Groceries

Now that we’re officially into spring, Aldi has given us a sneak peek at its Aldi Finds that will be rolling into stores next month. (If you’re not familiar, Aldi Finds are special items — groceries, clothing, housewares, and more — that come out on Wednesdays and are available for a limited time.

The other day, while strolling the aisles of my local Costco, I spotted a new item by one of my favorite brands: Suja. What’d I find? Mini bottles of booch! For those who are unfamiliar, booch is an adorable nickname for kombucha, which is a probiotic-rich fermented drink that is shown to support gut health and immune system health (in most individuals). Most bottles of kombucha come in larger sizes, so I was intrigued to see these little guys.

If you’ve been following along on my unofficial quest to eat every single thing at Trader Joe’s, then you are probably aware that there are not very many items that I do not rave about. You see, when Trader Joe’s take’s a high-flying risk — whether it be in the frozen, refrigerated, bakery, or snack aisle — they usually stick the landing.

Whether you need something keto-friendly to put in your coffee, or just want to avoid animal products, lots of us are looking for alternatives to dairy milk these days.

I can’t imagine my life, let alone my fridge, without pickles. I love them all. Tart ones, funky fermented ones, classic dill, hot and spicy, bread-and-butter. Right now in my fridge I’ve got jars of relish, spears, sandwich slabs, and coins, not to mention all the non-cucumber stuff like Indian lime pickles and kimchi. And for a while now, I’ve been seeing dill pickles go far beyond the jars, flavoring everything from potato chips to sunflower seeds.

Have you ever had a croissant that you didn’t like? Yeah, me neither. Because as annoying as they are to make, there’s no world in which flaky, buttery dough comes out badly. Croissants are delicious! Chocolate croissants are even more delicious! And starting April 10, Aldi stores will be carrying a croissant that will ruin all other croissants for you. Say hello to these new Specially Selected Croissants WITH EVERYTHING SEASONING.

Trader Joe’s corporate headquarters is shrouded in about as much secrecy as Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole. On account of that, every time a new episode of the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast goes live, I think of it as a rare dispatch from the hardworking elves who toil away to ensure that TJ’s shelves are constantly stocked with delightful groceries.

By now, you all probably know how much I love Costco. I frequently go on and on (and on) about my favorite healthful items to find at the warehouse store. There’s the stuff in the freezer section, the snack aisles, the breakfast finds — I can (and do!) keep going! When you stop to look at the patterns of my musings, though, you’ll see that Costco’s in-house brand, Kirkland Signature, constantly gets a mention or three.

Hitting up Whole Foods is a lot like catching up with a good friend who always has exciting life updates to share every time that you see them — the conversation is never dull and there’s always something new to squeal over together. My recent visit to Whole Foods was a lot like that. After the Whole Foods Market blog announced the store’s monthly offerings, I knew I had to get myself straight to the source. Hello, Whole Foods, my old friend. Tell me, what’s new?

Frozen dinner options have come a long way — especially at Trader Joe’s. (Makes sense, considering most of us are more likely to shop the freezer section at TJ’s than other grocery stores.) The offerings at Trader Joe’s are ridiculously cheap and delicious. While I’m not saying I have frozen meals every night (I do love to cook when my schedule allows!), I do turn to them fairly regularly.

If you have kids, you almost certainly have a bag of chicken nuggets in your freezer right now. Even if you don’t have kids, nuggets likely have a place in your kitchen — or at least in your heart. They’re super-fast, protein-packed, and pretty hard to resist. And there are all sorts of ways you can turn them into an adult-friendly dinner. But not all nuggets are created equal. Some bake up crisp, while others are gummy.

When I went to college, I became somewhat of a Trader Joe’s snob. Truthfully, I cringe to even say those words. Having grown up in suburban Pennsylvania where Wegmans was the height of fanciness, I found an easily accessible Trader Joe’s to be a legitimate luxury, so much so that I became a total devotee to the temple of brandless, often organic, inexpensive products.

By now, you’ve probably heard that there are a few ways to shop Costco without being a member. Maybe you don’t want to shell out the membership fee? Or maybe you just don’t have one within a reasonable driving radius? I get it — and I don’t blame you at all. But I do think you should try at least some of Costco’s Kirkland Signature groceries. And you can! Because lots of the shelf-stable options are sold online on Amazon.

We went on the hunt for the best crispy, crunchy, cinnamon-y snacks and found a few surprises.

This magical rosé will hit stores again on May 8, and company execs tell us there will be more bottles than ever before.

Here's what's worth it — and what's definitely not.

The vegan shredded cheese at Trader Joe's is no match for the vegan shredded cheese at Whole Foods.

Aldi's going to have power-washers, broccoli-crust pizzas, and so much more. These are the June Aldi Finds we're most excited about.

You’ll want to make a beeline for Costco’s freezer section.

Dinner party guests will rave about these.

All the more reason to stock up on Trader Joe's flowers this spring!

One morning, I opened my eyes and smelled the debt. All $18,000 of it.

Not all veggie burgers are ideal for the grill. But these are!

There better be Fire Sauce pool floaties.

We tried 47 new products that just hit grocery stores this May in order to find our favorites.

Meh.

We lined up a bunch of Trader Joe's dog treats and these are the ones our guinea pup picked over and over again.

The vegan cold brew coconut cream latte comes in two flavors: original and caramel spice.

Prepare to binge-watch!

Because the warehouse store is more than just a grocery store.

Find out how Sarah manages to keep under budget. (Hint: She eats the same thing for lunch five days out of the week).

The popsicles are basically like the adult version of Otter Pops and thus are both happy hour and nostalgia hour wrapped together.

We did rounded up all the options we could find and these were the best.

The cups are already so popular that they’re pretty much completely sold out at Starbucks locations across the country.

A former Netflix creative director has decided the secret to selling water is to make it more metal.

I genuinely love that TJ's trains its team to be so personable, but there are definitely moments when personable crosses into weird.

I can find it almost anywhere!

This Prime member isn't giving up her Costco card, and neither should you.

No grill? No problem. Here's how to enjoy the flavors all the same.

Some keen-eyed viewers might have spotted an object that doesn’t exactly belong in Westeros last night.

Hello, it's me again — with the Trader Joe's content that you want and need.

Because a penny saved is a penny earned.

We don’t visit the local Whole Foods very often, and we hadn’t inspected their loose selection of local eggs very closely. So we were in for a shock when we wandered over last night and realized that those giant greeny-blue ovals weren’t out-of-season melons, but honest-to-goodness emu eggs. What’s more, they’re local. More photos of outlandish eggs, fresh from the farm, below… Does your Whole Foods have a local egg bar?

This colorful Trader Joe’s vinegar first caught our eye a few months ago, but we kept passing it by in favor of practical pantry staples. Every so often, we’d pick it up and almost put it in our basket, only to place it back on the shelf with a sigh.Then we were hungry for a citrusy, vinegary salad to go with the breezy warm weather this past weekend, and we decided enough was enough!This vinegar hits the balance of sweet and tart exactly right.

We spotted these small jars of Spanish saffron at Trader Joe’s the other week, and we’re curious how this saffron holds up in the kitchen. Has anyone tried it?Normally something of a luxury item, these jars were only $5.99 for one gram (about a third of an ounce). This price seems a little too good to be true, frankly, and made us wonder about the quality.For those who may not know, saffron is the stigmas from a particular kind of crocus flower.

And since we’re writing about grits, we thought we’d give you a good mail-order source for an exceptional, stone-ground variety. Anson Mills in Columbia, SC, grows organic, heirloom corn and sells their products to chefs all over the country… We’ve never ordered from Anson Mills, but we’ve read good things.

Although we do our best to eat local, some things are just grown too far from home. One of these foods is cocoa, most of which comes from the Ivory Coast region of West Africa, as well as Central America. Sadly, the reality of the cocoa industry is not as sweet as the final product we enjoy here at home. The good news is, even though this is occurring thousands of miles away, Americans wield a tremendous amount of buying power.

We’re not sure if this is a new product or if it’s been there all along, but we were excited to discover arborio rice on a recent shopping foray to Trader Joe’s!Arborio rice is a key ingredient – arguably the key ingredient! – in Italian risotto, and we often have trouble finding it outside of gourmet food stores. When we do find it, it’s often of dubious quality and fairly expensive.

When we talked about our love of wild rice a few months ago, several of you mentioned buying it at Trader Joe’s. We looked for it the next time we were in the store, and sure enough, there it was!Finally, here is a relatively inexpensive and readily available source for one of our favorite grains. One 16-ounce bag goes for $4.99 – a good deal for this grain, we think!The rice grains are dark, slightly glossy, and uniform in length – all good signs of quality wild rice.

For the past few weeks, bags of liquid starter for this Amish friendship bread have been spreading among our friends faster than a 1980’s chain letter. “How are you?” has been replaced by “What day are you on?” and “Have you made yours yet?” We’d be a little frightened except that everyone is so gosh darn excited…For the unfamiliar, Amish friendship bread is your basic sweetened quick-bread.

Trader Joe’s certainly caused quite a hubbub when they decided to stop carrying King Arthur Flour and switch over to a store brand. We saw the new Trader Joe’s all-purpose flour on the shelves for the first time this past weekend and picked up a bag. Time to put it to the test!Reading the packaging information, we have to say that this flour looks promising. The flour is unbleached, which we prefer. Nothing too scary on the ingredient list.

Manhattan finally has a Whole Foods Market wine store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Eager to explore, I popped along to see what exciting wines I could find!This is Whole Foods’ fourth attempt at selling wine in New York City. The store at Columbus Circle was deemed illegal under New York State Liquor Authority (NYSLA) law, and licenses for both the Bowery and Union Square Whole Foods’ stores were denied.

My husband and I, along with a crew of siblings, aunts, uncles, and even some work colleagues with nowhere else to go for the holiday, are about to descend upon my aunt’s lovely home for Thanksgiving dinner. This is a time when a hostess gift is certainly called for. We want to take some small and luxurious token of appreciation, maybe even something homemade. Here are a few ideas, and we’d love to hear more from you!

Q: I am on a quest to find large whole wheat pasta shells (the kind that are ideal for stuffing with ricotta and spinach goodness). I live in a relatively small town and unfortunately have had zero luck finding them online as well. The smaller shells are readily available, but I have had no luck with the large shells.Any help would be greatly appreciated!Sent by SarahEditor: We haven’t had much luck finding whole wheat jumbo shells either.

When it comes to quick appetizers for a crowd, we’re big fans of the classic cheese, deli meat, and cracker combo. With a choice or two of each, everyone is happy! We normally go for fairly basic crackersWow. These crackers pack a powerful punch. The black pepper flavor is super intense – like tongue-numbing and sneeze-inducing intense! This is paired with some garlic and onion seasoning and a hefty dose of salt.

When Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten conducted his landmark ketchup taste test in 1992, he categorized the condiments as Heinz, Worse Than Heinz, Better Than Heinz, and Not Really Ketchup. Nearly twenty years later, with home canning making a comeback and housemade condiments popping up on restaurant tables, The Washington Post‘s Jane Black wonders, Could homemade ketchup beat Heinz?Normally we would say, yes, of course! Homemade is always preferable to industrially processed.

When we first saw these whole grain and gluten-free brown rice noodles from Annie Chun’s, we were mighty curious. It’s taken us a while to get over our assumptions and learn to love whole wheat pasta, after all. How would noodles made with brown rice stack up?Quite well, it turns out! They cooked up just the same as regular noodles and showed that familiar slippery, chewy texture.

Last spring I was lucky enough to indulge in the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. At Café Angelina in Paris, the rich hot chocolate is served in its own pitcher alongside a small pot of fresh and perfect whipped cream. Have you been there? Why is it so good?After sitting down to what would be one of the most superb gastronomic experiences of my life, I ordered the most expensive hot chocolate of my life. It was worth every Euro and then some!

I am a die hard make-it-from-scratch cook for dinner parties. I’ll take the extra step to make even the most basic foods myself — hand-rolled tortillas, homemade caramel, pie crusts, and everything in between. Although these details make a difference to me, I’ve learned that cutting a few corners never breaks a party. Tip number one: Trader Joe’s red pepper spread.

We love this stuff. So handy for quick appetizer bites or a tray of fresh breakfast pastries for a special brunch. We’ve tried several brands over the years and keep coming back to good ol’ Trader Joe’s. It’s just so good!Trader Joe’s puff pastry is made with just five ingredients: flour, butter, salt, sugar, and water. The flavor is so rich and buttery, you almost don’t need a filling.

I don’t need much convincing to try a new cheese. When someone suggests something I’ve never heard of I generally add it to my “to try” list. But more often than not, I’m plagued by the same kind of forgetfulness that accompanies trips to the video store, when you can’t seem to remember the dozens of must-see titles that you swore you wouldn’t forget.

When my husband and I set foot inside our local Whole Foods this weekend it was crazy busy as you might expect before a holiday. We decided to divide and conquer our list and we each took half. When he returned he had arms full of the items I sent him off for and then… he also had a tree. A rosemary tree!Technically speaking, rosemary was on his list of things to get and our local store had these rosemary trees up for grabs at just $9.99 (instead of $3-$4/box).

best-pancakes-everTo cut right to right to the chase, I have to say that I am quite impressed! Not bad, not bad at all! A real righteous stack of plump, fluffy, tasty pancakes with nice color and nice texture (crispy on the outside, moist and cakey on the inside.) I would give these a solid two thumbs up.I made several batches and learned a few things along the way.

Along with the release of her book Easy Tasty Italian in the United States, Laura Santtini has also released a few items from her Easy Tasty Magic product line. We were most intrigued by her Taste No. 5 Umami Paste, a concentrated blend of tomato paste, garlic, porcini mushrooms, and, well, every umami-rich ingredient out there!I started off just trying a little of the paste straight up.

Look out, Better Than Bouillon! There’s about to be a new product on our shelves.Penzeys calls these “soup bases”, but they’re really more of a concentrated stock or bouillon. A few scoops dissolved in a pot of water is instant soup awesomeness. And with Penzeys reputationPenzeys has seven different bases in their line-up: beef, chicken, turkey, ham, seafood, pork, and vegetable. These all come in 8-ounce jars and do not require refrigeration.

The latest issue of Saveur is devoted entirely to sandwiches, but they haven’t forgotten about those who can’t normally eat bread. A gluten-intolerant member of their staff tried 30 different gluten-free sandwich breads, tossing aside many sub-par slices before settling on the six best loaves on the shelves.

Cake mix sparks a lot of debate, it seems! On the one hand, it’s fast, convenient, and reliable. But on the other hand, homemade isn’t really that much fussier and it tastes a whole lot better. Or does it?For purposes of comparison, we’ll use Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic Yellow Cake Mix and our own recipe for yellow cake: Easy DIY Yellow Cake. All costs were taken from Peapod Online Grocery.

We rely on dried pasta from the store for the majority of our pasta dishes, saving the homemade version for special occasions and dinner parties. But fresh pasta is so good! Could it be easier to whip up on a weeknight than we think?Putting dried pasta from the grocery store up against fresh pasta made at home really isn’t a fair comparison, so we thought we’d make this one a three-way contest.

Ketchup is the required condiment for cookouts large and small, near and far. A hot dog just wouldn’t be the same without it! Have you ever tried making your own?For purposes of comparison, we’ll use classic Heinz Tomato Ketchup and a recipe for ketchup from Saveur Magazine:• Homemade Ketchup from SaveurAll costs were taken from Peapod Online Grocery. In the homemade cost, we don’t account for the cost of salt or other typical pantry staples.

With strawberries crowding farmers market tables and plenty more summer fruit on the way, we’ve got pie on the brain. But homemade pie crust seems to be a culinary Mount Everest for so many of us. And those pretty and perfect store-bought crusts are so very pretty and perfect. Do you make or buy your pie crusts?For purposes of comparison, we’ll use Oronoque Orchard 9-Inch Pie Crusts and our own recipe for pie crust from scratch (get the recipe HERE).

Kimchi is just about the hottest thing, both literally and figuratively, to hit American cuisine since Sriracha. Or maybe sauerkraut. You can buy jars of it in Korean markets for all your spicy fermented cabbage needs, but we’ve heard that Korean grandmothers would shake their heads in shame to see us doing so. Maybe they have a point.For purposes of comparison, we’ll use Granny Choe’s Kimchi Co.

Beans are absolutely and without a doubt one of the cornerstones of our cooking. Light summery pastas, hearty soups, potluck salads: you name it and we’ll put beans in it. With so many bean dishes coming through our kitchens, do we make our own or rely on canned?We thought we’d do a three-way comparison on this one. Let’s take a look at Goya canned black beans, Goya dried black beans, and Rancho Gordo midnight black beans.