yummies for my tummy

It's no secret that I love Trader Joe's.  LOVE TJs.  How could you not?  But these are a few of my favorite things as of late (all new products!):

Yuzu is this delicious Asian citrus - not quite lemon, not quite orange, not quite grapefruit.  A taste all its own!  This yummy box contains 10 packets of yuzu juice mixed with honey and sugar.  Add a packet to either hot or cold water and you get a delicious citrus-y sweet beverage!  I love that it's not syrupy since it's just juice so adding water doesn't require much, if any, mixing.  And you can add as much or as little water depending on how sweet you want it to be.  (In fact, my cashier told me that she doesn't even add water at all because she loves hers super sweet!) 

Marvelous Malted Milk Ball Cookies?  Yes please!  I saw these babies on the new shelf and grabbed them immediately.  My favorite Trader Joe's has been doing a 'send a worker around with free samples' deal and while I was poking at frozen shrimp, a girl carrying around 3 tubs gave me a free sample.  YUM.  I'm a sucker for chocolate chip cookies and the addition of malted milk balls adds another bit of depth and dimension.  This is more of a crunchy cookie rather than soft, if you were curious.  Get some!

I don't have a pic of this since it's currently in the fridge, but I found Carmelized Onion Dip in the refrigerated section.  My aforementioned cashier told me she ate half the container without realizing it and only stopped because she ran out of chips!  Although she said I should reconsider my purchase (jokingly, of course), I found the dip totally delicious as a snack last night with Trader Joe's ruffled thicker cut potato chips (with sea salt).

Get some goodies today!  Your belly will thank you :)

2011 photo yearbook project day #23

A big pot full of happy:

I got too tired last night to make my chicken tikka masala (aka butter chicken) but I made it today and it was spicy and delicious!  My belly is now really full and food coma is probably going to hit.

There are a lot of variations out there but I loved this recipe for being fairly easy.  I sliced chicken breasts into strips and marinated it in a lovely spice mixture of lemon juice, cumin, cinnamon, minced ginger, salt, cayenne and black pepper.  Like yesterday's chicken schwarma, I forgot to buy yogurt so I used some oil to make it more of a marinade.  Into the fridge it went for about an hour.

For the start of the sauce, I melted butter and sauteed a minced glove of garlic with a minced jalapeno.  To that I added more cumin, paprika, and cayenne.  Then a tomato sauce was added with a cup of heavy cream and it was simmered to reduce for about 20 minutes.  Lazy to pull out the grill pan again, I browned the chicken in a saute pan and finished it in the sauce after it had thickened up a bit.  Once it was done and the heat was off, I hit the pot with a handful of chopped cilantro.

I served this over basmati rice and heated up some TJs naan - the frozen ones, which are far superior to the ones in the bakery aisle.  Spicy and delicious!

Next time, I think I'll grate the ginger rather than mincing because I keep eating small chunks but the flavors were spot on with what I was hoping for.  This is going to make great leftovers for the week, yay!

Want to enjoy this easy meal yourself?  Check out the recipe here:  Mel's Kitchen Cafe's chicken tikka masala.  I love Mel's blog, I've tried quite a few recipes from it and have found them delicious, especially the clam chowder.  Enjoy!

2011 photo yearbook project day #21

A weekend and upcoming week by myself means time for groceries so I can cook my meals!  If you know me, you know how terribly picky of an eater Matt is so I sometimes sacrifice a lot when it comes to my meals.  But I hit up Trader Joe's after work yesterday and bought ingredients to make chicken schwarma and chicken tikka masala this weekend.

While there, I saw these babies in the frozen food section:

Falafels always make me think of my mom (hi mommy!) who has fallen in love with them since about last year.  These little guys had so much promise...but would they be tasty?

Frozen out of the bag

Hot out of the oven

So how were they?  Sadly, they were just ok.  I expected them to be softer but the chickpeas weren't pureed smoothly enough so it was somewhat dry and chunky.  The flavor was also heavily parsley and not much else, maybe some garlic.  Disappointing!  But oh well, they were worth a try.  Stuff at TJs is sometimes hit or miss and I have found a lot of hits that make up for the shortcomings.

TJs also was selling a ton of orchids and baby orchids and after the orchid I bought at Ikea (that has since bloomed 2-3 additional flowers, hehe), I couldn't resist a baby orchid!  They're sitting together right now and look super cute.  The baby orchid has white flowers tinged in pink.  Orchid obsession! :)  I'll need to take another picture later of the newest addition once it gets settled in.