vegetararian | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s Organic Chia Seeds

Ingredients: Organic Chia Seeds

Chia Seeds Benefits: The Omega-3, Protein-Packed Superfood

“TALK ABOUT A POWERHOUSE”

These teeny tiny chia seeds truly are a superfood powerhouse. If you aren’t eating chia seeds already perhaps you should be. I eat some every morning.

No doubt you’ve heard about them. How they are a true superfood with lots of health benefits being benificial to heart health, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and more. Not too mention digestion and keeping you regular as they provide lots of soluble fiber.

These teeny blacks seeds are packed with protein, Omega 3‘s and other goodies, again especially fiber. When soaked in liquid the seeds both swell up and gel up absorbing twenty seven times their weight in water. By the way the chia seed gel smooths things in your digestive tract so can help keep you regular. Another benefit.

They are especially great for adding to smoothies, cereal, pancakes or drinks. They can be used as a natural thickener. The seeds are so tiny they have a tendency to go everywhere and I do mean everywhere, so be very careful when you use these. If you spill these, well they are a real pain to clean up. Get them wet and they stick to everything. So don’t wet them. If you do spill them just try to brush them or vacuum them up and good luck with that…!)

TIP: Careful handling them!! These tiny seeds can go everywhere in an instant if you are not very careful. Rather than using the bag they come in, I pour the seeds into a small glass jar and just use that (and a tiny scoop) as its much easier to handle, than opening and closing this bag all the time. I have spilled seeds many times and they are not easy to clean up as they are so tiny and when wet stick to everything.

I usually mix them into soy milk, oat milk or kefir. Leave them a few minutes to absorb the liquid. They will swell up in 5-10 minutes. Then I add them to my yogurt/kefir/soy milk liquid .( Don’t eat them without soaking them in liquid.)

TJ’s Chia Seeds (12 oz) $~~4.99~~. ~~$5.49~~ $5.99, and actually went back down to 5.49 last time I got them)

PRODUCT OF PARAGUAY

Trader Joe’s sells a number of super food seeds including chia seeds, flax seeds, a mix of chia and flax, as well as hemp seeds. All of these are good for you and are things you can easily incorporate into your diet, daily, especially I think at breakfast where you can add 1 or 2 tablespoons into your cereal, yogurt or smoothie. Try CHIA SEED PUDDING; very easy and very good! (another one in link below)

Trader Joe’s carries a lot of “powerhouse seeds” like CHIA, FLAX and HEMP SEEDS. My Trader Joe’s has a “Smoothies Section” featuring all of these plus other products to make smoothies (protein powders, etc)

https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-chia-seeds

CHIA SEED PUDDING

https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/3-ingredient-chia-pudding/

(update: Since I originally wrote this years ago, I have come to the conclusion the Soy Chorizo recipe changed. Its different now; certainly I can see way less of that reddish oil that used to ooze out of it, which was quite flavorful and loaed with a big blast of cumin and other spices. Its OK now but not as good as it used to be. Here is my original review. It’s still OK. Just know it used to be better. IMO

This is my very first post and review on this new site! Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo:

Even though I’m not vegetarian I tried this as it looked interesting and sounded intriguing with the two words: “Soy Chorizo”? Actual Mexican Chorizo is a sausage made with pork. So what the hell do they mean by “soy” chorizo.

I found this quite tasty. I was kind of impressed by the taste of this vegetarian “chorizo” made with Soy Protein. It tastes like, well, kind of like real chorizo tastes like… And by chorizo lets state for the record in this case we mean Mexican chorizo (which is crumbly, raw, in a casing) and not the “Spanish chorizo” (which is firm and has been cured first like salami).

TJ’s SOY CHORIZO is tasty and flavorful. I think this is suitably tasty for non-vegetarians as well as vegetarians. Its loaded with the correct spice flavoring of Mexican Chorizo like cumin and anatto and its nicely spicy. All of which really makes it taste “real” to me. I buy this all the time now. Its so tasty I don’t even notice or care if its real or “fake meat”. So again good for both omnivores, vegetarians and or the occasional vegetarian like me. This is one of Trader Joe’s most popular products. Google ‘Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo’. You will find tons of fans plus lots of recipes. If you haven’t tried it yet, this is highly recommended thing from TJ to try. I’ve used it in so many ways, and you will no doubt come up with more easily….

soychorpotatoegg You could use it as Soy Chorizo used in a taco filling mixed with potatoes, onions, and eggs; see the pic for a great filling with these ingredients on a TJ Habanero Lime flour tortilla) mixed with other veggies. Use it crumbled on top of eggs (delicious) or mixed in an omelette. A recipe idea can be found here:

Recipes

I’ve added Soy Chorizo to pan-fried hash brown potatoes for really nice extra flavor (I add at very end). Added it to lentil stew or a soup; even put it on top of pizza instead of sausage! Its good in so many things, and a little bit can go a long way to flavor other ingredients. You can even make a un-vegetarian taco filling with half soy chorizo sautéed up together, for the chorizo flavor with maybe ground turkey or ground beef or pork if you prefer.

MAJOR TIP – Soy Chorizo is very messy to work with once you open the package. The package has a plastic tube casing crimped at the end. Be sure to VERY carefully slit open the plastic outer casing, then open the inner casing. What I do is open the package, pull out the tube, and kind of squeeze it out of the casing with my fingers, as needed an inch at a time. Even wrapped in plastic be warned, it gets messy sitting in fridge, as the dark red anatto oil has a tendency to “leak” out so be sure to wrap it carefully, as the anatto oil will stain everything red. I double wrap the opened package in two plastic bags. Or better still, I have found the best way to keep leftover Soy Chorizo once the package is open is to is put it into a glass jar and spoon it out as needed. I label it with the date. I find it keeps a long time in the fridge, easily two weeks, and maybe even like 4 weeks ? As its vegetable based not meat based, it doesn’t spoil like meat and the oil and spices protect it from going bad quickly.

A 12 oz package is $1.99 (update: since I first wrote this the price was increased to $2.29 {2018} I find 12 oz of this goes pretty far as its strongly flavored.

Here is a recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms that sounds good from the Cooking with Trader Joe’s blog. I have to try this, it sounds yummy and easy.

Grilled Avocados and Soy Chorizo Tacos? That sounds good!

https://www.traderjoes.com/recipes/lunch/soy-chorizo-grilled-avocado-tacos

SOY CHORIZO FRITATTA

https://www.traderjoes.com/recipes/breakfast/soy-chorizo-frittata

Let me know what do you think of TJ Soy Chorizo? How and What do you use it for? If you have any ways you like to use it or recipes, please leave them here in the Comments.

RECIPE – QUESADILLAS WITH SOY CHORIZO

Soy Chorizo

Tortillas (Corn or Wheat/Corn)

Monterey Jack Cheese with Peppers

Baby Wild Arugula

Chopped tomatoes – or salsa – or avocado for garnish

Put a little oil in a pan large enough to hold 2 tortillas; add the Soy Chorizo on top of tortillas; top this with grated cheese; Top this with some arugula and a few chopped tomatoes or a bit of salsa. Cook 20-30 seconds until the tortilla becomes pliable so you can fold the tortillas gently into a half moon with a spatula. Press gently. Cook until bottom side is a little crispy and cheese is melted. Flip and cook other side, press gently. When done, remove and top with salsa or hot sauce or Sriracha, maybe some sour cream, ripe avocado…chopped cilantro….

Enjoy!