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The Best Trader Joe’s Snacks While Working From Home

09.29.2019 by admin // Leave a Comment

Working from home, I’ll get to cook my meals, eat healthier and save money! <- The first thought of everyone who has never worked from home before. Working from home eventually moves from defined meals to noshing on snacks most of the day. It’s often hard to take a break to eat, let alone cook a meal. So, how do you continue to eat healthy? Stock your pantry with the best Trader Joe’s snacks. If you’re obsessed with Trader Joe’s products you won’t be able to live without these snacks below. Not only does Trader Joe’s have the best quick dinners, Trader Joe’s also has a the best selection of snacks. Craving something healthy, sweet or salty? Trader Joe’s has it all. Below are the 15 best Trader Joe’s snacks that will become a staple in your household.

Trader Joe’s Coconut and Almond Yogurt

Trader Joe’s yogurt is a staple for breakfast, lunch and snacks! With a wide variety there is a flavor for everyone. Personally I really like the Trader Joe’s Coconut Greek Lowfat Yogurt with Almond Granola as the added granola helps hold me over until lunch time.

Best Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Coconut and Almond Coconut Greek Lowfat Yogurt with Almond Granola, Trader Joe's yogurt

Trader Joe’s Beef Jerky

Trader Joe’s Beef Jerky is a great snack if you’re looking for a high protein snack. Plus, if you accidentally eat the whole bag it’s under 300 calories.

Best Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Natural Beef Jerky, Trader Joe's beef jerky

Trader Joe’s Dried Baby Bananas

This snack was a staple when I was eating Whole 30. It’s healthy and whole 30 approved! Trader Joe’s dried baby bananas is also one of the few snacks I’ve continued eating after finishing Whole 30. It’s also an easy snack to have when you’re on the go. At $1.99 per bag they are very reasonably priced although more expensive than buying a regular banana.

Best Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Dried Baby Bananas

Trader Joe’s Just Mango Slices

Trader Joe’s Just Mango Slices have one ingredient: dried mango. This is an excellent snack if you’re looking for snacks that have no sugar added or are Whole 30 approved. It’s also a great snack to stock up on when you work from home. Fresh fruit goes bad quickly. If you’re limiting how often you go to the grocery store dried fruit is great to stock up on.

Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Just Mango Slices
Trader Joe’s snacks: Trader Joe’s Just Mango Slices

Trader Joe’s Sesame Honey Almonds

While the Trader Joe’s Sesame Honey Almonds are a bit more expensive at $7.49 / bag, they help satisfy a sweet tooth and a healthier option than candy. Trader Joe’s almonds are also a great addition to a cheese tray.

Trader Joes snacks: Trader Joe's Sesame Honey Almonds, Trader Joe's Almonds

Trader Joe’s Rosemary Marcona Almonds

One of the best healthy Trader Joe’s snacks is the Trader Joe’s Rosemary Marcona Almonds. These almonds are a great savory and filling snack when you don’t have time to make lunch

Best healthy Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Roasted and Salted Marcona Almonds with Rosemary. Trader Joe's almonds

Trader Joe’s Cheddar Rocket Crackers

Trader Joe’s Cheddar Rocket Crackers are a great afternoon snack to hold you over until dinner.

Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Cheddar Rocket Crackers, Trader Joe's cheddar rockets

Trader Joe’s Multi-Grain Pita Bite Crackers

The perfect cracker to pair with cheese or eat separately.

Best healthy Trader Joe's snack: Trader Joe's Multi Grain Pita Bite Crackers with Whole Wheat and Flax Seeds, Trader Joe's crackers, Trader Joe's pita bite crackers

Trader Joe’s Pimento Cheese Dip

Trader Joe’s Pimento Cheese Dip is back! This dip doesn’t seem to be on the shelves year round, so when it is take advantage! Be careful though, it’s so addictive it’s easy to eat the whole container.

Best Trader Joe's snacks, pimento cheese dip

Trader Joe’s Mild Cheddar Cheese Snack Sticks

These Trader Joe’s Mild Cheddar Cheese Snack Sticks are very convenient for on the go snacking. They also work well for portion control, with each cheese stick at 80 calories.

Best healthy Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Mild Cheddar Cheese Snack Sticks

Trader Joe’s Oven Baked Cheese Bites

Trader Joe’s Oven Baked Cheese Bites are a protein rich snack and keto friendly! $2.69 / bag.

Best healthy Trader Joe's snack: Trader Joe's Oven Baked Cheese Bites

Trader Joe’s Organic Elote Corn Chip Dippers

Be careful, Trader Joe’s Elote Corn Chips are so good you have to resist eating the whole bag in one sitting! This is definitely a harder snack to eat while working because the spice gets all over your hands and it’s crunchy. When you have a 10 minute break though, this is a delicious snack to enjoy while working from home.

A great Trader Joe's snack: Trader Joe's Organic Elote Corn Chip Dippers

Trader Joe’s Sweet Plantain Chips

Trader Joe’s Sweet Plantain Chips are both sweet and savory!

A great Trader Joe's snack: Trader Joe's Sweet Plantain Chips, Trader Joe's Plantain Chips

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups are the perfect guilty pleasure. With nut butter and dark chocolate you can feel a little less guilty about eating these! It’s a less guilty candy if you need some chocolate while working from home.

A great Trader Joe's snack: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Mint Creams

Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Mint Creams are the perfect snack for the sweet tooth.

Best Trader Joe's snacks: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Mint Creams

What are the best Trader Joe’s snacks you’ve discovered?

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Food

Meal Planning Tips For The Beginner Cook

09.15.2019 by admin // 12 Comments

Meal planning tips include saving your recipes. Here is a laptop with recipe on kitchen counter

If you’re a beginner to meal planning, it can feel overwhelming to get started. There are meal planning tips that’ll help you save money and be successful. Many recipes call for a lot of ingredients and prep time. If you’re busy or meal planning on a budget, that’s a recipe for failure.

Here are a few meal planning tips to help you get started on planning your meals ahead of time and identifying your go-to meals. As you get started, check out Trader Joe’s Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas, breakfast ideas and dinner ideas for recipe ideas to add to your collection.

Set A Realistic Goal for Meal Planning

If you like eating out a lot or are really busy don’t try to meal prep for every single meal in the week ahead. Start out by planning two to three dinners for the week ahead and two to three lunches. Then, have a few healthy frozen meals handy in case you need more meals. This way, if you decide to eat out or have business dinners / travel arise you don’t have food go to waste. You also have the flexibility to make a few quick meals from the freezer, or use those in latter weeks. If you want to meal prep, so you only have to make one dish check out how to meal prep for beginners.

Write Your Meal Plan Down

Print a calendar from online and write down what nights you will make meals. Then, use that calendar to create a list for grocery shopping. If you don’t know exactly what nights you’ll eat what, you can also create an excel by week and then title the columns “meal 1, meal 2, meal 3.” By writing it down, you will save money as you won’t buy excess food at the grocery store. You can also plan meals based on what is on sale at the grocery store saving even more money. Lastly, by writing your meal plan down you add another level of accountability.

Don’t Make All Food From Scratch

You’re making a homemade meal, but that doesn’t mean every single part of the meal has to be made from scratch. You can buy a box of pasta, a pie crust, marinara sauce and more and still have a homemade meal. Trying to make every part of the meal from scratch will take a lot of time. It’s not cheating by buying parts of it! Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy certain parts of the recipe instead of trying to make it all from scratch.

Save Your Recipes In A Central Place

There are lots of recipe apps where you can save your recipes in a shared folder. The problem is you find lots of recipe ideas in different places, on random websites, emailed to you, etc. I find it easiest to print out all recipes and put them in a binder. This allows me to keep the binder next to the cookbooks I have as well. Alternatively, you can save all of your recipes to a shared folder on your computer. If you put this folder in Dropbox, you can also reference it easily as you’re grocery shopping. It’s much easier to figure out what to make when you can look through a bunch of recipes easily.

Use All of the Food You Buy

Using all of the food you buy seems like a simple concept, but in reality requires planning. There are many recipes which require only part of a container of an ingredient leaving you with leftovers. For example, a quiche requires 3-4 eggs leaving you with 8-9 eggs when you buy a carton of a dozen. One way to use all of the food you buy is to make recipes that have overlap in ingredients the same week. Make omelets for breakfast the same week you make a quiche. If you still have leftovers for ingredients that will go bad try to freeze it. You’re supposed to use a jar of sauce up within 7 days of opening it. Any that you don’t use can be put in a sturdy plastic container in the freezer.

It’s not fun to spend a ton of money on a specific ingredient you only need a pinch of for one dish. If a dish requires a lot of spices that can easily add up to $30 additional. Finding recipes that call for similar ingredients will reduce these costs.

Buy Frozen Fruits and Vegetables

Frozen veggies and fruit are great. They are similarly priced to fresh fruits and veggies, don’t contain artificial ingredients and I personally think they work just as well in meals. If you end up delaying a meal until later the food doesn’t have to go to waste.

Use Store and Manufacturers Coupons

A quick google search ahead of shopping will show you what is for sale at your local grocery store that week. Many manufacturers also offer coupons that can be used at any store. If you get the newspaper, both store and manufacturers coupons will come with your Sunday paper.

Know What Kitchen Tools Are Required For A Recipe

If you’re just starting out it’s likely the kitchen tools you have at home are sparse. You may not have the zester to zest a lemon, or fine chopper. There are ways to do these tasks more manually but it takes a lot more effort. Before you go shopping, don’t forget to look at what kitchen tools are required to make a recipe. You will either need to add the tools to your shopping list or find a new recipe.

What are tips you’ve found as you’ve started meal prepping and planning out your weekly meals?

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Food

Best Trader Joe’s Dinner Ideas

06.10.2019 by admin // 6 Comments

The best Trader Joe’s meals are ready in minutes and require limited prep. These dinner ideas are easy to make when you don’t have time to cook / don’t feel like cooking.

What I love most about Trader Joe’s is not only how many quick meals they sell but that there are also healthy options. It’s also easy to freeze the refrigerated meals so that no food goes to waste. I do one big shopping trip one weekend that lasts me a few weeks. This also helps save money because we don’t find ourselves in a bind and have to eat out.

Below are the best Trader Joe’s meals in minutes. Many of these quick dinners are also frozen so it’s easy to buy three weeks worth of groceries at once. And, while you’re at Trader Joe’s, don’t forget to pick up some Trader Joe’s snacks! What’s best of all – these dinner ideas are also cheap! When it’s just me, each of these can stretch for a few meals. If I’m eating dinner with my partner, we usually double the pastas. When we know we’ll have time to cook the upcoming week I create meal plans and buy ingredients from Trader Joe’s for these Trader Joe’s dinner recipes.

The Best Trader Joe’s Ravioli: Cacio E Pepe Ravioli

Trader Joe's Cacio e Pepe, Trader Joe's dinner recipes

New for 2020, the Cacio e Pepe Ravioli at Trader Joe’s is the best Trader Joe’s ravioli I have ever had! It’s so good you don’t even need to add sauce. The frozen Cacio e Pepe was sold out when I went, so I’m not sure how it compares.

Trader Joe’s Cheese Fiocchetti with Pink Sauce

Trader Joe's cheese fiocchetti with pink sauce, trader joe's dinners

Another new 2020 Trader Joe’s item is the Cheese Fiocchetti. This quick Trader Joe’s meal is made by putting the ingredients in a skillet with water and stirring. Easy meal ready in less than 10 minutes! This was the first time I bought this pasta and I will definitely buy it again.

Trader Joe’s Balsamic Rosemary Beef Steak Tips

Trader Joe's Balsamic Rosemary Beef Steak Tips, best trader joe's dinners

The Trader Joe’s Balsamic Rosemary Beef Steak Tips aren’t new, but were new to me. I bought this steak for the first time this year and it’s quickly become my favorite meat at Trader Joe’s! The rosemary seasoning is so flavorful. It’s also easy to freeze.

Trader Joe’s Peppered Beef Hanger Steak

The Trader Joe’s Peppered Beef Hanger Steak is another Trader Joe’s meal ready in minutes. Pre-marinated, all you need to do is put it on the grill. My favorite pre-marinated steak is the steak tips, but this is also on regular rotation in my household.

Whole30 Approved Trader Joe’s Meal In Minutes: Chili Lime Chicken Burgers with Guacamole

Trader Joe’s Chili Lime Chicken Burgers with Guacamole is quick and healthy. This meal was one of my go to meals when I did Whole 30. In total it cost less than $8 and last multiple meals. This Whole 30 approved frozen meal at Trader Joe’s requires almost no effort to prepare. Even though the guacamole is more expensive in these snack packs (and avocados $1.70/ each) I’ve found it cheaper to buy these. I never know when I’m going to eat this. Avocados or regular guacamole tends to go bad quickly and then I have to buy more. With these snack packs of 6 servings you only have to open what you need and can make these last for a few weeks. We usually eat this without a bun to cut carbs.

Trader Joe Meals In Minutes: Chili Lime Burgers and Guacamole

Trader Joe’s Yellow Jackfruit Curry with Jasmine Rice

The Yellow Jackfruit Curry with Jasmine Rice from Trader Joe’s is great dinner for 1 and this dinner is also vegan! This Trader Joe’s prepared meal is ready in minutes and cost ~$3.

Trader Joe Meals In Minutes: Yellow Jackfruit Curry with Jasmine Rice

Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken and Organic Jasmine Rice

Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken is one of their most popular products for a reason! This Trader Joe’s prepared meal takes a little longer as the oven needs to preheat and 25 minutes to cook. At only $5 per bag, this dinner is also cheap. The Organic Jasmine Rice takes only 3 minutes in the microwave and comes with three pouches!

Easy Trader Joe's Dinner Ideas: Mandarin Orange Chicken and Organic Jasmine Rice. Another Trader Joe meals in minutes!

Trader Joe’s Chicken & Vegetable Wonton Soup

This is a great dinner when you want something light but filling. Another Trader Joe’s meal in minutes. While not expensive at $3, if you’re only looking for soup a cheaper alternative is to buy one of their boxed soups that last multiple meals but is a little less hearty.

Best Trader Joe's Quick Meals: Chicken & Vegetable Wonton Soup

My Personal Favorite Trader Joe’s Quick Dinner: Thai Vegetable Gyoza

Trader Joe’s Thai Vegetable Gyoza are one of my favorite Trader Joe’s quick meals. In total, this takes less than 10 minutes and adds some variety to a weekly quick meal plan. This dinner is also cheap at approx $4 per bag and last multiple meals. I like to use their Coconut Amino Sauce instead of Soy Sauce and make these with the 3 minute Jasmine Rice.

Trader Joe's Meals In Minutes: Thai Vegetable Gyoza

Trader Joe’s Sweet Potato Gnocchi

The Trader Joe’s Sweet Potato Gnocchi is not the healthiest meal on the list but it is definitely delicious. For 2 people I usually make 2 bags and each bag cost about $3.

Easy Trader Joe's Dinner Ideas: Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Sausage & 4-Cheese Ravioli

This ravioli available year round is one of the heartiest ravioli meals at Trader Joe’s. For two people we usually make 2 of these, costing us about $7 in total. I make my own sauce and freeze it and usually use this with that. Even if you use store bought sauce ($2), it only lasts a week in the fridge so make sure you freeze any extra so you can use it for later. All of the pre made pasta dishes from Trader Joe’s are meals ready in minutes and are easy to freeze for later so you don’t have to throw it out if you don’t get around to eating pasta that week.

Trader Joe's Meals in Minutes: Sweet Italian Sausage & 4- Cheese Ravioli

Trader Joe’s Ricotta & Lemon Zest Ravioli

Trader Joe’s Ricotta & Lemon Zest Ravioli is one of my favorite pasta dishes in the spring and summer. This seasonal ravioli tastes great with butter or olive oil. For two people we usually make two of these and cost about $7 in total.

Best Trader Joe's Quick Meals: Ricotta & Lemon Zest Ravioli

Bonus: Trader Joe’s Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage

Trader Joe’s Spicy Italian Sausage is also Whole 30 approved! I’ll make these with eggs and do a breakfast for dinner meal. Each package cost about $4. Other times I’ll make pasta ($1) and sauce ($2) and add the sausage to the pasta dish.

Best Trader Joe's Quick Meals: Spicy Italian Chicken Sausage

There you have it, over a weeks worth of Trader Joe’s dinner ideas that are quick, easy and cheap. What are your favorite Trader Joe’s meals that are ready in minutes?

Trader Joe's Meals in Minutes Pinterest Pin

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Cheap Meals, Food, Recipes

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