Posted on 11/11/2024 5:48:54 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
I may or may not be guilty of taking a trip to my nearest Trader Joe’s at least once every week. It’s like going on a treasure hunt, except the treasure in question is a variety of delectable baked goods, crave-worthy snacks, and deliciously unexpected cheeses. Sure, it may be at least a 30-minute drive, but what’s a little distance when a pint of Salted Maple Ice Cream is involved?
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Neither does my town. Closest one is easily an hour away. Do I really want to venture into crazy world to go to a Trader Joe’s? No, not really. I’m a great cook from scratch. I control the ingredients and what goes in to my food. No thank you, TJ’s. Nice try.
I'm waiting for the spiral ham to go on sale. It was sooooo good the last time. I froze pkgs and made a huge pot of split pea soup.
I am so lucky to have Aldi a mile away. At age 80...it’s part of my exercise routine.
You’re better off.
TJ’s doesn’t use chemical preservatives, so a lot of their products are loaded with sodium (salt) as a preservative. Check the label sometime. You’d be shocked to see how much sodium is in a lot of their products.
They also use a ton of seed oils.
I don’t know how they got the reputation of being a healthy alternative.
One of my best friends loves Aldi’s. I’ve only been a couple of times. I hear it depends on which store you go to. Where I live they are both about 25 minutes away. The orchard (farmers) market is two miles away. I get most of my produce from there.
I’m not 80 yet but every shopping outing is exercise!
Ever since our Priests and Bishops encouraged us to eat turkey for Thanksgiving despite the Nativity Fast, we’ve stopped looking for vegan alternatives!
Thanksgiving is a very Orthodox Christian-oriented American feast—the Greek word “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving”! So we can enjoy our turkey with all the fixings, and pray special prayers that are designed for Thanksgiving Day!
This year, many of us have an extra reason to give thanks—the election of Donald Trump! However, not all the relatives and friends who might be present at our Thanksgiving feast may be Trump supporters. We can pray for them with love, and hope that our political differences will not alienate us from each other.
I’ve almost always cooked from scratch, even when my kids were young. They didn’t always like it, cuz their friends got McDonald’s and other FF stuff for dinner. We did that much less frequently. It was a treat in our house. We simply couldn’t afford it. They’re all grown up now, and appreciate the homemade meals.
When the pandemic hit, and everyone was locked down, we had one son who was single and by himself, no roommates. So we started a “family food challenge” that we did every week, for at least a year, until things started opening up. kind of like a cooking competition, but just us and our adult kids. We challenged each other to make things not necessarily in our wheelhouses. I think we all learned a lot, and it was fun as hell.
Amazingly, last week the kids asked if we could start that up again. Not every week this time, but every month or 6 weeks. All of us agreed. The first challenge will be something for the Thanksgiving meal. This year, none of us will be together. We all live across the country from each other. Kids have married and have their own families now. We’ll see what each comes up with!
And in some Orthodox jurisdictions—GOAA, for example—the economia extends to the Friday after Thanksgiving to avoid waste of leftovers!
Our leftovers typically go in the freezer, and we buy and freeze down turkey parts that go on sale right after Thanksgiving. Christmas and the Nativity Feast will be coming up, and I prefer dark meat anyway!
Dark meat? Roast a duck!
I should go get one for the dogs.
Will have to get to Aldi’s for turkey next week. We’re having our feast on the Sunday before.
Make your own cranberry sauce:
One bag of fresh cranberries, one cup fresh Orange juice, 3/4 cup sugar. Cook over medium heat until the cranberries break down. Let cool, add 3 Tbl Grand Mariner. Chill
Simply the best, in about 30 minutes
I have a Trader Joe in my neighborhood, walk over there a few times a week, None of these things interest me but I consider their Sweet Chili Sauce and their Mango Ice covered ice cream bars “basic food groups” as are their frozen organic mixed veggies which are out of stock more often than not.
Thanksgiving items listed sound terrible to me. Having dinner with many friends and only plan to bring a side dish of some kind of veggies.
It’s four buck chuck now. Inflation, you know.
A sommelier friend reconned that it was worth at least $10. That was 7 years ago!
Daughter raised our turkey again this year .. fresh veggies and a few things from the store.
I go just for the wine, how you can buy a good bottle of French red wine for $10 amazes me.
Aldi’s also has frozen prepared sweet potato casserole.
The first year I found it was a really busy year for me, so decided to cheat and use that. They are kind of small so I put two in a casserole dish and no one knew the difference.
I do like Trader Joe’s frozen croissants. :-)
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