Archive for the ‘food’ Category
11/29/2017
11/29/2017
The coffee is not bad, bearable and actually fairly good. There’s some bitterness in the cup, but not enough to stop drinking. The bitterness subsides as the coffee cools. The coffee has a decent body for a medium roast. On the scale of coffee goodness, this one falls above a McDonald’s or Denny’s coffee and below most Trader Joe’s offerings. The coffee is entirely drinkable black, which is how I review all coffees.
I picked this up because Trader Joe’s Honduran coffee is one of the better coffees I’ve reviewed. This isn’t as good, but still fairly good, especially for the price. Coffee plants just might have a thing for Honduras.
If you’re on a budget or just happen to be close to an ALDI when you find your cupboard bare of coffee, this one just might be good for you. The coffee is labelled fair trade and organic, so it may be good for the farmers and environment also. Price $4.79
Tags:aldi, coffee, fair trade, food, Honduras, organic, price, review, whole bean
Posted in ALDI, coffee, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items | 5 Comments »
11/29/2017
11/29/2017
So far the lighter roasts at Trader Joe have been in general, disappointing. The beans tend to have some oil on them, which indicates the roast is bordering on the next shade of dark. But worse than that, the coffees tend to be bitter. Bitterness is something that’s not supposed to happen with a lighter roast. So, in a late night supermarket run, and in a moment of weakness towards my checking account balance, I picked up a local roaster’s light-medium roast coffee at an on-sale but still significant price. The beans were also Ethiopian according to the bag. This was another point of curiosity for me, as I’ve been somewhat disappointed with the African coffee beans at TJ. So I was able to try another source for African beans. And don’t forget Ethiopia is the home of the very first coffee beans discovered by man. Women discovered coffee beans about 362 years earlier, but I’m not going to get into that.
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Tags:coffee, Ethiopia, food, price, review, stringbean coffee company, true blue, whole bean coffee
Posted in coffee, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items | Leave a Comment »
11/29/2017
November 29, 2017
Crispy is the key word on the bag. Pay attention.
Homemade might be another word for the bag. What’s meant by that is; not your homemade, nor grandma’s homemade, but my homemade. Cookies and my oven don’t get along. I blame it on the oven, of course. Any kind of cookie I’ve ever attempted came out thin and so crispy that they bordered on just this side of burnt. That’s the feeling I got with these oatmeal raisin cookies from our favorite Trader.
The cookies were so thin that the pretty much hard and dried out raisins tended to pop out of the cookie on their own leaving small holes in the cookie. Look in the bottom of the bag for the raisins. The cookies were crunchy, as most things toasted beyond tan tend to be. Now of course, even in their current condition, I ate them up, because any oatmeal raisin cookie is better than none. But if you prefer the softer thicker chewier kind of oatmeal raisin cookies, like I do, pass these up.
Price $3.99 (7 ounce bag)
Calories 130 per ounce (2 cookies)
Tags:calories, cookies, crispy, food, nutrition, oatmeal raisin, price, review, tj, tj's, trader joe's
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | Leave a Comment »
11/17/2017
November 17, 2017
Unexpected? You bet it was unexpected. After months of searching for this on the top shelf where all the other Cheddars live, I found this in with the Bries, Camemberts and who knows what else.
TJ says there’s a touch of Parmesan in the taste which makes this Cheddar unexpected. By my taste buds, I didn’t detect any Parmesan. And also by my taste buds, this doesn’t really taste like other Cheddars. But the taste of this cheese is very nice, having a touch of tanginess mixed with a touch of sweetness. The texture is similar to other TJ cheese blends, firm but tends to crumble when cutting. That’s not a negative, just an observation. In the mouth, there are a few bits of what seem like cheese crystals characteristic of an aged cheese. Whatever the blend of cheeses here, or whatever the process that went into making this, this is a nice cheese, perfect for enjoying by itself or even better with a glass of wine.
Price $3.99 per 7 ounce package
Calories 120 per ounce
Tags:calories, cheese, food, nutrition, price, review, reviews, tj, tj's, trader joe's, unexpected cheddar
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 6 Comments »
10/29/2017
October 29, 2017
Herring, the adolescent sardine, what’s not to like? If you’ve ever avoided herring because, well it’s herring, this may change your mind. This herring comes packed in a not spicy curry sauce. The curry is a little sweet, and a little pineappley. The curry disguises very well whatever preconceived notion of taste you may have of herring. The herring itself comes as fillets with a nice firm texture. And no, the herring does not taste fishy. The herring also does not taste or look like any of that pickled stuff people bring out for New Year’s. If you were worrying about that, forget about it. On top of that it’s nutritious with: low carbs, relatively high protein and a more fun way to get some omega-3 than one of those gelatin oil filled capsules. This is an ALDI Oktoberfest perennial offering, so you won’t be seeing it on the shelves until either next September for Oktoberfest or possibly next May for Maifest.
Calories 100 per serving (4 servings per can)
Price $1.69 per can
click on images to enlarge
ALDI customer contact URL – https://www.aldi.us/en/contact-us/
Tags:aldi, calories, deutsche kuche, food, nutrition, pineapple curry herring, price, review, reviews, snacks
Posted in ALDI, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items | 6 Comments »
10/29/2017
October 29, 2017
This is more of a note than a review. I use anchovies on homemade pizza. I should expand that to include anchovies in other things. Now that cooler weather is here, at least north of the equator, it’s oven season in our house.
I don’t believe Cento is unique to Trader Joe’s. So you’ll possibly find these elsewhere. But at Trader Joe’s they cost $1.49. That’s not bad since a larger supermarket usually prices anchovies around $2 per can. And they seem to be a staple at Trader Joe’s. You’ll most likely have to look for them on the bottom shelf where other canned fish are kept. That’s where I find them at my Trader Joe’s.
The anchovies themselves seem to be a little less salty than other brands I’ve tried. But that doesn’t hold them back from adding that anchovy pop to a pizza. Good stuff at a good price.
Calories 25 per 16 gram (about 2 servings per can) price $1.49 per can
Tags:calories, cento anchoives, food, nutrition, price, review, reviews, trader joe's
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | Leave a Comment »
10/29/2017
October 29, 2017
For a not-cheese, this is not bad. It has a neutral taste and a thicker texture than a real mozzarella. While the product name stresses the soy content, it also contains milk protein and milk as parmesan cheese according to the label. The label does not specify what kind of enzymes were used for the parmesan. While mozzarella is a mild cheese, it still has a better taste and texture than this alternative.
On heating in the microwave, the aroma of parmesan is liberally released. It smells good. However the melted “cheese” does not retain the taste of parmesan. This cheese also does not melt as nicely as mozzarella in the microwave. It becomes somewhat puffy and hardens. There’s none of that stringy mozzarella texture. The cheese was not tested in stove top or oven recipes. When diced up for some salad, it added some texture to the salad, but not much in the way of flavor.
With milk as one of the ingredients and an unknown source for the parmesan enzymes (some enzymes are animal based), what’s the purpose of the cheese? For people who might be allergic to milk, it contains some milk components. For those looking for a vegetarian cheese, it’s not labeled as vegetarian. The cheese is labeled as 99% lactose free. So I guess for people who are extremely lactose intolerant, this may be an alternative. However many milk-based cheeses are naturally relatively low in lactose. So for those who can tolerate some lactose, a milk-based cheese may work for you also. Regardless, only you know what kinds of food you need to avoid or what foods work well for you. And of course, only you know what foods you like!
Calories 70 per ounce, price $1.99 (8 ounce package)
Tags:calories, cheese, food, mozzarella, nutrition, price, review, reviews, soy-based cheese, trader joe's
Posted in food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 2 Comments »
10/25/2017
October 25, 2017
Well this is somewhat misleading. But it will be eaten nonetheless.
I’m a sucker for cheesecake. The picture on the box looked really good. The title was enticing. How could anyone resist the words chocolate truffle and cheesecake combined in one place? The price was more than right. And the everyday cheesecake at ALDI is pretty wonderful. So this would be one step beyond wonderful. Right? Not exactly. But, like the mushrooms that share the same name, this sort of grows on you.
Rather than a cheesecake this is more like a chocolate mousse (with horns) sitting on a thickish chocolate graham cracker “crust”. “With horns” in this context means thick and beefy mousse. If I didn’t have the box to read, I wouldn’t know this was a cheesecake, even one of those light fluffy cheesecakes. The chocolate flavor is neither sweet milk chocolate nor dark semi-sweet chocolate. It’s somewhere in the middle with an earthy tinge to it (like a real truffle?). The graham cracker crust is crunchy in the mouth. That provides an interesting textural contrast with the soft “cheesecake” topping it. Even though it doesn’t taste exceptionally sweet, I’m sure there’s a bunch of sugar in it.
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Tags:aldi, belmont, calories, chocolate truffle cheesecake, food, nutrition, price, review, reviews
Posted in ALDI, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items | Leave a Comment »
10/25/2017
October 25, 2017
This is not a very sweet tasting bar, but that’s part of the appeal. There’s a nice undercurrent of sour cherries and dark chocolate. Oats are oats. The oats in this bar are a little tough and tasteless, as they are in most of these types of bars. But the cherry and chocolate let this bar stand out above the rest. If you’re ever in the Black Forest or even the Eifel Forest take a few of these alone.
I suspect these were part of ALDI’s Oktoberfest. So they may not be around again until next Oktoberfest or next spring for Maifest.
Calories 130 per bar
Price $2.69 per box (8 bars in a box)
click on images to enlarge
ALDI customer contact URL – https://www.aldi.us/en/contact-us/
Tags:aldi, black forest cake, calories, dark chocolate cherry, deutsche kuche, food, granola bar, nutrition, price, review, reviews, snacks, trail mix
Posted in ALDI, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items | 2 Comments »
10/16/2017
October 16, 2017
This coffee is somewhat: weak, bitter and bad tasting. The negatives go away some on cooling to a slightly sour taste. While not especially good for a Trader Joe coffee, this is still likely better than some coffees at other supermarkets for the same price. While taste is a personal preference, and some people may like this coffee more than other coffees, there are better coffees at Trader Joe’s for the same price or less.
The coffee is labeled as organic. The coffee is packaged in a tall, thin bag which makes it somewhat difficult to get the coffee out, especially near the bottom of the bag.
And if you look at the label this is a “honey processed” coffee. I guess some things don’t change no matter where people live. “Oh honey! Can you go process some coffee for me. And, take out the trash.”
Price $8.99 (12 ounce bag)
For another take on this coffee, try Become Betty here.
Tags:coffee, food, Nicaraguan, price, review, tj, tj's, trader joe's, whole bean
Posted in coffee, food, Recipes, food, cooking and related items, Trader Joe's | 5 Comments »
11/29/2017
Ain't Found A Good Title Blog 