Trader Joe’s Olive Tapenade

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Trader Joe's Olive Tapenade

Trader Joe's Olive Tapenade

We found a wonderful new (to us) product at Trader Joe’s this week: Trader Joe’s Olive Tapenade: Traditional.  We have tried a Trader Joe’s tapenade item before, but it was discontinued last year and we have not found another product to take its place- until now.

This wonderful product (which is found in the refrigerated case near the salsa and hummus) is an excellent version of a tapenade.  There are nice big pieces of olives, pimentos and garlic in this spread giving a lot of flavor in each bite.  This is one of those yummy items to have in your frigid to add some pizzazz to an ordinary meal or snack

Are you familiar with the many ways to use Tapenade?   Here are a few ways we like to enjoy this Trader Joe’s Olive Tapenade:

  • Spread thinly on a cracker or slice of bread
  • Tossed with hot pasta and Parmesan cheese
  • Spooned onto a piece of baked fish after cooking
  • As a dip with vegetables
  • But our favorite is in a  cold pasta salad!

This is how we used our container of Trader Joe’s Olive Tapenade. We bought all the ingredients at Trader Joe’s as well- So easy and convenient! First we cooked some whole wheat pasta,  then sliced some cherry tomatoes in ½, added a can of garbanzo beans, sliced some green onions and used the Olive Tapenade and some Balsamic Vinegar as the dressing. We mixed everything all together and …. well…. YUM!

The pasta salad was very colorful and all those flavors combined overnight and the next day the  pasta salad was just fantastic!

Do you like Tapenade? Have you tried this item? What did you think?

How to make Trader Joe’s Waffles

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Now, waffles are not usually on our Sunday AM radar at the house. Although we like to eat waffles when we are at a restaurant, (all crispy and golden on the outside) we do not have a waffle iron in  our kitchen yet. Oh well, some day….

Here is the recipe for waffles from the back of the box of Trader Joe’s Buttermilk Pancake & All Purpose Baking Mix:

  • 3 ½ Cups Trader Joe’s Baking Mix
  • 2 Eggs
  • 2 Cups Water
  • ½ Cup vegetable oil

-Stir all ingredients with a whisk until smooth. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your waffle iron to cook your waffles.

-Makes 12, 4 -inch waffles

Variations suggested on the box:

Golden Pecan Waffles– Stir in ½ cup chopped pecans into the batter.

Country Bacon Waffles: Add 6-8 strips of cooked bacon (crumbled) into the batter.

Waffles with Whipped Cream and Strawberries -my favorite! Make the Waffles according to the directions. Top with whipped cream and sliced strawberries- eeks! There is nothing as good as that combination- crispy waffle, fluffy whipped cream and sweet strawberries!

Has anyone tried any “savory” waffle combos that you liked?  We tried a waffle with cream cheese and smoked salmon one time- it was OK but I like my salmon on a bagel.   I also saw a recipe that used a waffle as a base for chili sprinkled with cheese and onions (topped with sour cream). That looked interesting but we have not tried that yet

How do you like your waffles? Drop us a comment and let us know

Trader Joe’s Pancake Mix Directions

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Have you tried Trader Joe’s Buttermilk Pancake & All Purpose Baking Mix yet? We love  having all the ingredients ready to go when the mood for pancakes hits us- usually on a Sunday morning, drinking coffee…reading the paper…. You get the idea.

So here is the super easy way to get Pancakes on your table!  (here is the smallest batch directions):

To make 10+, 4 inch pancakes (who measures this stuff, right?) you will need:

  • 1 ¾ Cups of Mix (Trader Joe’s Buttermilk Pancake Mix)
  • 1Cup of Water
  • 1 Egg

What to do:

Whisk water and egg together in a bowl. Add the Mix and whisk until the batter is smooth.

Heat non-stick pan over medium heat until hot, and coat with a small amount of oil or use cooking spray so the pancakes don’t stick to the pan.

Use ¼ cup of batter for each pancake, and bake about 2 minutes per side.

Serve with Trader Joe’s pure maple syrup.

Variations:

Jam (orange marmalade is awesome!)

Trader Joe’s Lemon curd

Applesauce? – This was a suggestion from the back of the Trader Joe’s package that sounded interesting. They suggest you try a ½ cup of Applesauce and a sprinkle of cinnamon in the batter. I think we will try this the next time we make Pancakes- it sounds delish!

Enjoy!

Take a minute and let us know what you like on your Trader Joe’s pancakes…..

How to Make Pasta Salad

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Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad

One of the great things I love about summer is pasta salad. Now we could make them all year long, but there is something about the cold pasta and the different veggies that reminds me of a picnic. I guess I just don’t think about making and serving a pasta salad in November.

Anyway Pasta Salads can be easy to make and rather quick to put together too. Recently we were shopping at Trader Joe’s and we were talking about how many cool things that Trader Joe’s sells that could really make a pasta salad special.

There are a zillion ways to make pasta salad with any number of ingredients that you could add. Main ingredient is of course, the past! We like to use a smallish noodle, but we have also made yummy pasta salads with leftover spaghetti.

Next, we like to think about what veggies we would like to use (either buy or use up) like tomatoes, broccoli, diced zucchini, bell pepper stripes, peas, etc… We also like to include an “onion” item either sweet Vidalia Onions, Red Onions, or Green onions.  Next we think about a full-flavor or “special” item to pull the salad together. This might be pesto, or sundried tomatoes cut in small stripes, or some olives.

Well, all that planning for a pasta salad motivated us to make one today!

Ingredients:

  • Whole Wheat pasta (we used those little spirals called rotelle)
  • Cherry Tomatoes (in red and yellow, cut in 1/4)
  • Broccoli (cut up into small pieces)
  • Green Onions sliced thin
  • Trader Joe’s Pitted Kalamata olives (the “special” ingredient), chopped
  • Trader Joe’s Parmesan Cheese (a couple of spoonfuls)
  • Dressing: olive oil

What to do:

Cook pasta according to package directions. About ½ way through the cooking, add the broccoli pieces to the cooking water. Let the broccoli cook with the pasta until the pasta is finished cooking. Drain and rinse briefly in cool water then place in a mixing bowl.

Next add the rest of the vegetables, and toss lightly with olive oil. Season with your favorite spices – we used Trader Joe’s 21 Salute , garlic powder, salt and pepper along with the parmesan cheese.

Variations:

Here is where you can be creative. You can use up some cooked vegetables or add a can of garbanzo beans if you like. Trader Joe’s also sells a large selection of items that would really make a pasta salad special. These include artichoke hearts, tapenade (already chopped up olives)  or even brochette.

We were planning to tell you to leave the pasta salad in the refrigerator until cool but it looked so good that we had to “sample” it right away. Even warm it was just delish!

The next time you are at Trader Joe’s check out the isle with all the canned beans and olive oils and see how inspired you are. If you see anything that you are not sure about, leave us a note and we will try and help you out.