I shop at Trader Joe’s for my family of eight. Jenn Morson I’m a mom of six who regularly shops at Trader Joe’s for my family. My kids love the frozen blueberry waffles, toaster pastries, and peanut-butter-filled pretzels.
I also pick up pizza sauce, frozen coconut shrimp, and root-vegetable fries from Trader Joe’s. Blueberry waffles are a big hit when our kids want a warm breakfast. Trader Joe’s blueberry waffles are easy for my kids to heat up themselves.
Jenn MorsonMornings can be chaotic as we have five children attending four different schools. We need easy-to-prepare and easy-to-clean-up breakfast items that the school-aged kids can prepare themselves while we tend to the younger ones. We thankfully do not have any food intolerances to work around, but these do contain soy, milk, and eggs for those who do need to be careful.
Yogurt cups are impossible to keep stocked in our fridge because all eight of us love them. Trader Joe’s yogurt packs come with more than one flavor. Jenn MorsonI never leave Trader Joe’s without at least two six-packs of yogurts.
Each six-pack comes with two different flavors. The texture is thick like custard. And if you’re lucky enough that they last more than a day in the house, you can also freeze them with a popsicle stick for a lighter dessert option.
Organic frosted toaster pastries are a hit with my teens. Trader Joe’s frosted toaster pastries sometimes come in seasonal flavors. Jenn MorsonOur older kids don’t always feel like eating breakfast, but it really is necessary before they head out the door.
Toaster pastries aren’t ideal as a protein-rich breakfast, of course, but teenagers are difficult to please, and I’m just happy they have some form of fruit at the start of their day. Fresh rolls make sandwiches more exciting. Trader Joe’s has a varied bread selection.
Jenn MorsonI rely on several Trader Joe’s items to make up the packed lunches our kids take to school, both for their sandwiches and their side dishes. Sandwiches can get boring and repetitive, but thankfully Trader Joe’s sells several varieties of rolls that my kids love. Some options are seasonal, but we love the French rolls and the Ciabatta rolls for a hearty sandwich.
Shelf-stable snacks work best for packed lunches. Trader Joe’s cheddar rockets are good for a lunch side. Jenn MorsonTo accompany sandwiches, I like to pack a variety of shelf-stable snacks as I don’t necessarily trust that the kids will remember to put a cooling pack in their lunchboxes.
One of our favorites is the cheddar-cheese rockets. I also pack honey wheat pretzel sticks in my kids’ lunches. Trader Joe’s has a few pretzel varieties.
Jenn MorsonWe love the honey wheat pretzel sticks and veggie sticks, too. All of the snacks I’ve mentioned are reasonably priced our kids would happily polish any of them off if we didn’t divide them into individual portions for their lunches. For our kids who don’t have nut-free schools, we love the peanut-butter-filled pretzel nuggets.
The peanut-butter-filled pretzels come in salted and unsalted varieties. Jenn MorsonMy children are split 50/50 between the salted and unsalted nuggets, and I have to admit that I like the non-salted ones best. They are a source of added protein, easy to divide into individual servings, and bite-sized, which cuts down on crumbly messTrader Joe’s Triple Ginger Snaps are another sweet staple.
Triple Ginger Snaps have a kick. Jenn MorsonFor a sweet treat, I always have a tub of the Triple Ginger Snaps in the house. My kids love these “spicy” cookies that have bits of crystallized ginger in them.
As an added bonus, they settle an anxious tummy in a pinch. I love buying Clif Kid Z bars while shopping at Trader Joe’s. Clif Kid bars are a great after-school snack to fuel homework time.
Jenn MorsonAlthough most items in Trader Joe’s are store brand, I love that they also carry Clif’s protein-packed bars for a lower price than our hometown grocery store. These are a great energy booster for our kids with early practices — it helps tide them over until dinnertime. I use Trader Joe’s pizza dough as a base for my easy stromboli dinner.
I use pizza crust to make stromboli. Jenn MorsonHaving kids headed in different directions and at different times means needing fast, tasty, and easily reheatable meal options. One of my favorites is stromboli.
I use two packages of the chain’s ready-to-bake pizza dough, usually one plan and one herbed. To start, I roll it out to about the size of a baking sheet. To make it, I use a bunch of the chain’s cheeses.
Trader Joe’s has a lot of options for cheese. Jenn MorsonI liked to add the chain’s shredded mozzarella or Quattro Formaggio cheese to my dough. To upgrade the stromboli, I add Trader Joe’s cured meats.
Trader Joe’s sells pepperoni and salami. Jenn MorsonWe usually opt for Italian salami and pepperoni. Once the meat and the cheese are inside the dough, I shape it into a log and bake.
My kids like to dip their stromboli slices into Trader Joe’s pizza sauce as well. Trader Joe’s sells tubs of pizza sauce. Jenn MorsonI love to eat stromboli both fresh out of the oven as well as straight from the fridge the next day as a premade sandwich.
But if someone is late for dinner, they can always pop a couple of slices into the toaster oven for a warm meal. One of our tastiest summer meals stars the campari tomatoes and basil from the potted plant available at Trader Joe’s. I love when the chain sells campari tomatoes.
Jenn MorsonI cook the tomatoes down with some olive oil and garlic while boiling fusilli, then mix it all together with fresh mozzarella. I have a strict policy of not making this until Memorial Day has passed, but we love this simple summer meal for Sunday evenings when everyone is home. Frozen coconut shrimp is easy to dress up.
We like to pair our coconut shrimp with a few sides. Jenn MorsonThe shrimp is a nice treat and it usually takes around 20 minutes to cook in the oven. To make it a full meal, we sometimes pair it with a side salad.
We also pair meals with Trader Joe’s root-vegetable fries. The root-vegetable fries from Trader Joe’s are a family favorite. Jenn MorsonThe coconut shrimp and root-vegetable fries cook at roughly the same high temperature, so I usually put both in the oven at once.
Plus my kids are more willing to eat their vegetables in fry form. Click to keep reading Trader Joe’s diaries like this one. Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/trader-joes-big-family-best-things-to-buy-2022-10
