An Easy & Tasty Lunch Idea

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Trader Joe's Garlic & Herb chicken sausages

Today’s tasty lunch idea came directly from Trader Joe’s!

After the great taste of those Mango Sausages, we checked out the chicken sausage section to see what other great sausages were available.  We chose this package: Trader Joe’s Garlic and Herb Chicken Sausages.

These are fully cooked sausages that only took about 10 minutes to heat up in a pan on the stove.  Our guess is that you could heat them in the microwave even quicker.  They would also be a great lunch to take to work, as they are “Break Room OK” meaning they heat up quick and do not have a strong smell.

Anyway we just heated them up and browned them a little in a pan and served them with Trader Joe’s Dijon mustard, and a little side salad with a fresh lemon-Dijon mustard dressing.

Here is the recipe for the side salad:

Salad stuff that you like such as:  Baby spinach leaves, sliced baby carrots, sliced cucumbers or zucchini (we used zucchini as they just looked better at Trader Joe’s), cherry tomatoes and red onion slices.  Use amounts that make sense for the number of people you are serving. Or try…. We were just making lunch for the two of us, and we still have way to much salad. Oh well, perhaps it is a start towards tonight’s dinner?

Fresh Lemon-Dijon salad dressing:

In a  bowl squeeze out the juice from one small or 1/2 of a large lemon. Remove any seeds that come with the juice.  This should be about two tablespoons of lemon juice. Then add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard (or more if you like) and a little salt and pepper. Wisk together. Add olive oil, about 4 Tablespoons in a thin stream while you are whisking at the same time.   Taste the dressing on a piece of spinach or a carrot and see if you need more oil. Add more oil, until the dressing has a nice balance, and you enjoy the taste.

Toss the salad with about 1/2 the dressing and then see if you need more. If you still have some dry leafs, then add another spoonful of dressing and re-toss.

These were a nice mild sausage, that had good flavor without being super-strong flavored.

And like we already said, we served the salad and the sausage with a little extra mustard on the side…. Yum!

Have you tried these sausages? What did you think?

Cherry Lovey Gummy Tummies at Trader Joe’s

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Trader Joe's Gummy Hearts

Just in for Valentine’s Day are Lovey Gummy Tummies.  Don’t let the odd name put you off this treat. They are a wonderfully sweet and soft chewy heart with a dark cherry liquid center.  Now we normally don’t go for the gummy-type candy (the bears, fish and worms etc…) but again, magic happens here at Trader Joe’s.  Another shopper just happened to see us checking out the package and she quickly volunteered that they were just yummy and we should try them.

Well, she was right.

These cherry hearts had a wonderful texture, soft and yet you could easily bit into the candy without too much effort. The dark cherry liquid center gave each piece a great look and fantastic cherry flavor. We usually don’t like cherry flavored items, but these candies have natural cherry flavor, and  get a big YES vote from us.

We thought that these hearts would make a great garnish to many other Valentine’s Day treats as well. We first thought of frosted cupcakes or cookies for example, but then thought that they would look cute on a plate next to any dessert offering.

Another idea: sticking the hearts into a small snack size ziplock baggie and then into a Valentine’s Day lunchbox with a sweet note… Nice

We hope you are able to get your hands of a package of Trader Joe’s Lovey Gummy Tummies, and have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

Explore the Vitamin Values At Trader Joe’s

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Trader Joe's vitamins

Shopping for dietary supplements can be a stressful and confusing. Perhaps your doctor recommended that you take more vitamin D? Or you read an article that noted that we need more Omega-3 fatty acids for optimum health.  Then you head to a natural or whole foods type store and there are so many vitamins to choose from, that you leave the store bewildered with the task of choosing.

Luckily, Trader Joe’s has a large and diverse selection of vitamins in their stores. For the most part they are Trader Joe’s brand, with the occasional national products included in the mix.  We like that the selection of vitamins is extensive, without the myriad of choices under each different letter.

A couple of vitamins that we enjoy on a daily basis include the Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid,  Women’s Daily ( multiple) and the B-complex.

Another favorite when we are beginning to feel run down and think we are getting sick,  is the Echinacea & Goldenseal tablets. One pill in the AM and one in the PM. We also consume extra vitamin C at the same time as well as trying to get more rest.

Just another way that Trader Joe’s helps you take care of yourself.

Banish Dry Hands

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hand soap and lotion in a bathroom

Banish dry hands with Trader Joe’s Products!

We can admit this now… we purchase these products due to sheer laziness!

As you know we are regular shoppers at Trader Joe’s. But we usually just shop for food items. Over the Holiday’s we were soo busy and had run out of hand soap and lotion. Was it time to make the trip to the big box store?

Not so fast…

We have seen soap, lotions and shampoo products at Trader Joe’s before, just never thought to purchase them. How much better could they be we asked? Would they work on our dry, cracked, winter hands?

Well….

They are amazing! Incredible even!

We stuck these products in the bathroom and washed and moisturized as usual.  The soap is a lavender and chamomile scent and it pumps out thick and foams nicely.  The Moisturizing cream is unscented and pumps out thick as well. We thought they were working out great. Our hands became soft and did not become dry, red and cracked as it became colder and colder outside. In fact, it was not until we went to Kansas City for New Years that we really noticed how well these products were working for us.

On vacation, our hands became dry, rough and looked just horrible!

Now to be fair, there is a little bit of a temperature difference between Tucson and Kansas City in December, but we think it had more to do with the soaps we were using.  Because we were on the road, we were using whatever soap was available in the hotels and in restaurants. Eeks! Our hand quickly went from bad to worse. No matter how much or what brand of lotion we used, they stayed dry, red, and rough.

Once we returned to Tucson, we quickly resumed using the Trader Joe’s products on our dry winter hands. In only a few days, our dry cracked hands were smooth once more.

Official Names:

Trader Joe’s Hand Soap, Lavender & Chamomile

Trader Joe’s Moisturizing Cream, Unscented, Extra Dry Formula

So check out these product the next time you are shopping at your local Trader Joe’s. Let us know what you think about them.  Did they cure your dry winter hands?