favorite trader joe's meals?

[ijack]

I'm feeling the need to branch out a bit and am making a trip there today. What's your favorite TJ meal - either frozen and you just heat up or something pretty easy made with TJ ingredients.

My favorite easy TJ meal is their veggie fried rice with an egg on top.

[rubytue]

Single serve or full meal? I love the paneer tikka masala. Rice and cheese in an Indian sauce. Frozen. Green box. It's my go-to lunch if I've been to TJs recently.

[compassrose]

I like the kale salad-- I just add meat to it for a meal.
I also get the frozen burritos and cover them in salsa or enchilada sauce and cheese.
The orange chicken
The (full fat) frozen mac and cheese
The leg of lamb or frenched lamb rack
Pizza- their crust, pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil

[mbcdefg]

I love the frozen Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina. I pick up a few bags on every TJ's trip to keep in the freezer for last-minute meals. It quickly heats up in a skillet, and I usually throw in a bag of fresh spinach near the end. I like eating a TJ's ciabatta roll with it, too. 

The frozen orange chicken is OK, too. And I had a frozen pizza from them that I liked but I can't remember which one it was ... sausage, maybe?

I would definitely not recommend the Gnocchi al Gorgonzola, or the Polenta Provencale. Yuck.

I don't shop at TJ's often because (a) it's sort of a hike for me, and (b) I inevitably leave with $50 worth of snacks rather than real food. Plus I have no interest in buying their meat and produce.

[msmerymac]

The truffle mushroom pizza with a green salad on the side.
The spinach-artichoke dip (frozen) is awesome. I like doing apps for dinner on Sunday night. This often includes a selection of cheeses or the dips near the cheeses, lol.
I love the spinach superfood salad (it has edamame, dried cranberries, carrots, miso-carrot-ginger dressing and quinoa) for a light lunch.
The sushi is decent, too. I like the tofu spring rolls with peanut sauce.
The frozen rice that takes 3 minutes in the microwave is awesome for whatever you want to put over it (quick stir fry, the orange chicken, etc)

[MrsE]

Jalapeño Greek yogurt dip with restaurant style tortilla chips.

Oh wait, you said meal.

[Mushe]

I like to keep their frozen pizzas on hand; regular for H and GF for me. That + a little salad is a super easy meal on a busy night. I usually just get the five cheese or whatever for H because he's annoying and doesn't like delicious things like mushrooms and olives.

H and DS love the orange chicken, and that's high on the rotation when I'm OOT.

I always loved the gnocchi (any flavor!), again with a salad, but got burned out on them.

The frozen chicken burgers are pretty good, again for a quick dinner.

We like to keep some of the frozen mahi mahi on hand for fish tacos.

[MNH2013]

H really liked the beef/broccoli. I enjoy the fresh burritos by the salad section.

[steph96]

Cookie butter with a side of cookie butter?

[womet]

H and I had their kung pao chicken with their frozen jasmine rice, and it was really good. And easy to make.

[ksun]

Nov 9, 2015 13:26:35 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

The sushi is decent, too. I like the tofu spring rolls with peanut sauce.

No. I'm hoping you have different sushi than we do here in Denver because it's grocery store premade boxed up sushi that really is awful. 

[UnderProtest]

I liked their chicken tikka masala and their curry chicken salad with crackers.

[msmerymac]

Nov 9, 2015 15:41:15 GMT -5 ksun said:

Nov 9, 2015 13:26:35 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

The sushi is decent, too. I like the tofu spring rolls with peanut sauce.

No. I'm hoping you have different sushi than we do here in Denver because it's grocery store premade boxed up sushi that really is awful. 

It's grocery store sushi. It's mediocre. But it's fresh enough. Which is why I said decent. I'll eat it for lunch. And more importantly, I trust it more than almost any other store. I'll only eat grocery store sushi from Trader Joes and Wegmans. Oh, and Whole Foods. But I trust almost nothing from other stores anyway.

[magdala]

Spinach tortellini and basil marinara. For one pan cooking, I drop the tortellini into the heated marinara. I also tend to add the heat and eat Garlic Naan as well.

[Deleted]

I am never without their frozen turkey meatballs and chicken gyoza.
The orange chicken isn't very good anymore, IMO.
My boys love the frozen fettuccine Alfredo.
Cranberry and spinach salad.
Individual Mexican quiches are divine.
Olive tapenade on anything - grilled cheese, pasta, egg salad, dip
Just cooked chicken - I use it for everything
Frozen mixed peppers, organic peas
Frozen rice
Frozen shrimp and scallops.
Garlic naan bread
The red curry simmer sauce is ok - good in a pinch but I make it better in 5 minutes

[scout8]

Kung pao chicken

[MNH2013]

Oh yea how could I forget I agree with the butternut squash triangoli. I do make it with a brown butter sauce and it's delicious. I stock up and buy a ton and freeze every time I go.

[ESF]

Nov 9, 2015 13:51:39 GMT -5 MrsE said:

Jalapeño Greek yogurt dip with restaurant style tortilla chips.

Oh wait, you said meal.

I LOVE THIS DIP SO MUCH.

I eat it with the whole grain pita crackers, which are DELICIOUS.

Other TJs meals:

Can of chickpeas, chopped cauliflower, and a jar of Thai yellow curry, which tastes more like an Indian curry to me. Sometimes I through in a handful of raisins and/or cashews.

Saute an onion and garlic. Add box of chicken broth, package of tortellini, and half a bag of chopped kale. Top with parmesan before serving.

The other night, at the free food stand, they had two ingredient soup - the little chicken wonton dumpling things in the TJs ginger miso broth. It was delicious, I bought both items, and H and I had it for dinner that very night.  Next time, I would probably through in a vegetable, like maybe some chopped bok choy, or some frozen blend of some sort, but I was super lazy that night.

I buy those packages of cooked chicken...they are slices of chicken breast.  They freeze really well.  I add it to salads, pasta, the Thai curry sauces, etc.

We also do the frozen palak paneer with naan quite a bit.

And I love all their pizzas. Haven't had a bad one. I like the butternut squash and kale one, and the proscuitto and burrata ones best.

[crashgizmo]

I love the ham, onion and gruyere flatbread. Also (this is more of an appetizer) the lemongrass chicken stix.

[konapoppy]

We have liked all of the frozen Asian chicken dishes.

Also, I tried the stuffing-flavored chips today and basically had them for dinner

[dr.girlfriend]

Butter chicken
Japanese fried rice
Pulled pork
Chicken sausages (usually the smoked apple chardonnay)
Korean pork shoulder
Turkey chili

I usually do a bunch of grilled veggies at the beginning over the weekend, and then have them as a side throughout the week or make a small spinach salad as a side for like the chili and stuff. The only exception is the pork shoulder, it's too spicy on its own for me so I eat it with a baked potato to cut the spice a little.

Oh, also, I used to love their mahi mahi burgers.  I'd pan-grill them and then eat them between two halves of nan bread with the mango ginger chutney they have.  They stopped stocking them for almost a year, and I keep forgetting to see if they're back.

[5thofjuly]

Nov 9, 2015 13:23:49 GMT -5 mbcdefg said:

I love the frozen Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina. I pick up a few bags on every TJ's trip to keep in the freezer for last-minute meals. It quickly heats up in a skillet, and I usually throw in a bag of fresh spinach near the end. I like eating a TJ's ciabatta roll with it, too. 

The frozen orange chicken is OK, too. And I had a frozen pizza from them that I liked but I can't remember which one it was ... sausage, maybe?

I would definitely not recommend the Gnocchi al Gorgonzola, or the Polenta Provencale. Yuck.

I don't shop at TJ's often because (a) it's sort of a hike for me, and (b) I inevitably leave with $50 worth of snacks rather than real food. Plus I have no interest in buying their meat and produce.

We actually really like both of these. We add red pepper flakes to both, and add veggies to the Gnocchi. 

[ESF]

Nov 9, 2015 22:53:39 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

Also, I tried the stuffing-flavored chips today and basically had them for dinner

I put these in my cart last week, then took them out. I'm now regretting that choice!

[konapoppy]

Nov 10, 2015 10:41:42 GMT -5 ESF said:

Nov 9, 2015 22:53:39 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

Also, I tried the stuffing-flavored chips today and basically had them for dinner

I put these in my cart last week, then took them out. I'm now regretting that choice!

Let's just say that after I tasted one, I was VERY glad I had resisted the urge to buy two bags!

[ijack]

Nov 9, 2015 22:53:39 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

We have liked all of the frozen Asian chicken dishes.

Also, I tried the stuffing-flavored chips today and basically had them for dinner

I bought these too and am so excited to try them!

[hellonurse]

Nov 9, 2015 13:51:39 GMT -5 MrsE said:

Jalapeño Greek yogurt dip with restaurant style tortilla chips.

Oh wait, you said meal.

Definitely a meal if you try hard enough.

[dr.girlfriend]

I've definitely made a meal of the pita chips and cilantro jalepeno dressing.

[dexteroni]

farmvillelover on ML has a great TJ recipe. You buy a tube of their polenta and crumble it up in the bottom of a baking dish. Then shred a package of carnitas (refrigerated section), mix it with a jar of salsa verde and a can of corn (drain it), and pour them over the polenta. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so, then top with shredded cheddar cheese and put it back in the oven until the cheese is melted. It's so good. Sometimes I also mix in a can of (rinsed) black beans, and sometimes I use the beans in place of the carnitas if I want a meatless dish.

And this recipe only has three main ingredients, all of which you can get at TJ. iowagirleats.com/2013/10/07/crock-pot-thai-chicken/ The vinaigrette is the only one specific to TJ, but the fact that you *can* get everything there is handy. And it's delicious. You can even get TJ frozen rice to go with it if you like.

As far as items that are already prepared, their mac and cheese is my favorite, I love their fried rice, and their pizzas are the best. My current favorite is the burratta, arugula, and prosciutto flatbread, but I also love the ancient grains pizza with asparagus and tomatoes, and the wood fired Sicilian style pizza. Oh, also the brie and tomato tart. And the spicy thai pasta salad (in the refrigerated section) is one of my favorite lunches.

Someone mentioned doing apps for dinner; I love doing that too. Their frozen spinach-artichoke dip is great with their pita chips. I also really like their mini spanakopita and Parmesan pastry pups, which are like tiny pigs in a blanket.

Re: the turkey and stuffing potato chips - a cashier offered me a free bag of thse last week, and I declined, thinking they sounded gross. This week they offered again, and after reading people rave about them on here (I think on ML), I accepted. And omg are they good. They're really just an herbed potato chip - thyme, rosemary, etc. Delicious.

[cilantro]

I really like the frozen chicken veggie quesadillas. Surprisingly filling for the amount of calories.

[Deleted]

Nov 10, 2015 14:12:48 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

Nov 9, 2015 22:53:39 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

Also, I tried the stuffing-flavored chips today and basically had them for dinner

omg. i cannot let myself buy these

Just back from TJs.  Bought them to have with some Rose later.