Hi everyone!  I have had several requests from everyone asking what are my FAVORITE things at Trader Joe’s.  I honestly LOVE everything at the store so it was “hard” to pick just a few things.  I decided to create a list of some of my favorite things at Trader Joe’s that you can use if you are taking a road trip or if you just can’t decide what to buy~ nothing says you have to get everything. 

It’s a given that I LOVE all the CHEAP, fresh organic produce, but, there are not too many things I don’t LOVE there.  I tried to keep it to Trader Joe specific things and list it based on where you would find the items in the store.  This is going to be an ever-changing list as they always coming out with new products.

Please note that Trader Joe’s stores often carry what is local to your state.  My list is based off of California and I now that the East Coast may not have what we do.  It never hurts to ask or show them a picture though – you never know, they might just order it for you.

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO PRINT THIS ENTIRE LIST

Trader Joe’s Favorites List

Courtesy of Danica’s Daily

http://www.danicasdaily.com

As of January 26, 2011 ~ here is what I am currently LOVING at Trader Joe’s

CONDIMENTS/SAUCES/SPREADS/SALSAS

·         All Salsas ~ especially Corn, Smoky Peach and fresh salsa

·         Arabiatta Pasta Sauce – spicy and good straight from the jar

·         Balsamic Vinegar ~ it’s delicious and cheap ~ I use it on and in everything

·         Condensed Cream of Portabella Soup

·         Green olive tapenade, awesome on sandwiches or stirred in pasta

·         Hot and Sweet Mustard

·         Lemon Curd

·         Light Coconut Milk

·         Low Sugar Organic Apricot Preserves

·         Low-Fat Tuscan Marinara

·         Marinated Mushrooms , 0 points+ and delicious!

·         Midnight Moo Chocolate Syrup ~ delicious and REAL, no HFCS

·         Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar

·         Organic Ketchups & Mustards (because they are made by Annie’s )

·         Organic Roasted Red Pepper soup – awesome with grilled cheese

·         Organic Unsalted Crunchy Peanut Butter

·         Organic Unsweetened Apple Sauce

·         Pink Himalayan Sea Salt ~ cheap and grinds

·         Pure Vanilla and Bourbon Vanilla Extracts

·         Raw honey and pure maple syrup – both are amazing and not too pricey

·         Rice Wine Vinegar

·         Sesame Soy ginger Dressing

·         Sweet Chili Sauce ~ Yes, it’s that Spicy, Sweet Thai sauce you get at restaurants

·         Toasted Sesame Oil, I love flavored oils in stir fries and salad dressings

·         Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute

·         Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki Sauce (super good & cheap teriyaki)

·         Trader Joe’s Red Pepper Spread- it’s bright orange – so AMAZING on sandwiches!

·         White Balsamic Vinegar

RICE/BEANS/PASTA

·         17 Bean and Barley Soup Mix

·         Basmati Rice Medley

·         Brown Basmati & Jasmine Rice

·         Brown Rice Medley

·         Canned Beans ~ all, organic & cheap

·         Cuban Style Black Beans

·         Harvest Grain Blend ~ awesome for THIS recipe alone!

·         Instant Garlic Mashed Potatoes, taste better than the real deal

·         No Bake Lasagna Noodles, they are chewy and easy to use, worth it not being whole wheat

·         Organic Baked Beans

·         Salsa Refried Beans

·         Trader Joe’s Harvest Grain Blend

CEREALS

·         Steel Cut Oatmeal

·         Trader Joe’s High Fiber Cereal

BAKING

·         All their flours – they are cheap

·         Corn Bread

·         Pumpkin and/or multi-grain pancake mixes

·         Triple Berry Bran Muffins, 3 points+ each

·         Turtle Brownie Nix (treats are good and this one is phenomenal)

·         Vanilla Cake

REFRIDGERATED SECTION

·         All their premade salads ~ easy go to meal when you don’t want to cook

·         Avocado’s #1 Guacamole

·         Buttermilk Biscuits & Crescent Rolls (because there are no transfats & real ingredients!)

·         Cranberry Orange Relish (if they still have it – awesome topper)

·         Cranberry Walnut Gorgonzola Dressing

·         Fresh Pizza Sauce, next to the dough

·         Guaca-Hummus

·         Italian Sausageless Sausage

·         Organic Broccoli slaw – awesome with the spicy dressing peanut on top for a nice side or snack

·         Pizza Dough ~ fresh, in the fridge section ~ all flavors are AWESOME and low in points+

·         Ravioli’s – All especially the bacon cheese, butternut squash and portabella mushroom

·         Soyrizo

·         Spicy Asian Peanut Dressing ~ The BEST DRESSING you will ever eat

·         Spicy Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus

·         Spicy Hummus with the salsa in the middle of it

·         Spicy Jalapeno artichoke spread – delicious on sandwiches or with crackers.

·         Spicy Spinach Pizza, in the fridge section

DAIRY

·         French Vanilla & Hazelnut Creamers ~ I get these for The Husband because they are made without transfats and with ingredients you can pronounce/recognize

·         Fresh Mozzarella Balls

·         Light Havarti and Cheddar Slices

·         Marinated Mozzarella with Olive Oil

·         Organic lowfat strawberry & banana yogurt cups – 6 pack – 4 oz containers – small but tasty

·         Pre-cut sharp cheddar squares – kinda pricey, but, delicious – 1 square is 1 pp

·         Shaved Parmesan

·         Shredded Pepperjack

·         Trader Joe’s Greek yogurts are so cheap – LOVE the 0% and the vanilla

·         Trader Joe’s Lite String Cheese (used to be 1 point each, not sure if its 1 or 2 now)

MEAT

·         Applewood, uncured REAL bacon – awesome for BLTA’s (2 pp/slice)

·         Buffalo Chicken Meatballs, in the fridge section.

·         Marinated Carne Asada

·         Marinated Pesto Genovese Chicken

·         Marinated Santa Maria Tri Tip

·         Peppered Turkey Bacon, 2 slices for 1 points+ ~ the BEST Turkey Bacon I’ve ever had

·         Smoked Turkey Kielbasa

·         Southwestern Stuffed Chicken Breasts

·         Trader Joe’s 97% Lean Turkey Bacon (1 pp a slice!)

·         Trader Joe’s Mango Chicken Sausage

·         Trader Joe’s Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage

FREEZER

·         Apple Tart, you get 1/6 of the tart for a serving!

·         Breaded Chicken Tenders, 3 points+ each and it’s “fried” chicken

·         Brittany Blend Frozen Vegetables

·         Channa Masala

·         Chicken Egg Rolls

·         Chili Lime Chicken Burgers ~ so delicious, I eat them without a bun

·         Edamame soycatash

·         Fire Roasted Corn, Frozen ~ smoky, sweet & a great addition to soups, casseroles, etc

·         Frozen French Toast

·         Frozen Steel Cut Oats

·         Garden Vegetable & Spinach Lasagna

·         Lemon Grass & Coconut Curry Chicken Stix ~ fun appetizers

·         Marinated Chicken Chipotle Skewers ~ add to make a spicy chicken Caesar salad in minutes

·         Meatless Corn Dogs, they seriously taste like the real deal

·         Mini Chicken Won Tons, you get 9 for 3 points+ ~ great straight up or in soup

·         Orange Chicken, chicken potstickers & Vegetable or chicken Fried Rice is an awesome Chinese food night

·         Organic Brown Rice, Frozen ~ cooks in 3 minutes & doesn’t taste like instant, 4 Points+

·         Shrimp Gyoza

·         Soba Noodle Bowl ~ Awesome with steamed Organic Broccoli Slaw

·         Vegetable Gyoza, my favorite in THIS recipe

BREADS

·         Cranberry Walnut Bread, next to all the baked breads

·         Fat Free Multi-Grain Bread (it has a blue, orange, red wrapper), 3 PP for 2 slices

·         Focaccia, who am I kidding – all their freshly made daily breads

·         Organic tortillas, regular and whole wheat (they are made with flour & corn!), 4 PP each

·         Pita Breads, cheap and awesome for pita pizza

·         Sour Dough Walnut Wheat Bread

NUTS/CRACKERS/CHIPS

·         AkMak Crackers, not unique to Trader Joe’s but I always have them on hand

·         Candied Pecans & Walnuts – delicious as a snack or on salads, yogurt, oatmeal, pancakes

·         Chips….um, all of them. If you see something that looks like a brand you recognize (i.e. popchips, Stacy’s Pita Chips) ~ it IS that brand, just cheaper.

·         Dried Apple Rings

·         Fruit wraps, I dunno, I always buy them for people but not myself

·         Golden Berry Blend ~ better than just raisins or cranberries

·         Honey Plantain Strips

·         Honey Wheat Pretzels, do not get often but sometimes you want pretzel crunch

·         Kettle Korn Lite, they have them in packs of 6 – salty, sweet, crunchy

·         Nuts ~ cheap and come in small packages – I LOVE them all

·         Nutty American Trek Mix (it has big chunks of chocolate!)

·         Salty, Sweet, Nutty Trek Mix (the title says it all)

·         Social Crackers (8 for 3 pp) ~ the BEST crackers I’ve ever had, they melt in your mouth

TREATS

·         If you have self-control ~ section

o   Almond Windmill Cookies

o   Caramel Cashew Cookies

o   Chocolate nibs – up front in a little orange/yellow container

o   Coffee Ice Cream

o   Dark Chocolate – 3 in one pack – all red wrappers

o   Dark Chocolate Almonds

o   Dark Chocolate Blueberries

o   Dark Chocolate Cranberries

o   French Vanilla Ice Cream, the best ice cream you will ever eat

o   Maple Cookies

o   Milk & Dark Chocolate Crisps – they look like pringles

o   Mini recess peanut butter cups

o   Organic Lollipops

o   Peanut Butter stuffed, chocolate covered pretzels

WINE

·         2 Buck Chuck ~ all their wines are tasty and $2 a bottle!  I use it for cooking & drinking.

You can print this post or CLICK HERE to download a printable version.

Q’s

What is your FAVORITE thing at Trader Joe’s?  If you don’t have a favorite yet, what is ONE thing you want to try the most.

I am always looking for new things to try and I am sure I missed a bunch of things that I LOVE….share away so we all can add it to our lists.

If you are wondering about a certain product, feel free to leave a comment or email me and I’ll gladly share my thoughts.  The things I do not LOVE or you can get anywhere, I have left off the list.

Night everyone! 

Happy Hump Day all!  I hope you all are having as much fun with SpringPad as I am.  I honestly think Springing Recipes might be my newest addiction.

You know your day is going to start off good when you have DESSERT for breakfast.  It all started with a Chocolate Fig Vitatop.

Check out all the figginess going on in this Vitatop!

I LOVE adding frosting to my Vita-Tops so I broke out my FAVORITE Crunchy Almond Butter from the Nut Barn.

And layered it on!  This was AMAZING and totally tasted like a chocolate covered fig newton ~ YUM!  This might be one of my new favorite flavors.

I had some strawberries that my co-worker shared and a Tall FF Chai Tea Latte!

About 3 hours later I was ready for a snack.  I had a Honey Crisp Apple with Almond Butter.  Some things you can NEVER get enough of ~ ummm, like Almond Butter!

I had planned on having leftover Channa Masala for lunch until my two co-workers offered up going out to eat with a stop at the Halloween Store.  Our office has a departmental decorating contest every year and we all participate to WIN the TROPHY plus prizes.  We are on a quest for the perfect decorations ~ The Husband is being called in to build some stuff too   Oh and I still need a costume! Why are ALL the women’s costumes so NOT work appropriate?! LOL…..

Before shopping we headed out to Fazerrati’s Pizza.  I LOVE the name of this place ~ It honestly makes me think of Fonzie on Happy Days – like this is the name of the place he should’ve hung out vs Arnold’s.

I picked their One Slice, Salad Bar & Iced Tea.  It’s pretty cool because they will make you ANY pizza you want for your one slice.

Lunch started here…..

I  made up an AWESOME salad with pretty much everything on the salad bar.

Tons of Romaine

Cucumber

Red Bell Pepper

Egg slices

Mushroom Slices

Garbanzo Beans

Kidney Beans

LF Cottage Cheese

Sprinkle of Toasted Sunflower Seeds

Ranch dressing on the side with my fork for dipping!

For my slice I picked Vegetarian ~ I ate it ALL!  The crust was AWESOME – so thick and chewy.

I wasn’t really hungry this afternoon but I wanted something sweet.  So, I settled for some Trader Joe’s Hot Spiced Cider.  Even the screaming witch was eyeing my CUP ~ it was DELISH!  I saved on calories/points by using 1/2 water and 1/2 juice – it was just as sweet as drinking it straight up.

After work I headed off to my Weight Watcher meeting.  Have I told you all that I just LOVE my new leader ~ she totally inspires me in everyway.  I want to look as amazing as she does when I grow up   I got TWO Bravo stars tonight ~ A for showing up when I didn’t want to after our Holiday Party tasting and B for being smart  

When I walked in the door The Husband told me I had some FUN mail.  First he showed me my new Health & Fitness Mags – fun!  Then, he took me into the kitchen where I had a box from Nature’s Path!!! 

* More Peanut Choco BARS ~ I LOVED the one I got at BlogHERFood09!

* Organic Sunflower Agave Plus Granola

* Organic Optimum Blueberry Cinnamon Cereal

Plus TWO Gluten-FREE versions

* Organic Whole O’s

* Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise

YUM!  I LOVE everything of Nature’s Path I’ve had so far – I cannot wait to dig in and try these out.  Thanks Nature’s Path – you can NEVER have too many cereals to mix and match!!! Reviews and A GIVEAWAY coming soon!

The Husband placed his order for dinner with me before I ran out this door this afternoon.  He wanted tacos from Vasquez, our favorite local deli.  This might just become a Wednesday tradition because these are the BEST tacos around.  I had 2 Crunchy Chicken Tacos with Hot Sauce.

Plus a TJ’s Non-Pareils for dessert.  These are eh, ok ~ I don’t think the chocolate is as good as some of their other chocolates.  It’s pretty bitter and not creamy , but, they are not bad.  I will not buy them again.  There are too few calories in a day to waste them on eh, ok, foods. 

You have one more day to WIN COOKIES!  Off to read, relax and sleeeeeep!

Nite all!

Happy Biggest Loser Day all!!  Tonight’s show is seriously rockin’ my socks off ~ LOVE that Portabello Turkey Burger with Mushroom Buns!!! MUST, RECREATE ASAP!  Then, there is the story of Abby that I swear makes me bawl my eyes out anytime I watch/hear it. *sigh* LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the show!

I am FINALLY ready to make my BIG Announcement that I’ve been telling you all about now for a month. 

SpringPad It ~ Recipe Organizer!!

You all may have noticed a pretty cool looking new button on my recipe post for Channa Masala with a Coconut Kick.  I had the opportunity to meet up with the fantastic folks of SpringPad at BlogHERFood09 during breakfast.  We were discussing recipes, blogging and how to organize it all in a reader friendly way. 

I was so excited when I realized they had a solution to solve my on-going challenge of recipe organization!  They explained to me how SpringIt works and I was completely sold on the idea ~ I LOVE organizing tools and when you add that as a way to feed my recipe addiction organize all the recipes I collect I am impressed..

HOW IT WORKS:

SPRINGIT! Each time you see this fancy button on my posts , simply click it to add it to your own Spring Pad Collection.  This will not only allow you to save and print recipes, but, you can save them by categories/tags, use them for meal planning, shopping lists and more!

SAVE IT! There is another section on their site that allows you to use a special clipper button that you drag to your bookmarks bar of your browser, highlight a recipe and "Spring It. Springpad will capture the text, images and original URL to your Springpad site so you can access the recipe for later – or print it out.

The recipe pages look like this!

Here’s a link to my profile page, where I think you can see all of the recipes I’ve done already and can save them yourself: Danica’s Daily.

I will be adding this button to every new recipe I post and will slowly be making my way adding the SpringIt Button to all the recipes on my recipe page.  I’ve started on a few that you can check out

Healthy Pumpkin Butter

Channa Masala with a Coconut Kick

BBQ Chicken Pita Pizza

Here is a SpringPadIt Video that explains it all:

Be sure to sign up for your FREE SpringPad account so you can start saving and organizing recipes from all your favorite bloggers! You can SpringIt or SaveIt ~ a total win, win!

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!! 

Eating Bird Food is hosting a eggcellent giveaway from Cookware.com for Rachael Ray Cookware! Giveaway ends 10/30

You know you LOVE and want some Mother’s Cookies~ Giveaway ends 10/29!

That’s all I have for tonight all ~ I am off to finish the show! Go Team Jillian!!!

I LOVE spicy foods especially when they involve coconut!  This VEGAN recipe uses chickpeas, a.k.a., garbanzo beans, however, I imagine you could use any protein of choice (tofu, chicken, beef, shrimp).  If coconut isn’t your thing, feel free to use ALL vegetable broth and it is just as AMAZING. 

My inspiration for this recipe is going to sound funny, but,  as you read yesterday it was inspired by a Trader Joe’s Channa Masala Frozen Dinner that I tried awhile back.  I am not an Indian food person really, but, I LOVED these spicy chickpeas so much that I recreated my own version with a coconut kick!

CHANNA MASALA WITH A COCONUT KICK

INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tsp butter

1 medium red onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

1/2 jalapeño, minced (fresh or canned)

1 tsp yellow curry powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 large red tomato, chopped

1/2 c Lite Coconut Milk (can substitute with vegetable broth)

1/4 c Vegetable Broth

1 15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tsp sea salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/8 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp paprika

2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.  Heat olive oil and butter over medium heat until melted and add onion.  Cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

2.  Stir in garlic, ginger, jalapeño, curry, and cumin.  Cook one minute.  Add tomato and cook one minute.

3.  Add coconut milk, broth, chickpeas, salt and pepper.  Cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is almost evaporated.

4.  Remove from heat; stir in garam masala, paprika, and cilantro.

Enjoy as is, served over brown rice, with a pita bread, wrapped up or pour over a big batch of stir fried vegetables.

Makes 4 – 1/2 cup servings.

Nutritional information per serving:

Calories 195.7, Total Fat 5.5 g, Saturated Fat 2.4 g, Cholesterol 2.5 mg, Sodium 974.2 mg, Potassium 362.4 mg, Total Carbohydrate 31.3 g, Dietary Fiber 6.1 g, Sugars .4 g, Protein 7.5 g

This recipe is VEGAN!

The STAR of this recipe is Trader Joe’s Light Coconut Milk.  Despite the bad rap that Coconut gets, I have to say the nutritionals are not too shabby.  Oh and being only $0.99 a can is pretty awesome too!

Cook your onion with the olive oil and butter over medium heat until soft.

Add your aromatics ~ garlic, ginger, jalepeno, curry and cumin ~ cook for 1 minute. 

Add tomato and cook for 1 additional minute.

Add chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans), vegetable broth and coconut milk.

Cook until majority of the sauce is reduced.

Remove pan from heat and stir in cilantro, garam masala and paprika.

Tadah!!!!  All done in under 20 minutes!

I served my first serving over 1/2 a Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice.

Enjoy!

Happy Monday all! I have so many fun things to share with you all: 3 new recipes I tried today, a Cookie Run Scavenger Hunt with Mother’s Cookies and my next giveaway.  However, since I am out of time for tonight and rushing a bit, I am just posting the pictures, some details and a note that I will be posting everything this week….so stay tuned!  This is part 1 of many

I continued my steamy milk addiction with a Starbuck’s Tall Nonfat Chai Tea Latte.  I paired it with 2 slices of Nature’s Pride 100% Whole Wheat Bread and Creamy, Crunchy Almond Butter. 

I received this bread from Foodbuzz as part of the Taste Makers Program.  I have to say it was pretty tasty and super soft/doughy even after taking it out of the freezer.  The nutritionals are pretty decent too.

Mid morning snackage  TJ’s Lite Mozzarella Stick and 1 c Holiday Grapes.

I ran to the post office at lunch today to ship off my VIA Winner Prize packs and a box of goodies for Kristina for our goodies exchange.  She doesn’t have a TJ’s where she lives so I sent her a Best of Trader Joe’s pack

This is going to sound funny, but, my lunch was inspired by a Trader Joe’s Channa Masala Frozen Dinner that I tried awhile back.  I am not an indian food person really, but, I LOVED these spicy chickpeas so much that I recreated my own version!

Vegan Channa Masala with a Coconut Kick!  (Recipe coming this week)

I served it over 1/2 TJ’s Organic Brown Rice.   SO AMAZING ~ it’s spicy from the curry, cumin, garam masala and jalepeno, but, creamy and slightly sweet from the lite coconut milk.

  I picked up more Parmesan Garlic Pita Chips at lunchtime so I traded in my honey crisp apple for a few ~ you know because well, they are both crunchy and count the same for that, right?!

No worries though because I managed to trade in my afternoon snack of FF Vanilla Yogurt with Pumpkin Flax Granola for a handful or two of these.

Honestly, I know better than to have TJ’s MINI Peanut Butter Cups around.  Sure, you can get by having 27 for only 210 calories or divide it up for less.  But, if you are me, then, these are SO ADDICTING and I can eat handful after handful.  Luckily, I stopped myself and put them out for all my co-workers to eat up.  I think my thigh’s thanked me for that

When I got home I had a fun package waiting for me from Mother’s Cookies!  Tomorrow I help kick off and get to participate in their Cookie Run Scavenger Hunt!!!  You all can play along too and win stuff.  Oh, and, I will be giving away some cookies to you all as well – Fun!  Details coming tomorrow morning so be sure to check back then to play along!

The Husband LOVES Mother’s Cookies and these are his TWO FAVORITES!  The Taffy contain coconut and are filled with cream.  The Circus Animals are tied for 1st place he says LOL.

I was really proud of myself for planning a dinner tonight that I could use the ingredients for dinner and to whip up breakfast for tomorrow too.  I will be posting the steps and recipes for both this week too (see, I told you that you all had a bunch to look forward too!)

Turkey Sausage Ragu from Clean Eating Magazine

Here is a hint for part 2 ~ Mini Turkey Sausage and Mushroom Crustless Quiches!

Have a great night all!  And remember, this post is to be continued this week when I post all the recipes, plus tomorrow’s Scavenger Hunt and GIVEAWAY!!!

I headed to the gym today for lunch ready to hop on the treadmill.  I did 4:1 run:walk intervals for 30 minutes with a warm up and cool down before heading back to work for a “spicetastic” lunch!

Today I took the other half of my Channa Masala from Trader Joe’s, added a chopped organic light green zucchini

and poured it over 1 cup of Trader Joe’s Frozen Organic Brown Rice. 

I topped it with a little green onion and cilantro for color…..

Then mixed it up all ~ it was fantastic!  I think I might like it better this way versus eating it with Naan TJ’s product and will definitely get it again!

I added some more color with a bunch of organic cherry tomatoes.

This was the perfect lunch to power me through all my afternoon meetings.

My afternoon sweet tooth kicked in and I snagged a few vanilla and cinnamon cookies from the breakroom.  LOVE the Vanilla – they taste just like the kind with cream in the middle, only there is no cream.

I ended up working late then rushing home to try to get dinner for The Husband before he had to go to bed.  He goes to bed around 6 pm lately since he has to be at work at 3 am.  He was trying to stay up to wait for me so I just grabbed Subway on the way home.  I originally asked for a flatbread, but, they didn’t have it.  I settled for a Turkey/Ham Sandwich on 9-grain honey oat loaded with all the veggies, fat free Honey Dijon and AVOCADO!

And a handful of Salsa Sun Chips!  I am a chip person when it comes to sandwiches, I LOVE sticking them in the middle for added crunch.

All together with a Perrier fizzy water and a BIG pluot that I didn’t eat.  I might have it later but I have a feeling I am going to join The Husband in bed soon.  I need to get a good 8 hours of sleep!

Coming up next…..My next giveaway ~ it’s everything you need for a fantastic summer meal!

My workout today was fantastic! Now I completely remember WHY I LOVE working out – it’s for how I feel during sometimes (empowered), but, honestly, it is for how it makes me feel AFTER! I spent 20 minutes on the Elliptical at 19 (to hit all muscle groups) with a tension of 5. I put on my fast paced music and tried to hold the beat. After, I hopped over to the treadmill for a 15 minute free for all. I changed the speed and grade every 10 seconds here and there, did a couple of sprints and cooled down with a little walking. It was definitely a fast, but, effective workout.

I came back to work ready for lunch. Keeping up with my need to eat up our freezer this morning I pulled out this new to me product I found at Trader Joe’s, Channa Masala. I am not a big fan of indian food, but, the combination of spicy and savory with chick peas got me.

It also didn’t hurt that 1/2 of this is only 3 Weight Watcher Points and the ingredients are CLEAN!

Here is 1/2 my cooked portion – sort looks like chunky baby food, huh?!

I used 1/2 a Whole Wheat Naan to scoop it up with ~ OMG – it was fantastic. It was spicy, but, totally loaded with flavor. I wasn’t sure I would LOVE it, but, by the end, I definitely wanted more.

I had some healthy crunch for sides. I learned that the Armani an Cucumber needs to be “rubbed” to have the bitterness taken out. OMG – it was awful since I didn’t rub the ends on both sides on the cutting board. I tossed the cucumber I used a little drizzle of Annie’s Naturals Lowfat Honey Mustard on my salad and had an additional side of cherry tomatoes with red bell pepper.

YUM!!!! My lunch was full of comfort and crunch – what a great combo.

For dessert I had a handful of Just Apricots for 0 Weight Watcher Points!

Although my lunch was tasty, it didn’t stick with me for long. I held out as long as I could before I had my afternoon snack. This morning my co-worker gave me this new Kashi Cereal bar ~ it’s 2 Weight Watcher Points. I LOVE everything Kashi but this bar was just eh, ok. It didn’t really fill me up and was sorta like a dry fig newton.

Part 2 of my afternoon snack involved these “healthy” Brown Rice Rice Krispy Treats I found at Trader Joe’s. I have to admit, I am a HUGE rice krispy treat fan so I couldn’t wait to try these.

I LOVE how BIG they are….a small nibble made me realize it needed to be topped with something fantastic. I am not sure I’d eat these bars plain or buy them again.

I enlisted my Peanut Butter Party Co-workers and we ALL decided that PB Loco Dark Chocolate Duo was the perfect “frosting” for our treat. I sectioned it into 3 pieces and we shared ~ YUM! You really can’t go wrong with anything peanut butter and chocolate, right?

Wow, that was alot of reviews for one post, huh?! LOL…..

I am not sure what is on the agenda for tonight, but, I am hoping to find time to work on the fun posts I have planned for you all (including another giveaway!)

Tonight I am trying out another new recipe….but I am missing TWO ingredients ~ beer & beans – must stop to get that!

See you all for dinner!