzatziki to see if that would work better. The entire time we ate the falafel, we tried to figure out what we could possibly eat it with that would counteract the insane amount of saltiness, and all we came up with were lightly dressed salads and plain yogurt. They were just unbearably salty, and if I hadn't bought them so long ago, I would have considered bringing them back for a refund. They were that inedible for us.


The other thing I did while eating the salty, salty, salty falafel was read every review of the falafel mix I could find on the internet to see if there was a general agreement that they were salty. I know I probably cook with less salt than the average American, and even more so now, cooking for a toddler, but I was still surprised how in the minority we were on our opinion. Most people never even mentioned the salt, the majority of people raved and loved the mix overall, and I think I found maybe three people who thought they were salty. In almost every case, other people responded that they did not find them salty at all, or that maybe there were just abnormally salty packages, something I find unlikely considering that the package was actually intended to have over 7000 milligrams of sodium. I don't even know the last time we didn't finish a meal and tossed it, because we just don't do that and we operate under the general principle that most things are salvageable, but we just couldn't finish these. We couldn't even eat 2/3 of them.

Buy again? A very sad but enthusiastic no. We wanted to like these so much, since a simple falafel bake would make for such an easy weeknight dinner. But unless the nutritional facts have changed since we bought them (which would account for all the raves if true, and I'll update this post if that's the case), I can't see us getting these again.

Philly Cheesesteak Bao Buns

One of the more interesting-sounding things to arrive in the Trader Joe's freezer case last fall (and still available today) was a box of Philly cheesesteak bao buns ($3.49 for 4 buns). They looked just like the bao you'd get at dim sum, but they were filled with shredded beef, American cheese, onions, and bell peppers in an attempt to replicate the flavors you'd get if you were eating a cheesesteak.

We were excited to try these, and following the microwave instructions (they also provide steamer instructions), they were done in a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, cutting open the bao, it didn't look anything like the one in the photo. Instead of shredded meat and vegetables, it was kind of just some sort of meat mush. As far as flavor, it tasted like beef and peppers, but without the words on the box, neither of us would have ever thought "cheesesteak" when describing it. The taste was okay, but nothing special.

Buy again? Probably not. Glad they're taking a chance on some more unique items, but this one didn't work for us.

Hold the Corn

The last couple of months of the year at Trader Joe's are appetizer season, when they offer tons of options for Thanksgiving appetizers, holiday parties, New Year's Eve, or just everyday snacking. I absolutely love hors d'oeuvres, so it's really exciting to see what new stuff they come out with every year. After a couple of failed attempts, we finally picked up the Hold the Corn appetizers (a take on their Hold the Cone ice cream desserts) on our last visit, and they were worth the wait.

Each box has 12 cones, and each cone consists of a handmade rice wrapper with a filling of two types of corn, water chestnuts, coconut, green onions, wood ear mushrooms, red chile peppers, lemongrass, garlic, cilantro, green peppercorns, and red chile powder. Everything in the filling was chopped finely, so outside of the corn, we couldn't really distinguish the individual ingredients, but they combined together for a very tasty appetizer. The flavor was bright and citrusy without being overpowering or artificial-tasting. The cones themselves looked like upscale appetizers with that delicate netting, and it was hard to believe they're selling these handmade cones that look labor-intensive for just $3.99.

We baked them in the oven for 15 minutes (always go on the long end of the instructions that TJ's gives!), and they were perfect. Crispy on the outside, and not that messy because the cones were strong enough to handle the amount of filling provided. Immediately after we finished our six cones each, we wished we had more ready to eat, and we both agreed that we could probably eat an entire basket of these cones in one sitting. They're such a delicious snack that you just want to keep eating, and they feel so light that you don't feel stuffed either.

Buy again? Yes, if they have any more at the store on our next visit (no guarantee because they're seasonal, sadly). We're pretty glad we picked up two boxes to start with. Maybe we'll get lucky and this will be an appetizer TJ's adds to the regular offerings in the future instead of being something seasonal.

Gnocchi alla Sorrentina

Reviews of Trader Joe's products aren't usually that long or time-consuming, yet somehow it's November and we haven't posted in ages despite trying a ton of new stuff (even if not new to TJ's, new to us). I've really been trying to write more, hoping to exercise that part of my brain regularly, so hopefully I can get more of these up soon. They're very helpful to us, even if no one else out there is actually reading them, because it's so hard to remember with so many products which ones we've tried and liked and which ones aren't our thing. Without further ado, the next up is the gnocchi alla Sorrentina ($2.99)!

These gnocchi are in the frozen section and are pretty easy to make. They have both microwave and stovetop instructions, but we made them on the stove in a skillet. Just add some water to the skillet, add the contents of the bag (gnocchi and large circles of pasta sauce and cheese), and cook until everything is melted and warm. There aren't any surprise or hidden ingredients here; it's just gnocchi (wheat and potatoes), tomatoes and tomato juice, mozzarella cheese, and seasonings, like onion, basil, garlic, and some white and chili pepper. But since that's all there was to it, we were looking to make it a more complete meal and added some Mediterranean vegetables (really just squash, green beans, and carrots, but that's what 365 has deemed "Mediterranean"). They were a good match for it, and overall, it was a good meal, but it wasn't anything extraordinary.

Buy again? Maybe, if we're in the mood for gnocchi and too lazy to make our own dish with the shelf-stable ones and some sauce. This is a quick and easy way to prepare it, and convenience would be the main reason we'd get it again.

Halloween Gummies

Trader Joe's is flush with fall seasonal products right now, lots of pumpkin and Halloween treats, and even though I'm trying to cut back on sugar, I couldn't resist picking up a bag of the Halloween gummies ($3.99) when we were there. Instead of one big bag of gummies, it's broken down into 20 small snack-size (or trick-or-treat-size) bags, so it's built-in portion control.

Each bag contains multi-colored gummies (I've seen purple, pink, red, yellow, and orange, I think) in Halloween shapes (skeletons, bones, skulls, bats, and pumpkins). Texturally, they're great, very chewy but not sticky. I don't think they've gotten stuck in my teeth at all yet, which is different from a lot of other gummies on the market. (Looking at you, Swedish Fish.) According to TJ's (from a blog post about last year's gummies, which we somehow never saw, but the bag looks exactly the same), they're made by the same French gummy producer who makes the gummy tummies, but I like these a little bit better because they don't have that extra gush that the gummy tummies do. I haven't been able to nail down what the flavors are exactly, but they're sweet without tasting artificial or overly sweet, which I appreciate. Last year's post said they were made with various extracts and concentrates that included black carrot, apple, carrot, pumpkin, blackcurrant, and spirulina, but this year, it just lists fruit juice, vegetable juice, and spirulina, so that might have changed.

Buy again? I don't even know if they'll be at the store the next time we go since they're probably one-and-done as far as product runs, but I would get them again next year. They're a nice gummy treat that seem a little healthier and less sweet than some other candies.

Fiery Chicken Curry

I'm generally a big fan of the Indian food at Trader Joe's, as that's the section where you can often find some of the more interesting, flavorful, and balanced single-serving frozen meals. Recently, I spotted something new to me that seems to have debuted over the summer - a Goan-inspired fiery chicken curry with a side of turmeric rice ($3.49).

On the chicken side of the meal, you have a few pieces of chicken breast with a sauce made with onions, coconut milk, tomatoes, vinegar, garlic, ghee, tamarind, green chilies, and some other spices and seasonings, and on the rice side, basmati rice with turmeric and spices. I was expecting a mild heat even though it said fiery, but I was wrong. There was quite a decent amount of heat, but unfortunately I found that the heat masked the flavors of the spices and seasonings in the curry. Most of the flavor I got was just acidic tomatoes and heat, so much so that I preemptively took an antacid immediately after eating. With that overpowering heat, whatever seasonings there were in the rice were also impossible to taste, and the whole dish was pretty much "fiery" without any corresponding bump-up in flavor. Just hot for the sake of hot, in my opinion.

Buy again? No. There are so many good Indian dishes in the freezer case (thinking about the lovely korma fish curry, for one) that I don't feel the need to get this again. I love Indian spices, and I'd rather forgo the heat and taste those in a milder dish.

Organic Coleslaw Kit

My favorite recipe for making coleslaw (is it coleslaw or cole slaw anyway?) is the one I found years ago on the Budget Bytes site in the recipe for the BBQ bean sliders. A simple mix of shredded cabbage, scallions, and a dressing of mayo, honey, mustard, and vinegar, it was so easy to make and a great side dish. When we were shopping at Trader Joe's over the weekend, I saw this organic coleslaw kit and thought I'd see how it compared, both in terms of taste and convenience. Theoretically, a salad kit should save you time since a lot of the components are already done for you, but that doesn't really matter if the salad isn't as good.

Ingredients:
The coleslaw kit came with a mix of green cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots, while the slaw I usually make just uses shredded green cabbage. There are scallions in my usual slaw, but I added them in with the kit as well. For the dressing, the kit had a "creamy, sweet dressing" made with soybean oil, sugar, apple cider vinegar, egg yolks, garlic, onion, lemon juice, and some other spices and seasonings, compared with mayo, honey, mustard, and vinegar. I think the taste of the latter is slightly better, and it's a little creamier, but they were very similar. The amount of dressing in the kit, however, was far less than the dressing that the slaw recipe from Budget Bytes made.

Price:
The coleslaw kit was $2.69, and the only thing I added to it was some scallions, so it came out to about $3. When I made the coleslaw from scratch in the post a few years ago, the slaw also came out to around $3. Prices of the ingredients may have increased over the years, but I don't think by much, so on this factor, they're about equal, except that the coleslaw kit had red cabbage and carrots and less dressing (which probably cancel each other out).

Speed/Time:
When making my usual slaw, I liked to let it sit for hours, usually overnight, in the fridge for the flavors to meld together. We didn't have that type of time with the kit, nor did it recommend doing that anywhere on the package. I made it at the start of dinner prep, and left it to sit for an hour or so, and the dressing seemed to have completely soaked in. I think there is a slight advantage to the kit here because the dressing ingredients have already had lots of time to mix together, and you also don't have to make it from scratch. The mixing of the salad is about the same, although marginally more difficult with the kit because it has less dressing in the packet. (Note that it seemed kind of dry and like there wasn't enough dressing when first mixed, but by the time the hour was up, it was enough.)

Taste:
I like both slaws, although the taste of the dressing in the Budget Bytes slaw is a little better than the kit. That's probably due a little bit to the mustard, as that's one component that's different, and a little bit to there just being so much more dressing.

Buy Again?
I would get this slaw again for a couple of reasons. One, the convenience factor of not having to make the dressing. The dressing isn't difficult to make, but when it's 10:30 pm and you need to get dinner on the table, every minute counts. Two, making our own dressing means having mayo on hand, and since we use mayo so rarely (pretty much just for slaw and tuna sandwiches), having a fresh jar in the fridge hasn't always been a guarantee. That's even more the case now that we aren't buying any more mayo, other than maybe vegan mayo, for so long as baby B is allergic to eggs. Having a small packet of dressing that we can consume and then toss is much better for our current situation. Very glad we tried this, since now we know we have another option other than just making it ourselves!

Striped Garganelli

It's almost the end of January, and neither of us has written up our top 10 food memories from last year (actually not sure either of us has nailed down a top 10 list either), but in order to get back into the practice of writing, we're diving back into our Trader Joe's reviews.

TJ's came out with this striped garganelli pasta, part of their organic Italian artisan pasta line, back in December, featuring pink and white striped tube-shaped pasta for the holidays. We'd had good luck with some other pasta in the artisan line, so we were hoping that these festive-looking shapes would continue the trend. Colored pasta is also just really fun to eat! Here, the pink color came from beet root powder, and the only other ingredients in the pasta were the organic durum wheat semolina (sourced from Puglia, Italy) and water, very simple with nothing unnecessary added.

The package said to boil the pasta for 14-15 minutes, which seemed kind of long for us, so we just tried to cook it until it seemed al dente. (Don't remember exactly how long that was.) Unfortunately, this one seemed to cook unevenly, reminding us of our experience with the winter snowflake pasta, except in this case, the issue was with each individual piece. The folded-over part of the pasta and the rest of the tube shape didn't match in texture the way we were hoping they would, with the folded-over part a little too chewy when the rest was al dente, or the folded-over part being just right with the rest of the piece being too soft, but apparently that was the intention. Reading the TJ's blog after we made it (probably should have checked before), they talked about how the folded-over center would be al dente while the ends would be soft like that was a feature of this pasta shape. Maybe we would have felt differently about the texture if we had had those expectations, but hard to determine in retrospect. It was definitely edible, but not the uniform al dente texture that we were hoping for.

We mixed the pasta with some garlic marinara sauce, meatballs, and mushrooms, and when spooning it into the bowl, you couldn't see the stripes at all. Removing the sauce, they were still there but much lighter and less pink, so if color is important, a non-tomato-based sauce would probably be a better fit. The pink stripes were a nice novelty for the holidays, but just that. The pasta served its purpose as a good vehicle for the sauce, but in the end, it didn't live up to some of the other pasta shapes we've tried before from TJ's.

Buy again? Probably not, since texture is important to us, and we've had better luck with other pasta shapes before.

Chicken Shu Mai

A quick review for the chicken shu mai at Trader Joe's ($2.99 for 18 dumplings and one soy sauce packet):

We love dumplings, so we were interested in trying these shu mai. The filling ingredients were listed as chicken, onions, carrots, green onions, sesame oil, salt, garlic, ginger, and white pepper, so we thought they would be pretty flavorful, but they were kind of bland. The dipping sauce consisted of soy sauce, sugar, and rice vinegar, so your basic dumpling dipping sauce, and the shu mai absolutely needed it. They gave two heating instructions on the box: pan-frying (which is clearly what they did for the box photo) and steaming in the microwave. Since this was a snack for us, we chose microwave for faster heating (even though it took longer than the box instructions) and easier clean-up, but pan-frying probably would have tasted better. That said, we're still really not sure how much better they would have tasted after pan-frying considering how lacking in flavor the dumpling innards were.

Buy again? Unlikely. There are much better dumplings at TJ's and elsewhere.