Trader Joe’s Cheesecake Brownie Bites

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Totally wonderful Cheesecake Brownie Bites

Totally wonderful Cheesecake Brownie Bites

These moist, fudgy brownies, topped with just a hint of cheesecake creamy goodness,  are truly a bite of sheer temptation. Trader Joe’s Brownie Bites are so good that you’ll wish you were not home alone with the container.

Seriously these brownies were just fantastic!

We purchased them to use for a meeting, and well, to be honest we sorta forgot them when we were running out the door to get to the meeting on time…. Oops!

So what else could we do, but try them ourselves –you know to make sure that they were good, just in case we would need to purchase them again for another meeting, right?

OK thinking only  for the research, we bit into them… WOW!

They are just as we said: rich, fudgy with wonderful chocolate flavor. They are just the right size too- about two bites each. But we tried to savor them and eat them slowly….

Truthfully, although we think that these brownies were just wonderful, we would like to make a request to the decision makers at Trader Joe’s. Please zap a bit more cheesecake onto each one of these little brownies, so that there is a bit more cheesecake flavor throughout the whole brownie.

Don’t let that little request put you off- these are just wonderful little bites and you would not go wrong to add them to your next cookie tray or to bring them in your next meeting….

That is IF you remember to bring them with you… 🙂

Trader Joe's Cheesecake Brownie Bites

Trader Joe's Cheesecake Brownie Bites

Fresh Mozzarella and Tomato Salad

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Trader Joe's Ciliegine-Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

Trader Joe's Ciliegine-Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

Here is another yummy salad that you might not have enjoyed before: fresh mozzarella & tomato salad.

We love to make this tasty salad combination when those big, ripe, juicy tomatoes start to show up at Trader Joe’s. The fresh creamy mozzarella cheese is a wonderful contrast to the tomatoes and the salad dressing

We first had this salad as a large appetizer –the kind that you share in a group. There were large slices of the cheese (baseball size) and between each slice was a thick slice of ripe juicy tomato. They were arranged in a circle on a plate, sprinkled with fresh basil leaves, salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.

The dish was just fantastic! Not only did it look wonderful and inviting, but the flavors were unforgettable as well.

So you can imagine our delight and surprise to see fresh mozzarella at Trader Joe’s during a recent visit. We instantly remembered that wonderful appetizer and decided to change our menu for the evening.

We decided to try and re-create the appetizer as a salad and added the quartered cheese to a chopped up salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and spinach.

We made a fresh salad dressing with some apple cider vinegar and also added some sliced, pitted kalamata olives on top. WOW was it good!

Our Chopped Salad with Fresh Mozzarella

Our Chopped Salad with Fresh Mozzarella

Eeks! sorry the picture is a bit blurry… we hope you can get the idea 🙂

Trader Joe’s Feta Cheese

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Trader Joe's Feta Cheese

Trader Joe's Feta Cheese

Now that the weather is consistently warm here in Tucson, we are enjoying more salads. So when we had a hankering for a chopped Greek Salad we also had an opportunity to check out the selection of Feta cheeses at Trader Joes. We have tried a couple of other kinds of Feta in other stores, but this Trader Joe’s Feta Cheese is just top of the list.

This 8 oz brick of cheese can be cut up into cubes and marinated in olive oil and oregano and served as an appetizer or as Tapas.

But we prefer to break it apart with our hands, and crumble it into chunks both large and small and use on top of salads. Especially those chopped Greek Salads… YUM!!

What we do is to chop or dice up cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions (small chop!)  and then mix these all up with light, lemony vinaigrette. This can be served up in bowls as-is or on top of a bed of lettuce.

Then just before you serve, sprinkle the top with the Trader Joe’s Feta Cheese crumbles, so they stay on top and make a beautiful contrasting picture against all the red tomatoes and green cucumbers.

If you have not tried this salad before we urge you to get chopping! They are truly refreshing and light and yet full of flavor for a hot summer night.

Do you like Feta Cheese? Have you tried Trader Joe’s Feta Cheese? What did you think? Please take a minute to leave a comment after this post. Even if you just want to say hello we  love to hear from all our readers!

Trader Joe’s Happy Trekking Trail Mix

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Trader Joe's Happy Trekking Trail Mix

Trader Joe's Happy Trekking Trail Mix

Another great product discovered in the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, May 2010. To view The Fearless Flyer online, go to Traderjoes.com. You will see the information right on the home page.

Ahhh trail mix…. Nutty and sweet and salty all in one bite!  Here is a new to us product that we discovered as a result of the Frequent Flyer, Trader Joe’s Happy Trekking Trail Mix.

This is one of those snacks (trail mix) that we really love, that are full of energy and lots of flavors in each bite.  There are some mixtures that are better than others – like when chocolate is included- but for the most part they are all good.

This Happy Trekking Trail Mix is one of those good mixtures. There are only 6 ingredients and they work well together. Each bit includes plenty of crunch (nuts) chewy (dried fruits) Sweet (ohh dark chocolate) all together in each bite. WOW!

The ingredients are:

  • Almonds
  • Cashews
  • Pistachios
  • Chocolate Chips (semi-sweet YEAH!)
  • Dried Cranberries
  • Dried Cherries

We thought this was a great mixture and those cherries and cranberries were really tasty with the chocolate and the nuts.

Happy Trekking Trail Mix

Happy Trekking Trail Mix

In fact, this mixture is soo good that you can even add a few more nuts to the mix and it still tastes great. We added a few of the salted ballpark peanuts to the last few handfuls of this mix – just to stretch it out… as we ate it way too fast!

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Hurrah– This product Gluten Free!