Trader Joe’s Grocery Shopping Tips
Trader Joe’s is a great place to find pre-packaged whole foods. The main reason I head there is if I want various varieties of organic greens, already washed, more veggies already spiraled, noodled, chopped, or some of their unique products that no one else has! The photos below are some of go tos and products that are great prices. See all details below!
Check out the sections below based on categories of foods:
>>First section you walk into with raw greens and veggies
>>Animal proteins
>>Frozen fruits and veggies
>>Pantry items
>>Dried fruit and nuts
don’t forget the most important part: buy yourself some gorgeous flowers for your kitchen!
Organic Arugula: pre-washed, organic, great price
NOTE: you can shop any other organic bagged pre-washed greens here as well, I typically buy in larger sizes on repeat which is why I use Costco for my organic greens most of the time and use TJ’s for specialty greens like the arugula, bibb lettuce, or mixed varieties
Organic broccoli slaw and kohlrabi ‘noodles’ are great pre-bagged items that work for a quick stiry-fry, nourish bowl, or veggie pasta substitute
Organic snap peas and yellow beans: amazing for raw snacks with dips (hummus, pea dip, salsa, healthy salad dressings) or to stir-fry (I love yellow beans because they remind me of my grandma, she used to grow them in her garden)
Organic mini bell peppers: if whole size organic peppers are super pricey I’ll grab the minis, the kids love them in lunches too plus they are great for apps/crudite bowls/snacks.
Organic iceberg lettuce: another lettuce variety that’s sometimes fun to use in wedge salad recipes
Mustards: I love plain, spicy, honey, all of them, They have great low prices on these plus clean ingredients, just flavor enhancers nothing added
PICKLES! we go through so many pickles, dill and bread & butter, these were about $2 LESS PER JAR than where I usually buy them (mental note created lol)
Organic coconut aminos (our lovely soy alternative) also was $3.99, where is usually $6-7 in the other stores. WOW.
Olives: olives are great for salads, appetizers, to mix into pastas and to snack on, also great low prices and you don’t have to open a can or pit them!
Salad Dressings: these are as close to home-made as you’ll get in the stores. All the real food ingredients are listed right on the front of the bottle (love the transparency) and simple. Keep on hand if you hate making salad dressings. (See them on the actual shelf as well they’re found right by all the lettuce varieties). The following photos are all shot from right in the store! You can see the price points as well, these are things I focus on when shopping here!
Oranges
Organic rainbow carrots (2.49/bag is a good deal)
Les haricot verts (I still remember this from French class!) a great way to get fresh green beans and yellow beans are so so good!
Baby rainbow carrots (notice these are cleaned up for you, also not organic and cost more. Still cute ;)
Organic bell peppers (go for the colored ones always) $3.69 for two is a good price I recommend buying organic peppers in bags they are always a better deal.
Organic regular carrots, you will always get the best price on these vs baby carrots or rainbow
Organic radishes (love buying them without the stems and greens, great price too)
Organic baby broccoli rabe (a different variety of broccoli, longer stems and the flavor profile is more bitter which = really powerful in the body)
I found these cute kids there…and they love TJ’s plantain chips (what dash’s holding in the pink bag)
Good price on organic cauliflower, sometimes I love roasting a whole head of cauliflower so I look for the biggest one of course!
If you like fresh broccoli, this is a good price, remember to cut off the sides of the stem and eat the inside of it too! It’s delicious and really good for you!
Lemons and limes have to be the best price in town for organic. Costco sometimes has organic lemons but usually only conventional so I stock up on these here!
Organic apples: if you can get apples for about $2/lb that’s where I buy, these are an OK deal
Organic red onions, great price for a smallish bag
PROTEINS
As always follow your sourcing guidelines for animal products. Below you will see Wild Caught Alaskan cod, Wild caught shrimp, and Organic frozen boneless chicken breast. They do have some organic beef, just check the percentage to make sure you are at 90% lean or higher. I usually don’t buy salmon there, even wild caught because it’s sockeye and I don’t prefer that type or flavor.
What’s good/different about these products is they come in smaller packages so if you need less food at once they have smaller size packages than Costco or Whole Foods.
Pantry Staples
Salsa: Trader Joe’s brand (my brother in law loves this! I think it’s spicy but I only can eat mild! Not organic but it’s veggies)
Organic salsa: they had one Organic variety but it was hot
Organic diced canned tomatoes
Dehydrated pastas: I have not tried these and like real spaghetti squash but it definitely could work for a fast meal. The spaghetti squash is organic, the palmini pasta isn’t and I prefer the water packed palmini pasta (Whole Foods or Amazon) but it would work!
Organic date syrup
Organic maple syrup
Organic marinara sauce
Organic thyme (they had some other dried herbs but this is representing those!)
Organic tahini (sesame seeds)
Plantain chips: Dash loves these and they are very inexpensive, they do use palm oil but he won’t eat the coconut oil kind!
Organic rice cakes
Organic unsweetened applesauce
Rice crisps (aka rice krispies) not organic but plain
Organic herbal teas
Organic low sodium veggie broth (note the regular sodium is right next to it, choose LOW)
Dried Fruit & Nuts
Dried fruit bars: these are mango, there are other flavors just made of dried fruit, great snack for kids
Organic Unsweetened dried cranberries (what to look for here: Organic and UNsweetened, the exact same thing but a sweetened version was right next to these) Apply the same to look for for any other dried fruits.
Nuts: the best to buy is RAW because you really want to avoid the oils they are roasted in. Even though the RAW isn’t organic, I would choose those over the organic roasted ones. Raw is pure and better. Same applies to other kinds of nuts and seeds. You’re looking for Organic AND Raw if you can find it.
Frozen Fruits & Veggies
You’re looking for Organic and plain, not with added flavors, butters, oils, preservatives
Organic green beans
Organic mango (price points to follow)
Organic wild blueberries (price points to follow)
Organic peas
Organic rainbow cauliflower: I adore this. You can’t usually find this anywhere else. I eat one whole bag myself so buy in bulk accordingly :)
Bonuses about these items: again they are smaller sizes if you aren’t at Costco or buying in bulk, however I just end up buying 4-5 of these instead so it’s about the same deal. For the mango and wild blueberries these are good prices compared to a regular grocery store if you again are not buying in bulk.
