Trader Joe’s – Page 3 – Fervent Foodie

Weekend Fail.

February 7, 2011 8 Comments

Going into the weekend, I had one goal: to find the new Luna Bar flavors and devour mass quantities of them. For those who aren’t maniacally obsessed with luna bars …. For those who have been living under a rock!!! … ahem… for those who aren’t aware, the new flavors are Chocolate Chunk and the highly coveted Chocolate Dipped Coconut.

Saturday afternoon I was out running errands when I got wind of a winter storm a brewing. So I decided to high tail it to Whole Foods in Cleveland so that I could snag the new Lunas. I even called the store ahead of time to make sure that they had the new flavors in stock. As an added bonus, I planned to swing by Trader Joes which is right down the road from Whole Foods. It’s not often I make this trip up to Cleveland, so I had already started mentally drafting a lengthy list of goodies to pick up.

About 20 minutes into my drive the freezing rain started. No worries I thought. I’ve got this. Zoom zoom Mazda, zoom zoom.

A few miles passed.

Ok Mazda, perhaps a little less zoom.

Let’s creep like a turtle instead, shall we?

The closer and closer I got the Cleveland the WORSE AND WORSE the weather got. At one point traffic was stuck at a dead stop for a good 15 minutes, which I soon realized was due to an accident that had resulted in a car completely flipped over on the snow embankment. I counted four accidents on my journey north. And I’m not talking fender benders. I’m talking the kind of accident you drive by and say “holy cow! how the heck did that happen!??!?”.

Perhaps this was a bad day to go to Cleveland…

When I finally arrived at Whole Foods, I was literally shaking. I bolted inside and headed for the Luna Bars. I quickly spied the Chocolate Chunk and grabbed two with gusto. As I reached victoriously into the Chocolate Dipped Coconut box I realized, to my utter horror, that the box was empty. They were sold out. They were sans coconut goodness, if you will.

I had just risked my life, and they were sold out.

I stood in front of the Luna Bars motionless as defeat washed over me.

As I turned to leave, I remembered that I was also super excited to try out the new blueberry muffin LaraBar. Just as I headed to grab one, an old lady swerved her cart into the aisle and picked up the ENTIRE last box of blueberry muffin Laras and dumped them into her cart.

I kid you not. It was like a scene from Walmart’s toy aisle on Black Friday.

I turned away concealing my internal rage, bought my 2 chocolate chunk bars, and headed to the car.

I immediately tore into the Chocolate Chunk Luna Bar.

This Luna Bar was definitely tasty, like a big chocolatey chewy graham. It reminded me of the smore Luna a little too much though….

After all that nonsense, I decided to just go home. No TJ’s shopping spree. That’s right. I drove all the way to Cleveland in an ice storm for 2 Chocolate Chunk Luna bars.

Fail.

Recipes

Hummus + Spaghetti Squash

September 28, 2010 6 Comments

Sometimes I have foodie visions. This is my term for the moment when a random collaboration of ingredients convene in my brain and its seems as though there is nothing I can do to regain control of my thoughts… except of course, try out the random concoction … all the while hoping it doesn’t make me ralph.

My most recent foodie vision consisted of some of this:

plus

What’s that, you ask? Good question! This lovely dinner concoction consisted of:

2 tbsp Trader Joe’s Original Hummus
2 ounces chopped grilled chicken
1 diced roma tomato
1 baby spaghetti squash
Some red pepper flakes

Repulsed? Don’t go all eggplant on me yet!

First, I baked the spaghetti squash in a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes (since this was just a lil guy). Then I used a fork to scrape out the squash noodles.

Meanwhile, I sprayed a skillet with some cooking spray and tossed in the hummus to get it heating up:

Then I added the tomatoes and chicken:

Once everything was warmed through, I added the spaghetti squash and some red pepper flakes.

Presto!

This was really tasty and simultaneously really weird 😯

Several times during the meal I got a faint reminder of macaroni and cheese which I found even weirder–but that gave me ANOTHER foodie vision I must try sometime soon…. Cheesy spaghetti squash! Stay tuned, folks!

Overall, I like this idea and I’m definitely going to play with it some more. I think wilted spinach would be a really nice addition and maybe a different flavor of hummus….. we shall see… we shall see.

Stats on the spaghetti squash/hummus concoction: 199 calories, 20g carbs, 6g fat, 14g protein, 5g fiber

CALL TO ACTION! Now that the weather is changing, I’ve been craving WARM lunches…. I am bored & I need inspiration for yummy/healthy WARM lunches to bring to work….. Any ideas?

What I ate

A sandwich BUILT for Hummus

August 26, 2010 4 Comments

It’s Thursday, and I am one happy lady. Thank you to those of you who commented on yesterday’s tell me something happy post. Each one of your comments resulted in a big smile on my face, and I thank you again and again for sharing your happy thoughts with me!

Breakfast #1

Today I planned on eating the last of the scrambled eggs I cooked up on Sunday, but I was in the mood for something a little different. Something with a little kick. And when I’m in such a mood, I turn to my friend Frank. Frank’s Red Hot that is 🙂

Come to think of it, I can’t leave out my good friends George and Mama Lupe either! Frank, George, and Mama Lupe all contributed to my yummy breakfast wrap.

Leftover scrambled eggs + several shakes of Franks atop a Mama Lupe low carb tortilla:

Then I wrapped it up burrito-style and grilled on the George for about 5 minutes, until the eggs were hot and the tortilla was crispy.

I also heated up the broccoli in the microwave… Unfortunately my microwave doesn’t have a human name… Frank, George, Mama Lupe, and Emerson (I guess Emerson could be a last name).

I swear the George Foreman grill is one of the most amazing kitchen gadgets on earth–or at least the most amazing one in my kitchen!

Stats on B#1: 208 Calories, 15 g carbs, 8g fat, 24g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oaty goodness:

It’s getting cold in the mornings now… I have a feeling pretty soon I’ll be saying farewell to cold oats and heading back to the warmth the traditional hot oats. *Sigh*

Stats on B#2: 233 calories, 44g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Ive blabbed my Trader Joe’s sob story on this blog many a time.. Sooooo far to drive (~1 hr away) to the nearest TJ’s… So sad. Luckily, my mom picked me up some Trader Joe’s Hummus on her last trip to TJ’s! WOOOOOOT!

The hummus was not an afterthought for today’s sandwich, not a mere condiment to go on the bun. No. Today’s sandwich was BUILT specifically for Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus.

This sandwich consisted of a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat & a four ounce grilled chicken breast:

That I topped off with sliced tomato, onion, and the STAR of the show: Trader Joe’s Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

Then I added some fresh spinach and some sprouts. Excessive veggies? Perhaps.

Check out the height on this sucker:

I also had some leftover roasted cauliflower on the side. Cauliflower might looking boring, but trust me. It was fab.

Layers of FLAVOR.

Stats on Lunch: 364 calories, 35g carbs, 5g fat, 46g protein, 11g fiber

QUESTION: What did YOU have for lunch today? I’m always looking for ways to shake up my lunch routine!

What I ate

Starting the week on a roll… a jelly roll that is

August 9, 2010 1 Comment

Sometime last week I accidentally downloaded the $10 Runkeeper pro ap on my iPhone… I was kind of annoyed because the free Runkeeper pro app I had was working just fine… but apparently my right thumb decided I needed to go the extra mile (no pun intended) and buy the pricey app.

I’ve played around with the full Runkeeper Pro ap a little bit, and wasn’t too impressed until I logged onto the website and saw all the cool information that my phone automatically transmits. As you may recall, I’ve been working on interval training (since my right knee is opposed to me doing a 5k). So in the past, it’s been hard for me to tell how fast I was running and how fast I was walking during my intervals.

Enter the fancy schmancy Runkeeper Pro ap for the low-low price of $9.99! When I logged onto the website I was VERY happy to see that I can get a breakout by interval. Here’s the stats from my interval this morning which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running:

Not too shabby on the run times. Now I can actually work on improving my pace AND my knee strength. I guess this was a happy $10 accident 🙂

Breakfast #1

I was planning to have eggs for breakfast, but time was not on my side this morning. Instead I grabbed an Earth Grains 100% whole wheat deli flat and topped it with 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Crunchy Salted Almond Butter:

My friends Tim and Jaci hooked me up with some Smucker’s reduced sugar red raspberry preserves to try, and I thought this combo would be fantastic:

AB & J:

I was right, it was fan-friggin-tastic!! I love these reduced sugar preserves just as much as I love the regular blackberry preserves! Smucker’s preserves are perfection.

Stats on B#1: 225 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 9g protein, 6g fiber

Breakfasts #2

My usual overnight oats with strawberries and blueberries:

OO love 🙂

Stats on B#1: 229 calories, 42g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

When I was making yesterday’s garbanzo bean salad, I saved some of the veggies for my lunch. CHOP ONCE, EAT TWICE my friends 🙂

Mixins:

I also added 2 ounces grilled chicken, half a bag of romaine lettuce, and 2 tbsp Ken’s Lite Northern Italian with Basil and Romano dressing:

Whole lot o veg:

Stats on B#1: 309 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 25g protein, 10g fiber

Question for ya’ll: What are your favorite things to pack for lunch? I tend to get super bored with my lunches and would LOVE new ideas! 😀

Fitness, Restaurants

5 steps forward, 5 steps back

August 3, 2010 6 Comments

Over the past 4 months I’ve had on-again off-again knee problems. 🙁

I’ve played soccer since I was in elementary school, and never had any issues. This past spring, I decided to take up running. I was AMAZED by how much I enjoyed it! About a month into my newly found passion, I had a sharp pain in my right knee during my morning run. I didn’t twist the knee, or land funny, or make any other type of movement to cause the pain. It just sort of happened. I attributed the pain to weakness (i.e., “push yourself harder, Mary“) and ran about 1 more mile to my house. That genius move resulted in me limping around for about a week or so. I tried several times to pick up where I had left off, with no success. I even went to see an orthopedic doctor who told me “some knees just aren’t made for running.”

Unacceptable.

Then a couple months ago I developed a plan of attack in the form of my interval training plan. Basically, the plan was to start off with walking/running intervals and slowly increase the running time over a period of weeks until I was running the entire time.

Things were going super smooth, and I was up to 7 minutes running and 3 minutes walking…. that is until I hurt my knee again on vacation a couple weeks ago. I think this time it was due to overuse–we did a TON of walking and I was still doing my regular intervals on top of it.

It’s been 2 weeks since vacation, and I’ve tried several times to get my run on. This was not going well at all — I could only do 1/2 of my regular intervals before feeling the pain start. At least I have learned my lesson and now stop running at the first sign of knee pain!

So this morning I decided to start the interval all over again… yup… all the way back at 4 minutes walking, 2 minutes running. Slowly but surely, I am determined to get to running a 5K with no knee issues!

Breakfast #1

Leftovers from yesterday’s eggins–with one new addition:

Heinz reduced sugar ketchup. After my ketchup post last week, I started thinking about how much ketchup I actually consume in any given week. As much as I love ketchup, it’s really just a bunch of empty calories. So I decided to give this reduced sugar version a shot:

The ketchup was pretty good — though it oddly tasted sweeter than regular Heinz ketchup. I’m going to try and use the reduced sugar ketchup in place of the regular stuff as much as possible.

Stats on B#1: 161 calories, 9g carbs, 5g fat, 21g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

Overnight oats 🙂

Last night, I put the following into a bowl:

1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
1/2 cup almond breeze unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 tsp brown sugar
sprinkling of cinnamon

I mixed everything up and left them in the fridge overnight. This morning I added about 6 sliced strawberries (thank you to my mom for hooking me up with these DELICIOUS strawberries) and a 1/3 cup fresh blueberries:

All mixed up:

These overnight oats never get old 🙂

Stats on B#2: 236 calories, 45g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

My all-time favorite hummus comes from Nate’s Deli in Cleveland. A close second would be Trader Joe’s hummus. Unfortunately, neither of my long distance relationships with Nate nor Trader Joe are able to satisfy my frequent hummus cravings, so I’ve been on the hunt for a tasty hummus that I can find locally.

I picked this up at the grocery store last night:

I especially liked the simple list of ingredients (chick peas, tahini, fresh spinach, lemon juice, garlic, and salt) and it is only 33 calories for a 2tbsp serving! The flavor was a little on the bland side, however.

For lunch, I made up a sandwich with a 3.5 ounce grilled chicken breast, 1 tbsp Amir Hummus, 1/2 a roma tomato, sliced red onion, and 1 cup spinach sandwiched between a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain Deli flat:

Notice that I used my tupperware lid as a plate instead of using a paper plate. “Kelsy” would be proud 😉

Now that’s what I’m talkin bout:

I could eat this every day:

I also had some cucumber salad on the side. This cucumber was straight from the BF’s mom’s garden!

Stats on lunch: 323 calories, 37g carbs, 3g fat, 40g protein, 10g fiber

Question: Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from doing an activity you really enjoy?

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next »