Favorite items from Trader Joes

Up until about a year ago I had never even heard of Trader Joes.  A woman who posts vlogs on YouTube mentioned it in one of her videos and I was intrigued.  She mentioned something about all fruit frozen bars and I just had to look them up - one because they sounded delicious and two because I had never heard of this store before. 

I searched on their website and figured that I would expand the search to like 500 miles or something like that to catch all of Texas and... the dreaded three words - 'no stores found'.  What?!  In 500 miles?  Only up north, I found out after some digging.  I had to settle for some crappy regular Popsicles. 

Fast forward a year or so and my husband comes home one day to tell me they are building a Trader Joes in Ft Worth.  Hallelujah!!  Finally I get to experience the mystique that is Trader Joes.  Unfortunately it had to be with about 21,000 other people on opening weekend.  Apparently they all got the memo for how wonderful it was as well.  We didn't end up going on opening weekend but we did go a few weekends later. 

Right away Isabella notices the giant banana set up.  Even to this day if we go into Trader Joes she has to eat a banana while we are shopping.  I am convinced that they do that banana arrangement just to keep the kids quiet so their parents can shop longer.  It's a banana conspiracy, I tell you!  I don't complain though because I am glad that she is eating a banana and not chocolate covered espresso beans like I saw some other kid eating the other day while his mom was shopping. 

I digress... just after the banana debacle is their fresh produce.  It looks awesome and fresh and well stocked.  We bought some organic apples that day for some applesauce that I wanted to make for Isabella.  Depending on the store arrangement you get different items next - for some it's the meat/cheese/eggs/milk/cool items and for others it's the shelves of dry goods, etc. 

We didn't know what to buy from this store because it was so new to us, but we knew that several items were popular.  We bought a few that day and have come to love a few more over time.  I will list out our favorites here and you can check them out the next time you go...

Our #1 favorite item is their packaged mini chocolate chip cookies.  They are tiny and crispy and delicious.  They are good for kids because they are small and relatively bite sized for tiny mouths.  We get at least one container of these every time we go and everyone who has eaten them at our house loves them.   They are less than $4 for this entire container. 


Organic lollipops.  This is a relatively new favorite.  I saw these one time while I was there browsing.  Isabella loves 'suckers' and I hate giving them to her normally because they are packed with less than ideal ingredients for kids.  These are small and organic made from cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup which makes me feel better about giving her one in the event of a meltdown.  I keep a stash in the car and in our stroller in case of a total breakdown situation.   They are about $3-4. 


The next item I was not originally on board for.  Corry found them and decided that he wanted to try them and I couldn't say no since we didn't know anything about this place or the food they carried.  Mahi-Mahi burgers.  I will be the first to admit that I am the furthest thing from an adventurous eater, however these were really good.  They grilled very nicely.  However, we can rarely find them.  According to the TJs in Ft Worth they still carry them but supposedly they are popular and sell out quickly.  We haven't seen them in at least the last ten times that we have been there. 


Brown rice pasta is our next favorite item.  This pasta is awesome.  I like whole wheat pasta so I didn't think that I would have a problem with this pasta, but I wasn't sure that Corry would like it.  There are different cooking times than 'normal' pasta but overall it is good.  They have penne, spaghetti and elbows I think.  For awhile we only had this pasta in our cabinet.  We have been a bit lax recently and have just been buying pasta from Aldi but this is still one of my favorite pastas.  With a meal, I can't tell any difference in this pasta vs. the 'normal' pasta.  I can tell when you reheat it the next day because it does have a tendency to break down but the taste remains the same. 


Our final favorite is their specialty pancake/waffle mix.  They make a pumpkin spice pancake mix and it is absolutely amazing.  We bought about 4-5 boxes this year after our original time buying it because it was that good.  It had real pumpkin taste and didn't have any imitation flavor to it.  It made awesome pancakes and made the entire house smell amazing. 
We have had many other items from Trader Joes including their frozen fruit, their pizza dough, wine, beer, pita bread, veggie chips, cocoa powder, coconut oil, chicken sausage, pasta sauce, etc.  Anything and everything that we have ever purchased from there is excellent.  I haven't had one item that I was disappointed in.  The prices are excellent too - much cheaper than what I would have expected. 

Oh - one last bonus point ... their restrooms are always clean.  That is huge considering that most 'grocery' store restrooms are awful. 

What are your favorite items from Trader Joes?  I would love to get more inspiration the next time I shop!