Recently, while helping my sister apartment shop, I had my first ever “Trader Joe’s experience” and not to be dramatic but it was LIFE CHANGING.
Seriously, the prices, the cleanliness, the quality, even the reasonably priced flowers… it was amazing!
What I found most amazing was the quality of their “premade”and “pre-packaged” foods. From a nutritional standpoint, so many of these premade options are much better than grabbing takeout and since they are premade they take 30 minutes or less to throw together for a meal.
I don’t know about you but 30 minutes is about the same amount of time it takes to get my toddlers shoes on and get us both into the car now-a-days and of course you never know how long the drive thru line might take… that definitley adds up to over half an hour!
As a single mom, getting dinner on the table after a long day of work is usually pretty draining. The cooking is one thing but he dishes are just too much sometimes. But this week, given that so much was partially made already, it wasn’t an overwhelming task to cook AND clean.
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We enjoyed 5 nights worth of picky-eater and nutrtionist approved Trader Joe’s dinners this week, which were:
- Black Truffle Alfredo Fettuccine with Chicken and Broccoli
- Crockpot Meatballs & Marinara with Spaghetti, Green Beans, & Ciabatta
- Orange Chicken with Veggie Fried Rice and Spicy Asian Slaw Salad
- Pizza and Caesar Salasd
- Chicken & Sweet Potato Curry with Coconut Milk Rice
A big part in making meals for the whole family is focusing on deconstructing parts of the meal to be considerate of your child’s learning journey with foods. For example, deconstructing the fettuccine dish by portioning out some of the plain pasta (and, if desired, tossing in butter or oil to add fat), serving the sauce on the side, and offering some of the chicken plain. This allows you to still only cook once, but give your picky eater the space to explore and learn each food individually if they are not yet ready to eat them combined. To learn more check out this post on “building on safe food” to help your picky eater learn to accept more variety!
Some of my other favorite Trader Joe’s finds were:
Cookie Butter
Wow. Wow. Wow. This stuff is honestly addicting. Grab a jar of this and an apple and thank me later.
If you do not have a Trader Joe’s near you, you can still grab a jar of this on Amazon here.
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Pre-Cooked Lentils
Crushed Garlic Cubes (Frozen)
Pre-Cooked Grilled Chicken
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- Cherry Coconut Breakfast Bars
- Spinach Banana Pancakes
- Starting Solids: Stage 1 (6 months old)
- Pasta Salad
- Watermelon Popsicle
Snacks with Jax 