After hearing my friend Jenni rave about Trader Joe's since it opened a few months ago, I now understand. It is the best thing to hit Nashville since the Cheesecake Factory and Anthropologie. It is amazing. It is just like a Whole Foods, except it's cheap!! An affordable organic and gourmet food store. It is not in my neighborhood, but is close to the boys school, so I have been a couple times on my way to pick them up in the afternoon.
Let me give you a couple examples:
I got 4 bags (the big brown paper kind) of groceries today and my total was $66.40.
bag of whole organic carrots $.89
gallon of whole milk (the kind without antibiotics) for $2.99.
6-pack of extra creamy yogurt that Ryan loves for $2.99
large in-store made cheese pizza for $2.99
large container of triple layer hummus for, you guessed it, $2.99 (the best hummus I have ever had, hands down!)
bag of frozen chicken chow mein (tastes EXACTLY like take-out from PF Changs) $5.99
bag of frozen breaded chicken breast tenderloins (better than restaurant quality) $7.49
This is just the beginning. I could lose all track of time in that store. You already know I love grocery shopping, so this is like grocery shopping heaven for me!! And, they are always giving out yummy samples from the back. Today it was peanut satay and iced green tea!
I was raving about Trader Joe's to my Dad and he said that whenever his crew has overnites in a city with a Trader Joe's, his flight attendants pack extra bags just to bring back all the wonderful goods they find! It is that good, I promise. My friend Stacey got overwhelmed the first time she went and ended up not buying anything. It can be overwhelming and took me about 2 trips to really get in the groove, but now I'm hooked.
Tonight we are having Trader Joe's mini cheese raviolis with Trader Joe's marinara sauce (the jar of sauce was $1.99 and I think it is organic!)
This makes me happy!