Trader Joe’s

The star ingredient of tonight’s dinner was Trader Joe’s Garlic Basil Linguine Pasta that I picked up during my DC trip.

I basically boiled the pasta for 4 minutes, and threw some organic spinach in for the remaining 1 minute of boiling. Once I drained the pasta/spinach mixture, I added

• organic diced Roma tomato
• steamed broccoli pieces
• 2 servings of thawed frozen shrimp
• fresh basil
  

This dinner was quick and easy. The pasta had a slight garlic flavor which I really liked. I think it would be easy to recreate this pasta with regular noodles if you added your own garlic and basil. It was a pretty light pasta but just enough to feel full.

I also made homemade garlic bread using half a loaf of french bread, spread with melted Smart Balance Buttery Spread, and garlic salt. I toasted it in the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees F.

I love pasta+veggie combos. It’s so easy to just throw random stuff in, and it usually ends up tasting great. I like to experiment with different ingredients.

Since I only slept 5 hours last night, I have been pretty tired all day. Since I was basically a CAR-BLOB for 12 hours yesterday, I wanted to at least feel go to the gym and do something.

It was raining so I hit the T-mill. I walked 2.o miles in 30:00 at a 5% incline. Nothing amazing, but enough to get the blood flowing and wake me up a little bit.

In my previous post, Lindsey asked about the prices of Trader Joes. I honestly don’t know if its THAT much cheaper. The Pasta I used tonight was $1.99. Most of the items I bought were snacky type things which were between 2 and 3 dollars. I did, however, notice that they had some ridiculously low prices on wine (as in 5 dollars or less).

It’s hard for me to know since I don’t shop there regularly, and when I went it I was just like “Wooooow!!” at everything. The reason I really liked Trader Joe’s was not so much the price but the uniqueness of the foods they had.

What is your opinion (if you have one) of Trader Joe’s prices? Do you think it’s any cheaper? What about the quality of the foods?

Let me know your thoughts!! Have a great night, it’s almost Friday!! 😀

❤ Meganerd