I have Trader Joe's envy because there is not one near me, not even close! I want one to come to Orlando. We love good food here, too! On blogs and product reviews, I read about all these delicious foods you can only get from Trader Joe's. Every time I go to Atlanta to visit my sister, a trip to Trader Joe's is a must. We have some favorites like the cereal bars, but we continue to try new products and there isn't one thing yet that we haven't liked.
So you can bet when my daughter Cate went to Chicago last week, we asked her to bring back a couple of things from Trader Joe's. She brought back the usual cereal bars, Joe-joe's vanilla sandwich creme cookies for a cheesecake recipe we will be making and we wanted to try their peanut butter so she bought a jar of that too. Little did we know peanut butter is not allowed to fly on carry on luggage, so the TSA man took the jar and sadly it never made it back to Florida. What a bummer!
But I will not leave you on that sad note. My happy ending Trader Joe story is about the yummy vegetable cream cheese I made using their whipped cream cheese. Better yet you can make it with any brand cream cheese if you don't live near a Trader Joe's either.
I used Ina Garten's recipe as a guide, but ended up gearing it towards my favorite vegetables and what I had in the house.You can vary the quantity and types of veggies to suit your taste buds. It was one of those things I used to buy in the store until I realized how easy it is to make. I like regular bagels, but know I shouldn't eat too many of those, so I eat bagel thins during the week.
Vegetable Cream Cheese
16 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons green onions, use green and white part, about 2 onion stalks
2 tablespoons, carrot, about 3-4 small carrots
2 tablespoons, celery, about 1/2 stalk
2 pinches kosher salt
3 pinches granulated garlic
Put onions, carrots and celery in mini chopper to finely chop. Add vegetables and seasonings to cream cheese, mix until blended. I store my vegetable cream cheese in the original cream cheese container.
Do you have a Trader Joe's near you? Which of their products is your favorite?
How do you eat your bagel?
No Trader Joes near me either. There is one on the way to my parents house and we are trying to make it a habit to stop there on our way to their house (or on the way back to our house).
ReplyDeleteThey have really good hummus and soups.
I'm a Trader Joe's addict. Lucky for me, they are all over Southern California.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to me to imagine life sans Trader Joes.
Not trying to rub it in, I swear!
I love TJ's too! I so wish we had one in Orlando. I've heard that they would have to build a distribution center first before coming down here. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteHuh - I had no idea peanut butter couldn't travel in a carry-on. Lame!! I'm shocked a place as big as Orlando doesn't have a Trader Joe's. I have been in one once, but never bought anything.... yet.
ReplyDelete