Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Trader Joe's top 10 finds







Easily my favorite grocery store; land of $0.99 birthday cards, superior almond milk, prettiest AND cheapest orchids (that make for a perfect hostess gift) and much cheaper but equally delicious to (snap, crackle + pop) crisped rice cereal.

While I love so many foods from there, here is my completely biased, top ten, go-to favorites...


this is an INSANELY delicious 
dairy meets puff pastry gem. I would not recommend looking at the nutritional facts. we are big fans of most of their puff pasty greek-influenced frozen items, but this one steals the show


these are so tasty! they are a little thicker than your average pita chip, so they don't flake apart, but still light and airy. we have these with sweet goat cheese + fig jam or savory guacamole. 

no brainer. already made. enjoy!


these just might be my all-time favorite cookie. I'm maple-obsessed and everything  about this cookie is maple; cookies, frosting center and obvi the cute little maple leaf shape. they are big, hearty cookies. two, with a cup of tea in autumn is such a dreamy pairing. 


super decadent + rich. all 5 of us are fans of this one. super rich, very chocolatey, and never lasts long. 


while i try to make my own, this is cheap and obviously cant be easier. i fry it up with eggs for breakfast, make a crust for pizza, or my favorite thing to do is whip up a healthy fried rice. soooooo good!


ok, to be honest, these aren't my favorite. but my kids and husband love them so much, i thought they deserved a spot on here. having a true british husband who grew up on proper crumpets, he makes a good judge. in fact, he declared these to be better than ones from the mother country. 





have you ever tried mochi? sooooo good. it's like a little edible mystery parcel with ice cream hidden inside. they carry so many flavors. kids love them. just a really cool dessert experience. 



this is pretty on trader joe's shelves, but becoming a quick cult favorite. i put it in fried rice, on eggs, on avocado toast pr toss with sautéed greens. experiment away!



creamy, sweet (but not too sweet) and vegan! i was vegan for about a hot 5 minutes and this, along with copious amounts of guacamole, was what i lived on. pro-tip: use it as a creamer for iced coffee. aaaahhhhmazing!

* image is of NYC Trader Joe's. I can hardly believe my now suburbia self used to wait in those lines every week just to get in there! 

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

how to tell if it's real love?

                           

I've read so many good bits lately on love and I find each one of them so sweet, true and a good test...

I completely forget where I read it, but it was a few weeks ago; along the lines of "you love someone when you can re-tell their stories that you aren't part of"

It took me a second to think if I could do it, but once I thought about it, I found myself thinking of all sorts of Stuart's fun childhood stories, teenage love stories, family stories and traveling stories I've learned about him over the past 13 years. 

We soaked in a cozy bubble bath that night and retold each others stories to one another. He remembered so many of mine! And it was so interesting to see how the focus of the story shifted with some else retelling it. 



                                     

And another piece on the love subject, on cupofjo I read this question "what is the name of your first love's first love?"

Do you have any sweet, little tests or challenges on true love?