On food… {You can’t act like you didn’t know it was coming.}

Those who read my blog (or follow my twitter/facebook) are well versed on the fact that I love Trader Joe’s  I love that store! I became familiar with it, when we lived near one- though I stuck to only shopping there occasionally and buying only things I already knew were great. Then, suddenly we lived back in Idaho where that was NO Trader Joe’s. I missed it instantly and began researching products they carried that people loved.

We would travel to a TJ’s within a 6-8 hours drive, and buy a few new things to try while stocking up on the beloved things that no other brand compared to. We would tow along a small cooler to fill with my FAVORITE salad dressing and handful of frozen things we loved, the majority of our loot was of the least bulky and non-cold-needing grocery and face care variety.

Then, in March, we moved.

On our fourth day in our new home, we ventured to one of two local TJ’s markets. It was insanely crazy, small, cramped, a little seedy and quite disheartening.

But we did not give up.

(To those of you who aren’t Joe fans, and are thinking Good grief, this is quite possible the WORST post in the history of blogs everywhere, it’s not- I promise.)

Two days later we braved the other location. We’ve been back every week since.

It’s about 40 minutes from our house, and sadly a flowers don’t travel home well… Which is pretty sad since they have AWESOME flowers. It’s a small thing though. We’ve been able to try a lot of the fresh and cold-needing things we hadn’t before. We’ve been pretty impressed all around. We’ve found some new favorites. Favorites that other supermarkets may carry- but I’ve never seen them…

The top of this list is this. It’s amazing! We’ve had it in sautes, poured it raw into our salads, added it to stir fry and most recently used it in a sweet potato hash that was to die for.

Their Greek yogurt is amazing and affordable.

Their Kefir is delicious, especially the pomegranate flavored.

The sell shave brussel sprouts. Have used them in all of the things I used the super 8 in, and they are AMAZING!

Their instant Steele Cut Oats are fantastic. My oatmeal adoring 14 year old has declared them her FAVORITE.

Their Dixie Peach juice. (YUM!)

Sweet Potato chips. Only potato chips I like.

Their blocked cheeses are a Great price and so delicious.

Joe Joe ice cream was a huge hit with my Joe Joe cookie loving hubby.

Salted Peanut Butter Caramel truffles are to die for. (and fair trade, so no one DID risk dying for them, even better!)

Blueberry scones (in a can like Pillsbury muffins) are AWESOME.

Their frozen Veggie fried rice is amazing, as is the Mandarin chicken. (also frozen.)

There is more- but these things stand out. It has honestly been every single meal, that we’ve raved about how fresh, delicious and amazing something was. It has inspired me to cook more, to cook more creatively…

So there you go… If you live near a TJ’s and don’t use these items- I encourage you to try them…

And if you live in Boise: Hold on!!!! It’s coming. :)