Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Malted Milk Eggs

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Trader Joe's Malted Milk Eggs

Trader Joe's Malted Milk Eggs

(Part 2 of at 3 part series on Easter Treats at Trader Joe’s)

All the Easter Stuff was out when we shopped at Trader Joe’s today, so we picked up a selection of goodies to try out and share with you. This is the second item we are reviewing: Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Malted Milk Eggs

First, we love Malted Milk Eggs, so when we saw a Trader Joe’s version, we could not wait to get home and give them a taste….or two

OK, the truth? …we thought about eating some on the car ride home as the box is a cute “milk carton” style and would be easy to get into, BUT it was only 8:45 AM and somewhere in the back of your mind, you know it is just too early in the day to start munching on Malted Milk Eggs, even if you had to stop and think about it for a bit…

Well, we did resist the temptation and even waited until we got home, unpacked all the “real” shopping that we had, and had a cup of coffee made before trying these wonderful eggs.

You will be happy to know that Trader Joe’s has come through again with a wonderful product! The eggs are huge- much bigger than the usual malted milk balls that also come in the cute milk carton container. And they had a great, toasty malt taste.  Also, these treats do not contain any artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.  YEAH! That makes us feel a bit better about eating them, as sometimes those artificial ingredients give us a headache.  As a kid, we enjoyed those brightly colored malted milk eggs, but as an adult, we are grateful that there are some malted milk eggs that  are simply chocolaty and not coated again with a bright blue color that gets all over your hands and turns your tong blue!

Delaina, who is our official Malted Milk expert, gives Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Malted Milk Eggs two thumbs up. In fact during the tasting of the other Easter items today she actually took a bag of Malted Milk Eggs back to her desk for further analysis…..hmm.

Inside Trader Joe's Malt Eggs

Inside Trader Joe's Malt Eggs

Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

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Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Eggs

Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Eggs

(Part 1 of a 3 part series on Easter Treats at Trader Joe’s)

You know when you are so busy that holidays sneak up on you?? Well, that’s how it was today. All of a sudden there is an abundance of Easter items in the stores…. And then it hit us: Easter is just around the corner!

So to make sure that we are able to present all the Easter goodies that Trader Joe’s had on it HUGE display as we entered the store today, we are making a sacrifice to taste and report on all three of these goodies today. It is our hope that by presenting many of the treats that we found today at Trader Joe’s, we will assist a few Easter Bunnies in selecting and filling Easter baskets with some fun and unusual treats.

Item #1 Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Eggs

We both just love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate together, and usually purchase those small bite-sized cups. But at Easter time, those wonderful egg shaped treats are very tempting as well. We did not notice these egg treats last year at Trader Joe’s and forgot to ask if they were new, or just new to us.

Anyway, there are three individually wrapped eggs in the box. They are not foil wrapped, but sealed in plastic packages. This not only makes them easier to un-wrap (no small pieces of colorful foil falling everywhere), but also nice if you are going to hide treats in the yard. Our group is still talking about the Easter Egg Hunt that was ruined when the squirrels ran off with the candy in the yard!

Inside of Chocolate Easter Egg

Peanut Center

The chocolate and peanut butter treats are rich and just delicious! The outside was smooth and glossy with a flower decoration in the middle.  Trader Joe’s packaging notes that they are made with a “natural peanut butter center”, so we expected a very soft, peanut center. This is not the case. The centers are much firmer than other peanut butter and chocolate egg treats. And the center of the egg is close in color to the outside chocolate shell, we concluded that Trader Joe’s added some chocolate to the peanut center for a more solid product and make it easier to ship.

We Shopped at Trader Joe’s Today!

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Trader Joe's Purchases

Trader Joe's Purchases

Today was a great day at Trader Joe’s!

We got some of our usual items and also some “new to us” items as well.

First the usual items:

Today we purchased bread (Ezekiel w/ sesame seeds), eggs, milk and some frozen veggies that we love. We also got some nuts (Trader Joe’s Ballpark Peanuts and toasted Pecans) and salad items as well. For our salads we like to mix up Trader Joe’s baby spinach with some other kind of lettuce and this week it was arugula salad- this is also called Rocket in some places and has a nice “peppery” or “spicy” flavor.

To go with the spinach and arugula, we bought little tiny cherry tomatoes, sweet Hawaiian onions, pre-sliced mushrooms (so convenient- thanks Trader Joe’s!) and some organic baby zucchini. All in all, the starting point for some great salads! With these items as our “salad base” we then add some extra items to give our salads some “jazz”. Sometimes we use leftovers from dinner (cold cooked vegetables or potatoes), but this week we actually bought some fun new items for our salads: Trader Joe’s Giant White Beans and Trader Joe’s Feta Cheese.

TIP: If you are standing in the produce section at Trader Joe’s and are having trouble deciding which of the ingredients will make the best salads, check out Chef Jamie Oliver’s new book and movement Jamie’s Food Revolution. One of the sections in the book is devoted to salads (Lovin’ Salads, p. 101).  In this section Jamie discusses making home-made salad dressing, and also the “Pick and Mix” style salad. This was just a wonderful concept and we both thought it was a great way to think about salads. He notes that great salads have an assortment of colors and textures and he lays out a variety of salad ingredients in a grid to help readers choose and create fantastic salads. (More good news: Trader Joe’s carries many of the items that are mentioned in this great cookbook)

OK back to the other food items we purchased:

  • A Ruby Red Papaya,
  • Trader Joe’ Way More Chocolate Chip Cookies (for gifts & sharing)
  • Trader Joe’s Roasted Poblano Peppers
  • Trader Joe’s Bunny Gummy Tummies

We are excited about trying these items, and will post a review about each one soon.

In addition to all the great food that we purchased, we also found a lovely plant. Our Trader Joe’s in Tucson always has wonderful flowers and plants on display inside and outside the store and today we could not resist! We even had a few complements and questions from other shoppers who noticed our plant while we were shopping. (OK truthfully, we had stopped to nibble on the daily samples of Orange Cranberry Tea Loaf and sip the coffee- Trader Joe’s Dark- BOTH were yummy!!)

What did you purchase at Trader Joe’s today??

5 Easy Ways to Cook with Pesto

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Trader Joe's Pesto

Trader Joe's Pesto

What exactly  is pesto you ask??

Pesto is a thick sauce made from fresh basil leaves, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese and pine nuts. All these ingredients are blended together until a smooth paste is formed. There are many ways that you can use pesto to add a wonderful flavor to your meals. Trader Joe’s sells a nice little jar of pesto that frequently is seen in our refrigerator.

Here are 5 of our favorite ways to use pesto:

1. Pasta

Yep, our number one way to eat pesto is with noodles. We like to toss the hot noodles with a couple of spoonfuls of pesto and then mix in a little parmesan cheese and black pepper. You can serve the noodles plain, or add some cooked broccoli or your favorite vegetable to this dish as well.

2. Steamed Vegetables

This is a wonderful way to make sure you eat your vegetables. We just steam up our favorite vegetables (say green beans or broccoli) and then drain away any extra water. Now toss the hot veggies with a spoonful (or two) of pesto and add some pepper (to taste) and enjoy.

3. Pesto Mayo

A quick dip or spread idea the next time you need one is pesto mayo. It is easy to make:  a spoonful of pesto and ½ cup of mayo (Start with these proportions and add more pesto if you like it a bit stronger). Season up with some salt and/ or black pepper and enjoy. This pesto mayo is also good as a sandwich spread with cheese or turkey slices. Experiment and see how many ways you can enjoy this spread.

4. Pesto on a flat bread or  frozen pizza

Pesto right from the jar makes a tasty addition to a plain flatbread or frozen plain pizza. Spread the pesto thinly onto the frozen bread of choice and heat in the oven following the package directions. You may wish to add some cheese on top. YUM! We made this one night when a “surprise” guest arrived, and we were up late talking. We had a couple of pita breads in the freezer and spread the pesto on the frozen bread. Then we tossed on whatever cheese we had and heated them up in the oven at 400 degrees for maybe 10 minutes. We waited until the cheese was nice and bubbly. Not too bad for an “emergency” snack- and our friend raved on and on about how great it tasted.

5. Eggs

This one is the most odd, but then next time you make scrambled eggs and are adding leftover vegetables or potatoes to the eggs, try a small spoonful of pesto as well. The sauce never blends into the scrambled eggs entirely in the bowl, but once the eggs hit the pan the pesto melts and flavors the entire dish. This is a great way to use up some leftovers from other meals, and to also enjoy “breakfast for dinner” in a new way.

Remember that experimenting and trying new things is the fun part of cooking.  We recommend that you start with only a small amount at first, maybe 1/2 a small spoonful and then taste the dish. If you think that there is not enough flavor, add more pesto a little at time until you like the taste.  Eventually, the more you cook and try new flavors, the more confident you will be.

These are our top 5 ways to enjoy that small jar of pesto. What are your favorite ways to use pesto?