We really enjoyed this Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cheesecake. Especially after our upstairs neighbor gussied it up with some whipped cream when she invited us to her Halloween dinner (hence the black spider napkin holder) and served the TJ’s pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. What I liked about this cheesecake was it they did not over do it in the “pumpkin spices” department, it’s pretty subtle and tasted first and foremost like cheesecake with just a little something extra, with pumpkin. Its very yummy. $7.99 for a rather large cake (30 oz). This could make an especially nice dessert for Thanksgiving, or anytime you can get this during the Fall/Winter season when it may be available. Frozen, defrost in fridge overnight or 4 hours and leave at room temp for about an hour or so. I would buy this again.
Trader Joe’s: “We couldn’t fit an entire pumpkin into the box but we did fill it with rich pumpkin flavor…blended into the tangy sweet goodness of cheesecake….perfect for holiday dessert….”
Trader Joe’s Fish Nuggets are tasty and these taste like a real battered piece of fish. They are perfect for making fish tacos for one thing. The first ingredient is Alaskan Pollack. Don’t confuse this item (“Fish Nuggets”) with TJ’s “Fish Sticks”which are terrible, way inferior to these at a dollar less. I used these nuggets to make Fish Tacos for dinner the other night. BTW I didn’t bake these as it says on the package. I sauteed them in a cast iron pan till they were crispy on both sides.
We really enjoyed these when we made them into fish tacos. The popular TJ’s Fish Tacos recipe is easy to make. You take a package of these, Corn Tortillas (which I think will taste better than flour ones) and top with crunchy slaw made with the Cole Slaw Mix, some Greek Yogurt, and lime juice. Optional but nice would be some ripe avocado and your favorite hot sauce. I would recommend TJ’s Green Dragon and/or Peri-Peri hot sauce as being a good match with fish tacos.
TJ’s BATTERED FISH NUGGETS are now $5.99 for a 1 lb package. The other thing these might be good for is an English style Fish & Chips with some french fries?
“These tantalizing tacos combine the tart, tangy, and savory flavors of fresh Lime juice and crispy Battered Fish Nuggets with a mix of soft, crunchy, and creamy textures, courtesy of our Corn Tortillas, Organic Broccoli Slaw, and Plain Greek Whole Milk Yogurt. Endlessly customizable with your favorite hot sauce, salsa, or crema, one batch of these can feed a family of four and even more, depending on your hunger level.”
FISH TACOS
TJ’s Battered Fish Nuggets
TJ’s Plain Greek Whole Milk Yogurt
1 Lime
TJ’s Organic Broccoli Slaw or Cole Slaw Mix
TJ’s Corn Tortillas
Add yogurt and lime juice to the slaw mix; let sit a 1/2 hour to marinate. Cook up the fish till golden brown and put two pieces into a warm corn tortilla and top with slaw and a few drops of salsa or hot sauce.
Ground turkey is something I tend to buy fairly often at Trader Joe’s. For one, I find it versatile, not to mention more affordable than ground beef, as well as a healthier option. Perhaps many of you think the same. So I decided to check out this option Trader Joe’s frozen Turkey Burgers.
Is there any advantage of buying this versus buying a package of fresh ground turkey? Normally I would just buy a package of the fresh ground turkey. If I want them shaped as burgers, I will just form them myself, which would take maybe a minute to make 4 with little effort.
However I can see a few reasons some people might like frozen turkey burgers instead of buying fresh ground turkey. For one thing I imagine some folks (especially singles?) might find this more convenient. Say you just wanted one burger for dinner. You have that ready to go and are not left with extra turkey which you would have to use in a few days, or freeze for later use. Maybe some people don’t like touching ground meat and forming burgers, or just find this an easier option? Certainly one benefit of these frozen turkey burgers is the frozen burgers are a bit cheaper than fresh ground turkey. These go for $3.49 3.99 for a pound (4 x 1/4 lb). One pound of TJ’s fresh ground turkey will cost you $3.99 4.49 presently. So the frozen ones are a wee bit cheaper.
Cooking: Trader Joe’s instructions on the package state “Cook From Frozen” (as usual for them on frozen stuff). I am an experienced home cook. Cooks as a general rule, tend to not like to cook food from frozen. I think cooking from a defrosted state is best for meats generally.
Sure you can cook these burgers from frozen, but you don’t HAVE to. You can defrost these in an hour or two on the counter, which is what I do sometimes.
Another advantage to not cooking from frozen for me is, I can add ingredients into my burgers. I find this very useful as ground turkey is a quite bland. It needs to be jazzed up.
If its not frozen, you can add ingredients in, mix it up and form your own burgers. If I add say a few spoons of chopped fresh parsley and spices, mix it all in, form a burger (which is usually a little smaller and thicker than the way they come frozen). This way they not only have way more taste to them, they also conform to the hamburger buns which can be smaller than the diameter of the frozen pucks. Here are turkey burgers with chopped parsley added plus a bit of chopped pickled sweet jalapenos. And yes you want to add oil and/or butter when you cook these turkey burgers which don’t have that much fat.
I took out two burgers. I put them on a plate, covered them with a a bowl over them (mostly to keep the cats from going after them!) to just let them defrost. That took about an hour or two.
Sure a pinch you can cook from frozen if you want to. The cook time will be longer than if they are defrosted of course.
TIP: Turkey is bland. So I really season it to jazz it up. Add a good dusting of some spices. I love to use the terrifically useful TJ’s 99 CENTS TACO SEASONING spice mix which really jazzes up turkey. If you used that Mix, then don’t add salt as there is salt in the taco spice mix, plus they have some salt already added in the burgers. Also I made them as cheese burgers by putting grated Unexpected Cheddar or some other cheese on top which works great as that cheese is amazing melted (cover the pan for a minute to help melt the cheese). I put them on toasted Trader Joe’s Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns and dressed them up with some spicy ketchup (mix some Peri-Peri or Bomba into some of the Organic Ketchup) .
Our turkey burgers were yummy with toasted buns, lettuce and tomato and we quite enjoyed them and kind of could not tell they were turkey burger and not ground beef. The trick again is really seasoning these as if you don’t it will be very bland tasting. And melted cheese never hurts! By the way, the buns I used here are the PRETZEL BUNS, perfect for burgers and many other things.
You could easily describe me as a dumpling fanatic. I’m fortunate to live in a city (NYC) with a huge Asian population and can get really excellent dumplings, such as at “Vanessa’s Dumpling House” to name just one place. So having said that, I can’t say these Trader Joe’s frozen mini wontons can compare to some handmade chicken and basil dumplings like I could get at a dumpling place like Vanessa’s, or Shiu Jiao Fu Zhou dumpling house. Stil these are kind of decent little wontons, and they are certainly convenient. So if you can’t go buy a big bag of frozen dumplings from Vanessa‘s or another Chinese dumpling maker as I do on occasion, these may be the next best thing. They seem popular. I usually will see a few people grabbing a bag at Trader Joe’s. On the web, I know there is some hack with these dumplings cooked in TJ’s Miso Ginger broth, which I tried and is pretty good (for me the broth needs more miso and way more ginger!) These are mini wontons so are smaller than regular size wontons or dumplings. These are just one bite each. They’re good made by either boiling or pan frying them. If you are doing them boiled, I like them served in a soup – a strong chicken broth (preferably homemade) or possibly one of Trader Joe’s broths or the Ginger Miso Broth (add more miso if you have that and some fresh grated ginger) They are good also cooked up as pan fried wontons. These will taste much better with a good dumping sauce. For me, that is mandatory. Also the cilantro flavor in the dumplings is very weak so buy some fresh cilantro and add some just before serving. Some people hate the cilantro’s flavor but I love it and it’s a very essential Asian taste. These Mini Wontons are $3.49 for a package (12 oz). I would buy these again.
If you are not familiar with BOBA TEA (aka bubble tea) it’s a popular (very TRENDY) drink that has very large pearls of Tapioca that sink to the bottom. The tapioca pearls have a very chewy texture that most people really enjoy. The pearls are so large that to suck them up it comes with a special ultra wide straw. These drinks are sold by specialty tea shops like “GONG CHA”that serve up a premium (and a bit pricey) Boba Tea Drink.
Trader Joe’s BOBA TEA kit is a (poor) approximation of what you might get from a specialty Boba Tea shop. I have had Boba Tea from quite a few different Tea shops and in short, Trader Joe’s Boba Tea Kit won’t put any of them out of business. The drink you get in a real Boba Tea shop is way better than this, however if you’ve never had it before this may give you an idea of what “boba tea” is. As my wife commented “this is a Trader Joe’s version”. She meant it as a knock as in “cheap knockoff of the real thing”. A specialty shop boba tea drink usually costs about $5-6 bucks each. This kit sells for $5.50 for 4 drinks. So yes a cheap knock off. Granted, its a high profit item (sugar, tea, tapioca)
Anyway if you can’t have it at one of these shops and just want to try boba tea in that case then his might be a good starting point. For one thing the tapioca pearls in Trader Joe’s are much smaller than the ones that the shops make which are huge and so chewy. This kit has 4 pouches of a concentrate with the pearls. You mix this package up with milk or tea (or combo of the two) plus a handful of ice to dilute its sweetness, and you need to add enough of these things in, otherwise it will be way too sweet. I put the defrosted pouch into a glass jar with a lid so I could really shake it up with the added ice and liquid. The kit even has 4 big straws. Not bad, but again really no comparison to a Boba Tea shop drink. I probably wouldn’t buy it again.
It may seem a little silly for me to review frozen spinach but here goes anyway because it’s actually something I buy all the time from Trader Joe’s (along with frozen peas!) TJ’s frozen spinach is easy, healthy, tasty and super convenient to have in the freezer. Plus it’s one of TJ’s best bargains for just $1.99 for a pound in the organic version and $1.49 for the regular version.
At the risk of heresy there are a few vegetables which I propose are actually better frozen than fresh. Really. One is frozen peas. The other is frozen spinach. While I love fresh raw spinach, the reality is it’s a pain. Spinach is very dirty and sandy. You must it like crazy 3 or 4 times to get rid of all the grit in every nook and cranny. Then you start with what looks like an enormous amount, raw. You can fill the biggest pot you own with it to the brim, and that shrinks up into almost what looks like just enough for one person. It really shrinks up in cooking. All of these are reasons I find frozen spinach easier than fresh spinach.
RECIPE HACK – a two ingredient Trader Joe’s recipe hack I came up with for spinach with TJ’s Garlic Spread – which are so good together and takes minutes! SPINACH IN GARLIC – Put the spinach in a pot with a teaspoon of olive oil or butter (or 50/50 mix). Cook on medium till it’s just cooked but still bright green (don’t overcook it) then add a heaping tablespoon or two of TJ’s Garlic Spread and mix it together. Give it a grind of fresh black pepper, taste it and if it needs it, add a pinch of salt (as the Garlic Spread has some salt). Optionally give it a squeeze of fresh lemon. This garlicy creamy spinach combo is absolutely delish. You can even mix in noodles to this for an instant dish.
Spinach omelet – make the above and toss the spinach in the middle. Yum!
Spinach rice: Cook Basmati rice. Cook some spinach. Mix the two together when done with some Greek yogurt. Season to taste.
TJ’s organic spinach is $1.99. The regular spinach is even less only ($1.49). Either is a bargain and is a great thing to always have in your freezer. So eat your Spinach! It’s healthy – it’s what made Popeye so strong.
Trader Joe’s SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI with Butter & Sage (Product of Italy)
Trader Joe’s frozen “SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI with butter and sage” looked interesting enough for me to review. It even says “Product of Italy”.
These gnocchi seem quite popular and get a fair amount of interest here. To do the review, three of us tasted it as one part of a dinner we put together.
All three of us thought this was tasty, however we all found it a little different than what we were expecting. The main thing was all of us said the same thing to start with. “Are these sweet potato?” Other than the fact these have an orange color, if it didn’t say sweet potato, none of us could have told you these were Sweet Potato Gnocchi as opposed to a regular (potato) gnocchi.
Butter and sage is a classic sauce and the sauce here was tasty. We were a bit surprised at how much sauce comes in this, so just know the dish is pretty saucy, which may not be a bad thing. The flavor of the sauce was tasty, nice and buttery with a hint of sage. Since there is so much sauce, be sure to have something to mop it all up with like some good crusty bread, as we did.
Again our main comment was if you can tell these are “sweet potato” vs. the regular gnocchi. The first 3 ingredients listed in this are: sweet potato, wheat flour and potatoes, so yes they do have regular potatoes in it.
It takes about 3-6 minutes, Microwave or Stove Top to cook. I cooked this on the stove top in a pan (adding 2 tbls water or broth and cover) stirring occasionally.
RECIPE IDEAS :
You can easily turn this into a more substantial meal by adding something. For example, add your favorite Chicken Sausages (or meatballs. Maybe some veggies… They will match well with the dish. Brown some of Trader Joe’s chicken sausages – or chicken meatballs – and mix those in when the gnocchi are ready. I think Shrimp would work well too. Vegetarians might add the vegetarian sausage of their choice.
Adding VEGGIES. You could add some cooked or frozen vegetables. Frozen French green beans work well, or frozen peas. Or fresh or frozen spinach. You could just toss in a generous handful of veg for some extra taste and a little veggie protein and cook those along with the sauce.
MAKE THIS A MEAL: Add some salad and bread along with this and you can have a nice substantial dinner with this gnocchi. And maybe the additions mentioned above if you want to beef it up even more.
While I liked these I like other gnocchi choices available at Trader Joe’s. Boiled soft gnocchi such as this dish are fine, however I am quite partial to pan fried gnocchi which you make by sautéeing the gnocchi with a little olive oil and butter until they get golden brown – then add sauce at the end.
These sweet potato one in sauce were about $3.69. I like them and give them a good if not great review mainly as as they don’t stand out as being “sweet potato” gnocchi but still we thought these were tasty.
I love gnocchi when they are fried up and get a little bit of a delicious texture on the outside which you can’t get with prepared, sauced frozen ones, like this dish.
Frequently I make Trader Joe’s (shelf stable) potato gnocchi–a productI just love and buy all the time(and its cheaper, just $1.99 $2.29). I cook those up so they get a golden brown on the outside, and add my own sauce. In this case, I might add my own butter, sage and grated cheese and a squeeze of lemon to come up with a dish a bit like this one, but with a bit of a crispier texture, and frankly I don’t need so much sauce.
My go to gnocchi, as mentioned, are the packages of Trader Joe’s shelf stable potato gnocchi on the shelves along with their pastas. Those gnocchi are not only cheaper but you can get those crispy by frying/baking/air frying them up to brown them.
Trust me, try making crispy gnocchi at least once. So good that way. So honestly I would say try out both kinds, this dish, and later make your own dish, with TJ’s regular potato gnocchi pan fried up crispy (and add butter and some sage and cheese for a sauce).
Here’s a link on “How to fry gnocchi, and why you should want to!)
“Plant based Bulgogi style strips marinated in a sweet and savory soy sauce”
Bulgogi is a popular Korean BBQ dish consisting of grilled marinated beef. It’s delicious, I love it.
Trader Joe’s frozen “Korean Beef-less Bulgogi is their vegan version of it, consisting of small pieces of “mock meat” made from soy protein, wheat gluten and other things. Judging from the internet, this product seems to be a bit of a hit especially of course with vegetarians, which I am not. The vegan “bulgogi” strips have a pleasantly chewy texture that kind of make it resemble beef with a pleasantly chewy but tender texture. There isn’t really any sauce on these and I promise these will be tastier with some kind of sauce on them. A no-brainer sauce for these would be some Korean Gochujang (red pepper paste, $1.99 at Trader Joe’s). You can make a fast easy sauce which will match well with the strips with it and give it a little bit of sweet heat. You can either sauté these and cook in a little Gochujang or put it on top after cooking which is what I did (recipe at the end)
TJ’s Bulgogi Vegan Strips cooked up into a tasty Stir Fry with vegetables and a little seasoning
Ingredients include soy sauce, pear puree, onion, garlic, apple puree, sugar, cornstarch, guar gum, soy protein, rice flour, wheat gluten and soybean oil
To best enjoy these, what I strongly suggest is don’t do this lazy thing I see on the ‘net about these TJ Beefless Bulgogi strips where people say all they do is microwave this package and put them on top of a bowl of rice., and they exclaim “this is da bomb”. Really? To me, that sounds like a pretty low bar. Makes we wonder if these folks ever tasted real Korean cooking where flavors can explode all over your taste buds? Anyway, to me just nuking the package and putting this on rice may be edible – but that is so boring people!
I suggest you think of these strips as an ingredient, as the main protein to cook up into a dish with. Make a stir fry for instance using these strips which will take you ten minutes of work, most of which is cutting up veggies. Below is one recipe stir fry idea for these vegan strips. First off, these will taste better if you get a nice sear on them, so I suggest rather than just nuking them in the microwave, you cook them in a pan or wok to brown them up a bit. You can throw a dish together in about 10 minutes with just a little effort. Defrosting needed?! Yes. TJ’s often says “Heat From Frozen” on the package. I tend to disagree about cooking food from frozen – something TJ’s often recommends on their packages (again, geared towards making everything “easy”?) Anyway I do suggest defrosting these before cooking. They defrost fairly quickly. I just left the package in my fridge overnight. Or you could take it out in the morning for that night’s dinner. Or just leave the bag on the counter for maybe an hour or two? In a pinch you could just run water over the (unopened) bag in a bowl till the strips are defrosted. See below for a Stir Fry recipe featuring the “Bulgogi Strips”….
So how close is this to actual beef Bulgogi? First off I should state I’m an omnivore, not Vegan. I adore real Bulgogi especially in a smoky Korean BBQ restaurant using old school charcoal. Now that is Da Bomb (so tasty but smells up your clothes!) These Beefless Strips don’t compare but THEY ARE pretty good and do slightly resemble beef though they won’t fool an omnivore that they’re beef. However, my Korean wife ate my Stir Fry dish and until I told here this was Vegan and not real beef she didn’t know at first. I almost fooled her. What they got right here, is the chewy texture, which is good, it’s a little “beefy and chewy”. But I totally recommend you fix them up as mentioned above and cook them into something tasty, where they are an ingredient and not just the star of the show. A package was $3.49. (Yikes. they went up since I wrote this; now 4.29?) If real beef, at least 10 or 12 bucks I would guess.
Note: While this is Vegan it is NOT Gluten Free as it contains Wheat Gluten. In fact Gluten is what gives this the nice, chewy texture. Buddhist have been using Wheat Gluten to make Vegetarian Mock Meat for a thousand years. This is what “Seitan” is.
RECIPE – EASY BEEFLESS BULGOGI STIR FRY : Put a tablespoon of TJ’s Toasted Sesame Oil (or any oil) in a wok or pan. On medium heat, add the defrosted bulgogi strips in a single layer and let them brown and get seared (maybe 3-5 minutes?). Don’t move them around until they are seared. When they are browned, add vegetables* of your choosing, cut into bite size pieces. In the dish in the picture above I used 3 cloves of sliced garlic (fresh garlic is a must) 1/2 an onion, 2 sticks of celery, 1/2 a yellow pepper. Increase the veggies as you see fit. Sauté the veggies with the strips for about 5 minutes, stir frying them till crispy tender. I seasoned this for a little more flavor. Add 1 Tbs soy sauce, and a 1/2 tsp of TJ’s Red Boat fish sauce if you have it, or maybe Oyster Sauce. Add a tablespoon of Palm Sugar or honey and splash of apple cider vinegar, lime or lemon juice for acidity. Turn off the heat and add another teaspoon or two of Toasted Sesame Oil. If you have them, sprinkle on sesame seeds and chopped scallions. I suggest drizzling Gochujang sauce over the top. For a super easy sauce, just mix a tablespoon or two of Gochujang with an equal amount water slowly until its a smooth sauce. Serve with rice of course. Also – Soft lettuce with these is nice (to make “Saam” lettuce wraps) If you want to be a bit lazy and not have to cut up * vegetables, you can just buy a pack of TJ’s frozen Asian veggies mix and cook that with these strips after the browning part.
PS – Trader Joe’s came out with a prepared Gochujang Sauce since I wrote this…
Trader Joe’s sells these frozen hash brown shredded potato patties. I see a lot of people buying them. Maybe because they kind of resemble MacDonald’s potato patties? These are not bad at all. They consist of just three ingredients, potatoes, oil and salt. You can bake them as suggested on the package. A toaster oven will work for that too. It doesnt say this on the package but you can make them on the stove in a pan which is what I did. I added a tiny bit of oil to a non-stick pan and cooked them on low until the first side was golden brown, then flipped them, about 15-20 minutes in total. I would say you want these as crispy as possible. Now I don’t have an Air Fryer but I’ve seen other people report you can cook these in and Air Fryer and they work well getting nice and crispy without adding more oil.
The patties were pretty tasty, especially with a sunnyside up egg I had them with. I gave them a good dusting of black pepper and that improved them quite a bit for flavor. I could see you using these at breakfast, or lunch or dinner. Very versatile. Things they match well with include ketchup, eggs, bacon, sour cream, or of course pretty much anything that would go well with potatoes. There are 10 patties in a package which now goes for $2.29. Trader Joe’s also sells frozen shredded hash brown potatoes in a bag, that is not in patty form just loose, the way you would normally make hash browns. Those would be good for adding things in during cooking such as some chopped onions and peppers, so also useful. The Sodium level is not crazy high (250mg a patty). But don’t eat 4! Thats 1000mg.
UPDATE (Fall 2022) Product has been MIA for some time. Don’t tell me these are gone for good TJ’s….
UDPATE 2 (WINTER 2022) This product is finally back!!
Its HOT all over the U.S. at the moment. Here’s just a couple of suggestions for some Trader Joe’s staples that are good to have on hand for hot weather, that can make easy pantry meals you don’t have to cook, or barely have to, and you can just throw together quickly.
Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants) 
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