Trader Joe's blog and cooking.
So you are craving Chinese, but for some reason you aren’t going out or ordering in. This is a good, but not a great answer to not getting it at your local Chinese food establishment. Why isn’t it great?
Well, the answer is simple: if it’s chicken fried rice, I expect there to be chicken with a healthy dose of veggies in there. Trader Joe’s Chicken Fried Rice was mostly brown colored rice with chucks of scrambled egg….
The pros: Trader Joe’s Chicken Shu Mai is pretty good. The quality of the shu mai reminded me of the bags of the shu mai I used to buy from the Asian market. Simple preparation. Came out fine in the microwave. Super tasty sauce.
The cons: I found the microwave directions to be off. Mine needed 3 minutes instead of the 1-2 suggested on the box. Also, I recommend that you put the bag of sauce in a bowl of hot water to at least bring it up to room temperature. Sodium seems high, but that is likely due to the sauce being figured into the nutritional value. Sauce should also be sold in a bottle. Sadly, it isn’t.
The verdict: …
The pros: Trader Joe’s Sriracha Seafood Potstickers are very tasty if you prepare these the way pot stickers should be prepared: in a pan.
The cons: I microwaved half of the batch. Big mistake. They came out dry and rubbery.
The verdict: …
So you’ve made a New Years Resolution. Perhaps you realize summer will be here eventually. Perhaps for health or personal reasons you realize that it’s time to drop a few pounds. There are plenty of diet programs out there. One I’m most critical of is Jenny Craig. Not that it’s a bad program, but it’s expensive. It also goes against the philosophy of “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime.” You are never really taught how to cook. Plus their food is quite expensive and some can even be confused with pet food visually. Since adding time to a set 24 hour day isn’t going to happen, you may need to rely on certain things being already made for you. Maybe it will give you time back in your day or give you just a few more minutes at the gym. So I’ve pulled together of (most) of my reviews and complied a calorie count for each item if you plan on Dieting at Trader Joe’s….
The pros: Trader Joe’s Kung Pao Chicken has savory dark meat chicken served with some veggies and a medium heat sauce. This bag was mostly chicken and light on the veggies.
The cons: Two packets of sauce were included. Not really sure why they couldn’t have put it all into one packet. Meat is a wide range in sizes which lead to some uneven cooking.
The verdict: …
The pros: Quick, easy, fast, microwaveable. Trader Joe’s Vegetable Fried Rice has a different assortment of veggies than standard fried rice. I’ve never had edamame in fried rice before.
The cons: Low protein. Most fried rice contains at least some scrambled egg, while this had none. This would be a good side dish but would need something added to become a main dish.
The verdict: …
The pros: Trader Joe’s Mango Chili Chicken has crispy chicken that is better without the sauce.
The cons: Sauce was neither really spicy nor sweet. It was just there. It needed to be much thicker are more concentrated. I didn’t care for it. Mango was mushy.
The verdict: …
The Pros: Trader Joe’s Tempura Chicken with Sweet and Sour Sauce has crispy fried chicken ready in about 15 minutes.
The Cons: The sauce of Trader Joe’s Tempura Chicken with Sweet and Sour Sauce. A good sweet and sour makes or breaks this dish. This was way under flavored. It needed something, but it was lacking in flavor.
The Verdict: …
I’ve eaten my way through most of the Indian, Korean, and now the Chinese selections at Trader Joes. Just about all of them were excellent. If you enjoy Chinese food and don’t mind messing a sheet of parchment and a mixing bowl Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken might be for you. For the price difference I would be hard to justify not to. Where else can you get a serving of Chinese food for about $1.25? You’ll still have to add something to this dish to make it a meal. It needs either rice or some stir fried veggies to complete it….
I’m not vegan nor am I vegetarian. I’m skeptical at best when it comes to those items as far as taste goes. So I picked up Trader Joe’s Vegan Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels. I’ve had Morningstar Farm’s “chicken” burgers and they weren’t bad. So I gave this a shot. What it is “chicken” thats been battered and fried the way you would get in a Chinese restaurant. It was completely surprising to me that it was very good. You might even be able to sneak it past a regular carnivore without them knowing. It wasn’t as thick as a regular nugget, nor was it as moist, but when you cut it open it does look like chicken. So here is what you get for $2.99…
Below is sectional list and an alphabetical list of all the Trader Joe’s Reviews on this site so far. It should be in order based on the name that appears on the packaging. If you don’t see it, use the search feature. Feel free to comment on product you’d like to see me do a review on and I’ll add it to my list of items to try! I’m not affiliated with Trader Joe’s. Some ladies are excited to bring home a brown bag from Bloomingdale’s. This Betty gets excited when the brown bag is from Trader Joe’s….
