I can’t believe how quickly January came and went! Here we are into February and that means it’s Super Bowl time! Now, I’m not a huge football fan – especially this year. Sports, among other things, have been very uninteresting in the times of COVID. However, I am a big fan of snacks and Super Bowl is the perfect excuse to whip up a table full of party favorites.
In this haul post, I’ll detail all the items I got to make a Super Bowl spread, along with my regular shopping trip items and meal plans.
Haul Date: February 6, 2021
Haul Cost: $257.11
New Items
NEW items are marked accordingly in my post, and I’ll be reviewing them in a separate monthly recap post (like I did for January). This goes for new items to the store, and new-to-me items that I will be trying for the first time!
Super Bowl Snacks
For Super Bowl this year, I wanted to keep things a little on the healthier side and keep things as low carb as I could. Here was our menu:
- Folios Cheese Wraps with wild smoked Sockeye salmon, chive and onion cream cheese, and capers (cream cheese & capers already on hand)
- Buffalo Chicken Dip (my husband’s specialty), with chicken thighs, Franks Hot Sauce (not from Trader Joe’s) cream cheese, blue cheese dressing/crumbles, and celery/chips for dipping.
- Veggie platter with pimento cheese dip (NEW to me!), jalapeno artichoke dip, and hummus (already on hand)
- Jalapeno poppers with cream cheese, shrimp, pancetta (NEW to us!), and cheddar cheese (jalapenos, shrimp & cheddar from other stores).
- Cheeseburger dip with caramelized onions, ground beef, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, pickles & tomatoes. We had most of this stuff on hand from different stores already.
- Cranberry Turkey Meatballs (cranberry sauce and Sriracha BBQ sauce already on hand)
Instead of using chips, I cut up little sweet peppers which acted as great vessels for dips!
These recipes definitely called for a lot of cream cheese (see below). Luckily, Trader Joe’s cream cheese blocks are super affordable!
Meal Plans
These are the different meals planned with the remaining items I got in my Trader Joe’s haul this trip!
Breakfasts
- Keto egg bites with bacon and green onion
- Potato & sausage frittata
Lunches
- Vegetable Yellow Curry Over Brown Rice (for me)
- Quinoa Black Bean Bowls (for me)
- Asian Chicken Salads (for him)
- Pastrami Folio Wraps (for him)
Dinners
As a reminder, we do cook three meals a week with Blue Apron and tend to order takeout at least once a week, so these meals are meant to be in addition to those.
- Salmon & Bok Choy with Brown Rice
- Fish Tacos
- Carnitas and Cauliflower Rice
Note: I do keep other ingredients on hand to incorporate with these meals, which I detail in sections below. Some ingredients are also leftover from my previous haul(s), so I will try to make good use of the rest of my items to eliminate as much food waste as I can.
Beverages
Nothing new here! I’ve been buying the amazing Blueberry Lemonade Sparkling Water since it hit the shelves in January, along with these really great sparkling ACV drinks.
Bacon Keto Egg Bites
One of my favorite low carb breakfasts are keto egg bites. I’ve been switching it up from time to time with the different breakfast meats. This week, it’s bacon!
Ingredients Bought: Bacon, cream cheese, green onion & Pepper Jack cheese.
Ingredients on Hand: Eggs from our local farm, coconut flour & baking powder
Pastrami Wraps
Lunch plan for the husband: pastrami wraps with Folios and spinach, and pickles and apples on the side. I also added some almonds which we already had on hand.
These Folios wraps are making low carb lunches so easy!
Quinoa/Black Bean Bowls
I’ve really been craving some grains and veggies so I picked up some quinoa and black beans, along with spinach and onion, to whip up healthy grain/bean bowls for lunches. This is an easy, filling, and great make-ahead meal that will provide enough food for a week.
Teriyaki Chicken Salads
Salads have been a go-to lunch for me to prep for my husband for him to take during the week. It’s much easier for him to have cold items on hand that he can take with him in a cooler when he has to be on the road for work. This week, I added a new Asian salad to the rotation.
Ingredients Bought: Chicken thighs, cabbage, spinach, red onion, carrots, green onion, and Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette
Ingredients on Hand: Soyaki sauce to cook the chicken in (from Trader Joe’s)
Veggie Yellow Curry
Yellow curry is one of my favorite items from Thai restaurants, but since the pandemic, my local Thai place has been hit or miss on hours/days they are open. So, I decided to give Trader Joe’s yellow curry sauce a try and make it myself (this a NEW-to-me item).
Ingredients Bought: Baby yellow potatoes, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and yellow onion.
Ingredients on Hand: Brown Rice (can’t have my curry without some rice!)
Fish Tacos
Tacos are one of my favorite easy meals – for lunch or dinner! Trader Joe’s takes a step further with providing ingredients that are pretty much ready made to make your life easier.
Items bought for this meal:
- Fish Nuggets – Wild Alaskan Pollock (is this a new item at TJ’s? It’s certainly NEW to me!)
- Southwestern Chopped Salad
- Sour Cream
- Habanero Salsa
- Jalapeno Sauce (NEW to me! Can’t believe I am finally getting around to trying this)
Items already on hand: low carb tortillas and shredded cheese purchased from Raley’s.
Salmon & Bok Choy
These ingredients have the makings for an easy and healthy dinner. I’ll pair them with some steamed brown rice (already on hand).
I love the wild Sockeye salmon filets from Trader Joe’s for a couple of reasons:
- The filets are wild caught (I do not like to eat farmed salmon)
- It’s a great price for wild salmon!
Carnitas w/ Cauli Rice
NEW item alert! The Mexican-Style Cauliflower Rice has gotten great feedback so far, so I decided to give it a try (found in the frozen section), along with some carnitas and guacamole.
I really don’t care for cauliflower rice, so I’m taking a gamble here. Stay tuned for my February new item review on this!
Misc. Goods
Sometimes, you just have to stock your pantry up with your necessities and favorites!
- Lemon Kitchen Handsoap
- Spicy Chai Latte Mix (my absolute favorite drink in the whole world)
- Butter (I usually go for unsalted)
- Habanero Hot Sauce (an all-time favorite product)
- Extra tub of Organic Sour Cream (I always keep this on hand and use sour cream to substitute any mayonnaise in our Blue Apron meals)
New Stuff!
Picking up new items from Trader Joe’s is definitely a highlight of my shopping trips. TJ’s never disappoints! Can’t wait to review these:
- EBTB Seasoned Kettle-Cooked Potato Chips
- Dark Chocolate Drizzled Plantain Chips
- Aussie-Style Chocolate Creme Sandwich Cookies (like Australian Tim Tams)
- Calabrian Chile Tomato Dumpling Soup
Did this haul give you any good ideas? I’m curious what you all made for Super Bowl this year, even if you didn’t have any guests over. Drop me a comment below!
No Comments