for the love of Trader Joe's!

When we were house-hunting throughout New England my first question after finding a potential property was always... "How far away is the closest Trader Joe's?!"
At the time there were no TJ's in Texas, so when we would fly up to house-hunt we would always include a visit and I would pack jars and bottles of various goodies home.  We were even known to make out-of-the-way trips to Sante Fe on our drives home from Colorado back to Dallas just to shop at Trader Joe's!  

My much-older-sister Susan, who lives in Austin, just got her first TJ's and my other sister and my niece Jenny, in Baton Rouge, have a TJ's opening at the end of the month!   In honor of this very exciting occasion:) I told them I would write a post with my favorite Trader Joe products!

There are so many things about TJ's that I love.  The first, is the size of the stores.  In my opinion it's the perfect size for a grocery store- not too big, not too small.  I despise going into a regular grocery store the size of four football fields and trying to find things.  I really don't need to see 13 different manufacturers of ketchup, to pick just one.  Too many choices can overwhelm me.  I love that TJ's only carries one, maybe two, types of an item.  I trust the company and trust that what they bring to their shelves is the best and of the highest quality.  I love the amount of organic products that they carry and that they have great prices throughout the store.  They have really helpful employees and I love that TJ's encourages you to try different items-buy it, try it, and if you don't like them, bring it back for a refund.  Smart marketing!

I highly suggest reading their Fearless Flyer- either online, or grab a copy at the door.  TJ's carries a lot of seasonal items that are great.  They can usually be found on end-caps in the store, but there are also many on the shelves that you might miss out on if you don't read about them in the Fearless Flyer..  Since it's fall, pumpkin is king right now, but that will quickly change as we get closer to Christmas.

Below are some of my favorite items, and if you're a TJ's devotee like me, please share your favorite things in the comment section.  I love when products come with a good recommendation.

This is "my" Trader Joe's in Nashua, New Hampshire!

Love the fresh cut flowers right when you walk in the door!

They have great prices on orchids!

These frozen cubes of chopped basil, cilantro and garlic are great to have at the ready in your freezer.

These corn tortilla flatbreads are wonderful as crackers and I also break them up on salads for quick  croutons!

I'm a huge fan of their balsamic vinegar.

I can't tell you how many jars of these sun dried tomatoes I carried home on the plane!  Years ago Cooks Illustrated named TJ's as the best in a taste test.... I agree!

This is my go-to "make dinner quick" spaghetti sauce.  I usually add some of the frozen basil and garlic cubes (above) along with hot pepper flakes and a teaspoon of sugar, but it is delish as it is!  I've tried the marina sauce, but this is our favorite.

A box of Dan's favorite black licorice always makes its way into the cart!  

Love that they carry organic condensed milk and the real whipping cream that is shelf-stable.  I don't often have heavy cream in the fridge, so when you want a dollop on a piece of pie on that rare occasion, this is a great thing to have in the pantry!

So hard to find organic powdered sugar,  but TJ's carries it!

Same goes for organic brown sugar...

Ella is 9-1/2 now, and her vet suggested she take Glucosamine tablets.  She loves these!

Almost as much as she loves her "Charlee Bears"!  We call these "cookies" and at only 3 calories each she can get several a day!  We play a game at night with her we call "Where's Charlee!"  If you ask her if she wants to play she gets as excited as if you asked her if she wants to go for a walk!  Here's how the game goes...  We grab about 6 Charlee Bear treats and then show her to a spot in the house like the living room, the reading room, the pantry, behind a chair in the kitchen, etc., then we tell her to "sit" (sometimes this is done with just a hand signal;  she knows the drill;) and we'll go hide the treats all around the barn room!  We'll then whistle or call her and she'll charge down the steps at full speed (with me yelling "slooooow";) and go on the hunt to find them.  We applaud (yes, we are "those" people;) when she finds them!  At the end we'll tell her "Good Game!" and "That's all!" and she knows the game is over, but will go back around the room to each spot where they had just been- something akin to finding a great find at an antique shop and you keep going back to that same spot like something good is going to magically show up again! 

It's so fun to watch her "hunt"- her whole body tenses and she gets very focused and serious!  She loves the challenge of finding her treats- sometimes she finds them quickly and sometimes the search takes a bit longer, but it's always good puppy fun!

TJ's has really good cards and they're only 99 cents!  They change inventory often which keeps the cards fresh.

Adore these pot stickers- they come in veggie, chicken and pork.  The chicken are our favorite!

And dip them in this Gyoza sauce!  So good!

If you love chocolate TJ's has an amazing assortment of chocolate products and chocolate covered goodies.   I am a fan of their chocolate chips for cookies (as is Dan who is the chocolate lover in the family;)- not a lot of extra added ingredients.

Pop-up sponges.

I use these lavender dryer sheets for our bed linens!

These candles are THE BEST!  They self-extinguish with about an inch of candle remaining.  I have a pair of wooden candlesticks in the barn room that I used to worry about constantly when burning regular candles.  Now, no worries since these go out by themselves!

So, there are some of my favorites!  

Do you have a Trader Joe's?  If so...

please spread the Trader Joe's love and share with us all  your  favorite items!!