“High in iron and protein and a great source of natural fiber”
So what’s one of the best (not to mention healthiest) item you can buyfor less than $1 at Trader Joe’s?
Probably a can of beans for 89 cents 99 cents (2025)
Just a few years ago, TJ’s used to have a number of items one could pick up for a buck or less, but these have dwindled to a mere handful, especially over the last year due to price increases at all supermarkets.
However one tasty and healthy food you can still buy at TJ’s for less than a buck at TJ’s are canned beans. Here I will focus on the ever so useful black beans. However TJ’s has lots of kinds, including chick peas (garbanzos) and red and white/canellini beans as well. All are good and I always have a mix of at least a few cans in the pantry.
I especially like having black beans around as I find black beans really useful to come up with a quick meal or side dish. For instance fast and easy CUBAN BLACK BEANS.
I’ve been known in the past to make black beans from scratch, meaning soaking dried black beans, etc etc. But sometimes I’m lazy or forgot to soak them the night before, so I just open up a can of beans. However I always doctor them up and you should too. Straight out of the can black beans are OK but boring.
With very little effort you can make them very tasty into Cuban Black Beans.
EASY CUBAN BLACK BEANS RECIPE – Fast and easy – Sauté about 4 cloves of chopped garlic and 1/2 a chopped onion in a good slug of olive oil for 5 minutes. (optional: a 1/2 green pepper, or some japaleno) Then add a can or two of black beans; dump them without draining into the pot. Add dried oregano and ground cumin. Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Before serving I suggest you mash up about 1/3 of the beans with the back of a spoon or a potato masher, as this gives a lovely creamy texture. Voila, you have a nice dish of Quick Cuban Black Beans, a perfect match for a plate of rice or tortillas or what ever you want to serve with these.
Spend a little more time and you can really make a decent Cuban or Mexican bean dish with a few more ingredients so follow the links below for some recipe suggestions. BTW if you want organic you can buy TJ’s OrganicBlack Beans, now $1.19)
Everybody now knows that San Marzano Tomatoes are considered the ultimate canned tomatoes to make an Italian dish. Trader Joe’s came out with these that are “Marzanino tomatoes” (little Marzano) which I guess are in the same family but smaller than the standard San Marzano and possibly sweeter. The can has the small tomatoes in juice, cooked and peeled and ready to use in a dish. I usually get down and dirty and just dump them into a bowl and crush them up with my fingers to prep them for cooking in a sauce or dish.
These tomatoes were very tasty and a little sweet. They are great for making any tomato sauce or dish that calls for tomatoes, including pizza. I did make pizza using these as my fresh sauce. After crushing the tomatoes with my fingers, I used this as my fresh tomato sauce for my own version of a pizza Margherita, with fresh basil and mozzarella. The finished pizza came out terrific*. “Product of Italy” $2.99 a can.
*(Pizza dough – I made my own from scratch but if that’s too much for you, just buy the bag of fresh pizza dough from TJ’s ($1.49) – or you can use the ready to bake rectangular pizza crust there in the breads section.
Seen at Trader Joe’s New Products section (Bway & 72nd St./NYC)
MUTTI TOMATO PUREE “SUL CAMPO”. In a nice glass jar. The sign says, “this is a robust tomato purée made with Rossoro tomatoes. Perfect for shaksuka, curry, marinara sauce and more….”
“Sul Campo” basically means “from the farm”. Meaning they make this right at the fields where the tomatoes are harvested to be a fresh tasting as possible. Unlike us in the US, Italians don’t really buy prepared tomato sauces in a jar. Typically most Italians open up a jar of a tomato purée or “passata” (they bought unless the family put up jars on their own from their tomatos). First you put a few tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, add some garlic, maybe some onion, and pour in the “passata”. Let that simmer for maybe 15 minutes and Voila! They have a fresh homemade tomato sauce in minutes, practically as easy as opening a jar of sauce. But this fresh sauce really tastes homemade.
Of course we can do the same. So when I just saw this I was intrigued enough to do an internet search, as in the past I bought the brand “POMI”, another big Italian brands purée that is well distributed in the US. I wasn’t familiar with this brand, MUTTI. In Itally its as well known as POMI. I’ve now seen MUTTI ads here so they are making a push into the American market.
Now the most interesting thing with this one is this purée is even more special than the regular tomato puree from Italy from Pomi or Mutti. This one says Sul Campo, a special “limited edition” version of Mutti’s regular passata. “From the field (farm)”. Its processed right at the harvest and Mutti labels this limited edition puree as “tasting like tomatoes just picked off the vine”.
This jar was $3.99 for about 20 ounces. PS – I’ve not tried it yet but intend to review it in future. It looks/sounds good! You can read more on MUTTI’s website below.
UPDATE: I went back and couldn’t find any. It seems to be all gone! Oh well. I hope there’s more of this coming someday. Maybe next summer?
NEW PRODUCT section. Five different shaped pastas. Trader Joe’s organic pasta is really good quality pastas and this new one looks like a good addition to the lineup. One thing that came to mind looking at these shapes was it could be good for a cold summer pasta salad. $1.99 for 1 lb bag. PS- Her first summer pasta dish looks like it uses a very similar mix of these shapes.
These were in the NEW PRODUCTS sections and when I saw this package I couldn’t resist getting it for my felines Aspen & Kuro to “guest review”. This package is just too cute and makes you want to buy it.
As far as my Guest reviewers, Aspen and Kuro, all I can tell you when I opened up the bag both immediately went bonkers and tried to rip the bag out of my hands. They loved these and went crazy, even trying to tear the bag right out of my hands! To be honest though, they pretty much will eat anything. Your cat’s mileage may vary.
Guest reviewers, Aspen (L) and Kuro (R)
The package boldly has “Made with real chicken”. Yeah but… Be honest Trader Joe, the *first ingredient listed is “chicken meal“. Down the list, it does list “chicken”.
So ingredient wise I don’t think these treats equal the other treats I regularly buy at Trader Joe’s, the really good Bench & Fields HOLISTIC CAT TREATS (round plastic jar with a red top) Which do cost more than these.
Still if you want to give your cats a different treat they may love these, especially if they don’t like the B&F treats which are fishy. My cats love both brands. These treats come out to 4 calories per treat. With 19% protein (B&F has 32%) . These treat are $2.99 a bag (5 oz)
These treats are way better than another cat treats TJ’s once sold a few years back and thankfully dropped. That one listed potatoes as the first ingredient!
I hope TJ’s plans on keeping the Bench & Fields treats and not replacing them with these. Over the last few years Trader Joe’s have really screwed us pet owners, especially us cat owners with. They stopped carrying any canned cat food, and dropped TJ’s brand of dry cat food. Most maddening to me, they discontinued their TJ Pine Kitty Litter which was so convenient for me to buy at TJ’s for a reasonable price. ARGH!!!#$! All of these were around Covid when supply chains and prices went nuts. At least they still are carrying bags of B&F Natural Dry Cat food which is an excellent dry food. Though price has gone way up.
“Invigorates with Peppermint, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree botanicals”.
With much of the U.S. going through a bad spell of hot weather, especially the South and SouthWest now I am re-posting this as a “public service”. Trader Joe’s TEA TREE TINGLE body wash is a must have for hot weather! If it’s hot where you are you owe it to yourself to get a bottle of this for your shower. I can not begin to tell you how refreshing it feels to scrub your body with this stuff. As soon as you put this on a wash cloth and put in on your skin, you will instantly feel better and 100% more refreshed.
TJ’s Tea Tree Tingle body wash contains tea tree oil, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary and other natural essential plant botanicals all of which make for a super refreshing and invigorating wash.
It has a terrific smell and I’ve even found its great to add some when I am washing out my gym clothes. It’s great for getting the smell out of sweaty gym clothes.
Certified Organic. Trader Joe’s sells this for just $3.99 for a nice huge 16 oz bottle. Trust me, you will love this to make yourself feel refreshed during hot weather.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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