Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tuesday's Tasting - TJ's Lemon Grass Chicken

It's not a secret that Trader Joe's offers good food at fair prices, but did you know that Trader Joe's has a "no questions asked" product guarantee? I can't say the guarantee is an incentive for me to try new things, but it might be for you. Try something new, if you don't like it, bring it back and Joe will give you a full refund, no questions ask.

I personally have been enjoying Trader Joe's unique products for several years now, some so much that you'll find them in my pantry or freezer year round. Many of them have actually come from recommendations made by other Trader Joe's loyalists. Now it's my turn to share my opinion, every Tuesday, on what I'm finding at my local TJ's. Welcome to Tuesday's Tasting.

Trader Joe's stocks a diverse selection of frozen, prepared foods, both entrée and appetizer offerings. Although I've always been skeptical of frozen dinners, my wife has convinced me that TJ's rice bowls are good. So tonight's tasting, from Trader Joe's freezer case, is Trader Joe's Thai Style Lemon Grass Chicken & Seasoned Rice. I've been happy with Trader Joe's private label products in the past and one of my favorite meals to prepare comes from Trader Joe's freezer case, so I have high hopes for this meal. I can also read every ingredient in the list, another sign of hope for it's quality.

After five minutes in the microwave and two minutes of rest, presumably to prevent me from burning the #@!^ out of my mouth, I was enjoying this delicious dinner right. I was pleasantly surprised at how tender and juicy the chicken was. The green curry sauce had a very good balance of lemon grass, coconut and curry flavors and the green beans and carrots had good flavor, despite being previously frozen. The veggies did, however, exhibit the common characteristics of frozen vegetables, they did not have much snap. Nonetheless, I was impressed. Trader Joe did not disappoint me with this one.

Like I said, I've always been skeptical of frozen dinners so the bar was pretty low, but this meal was very good. I would recommend Trader Joe's Thai Style Lemon Grass Chicken & Seasoned Rice to anyone, frozen dinner lover or not. For nights that you don't feel like cooking, make sure you have one of these in the freezer. Trader Joe's has a whole line of frozen dinners, maybe of which I'll be reviewing for Tuesday's Tastings. In fact, I have three more flavors in my freezer that I'm now looking forward to.

Be sure to stop by next week for Tuesday's Tasting.

4 comments:

  1. you gotta try their frozen mac n cheese! it's quite delicious. it needs a few dashes of hot sauce imo. i'm not a huge mac n cheese fan and have mostly tried the stuff from the boxes. but this one is much cheesier=better.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yoony,

    I love mac n cheese! I'll have to give TJ's a try. I also like Annie's Natural Mac n Cheese. 1/2 a cup of water, three minutes in the microwave and POOF! delicious mac n cheese.

    ReplyDelete
  3. TJ's Lemongrass chicken Is discontinued, One Mgr said it's being reformulated, Some Mgrs say it's no more. Excellent item, Sells out quick. Sometimes to much or little sauce. My favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete