Eat Like a Rabbit celebrated its ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY while we were in Seattle! We were so excited and as a reward to ourselves, we agreed to go on a shopping spree to Trader Joe's, an unusual grocery store that has locations where everyone else we know lives--except there's none in Orlando. We did a lot of testing with our product selections and hope to have a set grocery list for any future visits. Perhaps they will go faster in the future, but I doubt they will be as much fun. Thanks to Leann and Jeremy who shuttled us around and waited patiently while we filled up our basket. In fact, I don't know the last time I've ever made a grocery cart that full! But honestly, a good bit of it was purchased for gifts, and we ate a good bit of it while we were still in Seattle, too.
Trader Joe's Products
Starred products are the ones we'd bring home again.
- *Metropolitans-Dark chocolate covered butter cookies
- Pomegranate Blueberry Cereal
- **Dark Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
- *This "Strawberry" Walked into a Bar
- This "Fig" Walked into a Bar
- Panda Licorice
- *Apple Carrot Sauce Squirters (2)
- *White Balsamic Vinegar
- *Balsamic Vinegar
- *Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Dark Chocolate Pistachios
- ***Dark and Milk Chocolate Almonds (2)
- **Banana Chips
- *Dark Chocolate Pretzel Thins (2)
- *Honey Sesame Sticks (3)
- *Wasabi Wow!-Nuts and cranberries mixed with dehydrated Wasabi peas. Paul loves it, Peter and I can't go for the hot. Never asked Leann her opinion (2)
- *Strawberries, freeze dried (2)
- *Bananas, freeze dried (2)
- *Mangos, freeze dried
- Vegetable Jambalaya
- Vegetable Curry
- Dried Green Beans
- **Orange-flavored Cranberries
- Shortbread Blueberry Bites
- Blueberry Crumpets
- *Cranberry-Nut individual packs (Great for lunches)
- Rice Crackers with Wasabi
- *1+ Pound Dark Chocolate Bars (3)
- *Small Dark Chocolate Bars (1 pack)
- *Organic Dark Chocolate Bars, Raisin and Pecan (5)
- *Organic Dark Chocolate Bars (5)
- *Flat bread crackers with Sesame Seeds
- *Peanut butter with Flax Seed
- *Ground Cumin
- **Temptation Trail Mix (For my lunch)
- Lime and Chili Trail Mix
In defense of some of these products, we haven't actually gotten around to trying all of them yet. The cereal was really sweet, but tasty. The crumpets were like a greasy English Muffin. The banana chips cooked in palm oil were far superior to the dehydrated ones, and the strawberries have their place even though they can be quite strong sometimes. The green beans were good, but different. We couldn't take too many of them at one sitting. Luckily, we made few judgment errors. After all, I'd hate to have carried them all the way here if they were nasty!
Our grand total was surprisingly only one month's food budget. I really was amazed at the prices. Even the cumin was about $1.30 when it's over $3 in Florida. What's up with that? Still, even if it wasn't cheaper, I like the fact that the products are unusual and delicious; often with little, if any, additives, which makes us feel better about eating them. By the way, we had some corn on the cob from here that was fantastic, and the Trader Joe's ketchup (which Leann bought just cause they were out) will be on my shopping list forever. It tasted like a real fresh tomato was in the bottle. Also, Paul likes the dehydrated slab apricots. Trader Joe's was out; so, Peter gave Paul two packages of his. Now, that's what best friends are for!
