Grocery News

If you're looking for the perfect souvenir to bring home from Louisville, here are my top five picks, in order from least expensive to blow-your-budget.

In lieu of Cheetos and energy drinks, you'll find green juices and grain bowls!

This place is … over the top. And I mean that in the best possible way.

It’s rare for a specialty food shop to really blow you away—especially in Brooklyn. We’re (blissfully) saturated with fine food stores here. It’s not tricky to find a spot with a well-curated selection of well-crafted cheeses, cured meats, honeys, chocolate, and the like. And so when one shop stands out from the rest, it’s all the more special. I did some perusing the other day at Campbell Cheese & Grocery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Italian olive oil, especially “extra virgin,” is a common, and essential household item in nearly any kitchen. But don’t be fooled by the olive oil bottle that sports a scenic Tuscan landscape or waves the Italian flag; these signals don’t necessarily mean that the olive oil is exclusively from Italy.

Trader Joe's, move over. This frosty French favorite destroys stereotypes and has a lot to say about French food.

As much as I'd like to replicate the dreamy French ideal of daily meanderings once back Stateside, it's not gonna happen.

Millions of people use Reddit every day, and that means the site is an absolute goldmine for insider information. Some of the site’s most popular topics are AMA threads — short for Ask Me Anything — by experts in topics like swimming pool maintenance or dog grooming. And with so many people chatting without using their real names, some secrets are bound to come out.

Joanna Gaines might have started out purely in the design world, but with the launch of her restaurant and first cookbook, Magnolia Table, she’s made the full transition to running a lifestyle empire. Her cookbook is full of recipes and the inevitable stories that accompany them. There’s the biscuit recipe that Chip can’t get enough of, and the casserole recipe that has a sneaky amount of vegetables that her kids don’t seem to notice.

No, it's not from Italy.

If you’ve ever heard all the phones around you start beeping at exactly 3 p.m., and everyone in the vicinity suddenly stops what they’re doing and looks down, chances are good they’re all playing HQ, the trivia app that everybody is completely obsessed with. And HQ host and beloved “Quiz Daddy,” Scott Rogowsky, just shared an interesting bit of trivia about himself: He’s obsessed with Trader Joe’s dried fruit.

Meghan Markle secretly dated Prince Harry for over a year, but now that they are engaged According to The Telegraph, every year the royal family releases a list of all the gifts they received, and from where. According to the list, an apron intended for Meghan Markle was given to her future brother-in-law, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

Find out why — and what other groceries he's shopping for this week.

Prepare to gasp!

Every single dish is under $7.

Ina Garten, the queen of our kitchens, is (it turns out) also a goddess of gifts. That’s right — People got the Barefoot Contessa herself to spill the beans on her favorite holiday gift choices for those of us whose lives center on cooking and hosting, and none of them cost more than $100. It’s like Oprah’s favorite things list for the cook!

Goals.

As soon as the 100-calorie packs came into my life as a vulnerable teen, calorie counting became my obsession.

There's a lot to consider when finding the best grocery store that works for you and your family. Let the stars help you decide!

Why can't we have this in every state?

We are officially mere weeks away from Thanksgiving, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is feeling the panic set in. Are you going to bake pumpkin pie or pecan pie? Do you have time to make both? Which aunt has a nut allergy? Maybe you should make cookies instead … sorry, now I’m starting to stress myself out. What you need on Thanksgiving is some help — and no, I don’t mean the kind that you get from your younger cousins who end up just making a mess.

Why oh why didn't I buy 10 bags of these?

Chocolate chip cookies are a classic dessert that are welcome year-round. You don’t need an excuse to bake a batch, like a holiday get-together, because you know that your friends will eat them literally anytime. But what if — and hear me out here — you didn’t have to bake cookies? I just discovered that Costco sells a three-pound chocolate cookie cake and, guys, this is epic.

You know how the saying goes: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. And that seems to be the philosophy that Costco has stuck to when it comes to its pumpkin pie. The recipe for the pie has remained unchanged since 1987. Costco’s pumpkin pie is so beloved, the big-box grocery chain sells millions of them every year. This obsession makes a ton of sense. Why bake for the holidays when you can buy a pie for every holiday party you’re attending in one shopping trip?

In the last couple years, Advent calendars have become more and more creative. We’ve seen a few boozy calendars pop up (including this awesome one from Aldi), and of course there’s the Reese’s one that sounds delicious. But this new one from Target might be the best of the bunch. The retailer recently collaborated with British blogger-turned-mogul Annem Hobson who invented the “world’s first cheese advent calendar.

There are plenty of tried-and-true winter cocktail recipes that remain staples of the holiday season: sparkling apple cider sangria or a cranberry fizz (which also works as a mocktail) immediately come to mind. The classics are all well and good, but why not step outside of your cocktail comfort zone this year? Leave it to Trader Joe’s to provide the unexpected, but perfect, ingredient to upgrade your drinking game: bourbon barrel-aged Vermont maple syrup.

Costco is a reliable go-to for just about everything in life, including fabulous things like Wagyu beef, diamonds, and caviar. In fact, for a little while now Costco has been stocking serrano ham (prosciutto’s Spanish cousin), and based on how quickly it flies off the shelf, it would be the jewel of any holiday table.

With Thanksgiving now just a memory, our holiday attention turns to the most wonderful time of the year: Christmas! And with that comes the joyous — but daunting — task of bringing the festive spirit of the holiday season into your home: decorating your house, buying (or unpacking) the tree, untangling that giant ball of scrambled Christmas lights, and perfecting that holiday playlist on Spotify. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Most of America might be just barely recovered from the latest run on Costco’s most famous dessert — the pumpkin pie that hasn’t changed in 31 years. The 12-inch pie, which weighs four pounds and can feed a crowd, sells in the millions every year. And, of course, we’ve already fallen in love with the three-pound cookie butter cheesecake.

As the proud owner of the URL PurseFood.org for many years before deciding the $12 each year I paid for the vanity site that I had done nothing with was throwing money away, I have strong feelings about condiments in tiny, portable packages. As in, I love them. Sure, I know Beyoncé wasn’t singing to me when she belted out about where she keeps her hot sauce, but you better believe I reached in and stroked that bottle in my handbag when I heard it.

Everyone has a grocery store they love the most, the place they’d always prefer to pick up their food — the store down the street from your apartment with the best produce, the one by your parents’ house that has been there since you were a kid. Can there be a consensus on the best grocery store in the country? Turns out, there is. Market Force recently surveyed about 12,800 Americans to find out which grocery store they love the most. The answer? Wegmans.

I get it: Sometimes when you go grocery shopping, you’re in a rush or maybe you’re just really hungry, and some of the cultural etiquette everybody has picked up over the years goes straight out of the window. You see a cluster of grapes and you just want a quick sample before committing to the whole bag. You think you want that bunch of carrots but while browsing the other aisles you decide you want the cookies instead and the carrots get left behind.

When it comes to grocery stores, some chains rise above the rest, but few sow the kind of fervent enthusiasm as Trader Joe’s does. This week the radio show Freakonomics did their research-driven dive on just what it is about the “quirky little grocery chain,” as they say, that makes people love it so much. Hint: It’s not the parking lots. In a lot of cases, it’s something equally tangential to the actual groceries, though: the employees.

Whether you celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, the eight nights of Hanukkah, or the one evening of Festivus, Whole Foods has a new event to add to your annual calendar: the 12 days of cheese. Yes, dairy-lovers, they have added a curd-nerd holiday to the winter that will light your refrigerator up with delicious deals on classic cheese, special holiday wedges, and exciting artisanal wheels. The 12 days of cheese celebration returns to Whole Foods this year on Wednesday, December 12.

If you love the DIY nut butter section that Whole Foods offers, you’re going to flip at this news. Cooking Light reports that Whole Foods is testing out a station in-store where shoppers can blend and fill bottles with fresh almond milk using some pretty spiffy-looking machines. Yes, you can now make your own almond milk!

Trader Joe’s has a bunch of incredible seasonal products they’ve released for the holidays, and one of them in particular caught my eye: Yule log ice cream. You guys, how ridiculously weird and delightful does that sound?!

You probably already know that Costco is one of the best bulk grocery stores in the country; it’s a one-stop shop for pajamas, jeans, massive quantities of cheese puffs, and roasted chickens. If you’re a member, you’re guaranteed to find something at Costco you’ll love (may I suggest this four-foot-tall wine glass?), but as it turns out the joys of Costco don’t end there. This year, the chain was named the number-one best place to work in the country.

Early last week, a friend texted our unending group thread with a screenshot from Weather.com — one suggesting that our section of North Carolina would be getting two winters’ worth of snow over the course of one day. I responded with some variation of “WTF,” before reminding myself to pick up an extra half-gallon of milk before the Snowday Preppers cleared out the bread aisle and all the dairy cases. (ALL MILK SANDWICHES, ALL THE TIME).

Remember earlier this year when we told you that cauliflower had colonized your freezer? The frilly white florets still reign supreme! Costco has the latest product when it comes to cool ways to keep your cauliflower fun and interesting: they’re now selling big bags of Maas River Farms’ organic Cauli-Tots.

Christmas morning is always a thrill, whether you’re exchanging gifts or simply happy to see your family for the first time all year. It’s even better when you wake up to an indulgent breakfast. Enter: Trader Joe’s French toast, the star of a festive morning meal that will bring you comfort and cheer on a snowy day. The recipe, which is for apple spice French toast, comes from the Instagram account Trader Joe’s Kitchen.

When it comes to celebrating the holiday season, and particularly Christmas, there are two types of households. One type opts for decorating their home with stately, minimalist touches — preferring white lights, silver bells, and multiple matched red and gold glass ornaments hung from a fresh seven-foot Douglas fir.

According to Whole Foods, these were all fan favorites too!

Forget what you heard about so-called “healthy eating” New Year’s resolutions. You made it all the way through 2018 and now you have to do another year all over again. You deserve something special, a small treat for yourself. Ah yes, this nearly seven-pound tub of Nutella from Costco will do just fine. Now, I am well aware that seven pounds is a lot of Nutella, and if you’re just putting it on your toast in the morning, you might not think you need that much.

Trader Joe’s is the king of dreaming up new and unusual ingredients that suddenly everyone has to have in their kitchens. The prime example is, of course, their Everything But the Bagel Sesame Seasoning that obtained an almost-instant cult-like status. Have you tried it? You really need to try it. The grocery giant recently added another, super-unique kind of seasoning that I imagine you’re about to see everywhere: Mushroom & Company Multipurpose Umami Seasoning Blend.

Everything old is new again, and never is that more true as when diet trends take over the grocery store — and we’re not talking just the Paleo diet here. Best Products reports that Costco has started selling what they call a “tortilla alternative”: cheese wraps. Anyone who has spent any time in Italy or Mexico will quickly correct you: these are frico, or chicharrones de queso: basically just cheese that you can crisp up into whatever shape you want.

Could this change your morning forever?

The word “bucket” conjures certain favorable images of excess when it comes to food. Who among us wouldn’t accept a nice big bucket of salty, buttery popcorn at a movie theater? Who, barring vegans and people watching their diet, wouldn’t want to be tasked with scaling the crispy mountain that is a bucket of fried chicken? And who wouldn’t raise their hands in joy at an economy-size bucket filled with mac and cheese? Wait. Did I lose you there?

Two years ago, when Amazon bought out the Whole Foods chain of grocery stores, a million questions floated around about what this meant for the quality, prices, and format of the once cutting-edge shop. Now, we’re starting to see some of those results in actual actions — starting with the end of the 365 brand of stores. Grocery Dive reports that Whole Foods will sunset the 12-store 365 group.

Just two weeks into 2019, our friends over at Trader Joe’s have already polled their loyal customers and tallied up the results to determine the grocer’s most popular products of the past year. And ever since TJ’s teased the announcement on their Instagram, I’ve been waiting with bated breath for a presenter in a sparkly gown to dramatically open an envelope and tell me the winners.

There are nine boxes in the tower, and they include things like Bavarian pretzels, peppermint crunch Oreos, and fudge dipped in chocolate.

Confession: I am intimidated by the idea of making bread — it’s a delicate process that takes some skill. Thankfully, there are mixes out there to make bread-making easier for novices like myself, and Trader Joe’s stocks some of the most intriguing variations, including this new wonderful-sounding beer bread. Yes, beer bread. And it’s only $3. In this mix, a carbonated beverage like beer or sparkling water is added to make the dough light and airy.

I am usually the biggest proponent of eating as much ice cream as possible. At least in theory. But I think we can all agree that there are moments when a waffle cone stuffed with three heaping scoops leaves you feeling stuffed and a little sick. That’s why the idea behind Hold the Cone!

We’re just over three weeks into 2019, which means that most of us haven’t completely abandoned our New Year’s resolutions yet. In addition to trying to cut down on my LaCroix intake (it’s not even that good, you guys) and trying to stop obsessing about mistakes I made in, like, 2004, I’m trying to really focus on – and stick to – my monthly budget this year.

The Super Bowl is just weeks away, and if you’re anything like me you’re looking forward to the snacks just as much as, if not more than, the game itself. The best Super Bowl parties have a full spread of dips, chips, wings, pretzels, and nachos to keep everyone happy and satisfied even if their team is losing. That’s why I decided to try out Trader Joe’s $3 Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip during Sunday night football.

For more than 30 days many government workers have been out of work due to the shutdown — now coming up on a second paycheck. In a country where many struggle to make it through a pay period, this makes for tough times and difficult decisions.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that our obsession with pretty things extends all the way to produce. Bruised but still edible watermelons, twisted carrots, conjoined mushrooms and non-triangular strawberries often languish in warehouses as surplus while their more handsome counterparts are found on the shelves of your local supermarket. In fact, The Guardian has estimated that over half of U.S. produce is thrown away due to a need for perfect-looking produce.

When it comes to what’s holding you back from making your own Crunchwrap Supreme or Doritos Locos tacos, it’s probably not the cheese. Even if you did have the deep fryer, griddle, and all the ingredients, Taco Bell is actually the fast food chain most designed for the laziest people ever and obviously not made for people who want to actually cook their wildest concoctions.

It seems like just yesterday that everyone was wild about Halo Top, the high-protein ice cream favored by workout fanatics. Hailed as a so-called “healthy” alternative to traditional ice creams, Halo Top has fewer than 300 calories, and 20 grams of protein. There’s just one downside: A pint of Halo Top usually costs around $4. As usual, Trader Joe’s is here to rescue shoppers on the hunt for deals.

Almost everyone who has an Instant Pot says that it’s made their lives easier, but you might need proof. Look no further than the Instagram account Trader Joe’s Obsessed, which recently shared a “super easy” weeknight dinner recipe that might just convince you that the Instant Pot is the cure for all your dinnertime woes. And there’s even more good news: This meal only takes nine minutes to cook, and you can find all the ingredients at your local Trader Joe’s.

Costco’s latest advance is a win for those of us who are way more into savory than sweet. Decades of Big Chocolate forcing us to think of Valentine’s Day as a sugar holiday (hey, you already have Halloween!) are finally changing. First, it was the heart-shaped pizzas and now, finally, the food industry is beginning to understand what some of us truly want as tokens of adoration: it’s not boxes of chocolate or anything shaped like roses.

It’s been a groundbreaking month for sandwich cookies of all sizes. This week brought the release of Oreo’s much-awaited, sounds-like-something-made-up-in-a-school-lunchroom, massive Most Stuf cookies that have four times the stuffing of a regular Oreo (as a filling-lover, I think that sounds like the perfect Oreo, especially if I removed one of the cookies).

I’m hardly one to be giving wedding cake advice, since my own nuptials ended with the kind of ice cream sundae bar a 6-year-old could only dream of, but if I were to advise someone, I’d say You can say it better with cheddar. And now, Costco gives us the opportunity to do that by selling a wedding cake made entirely out of cheese. As reported by Delish, the five-tier cake weighs 24 pounds and serves 105 to 150 people and costs $439.

Here’s a simple truth about food that everyone should know: Bread and cheese are a match made in culinary heaven. It is so difficult to go wrong if you just put these two ingredients together on the same plate. And when it comes to bread and cheese, pretty much no one does it better than the French.

PSA: You have a little more than a week to get your menu together for Valentine’s Day. Maybe you already have dinner planned for your sweet thang (please, ditch the restaurant this year), and maybe you’ve already decided to pick up some flowers. But what about desserts? Sure steak is great, but dessert is essential on this beloved holiday. If you’re stuck in the dessert department, Costco has your answer to love day bliss: heart-shaped macarons.

Every food secretly wishes it was pizza. Or, at the very least, every kid wishes every food was pizza. Of course you know of the brilliant pizza bagel and scrumptious pizza rolls, but you may have also tasted pizza-flavored snacks like Pringles, Combos, and Goldfish, or pizza-flavored jerky (yes, really). And for some reason, there’s also pizza-flavored almonds, pizza-flavored vape liquid, and pizza-flavored ice cream. (Absolutely not.

For most Costco members, the megastore is a one-stop shop that stocks quite literally everything you could ever want in your home, from a giant wine glass to jeans to grocery essentials. But did you know that there are some things that you might actually be better off buying at a traditional grocery store?

Generally, Aldi is praised for its award-winning wine selection and bargain-friendly groceries, but the German import is now facing some much-less-flattering press: A Pennsylvania woman is suing the grocery store chain, claiming that a turkey burger she purchased there exploded while she was cooking it, causing burns and scarring. Pittsburgh’s Action News Four reports that the woman, Gloria Besley, bought the Kirkwood brand turkey burger patties in July of last year.

If you believe hard enough, you can turn anything you consume on St. Patrick’s Day into an electric green color. All you need is some green food coloring and your imagination. Some of the most popular things to turn green on the rowdy holiday include beer, more beer, and bagels (this one never made sense to me). But I bet you’ve never seen this green food before. German grocery giant, ALDI, is upping its game for St. Patricks Day this year by debuting a line of cheeses.

The most popular Trader Joe’s product in your state is probably the sweet chili sauce. Bustle reports that a study by Workwise mapped the most popular item from everybody’s favorite grocery store, and in 13 states, centered around the Southeast — almost a quarter of the country — the answer was sweet chili sauce.

Of the more divisive candies there are to enjoy in this wide world of sugar, marshmallow Peeps stand at the top of the list. But all you haters can sit down, because marshmallow Peeps just announced a ton of new products, some more typical, and some as wild as my taste buds will allow. Peeps will be releasing the following three flavors nationwide: cotton candy, orange sherbet, and lastly, a flavor that’s probably more controversial: pancakes and syrup.

Everyone loves pizza; this is an indisputable fact. But pizza is not exactly the most health-conscious food, and I’d wager there are probably a lot of people out there desperate for a diet-friendly alternative. Luckily Trader Joe’s has a new gluten-free, egg-free broccoli and kale pizza crust in its freezer aisle.

Forget winter, what’s really coming is a new Oreo. No, we’re not talking about the holiday-themed Easter Egg oval-shaped ones, nor the recent king-size cookies and creme Oreo candy bars. These are something darker, cooler, maybe a bit more menacing, and definitely way more mysterious: Game of Thrones Oreos. Yes, coming this April is not only the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones, but also a special crossover-branded Oreo cookie.