Finding good vitamins and supplements can be a chore no matter which store you shop at. It’s important to not only know the brand’s quality and history, but also know enough about vitamins to analyze the ingredients. Over time, we’ve learned how companies try to swindle us in to buying miracle supplements when they’re no different than any other.
Unfortunately, the vitamins and supplements at Trader Joe’s are no different. In this case, the price of these is higher than those at other big box stores and they have little to no difference in ingredients and quality. So, leave these supplements off your shopping list because you can find better ones for cheaper somewhere else.
Premade salads are one of those things that are pretty hit and miss no matter which store you’re at. No two salads are created equally, so don’t be surprised when you see limp lettuce and not-so-fresh ingredients. There’s nothing worse than expecting a nice, crisp salad only to be met with wilted greens.
According to reviews, many people have run into incidents of bad salads at Trader Joe’s, so we say to skip these for now. Not to mention, most premade salads like this are guilty of being packed full of calories. Most people grab a salad thinking they’re making a healthy choice, but the toppings and dressing can really add up in terms of sodium and calories.
There’s nothing worse than buying a gallon of milk only to crack it open and find it smells.... questionable. Once you raise an eyebrow, it’s game over. You couldn’t drink that milk even if you wanted to! Online there have been several reviews from shoppers saying the milk at Trader Joe’s expires prematurely.
Listen, this kind of thing happens every now and then, but we say pass on the milk at Trader Joe’s for now. At least until they figure out the expiration situation. Maybe it’s because the milk doesn’t have the preservatives that other places put in their milk, but either way, we need answers before we buy again!
We love a chocolate and peanut butter combination as much as the next guy, but these Chocolate Covered Wafer Cookies with Peanut Butter Filling need to be reconsidered. As you’re biting into a delicious cookie your first thought is, “OMG this is so yummy!” but your second one is “Hmmm, wonder how many calories this is?”
In this case, do yourself a favor and don’t check out the nutrition facts on the back because you’re definitely in for a surprise. These cookies have 350 calories per bar. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Not only is this tiny bar calorie packed, it also comes with 45% of the daily recommended amount of saturated fat! Yep, we’ll pass, thanks.
Cauliflower pizza crust has been all the rage these past few years, and why wouldn’t it be? Guilt free pizza? Yes please! We’ve quickly found cauliflower pizza crust to be pretty hit or miss. Either they’re totally perfect and you can’t tell the difference, or it’s a mushy mess. But at the end of the day, it’s still gluten free.
You would think that Trader Joe’s would have the cauliflower crust down pat considering they’re uber gluten friendly, but that’s sadly not the case. Even though it’s just 80 calories, 200 milligrams of sodium, and zero grams of fat per slice, the cauliflower crust is soggy and watery. We suggest the broccoli or kale crust instead.
Truffle flavor tends to be on the stronger side of the spectrum. A little definitely goes a long way. It can be a stellar flavor in small doses with other foods, like French fries. But on its own, it’s probably not a flavor to savor. It’s for this reason that this truffle cheese isn’t on our list of best buys.
If fungus suits your fancy, try something else infused with truffle flavor. This cheese is completely overbearing and pungent, even for strong cheese lovers. But don’t let this one example ruin Trader Joe’s cheese selection. There are plenty of other tasty options to choose from if you're looking for a nice cheese for a party.
Like grab-and-go salads, we suggest being extremely picky when choosing a wrap or sandwich from the to-go section of Trader Joe’s. The problem with these selections is that it’s incredibly difficult to maintain high-quality selections when they were made days ago. One missed day of rotation and someone is getting a moldy sandwich.
We suggest passing these up and grabbing a sandwich from a fast-food restaurant to know that it’s made on the spot. These grab and go sandwiches could have not-so-fresh ingredients, or they could be soggy from sitting in their own condensation for days in the cooler. Besides, you could buy the ingredients and make a sandwich at home for the price of one sandwich in the store.
There’s nothing more delicious than pulling apart a nice fresh loaf of bread. The buttery crumb of the bread and the soft center is the perfect duo for a tasty snack. In the words Oprah, “I love bread.” We agree, we love bread too. It’s rare that anyone comes across a bread that they wouldn’t enjoy.
However, the bread Trader Joe’s is the exception to the rule. When you first open a pack of bread from Trader Joe’s it’s amazing, however several reviews say that these rolls, loaves, and slices are rarely fresh after a few days. According to Reddit, this problem is all too familiar with shoppers. So maybe pass if you’re going in anytime soon.
Who doesn’t think that creamy Cajun alfredo sauce sounds good? Of course, it does! But here’s the thing, more often than not, sauces in jars like these are packed full of all the wrong things. We suggest always taking a moment to look at the nutrition facts on the back of the jar before taking this yummy product home.
If you did take a moment to look at the nutrition facts, this is what you would find. The serving size for this sauce is only ¼ of a cup. Also, in that tiny portion size is 15% of the daily recommended amount of saturated fat. So, if you’re counting calories or worried about your fat intake, swap this for some tomato sauce or olive oil.
The Chili Onion Crunch at Trader Joe’s is intended as a store-brand version of Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp but it isn’t quite the same – at all really. Meant to be used in Asian cuisine, the Trader Joe’s version doesn’t have much Asian flare in terms of taste or quality even.
The Chili Onion Crunch has a few problems that should make you want to avoid it. For one, it features olive oil, an ingredient not used in Asian cooking typically. It also features paprika, which again, you won’t find in most Asian cuisine. And to make matters worse, it features dried peppers. There’s simply nothing authentic or tasty about Trader Joe’s Chili Onion Crunch.
If you really enjoy Panda Express’s Orange Chicken, you’ve probably tried to replicate it at home at least once. However, the results aren’t always great, particularly if you settle for one of these frozen varieties. Out of all of them, the Trader Joe’s one would have to be the most disappointing.
The Mandarin Orange Chicken at Trader Joe’s is a sticky gooey mess. The Mandarin Orange sauce is less of a sauce and more like a jam. It may look okay on the packaging, but the reality is nothing like it. And on top of that, it certainly lacks the complexity and spice of “the real thing.”
The Butternut Squash Mac n Cheese is another horrible idea from Trader Joe’s which you’ll find in the frozen food section. There’s no real amount of cheese that could cover up the taste of butternut squash and especially the little amount that there is on this mac n cheese.
Unless you are a health food aficionado, we can’t figure out what anyone could see in this mac n cheese. If you are going to have mac n cheese, you need to go all out with real cheese and pasta or just forget it. Stop trying to make healthy mac n cheese happen, people. It’s not going to happen. Just stop.
Chicken Fried Rice is something that is so exceedingly easy to make yourself, it doesn’t make any sense to buy it. It especially doesn’t make any sense to buy it premade and frozen. From the texture of the chicken to the mushy frozen vegetables, everything about this Chicken Fried Rice screams TV dinner.
If you like gobbling up some dry fried rice and rubbery chicken, by all means, try this Trader Joe’s chicken fried rice. But for real though, just make it. Your family will thank you for it, unless of course they enjoy being tortured. If someone told you this fried rice was good, they straight-up lied to you. End of rant.
Sriracha sauce isn’t so expensive that you need to buy some knock-off brand to save a few pennies. The sriracha sauce at Trader Joe’s is often praised for being a good substitute for the real thing but we can’t confidently tell you it's not. Just stick with the OG brand.
When it comes to knock-off sriracha sauce, there’s always some kind of problem. One sauce may have too much vinegar while another will have too much salt. When it comes to the Trader Joe’s one, the most common complaint from the perfectly reasonable people out there is that it is much too sweet.
Black Bean & Cheese taquitos might sound good on paper, but if you think of the very worst frozen taquitos with meat, and then suddenly make them vegetarian, that’s what you are getting with the Black Bean & Cheese Taquitos at Trader Joe’s. You don’t get a lot of them in a package and that’s probably for the best.
These taquitos are mushy, bland and everything else a taquito simply shouldn’t be. You could add all the guacamole in the world and theirs nothing that could make these taquitos worth eating. They are overpriced and disgusting. Trader Joe’s got rid of them for a while and they were brought back for some reason.
The Organic White Truffle Potato Chips sound good and fancy but oh boy are they not. To put it simply: these chips smell incredibly terrible and they also taste super weird. So, if you are one of those people that like them, it’s probably because you have no sense of smell.
Maybe try these if you have a cold and can’t smell or taste anything. For some reason, these are wildly popular with some crowds, but you should really stick with regular potato chips and find a good dip or something. The packaging makes you think you are eating something fancier and sophisticated than you are because at the end of the day, they are just chips.
Avocados are certainly good. They elevate almost every Mexican dish to a god-tier status. You spread it across toast, eat it plain, put it in a salad, on an egg – whatever. It’s hard to imagine anything with avocado being straight-up bad. Avocados are good for you too, offering a healthy kind of fats.
Now the issue people have when buying avocados are that it can be difficult to find ripe ones, and then as you wait for them to ripen at home, if you wait too long, they become “too ripe” and you end up with a mushy brown mess that you have to throw away. Trader Joe’s avocados may be somewhat cheaper than most stores, but they are almost never ripe when you buy them.
Cauliflower Gnocchi may seem like a great alternative to the typical potato variety, provided you are watching your starchy vegetable intake but the Cauliflower Gnocchi is far from tasty. You might also consider it if you are on a gluten-free diet. But we actually have a better suggestion: don’t have gnocchi at all.
The Cauliflower Gnocchi at Trader Joe’s not only tastes bad, but it’s complicated to prepare too. Some people have said that you need to stick it in the air fryer just to get the texture right. Others say to bake it. Gnocchi shouldn’t be this complicated and how can we even pretend that cauliflower is even half as good as potatoes?
Jingle Jangle has to be one of the most overhyped snacks at Trader Joe’s. Sure, everyone likes chocolate and pretzels and popcorn – but the stuff at Trader Joe’s is way overpriced. At $10 for a relatively small tin, the snack is nowhere near the cost it should be.
You can often get chocolate-covered pretzels and even popcorn at Costco – and you’ll get a lot more for your money. Trader Joe’s merely offers convenience if you live closer to one. In all honesty, Jingle Jangle is most like $10 because of that unnecessary tin. And unless you are collecting them for some strange reason, you could probably do without it.
People everywhere have learned to consider protein bars as a healthy way to get in your protein without all the fat, carbs, and sodium. However, not all protein bars offer the same amount of protein without the stuff everyone’s trying to avoid. In fact, whenever you’re shopping for protein bars, it’s a good idea to check out the nutrition facts.
While these chocolate and peanut butter bars look super yummy at only 200 calories a piece, these aren’t the ticket for a guilt-free way to sneak in some extra protein. The problem is that each bar has almost 15% of the recommended daily amounts of sugar and fat. There are better protein bars out there to consider.
Matcha green tea has been around for thousands of years, and it has a wonderfully unique flavor that can be dressed up in many ways. Not only are these noodles “reduced guilt”, but they’re also pretty yummy too. All too often, health-conscious food like this can be watery, bland, or generally displeasing. But these noodles are none of those things.
These noodles are made with buckwheat, wheat, and green tea. A serving of these noodles is high in magnesium and fiber, which are two things adults never seem to get enough of. These noodles are also high in the antioxidant rutin. Antioxidants like rutin are known to help with high cholesterol and strengthen small blood vessels.
Anyone who’s anyone totally loves peanut butter cups, but what about peanut butter cups with dark chocolate? They're amazing! These dark chocolate cups are one of the best-selling items at the store. In fact, they won the Sweet Treat title in the 12th Annual Customer Choice Awards by Trader Joe’s.
If you’re looking for the perfect sweet treat to keep around your house or for hosting a dinner party, grab a box of these cups and your guests will thank you! It’s rare to come across a peanut butter cup that isn’t delicious, but these blow the competition out of the water. They’re amazing! If you don’t believe us, just check out the reviews online.
Finding a good seasoning requires a lot of taste testing; however, we’ve done a little bit of the work for you. Trader Joe’s Everything But the Leftovers seasoning is a perfect spice blend to keep handy. It’s made with onion powder, thyme, turmeric, rosemary, and sage! You can put this blend on basically anything.
Listen, we like to make our own spice blends too, but every now and then, you just need a go-to to get the job done. It can go on chicken, beef, or on fish! It would also be a great blend for Italian garlic bread. The possibilities are endless, so grab some next time you’re grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s--you won’t regret it.
If you’ve been to Trader Joe’s, chances are you’ve had the spinach and kale Greek yogurt dip. It’s sold out half the time for good reason--it’s delicious! It’s packed with vegetables, but it doesn’t taste like watery vegetables. If you’re not totally in love with kale, that’s okay...just try it anyway! We promise you’ll love it.
It’s tangy and slightly sweet, but it's also entirely addicting. You could eat it with pita chips, Triscuit crackers, or just toasted slices of baguette. Any way you dip it, spread it, or scoop it you’re sure to call all your friends and share the good news. If you’re hosting a dinner party, this also makes a great crowd pleaser.
Cookie Butter! It’s the business. No seriously, this may be one of our favorite things at Trader Joe’s. It’s kind of like peanut butter, but not really. It’s a holiday cookie-flavored spread that's amazing on toast, cookies, and biscotti. Or you can be like us and just have it by the spoonful! Either way, you’ll surely love it.
We’re sure that this delicious spread isn’t the healthiest thing on the planet, but it’s not the worst! The serving size is two tablespoons at 170 calories per serving, so as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into, you should be good to enjoy a few spoonfuls of this deliciously delightful cookie butter.
If there is one cereal you have to try at Trader Joe’s – one that lives up to the hype – it’s the Strawberry Yogurt O’s. This sweet, delicious cereal is low in sodium and is packed with flavor. Your morning couldn’t start better than with this cereal – I mean unless you were going to have a donut instead.
But, I digress. The Strawberry Yogurt O’s has real strawberries and yogurt chunks. While some complain that they are too hard, they won’t stay that way after you add milk. It’s a great-tasting cereal and it’s actually relatively low in sugar compared to other cereals. It’s at least worth trying.
Surprisingly, the asparagus risotto at Trader Joe’s lives up to the hype. While it’s not as good as freshly made risotto, it’s a great alternative, especially if you don’t know how to make it. It’s fairly creamy and offers plenty of flavor once you heat it up and prepare it for your plate. Plus, it ends up costing you less than you would pay to make it.
It’s not always easy to find a restaurant that makes risotto anyway. Risotto requires a lot of work and attention. You have to constantly pour liquid and stir and if you don’t, you’ll have to start all over. So if you are having a risotto craving and you don’t have the time, this Trader Joe’s option hits the spot.
Even lower quality salami tastes pretty good with some cheese and crackers, so it’s no surprise that the Chianti red wine artisan salami at Trader Joe’s is pretty good. You’ll enjoy the more complex taste that pairs excellently win some wine and cheese.
Of course, salami isn’t the best food for you when it comes to your health, but isn’t always the point of eating delicious foods. It’s loaded with sodium nitrates and preservatives that aren’t good to have all the time but everything is fine in moderation. With that said, if you like salami, you have to try this.
The best kind of bagel is the everything bagel. It’s a sesame seed, poppy seed, and onion bagel all-in-one. Usually, you can only get this combination on a bagel that you get at the store or from your local bagel shop. But what about for everything else?
Everything But the Bagel Seasoning at Trader Joe’s is a godsend for all the everything bagel lovers out there. You can sprinkle it on your eggs, on some avocado toast, on some toast with cream cheese, on a plain bagel or whatever else your heart desires. The sky is the limit, but the bagel is certainly not.
Let’s face it most jams, preserves, jellies and whatever you want to call them – they aren’t great. Grape jelly is probably the worst and then there’s boring strawberry and raspberry and all the usual flavors. Blackberry is usually on-point but there is a better option.
The popular Cherry preserves at Trader Joe’s are so good that they usually don’t even have them in stock, because people snatch them from the shelves. The cherry preserves are good enough to be a filling for a pastry, a topping for ice cream or if you simply want to turn your morning toast into a delicious dessert. If you like cherries, these are the best.
