Thursday's Tasting: Rice Bowl with White Chicken, Vegetables & Teriyaki Sauce

Winter is here in New England. Snow, sleet, rain and cold. When the roads are covered in snow, the car is a sheet of ice, and the wind is making it feel like well below zero, it's a good night to stay in. So you can't make it to the supermarket to put together a nice meal, that's okay. Just make sure you have some rice bowls from Trader Joe's in your freezer.

This week, Tuesday's Tasting is a little late, two days late in fact, making this Thursday's Tasting. Winter weather has struck down on New England and I didn't have an opportunity on Tuesday to post my weekly review from Trader Joe's freezer case. This week's tasting, albeit it two days late, is Trader Joe's Rice Bowl with White Chicken, Vegetables & Teriyaki Sauce. The visible vegetables in this bowl are carrots, broccoli, green beens, and red peppers. The chicken is white meat and the teriyaki sauce, well looks and smells like teriyaki sauce.

This bowl is low in fat, high in flavor, and packed with 19g of protein. The wrapper says to microwave on high for four minutes and let it stand for one minute before serving. So I did. Trader Joe has done it again. This rice bowl is packed with flavor. The vegetables still have some bite to them, the white meat chicken is tender and juicy, and the teriyaki sauce tastes like, well, a good teriyaki sauce, the perfect amount to coat all the ingredients in the bowl. Add this to the list of rice bowls that you should stock in your freezer. It's quick and easy, and very tasty.

Right about now you're probably wondering if there is anything I don't like. I've reviewed many offerings from Trader Joe's freezer and really haven't had anything bad to say about any of them. At least I haven't told you NOT to buy any of them yet. Have no fear, I'll keep you honest with a review next week that will prove that not everything in Trader Joe's freezer is great. Curious what it is? Check back next Tuesday for my review of ... You didn't really think I'd tell you, did you?

I'm just one food guy, thanks for reading!

Tuesday's Tasting - TJ's Thai Style Massaman Chicken

This week's tasting is another rice bowl, Trader Joe's Thai Style Massaman Chicken. Massaman is a coconut milk-based curry, as most Thai style curries are, and is mild on the heat scale. Indian curries on the other hand rate very high on the heat scale.

In the premiere Tuesday's Tasting on November 14, I wrote about being able to read all the ingredients on the list. I've noticed on most of these frozen bowls that I can read all the ingredients. Most also claim to be free of preservatives and artificial flavors. Although it does not state that it's all natural, is that not the same thing? Enough semantics, let's see how it tastes.

This Massaman Chicken rice bowl from Trader Joe's contains lots of juicy, tender pieces of chicken, large pieces of bamboo shoots and noticeable pieces of diced red peppers. The rice, as with previous bowls I've tasted, is perfect. The sauce quite tasty too, with a good balance of familiar curry flavors, coconut and just the slightest amount of heat from a some cayenne (listed in the ingredients list.) Don't worry if you don't like spicy food, the heat level is very mild. My mom, whose taste buds combust with the slightest bit of heat, would probably like this.

Another tasting, another tasty dinner. Trader Joe you are my freezer case hero.

Now go to Trader Joe's and buy something you've never tried. Don't be afraid, Joe knows his stuff!

Tuesday's Tasting - TJ's Shrimp Thai Red Curry Rice Bowl

I think that I'd be friends with the people Trader Joe has tasting food in his test kitchen. Seriously, this is my fourth week tasting items from Trader Joe's freezer case, and this is the fourth week that I'll put my stamp of approval on what I've eaten. Trader Joe's food tasters, I raise my glass to you. On to tonight's tasting.

Tonight's tasting features Trader Joe's Shrimp Thai Red Curry Rice Bowl. After five minute of cook time and two minutes of rest, this rice bowl was ready to eat.

The first few bites were a little light on flavor, but as I dug deeper and mixed everything up, the flavors really came together. There is a decent amount of heat from the red curry paste, and like most Thai curries, the coconut milk really balanced everything out. The shrimp were tender and the veggies still had good crunch despite being previously frozen. Even the rice was perfectly cooked, light and fluffy. While this rice bowl did not have bold flavors like the lemon grass chicken I tasted a few weeks ago, it was still very good. I'll definitely stock more of these in my freezer for nights I don't feel like cooking.

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.