Traders Joe's is coming!! Why should I love it???! :) :)

Love the lowfat, high fiber muffins, the vegan corn dogs, the sushi rolls, tamales, etc....I could go on forever!

They used to have great BBQ pulled pork, but I haven't found it lately.

My fave, for many years, has been the reduced fat smoked gouda.

I live in VA and we have them here too. Actually, there's one within 5 miles from my house.
They're not a health store, but they definitely carry more "healthy" items than regular grocery stores. Gotta be careful to avoid thinking everything there is healthy because there's a number of items that'll get ya. I'm still changing and adding different foods and getting used to nutritional values so I go to TJs for little stuff. I haven't bought the loaves of bread but their english muffins and bagels have less sugar and sodium than the stuff you'd find elsewhere. They do have a large section for dried fruits/trail mix/nuts, but most of the nuts aren't available unsalted. Huge selection of booze and cheese tho! I don't really check those out, but I do like to pick up their 8 pack of California rolls. :happy:

My family is vegetarian so it is pretty much the only place we can shop that is affordable (Whole Foods is amazing but WAY more expensive). They have meatless versions of almost everything that are delicious and low cal/fat. Also, I find that buying the organic foods is not too much more expensive, unlike other stores. For example a can of regular garbanzo beans are .89, whereas organic are 1.09, Here are our favorites!

-Dark chocolate covered power-berries
-3 grain Tempeh
-Super firm organic tofu
-Pomegranite Limeaid (mostly my husband is in love with this)
-frozen potstickers and hodgepodge veggie mix
-vegan chocolate chip cookies (not low calorie but SO delicious)
-marinara sauce
-meatless balls
-vegie corn dogs
-Yves meatless ground (you MUST try this... best ground beef alternative. period.)
-Earth Balance non-dairy buttery spread
-Soy dream vanilla soymilk

the list goes on and on.... I LOVE TRADER JOE'S and you will too!!!

I am an artist for Trader Joes in Nashville.
The reason we are labeled west coast is because thats where we are focused and originated from. Monrovia California.

If you want to eat healthy it's the cheapest there is and still the best quality. We love our customers...mostly. Some really try our patience like when they run into you with their cart or something.

Best prices on Agave, Almond Butter, Cheese and Fish ever.

The only downside is that you can't do ALL of your sgopping there. There are just somes things we dont carry..sorry.

All of our private labeled food is all natural.

We are not a health food store.

We are a Discount Gourmet food store though.

SuperMan to the rescue once again! :laugh: Thank you for the feedback SuperMan! Good to hear it from someone from the 'inside' so to speak. I appreciate your feedback as well. :flowerforyou:

Becca:drinker:

Some of the best items to be buying from trader joe's when you're losing weight are as follows:
Organic Produce...esp. Baby Spinach. (Eat at least half a cup per day everyday)
Light Coconut Milk (Base for Coconut milk fruit smoothie)
frozen berries...great for the smoothie or adding to oatmeal.
Granolas
Kashi High Fiber & High Protein cereal. 13g of protein, 10 g of fiber in one cup and only 140 cal.
Almond Butter...much healthier than peanut butter.
Agave Nectar. It may be high in natural sugars but it doesn't spike your glucose levels and therefore is diabetic safe in most cases.
Stevia ...for the diehard serious about cutting out the sugar.
Olive Oil...doesn't translate to bad fats when cooking.
Breads...we have tons of sprouted breads and our Ezekiel Bread is half the price of anywhere else!
Nuts and dried fruits....we have tons and all for amazing prices...you'd be nuts not to buy your nuts from TJ's
Fish and Chicken...Awesome prices...awesome products...it's how we roll!

Those are just a few of my favorites...I try to avoid as much processed foods as possible.

trader joes is packaging king! so i don't shop there much, but things that are sold 'in bulk" like their nuts & cheeses, i do like those.

trader joes is packaging king! so i don't shop there much, but things that are sold 'in bulk" like their nuts & cheeses, i do like those.

but we don't sell "in bulk" items? What did you mean?

trader joes is packaging king! so i don't shop there much, but things that are sold 'in bulk" like their nuts & cheeses, i do like those.

but we don't sell "in bulk" items? What did you mean?

I believe what she meant was she likes that you sell bulk items so she does shop there for those. From other posts of hers I've seen she's against packaging. Except I just looked at her diary.... and now I'm way confused.:ohwell:

My thoughts......Lots of things come in packaging, I myself am not against packaging unless it's in excess (but that's usually the very processed foods that do that), prefer to buy in bulk to save money but I carry out my bulk items in a bag.:laugh: not my arms.

So.......guess we all have to figure packaging is part of life unless we have big pockets to fill with nuts and cheese, beans & rice etc. when we bulk shop! :laugh:

Everything, except for our produce is packaged. But our products have no artificial preservatives or flavors. So they won't last as long as other brands but they'll taste better.

I forgot to tell you the best part....Our Money back guarantee! If you don't like it, just bring it back or your reciept and we'll exchange or refund your money.

No to Bulk. We leave that to Sam's and Costco. Sorry. Our prices allow you to buy in bulk though lol. the largest item we sell is dog food.