6 Not-to-Be-Missed Trader Joe’s Groceries That Just Hit Stores, According to a Former Employee
Grocery shopping, like many other types of shopping (ahem, for books and shoes), is highly aspirational. What do I mean by that? Well, we shop not only for what we want, but also for who we want to be. Maybe you want to eat more vegetables, bake your way to a “Hollywood handshake,” or simply become the kind of person who can nail a beef bourguignon recipe.
As for me, fall is that special time of year where I get tunnel-vision for one vegetable in particular: potatoes. So my main goal is to add a bit more color and variety to this root-heavy cornucopia. Thankfully, Trader Joe’s new items this month are not only making that dream already a reality, but I just might also find myself with smoother hair and one French beret away from a belated Halloween costume. Intrigued? Confused? Hungry? Here’s what you should absolutely be adding to your TJ’s cart this month.
1. Pink Lady Apple Chips, $2.29 for 2.5 ounces
Along with my potato-laden diet come fall, I could absolutely make room for more fruit in my life. Enter: Trader Joe’s Pink Lady Apple Chips. I admit, my first thought was do we need another apple chip? Then I took a handful of these straight to the gullet and quickly realized that yes, yes we do.
While some apple chips can’t hold their crunch, these are crispy, crackly perfection. Plus, they’re not at all candy-sweet, but rather a bright, tart, cinnamon-spiced bit of fall. I plan on keeping these handy for topping cheesecakes, oatmeal, and ice cream, and using them as a dipper for something sweet, like a chocolate hummus.
2. Pizza Ranch Salad Kit, $3.99 for 11.6 ounces
In my family, pizza night just isn’t pizza night without a loaded side salad to accompany it — preferably with a briny vinaigrette or dill-speckled ranch. In many cases that salad ends up topping said pizza, allowing that dressing to mingle with the bite of pepperoni, melted cheese, and Parm to become its own Magical Third Thing.
Now imagine that Magical Third Thing came in one convenient package? It’s not super surprising Trader Joe’s managed to cram in a meal’s worth of flavors into one salad kit. Shredded romaine gets topped with four-cheese pizza-flavored crumbles, herby flatbread strips, Parmesan cheese, and a pizza-seasoned ranch dressing. This salad kit is unbelievably good and perfectly distills all the best parts of spicy, cheesy, briny pizza-salads. I’d say each member of your family should get their own bag — I ate my first one entirely unassisted.
3. Cheesy Creamy Greens & Veggies, $4.49 for 16 ounces
Along with the aforementioned pizza-flavored salad, Trader Joe’s new Cheesy Creamy Greens & Veggies is perhaps the next easiest way to sneak more vegetables into my life (I am still the person who started eating broccoli because The Powerpuff Girls told me to). This blend of Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and kale is not shy about how creamy or cheesy it is — with plenty of melty provolone and mozzarella cheese to form a rich sauce.
This is that same frozen broccoli and cheese dish of childhood, but way more deluxe-feeling, with a hint of depth from the nutmeg that’ll have you thinking of fancy cream sauces and the holidays. Truth be told, I kept circulating around this pot of greens like a vulture. It would make an amazing sauce for tossing with pasta. You could even bake a few bags with a buttery breadcrumb topping and have a bonafide holiday hit on your hands.
4. Hair Oil, $5.99 for 1 ounce
It is a truth universally known that Trader Joe’s products are made by some pretty big name brands, oftentimes selling dupes of much more expensive — and often super-viral — items. So let me urge you to pick up its newest Hair Oil, which is remarkably similar to none other than OUAI Hair Oil. The ingredients are very similar (moringa seed oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E), and both boast that they’ll help smooth frizz, protect against heat, and add shine. At just $5.99 (compared to Ouai’s at $30), Trader Joe’s new, lightly vanilla-tinged hair oil feels like a $30 oil, too, with a cute (also very similar-looking!) bottle, to boot.
5. White Queso Dip, $3.99 for 10 ounces
It finally happened. Trader Joe’s made a great queso dip. I can say that, because I worked at Trader Joe’s through the Queso Dark Ages, when the store carried a very ho-hum jar of shelf-stable queso (I could never allow customers to buy it). But those days are over!
Yes, right alongside the other chilled dips, you can find liquid gold in the form of Trader Joe’s White Queso Dip. And it’s perfectly timed for Prime Dip Season (i.e., football season and/or staying-inside-to-watch-movies season). It hits that balance between a melty Chipotle-adjacent queso for tortilla chips, and a spicy, creamy dip that was made for warm pretzels. I never thought I’d see the day, but here we are.
6. Gluten-Free Baguette, $4.99 for 10 ounces
I eat a lot of gluten-free bread, and if you do too then you’ll know that the U.S. is so behind on making more-than-just-edible loaves — and don’t even think about a crusty, yeasty French baguette. That is, until now! The Gluten-Free Baguette from Trader Joe’s is here to erase any memory of those dry, lackluster breads you’ve had in the past.
It feels unbelievable, but this gluten-free baguette manages to have the airiness and chew you’d want in a baguette, which is hard to do without the all-important gluten to give that structure. Sure, it might lack that crackly crust, but a quick toast will more than fix that. Do what I did — slice a section of the baguette in half, toast it up, and then slather on butter and jam — and you’ll feel like a gluten-free Emily in Paris. Et voilà! A petit déjeuner that’s straight out of a Parisian cafe.
Which new Trader Joe’s items are you adding to your cart? Tell us in the comments below.
Further Reading
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