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Betsy
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I need to plan a 2-3 week menu for my 13 year old ds to fix. I am trying to make this as easy as possible because I know I will be getting kick back and I won't be able to address anything.
So....what are your frozen favorites at TJ's?
Any other *really* easy suggestions?
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MelissaClaire
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I keep the orange chicken, mini tacos, and breaded frozen cod in my freezer at all times just in case we need them. All are fan favorites.
You could also pick up hash browns and use with eggs for a breakfast dinner.
tacos are easy--especially if you have browned ground beef already cooked in the freezer.
chili is easy. I like this one from Skinnytaste. I often leave out the meat and it still tastes great.
Shredded beef from the crockpot is easy--just the roast, italian dressing mix, some beef broth and peppers if you have them and serve on rolls.
tostados--we break taco shells in half and spread with refried beans and top with cheese and bake until the cheese is melted.
If you have time to stock your freezer beforehand these spinach lasagna rollsare great.
also the frozen chicken breast I've posted recently is very easy:
We get the frozen Purdue (I think?)chicken breasts from Costco. They have thinner cut breasts in there.
If you put some olive oil on a cookie sheet, then fill it with frozen chicken breasts and top with whatever you have on hand--sliced onions, frozen broccoli, frozen red pepper slices--or carrots and cauliflower--then sprinkle seasoning (dried or fresh)on top (I usually use thyme, and salt and pepper). Drizzle with some more olive oil.
Bake at 400 for 20-25. Depending on what I have on hand I might throw some diced tomatoes on at the end and I usually pop it back in for a few minutes when it's finished after adding grated mozzarella. Serve with cous cous or rice or microwaved baked potatoes.
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Betsy
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MelissaClaire wrote:
I keep the orange chicken, mini tacos, and breaded frozen cod in my freezer at all times just in case we need them. All are fan favorites.
You could also pick up hash browns and use with eggs for a breakfast dinner.
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 Eat all of these regularly! Unfortunately, all my kids are all a bit sick of the orange chicken. But, they will likely be eating it anyway because it's good and easy.
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JennGM
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We eat the frozen rice quite frequently. Pair that with any meat.
I don't make the prepared foods except that. We use their salmon and shrimp, and have used the frozen chicken breasts. We eat the frozen veggies all the time, and hash browns or frozen fries.
But except the rice, that all takes a little prep.
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CrunchyMom
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Do you get the frozen prepared rice? It pairs nicely with the orange chicken.
Since going gluten free, we get less of the prepared food from TJs, so I'm behind, but BJs carries the Alexi brand of frozen potato "things" that don't have so many preservatives. We like their tater tots a lot, but their waffle fries, french fries, and sweet potato fries are good as well.
One easy meal we like is chili cheese fries. Canned Trader Joes chili served over fries with cheese and chopped onion.
BJs also carries the Applegate hot dogs at a better price than Trader Joes.
My Costco usually carries a number of prepared sausages like Amy's chicken sausage in various flavors or kielbasa. These are precooked and therefore easy to prepare and serve with frozen veggies and a potato or rice side.
I also like their frozen organic mixed veggies, frozen peas, and frozen corn for easy vegetable sides.
My 9 year old can scrub potatoes, stick them in the oven, and turn it on, though, I don't usually ask him to determine if they are done or get them out.
I think TJs has a frozen meatball (we usually stocked up on Ikea), but jarred tomato sauce, frozen meatballs, and spaghetti is easy.
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Lindsay
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Mimip
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We love the Manderin Chicken and vegetable fried rice. Throw it all together with their organic green beans and it makes a great stir fry.
Also the turkey meatballs are great.
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Mimi
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Betsy
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CrunchyMom wrote:
My 9 year old can scrub potatoes, stick them in the oven, and turn it on, though, I don't usually ask him to determine if they are done or get them out.
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I am assuming that I will be unavailable, and he will be doing this all on his own. Most of my kids can fend for themselves pretty well. But for some reason when I am not there they forget what they can do! 
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Servant2theKing
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Betsy,
Having a chart or list of foods dc are able to make on their own, or creating a notebook or clipboard with recipes and available foods or ingredients can be helpful (and also tends to jog hunger-induced memory lapses which can overcome even the most experienced cooks  ). Listing a specific pan or prep tool, or best cooking methods right on the recipe can make things simpler for dc. Grouping ingredients in cupboard, pantry, frig or freezer is also useful. We often use ziplock bags or stacking containers to corral various ingredients for those times when Mom can't be at the helm. Labeling with a Sharpie is great ~ especially for listing cooking times, oven temps or whether thawing is necessary on frozen meals.
Engaging your oldest or most capable dc in planning and organizing meal plans and grocery items, might help them feel even more confident in handling meal preparations while you're unavailable. Having dc take part in meal prep more frequently, even before the need arises for solo efforts, is good practice and increases their level of skill and confidence. Whenever my mother's heart struggles with placing such responsibilities on dc, I'm greatly consoled in the realization that they are developing valuable skills for adult life! Praying all goes smoothly for you and them!
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MarilynW
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Fun subject - I could poor myself a glass of Charles Shaw and spend a whole evening discussing this!!  TJ!!
Sadly - we no longer do the "quick" food - too many growing boys means that the portions are too small and we would need too much of it for our budget. But lots of ideas from when we used to...
Firstly - the Trader Joe's recipe website has some great ideas.
Some quick ideas - I agree with the mandarin orange chicken. Everyone's favorite here. Also the meatballs, hashbrowns, sweet potato fries, skinny fries. The bottled sauces are good. Some of the frozen veggies make for really quick meals - the pepper melange, the chopped leeks, for example. The canned salmon is great for meatless meals.
I think that your ds might like looking at the website and planning some meals with all the ingredients listed. My 14 year old sons did that last summer.
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MaryM
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Very timely ---our very first Trader Joe's is opening in Colorado next week. Now I can see what all the hype is about...
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Betsy
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MaryM wrote:
| Very timely ---our very first Trader Joe's is opening in Colorado next week. Now I can see what all the hype is about... |
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Awesome! We love ours. And, acutally, eat lots of what people have already recommended. So, you have a great start. 
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Mimip
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We just got our in October and LOVE it! My main complaint though is that they put it inside if a space WAY too small with no where near enough parking. Is it like that at other locations? This is the first one anywhere near us in South FL.
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Mimi
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Grace&Chaos
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Quick and easy for my kids usually will be their 1.chicken tenders paired with any of their mac n cheese
2.Salmon patties added to their burger buns with any humus spread and paired with spinach salad & Romano dressing
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CrunchyMom
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Betsy wrote:
MaryM wrote:
| Very timely ---our very first Trader Joe's is opening in Colorado next week. Now I can see what all the hype is about... |
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Awesome! We love ours. And, acutally, eat lots of what people have already recommended. So, you have a great start. |
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That and JoeJoes. You will never go back to Oreos.
I also love their corned beef roast for St. Patty's Day. We are further out now, but I make a special trip for that.
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Lindsay
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Betsy
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CrunchyMom wrote:
That and JoeJoes. You will never go back to Oreos.
I also love their corned beef roast for St. Patty's Day. We are further out now, but I make a special trip for that. |
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YES! Joe-Joes. My kids have never had "Oreos" but they have had Joe-Joes. My kids only refer to "Oreo" type cooked as Joe-Joes.
I have never tried their corn beef roast--I will have to check that out.
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JennGM
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It takes a few visits to get used to TJs. It's a small store, for one.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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JennGM
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Not sure how easy this is, but I often do the boneless chicken thighs in barbeque sauce and cook for about an hour in the oven. Serve with with prepared frozen rice (cooked of course).
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Betsy
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Well, I was hoping in starting this thread that there were a few secreat isles at JT's that I hadn't ever been down that you all knew about!
We have been shopping a lot at TJ's for almost 6 years. We have been in crisis mode and had to rely on prepared food more than I can ever think about. So, don't judge me for my food choices. I use to have standards and eat all homemade and organic, etc. Now, I am just happy that everyone had enough food to live for another day....
So here is what we eat from TJ's
::Bagles and Cream Cheese
::Organic White Bread and/or Sour Dough Bread
::British Muffins, with Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce and Ham rounds (I love this!)
::Sugar Snap Peas (raw)
::Organic Apples
::TJ's Pizza dough, Mozzarella Cheese, TJ's Apple Butter (Sounds strange but to die for. We also do normal pizza toppings too)
::Prepared Salads, Chicken Salad, Caesar Chicken Wrap (this is what I eat if we are traveling or I need to eat in-between running errands)
::Frozen Nana Bread and Tj"s Cucumber dip.
::Bacon
::Hot Dogs and buns
::NUTS--trail mixes, cashews, almonds, peanuts
::Seeds--Sunflower Seeds (for baseball season)
::Salad Toppings: Cranberries, Nice Seasoned cranberry almond mix, slivered almonds,
::Biscuits in a round tin (ever once in a while I will make sausage gravy for them)
::Pasta and the Volka Sauce (I don't like to many of their pasta sauces, but this one I do, I don't know what it say's about me)
::Raviolis (They have some really nice cheese raviolis that we eat on friday. The had some awesome pumpkin seasonal ones that were to die for)
::Bratz (My boys like these, but as someone who grew up in WI I can't stand them  )
::Whole Organic Chickens
::Olive Oil and Olive Oil Spray
::Olives and Pickle Slices
::Salt Free Tj's Butter
::Greek Whole Milk Yogurt
::All of their crackers (Pita and rocket crackers are our favorites, but we eat them all)
::Caned Tuna for tuna salad
Frozen Sections
::Pizzas--We are currently eating the little round ones. But we have eaten most of them.
::All of the frozen vegetables
::Tater Tots
::Orange Chicken
::Meatballs, Buns, and Sauce
::Mini Tacos,
::Taquitos
::Pancake Balls
::Waffels
::Hash Browns
::Different breaded Fish
::Frozen Fruit (this is a main stay in our freezer)
::Granola Bars
::Blue Tortilla chips
::Potato Chips (only on special occasions, but they are coming from TJ's so that makes them okay and I don't need to feel too guilty, right?)
::Vegetable Chips (These are one of my guilty little pleasures, I could eat the whole bag if no one was around)
::Pretzels with Peanut butter (These are so addictive that I can't eat any or I will eat the whole bag)
::Beer (our TJ's has a wonderful selection of local beers including my ultimate favorite of Duck Rabbit Milk Stout.)
::Mix Blend Bagged Cheese
::Mozzarella Cheese
::Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
::Feta Cheese
::Parmesan Cheese
::Salami in a medium size stick that we cut for crackers
::The Cheese spread that we put on crackers (AWESOME)
::Sometimes the sandwich meat
::Dunkers (We have had to cut back because we just eat these too fast. Truly delicious and wonderful)
::Joe-Joes (A rare treat, but the peppermint ones from Christmas are sooooooo good)
::Chocolate (I live on their dark chocolate)
::Most of their cookies are really good but I try not to get them too often.
Things that we Don't Like
::Breaded Mozzarella Sticks in the frozen area (we all didn't like these)
::Most of their salsas
::Some of there cut cheese has molded really fast.
::I don't usually buy too many fresh meats or fresh vegetables there. I can't say they are bad, I just get them other places.
Okay, this is just what I can think of off the top of my head. 
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JennGM
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I don't recommend their heat and serve meats like beef tenderloin. We've had one good experience and the rest has not been.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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MarilynW
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Betsy wrote:
Now, I am just happy that everyone had enough food to live for another day....
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Amen sister 
I am actually not in crisis kitchen mode (though I have had many years of it!) - no high risk pregnancies, hyperemesis or teeny tiny babies. So I am doing a lot more homemade than I have ever done. (eg making all our bread, yogurt, kiefer etc)
I used to do a lot more organic - but budget will not allow it now, so I just pray over all the food I buy and thank God that we are not starving like so many.
Since our TJ's opened 10 years ago (7 minutes drive away!!!) I am a regular at the store. They know me and they never bat an eyelid at the size of my shopping cart, as they know I have a big family. I love them as when I had four children in carseats, they would always take my groceries to the car, and they still offer. And with all our various allergies through the years, they always have allergy information sheets.
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Topic: Easy Food From Trader Joe's
