Trader Joe Treasures Week - Day Four - Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Another Trader Joe's product that I always have on hand is their 12 ounce package of Parmesan Cheese. A bit to sprinkle in a salad, on a pasta, in risotto, on bruschetta - I use it every where. Convenient and a good price.

Below is lunch for this week which combines Days 2, 3, and 4 - a nice salad with romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, a sprinkle of parmesan, and some organic strawberries. The only way it could get easier would be if someone else would make it for me!

Trader Joe Treasures Week - Day Three - Just the Leaves Lettuce

lettuce
I love the convenience of bagged salad lettuce, but I hate the fact that it goes brown so fast and that it has so many lettuce "ribs" that end up in the bottom of the bag and usually get tossed out. So I prefer to buy this bagged lettuce from TJs. I purchase both the leaf and the romaine lettuce. The leaves are separated and cleaned and in a zip lock package. I can pull out a few leaves and tear them up for a salad and remove the "ribs" which I don't like. The lettuce stays fresh for about a week in the bag if kept tightly sealed.

Trader Joe Treasures Week - Day Two - Grilled Chicken Strips

I buy these grilled chicken strips almost every week, and I always keep an extra package in the freezer. I use them in everything - salads, pastas, sandwiches, pizzas. Tasty and a huge timesaver. I like both the plain style and they also have a teryaki version which is delicious. In fact, I used them in my Grown Up Mac 'n Cheese recipe, well as this Pear Pecan salad.

Trader Joe Treasures Week - Day One - Limeade

This week I decided it would be fun to do a feature where every day I share one of the products from Trader Joes that I always have either on my shelf, pantry, or refrigerator. (You may have noticed I am kind of a Trader Joe junkie - I love shopping there and have come to depend on many of their products.) So here goes with my favorite TJ beverage:


Today it hit 70 degrees. So I am thinking of summer, and my favorite summer drink is Trader Joe's limeade. It is just the perfect blend of tart and sweet - so delicious when poured into a glass full of ice. And I am drinking an icy glass of limeade right now as I blog. The only bad thing is when it sometimes is out of stock! They didn't have any over the weekend when I went shopping, and I had just opened my last jar! So next time I see it available I plan to buy several jars to restock my stash.

Slurp.

Spring Spinach Sauce

When I was "younger" I went on a mission trip to France during the summer. I remember being served a pasta meal with a bright green sauce. Now this was before any of us had ever heard of pesto. We all looked at this green alien looking sauce with fear, and politely declined to eat it.

So whenever I make this bright green Spring Spinach Sauce, I think of that meal in France, and wonder what I missed out on by not eating that pasta. This sauce tastes best fresh - it can get a slight bitter after taste if stored. This is a recipe I typically wouldn't measure - I'd just toss stuff into the food processor and taste and adjust until it tasted right. Here are the approximate measurements:

Spring Spinach Sauce

Put these ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth (add extra oil if needed):

5 ounces baby spinach (half of a salad package)
1/2 bunch of parsley (stems removed)
1/4 cup olive oil

Then add to the food processor and blend (don't blend until smooth, leave it slightly chunky):

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
3/4 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
fresh cracked pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Add extra oil, salt, and garlic if needed or desired. Serve over warm corkscrew pasta - it sticks in all the curls! I often add other items such as Kalamata olives, grilled chicken, and roasted red peppers.

Bruges Scrapbook Pages 2

Busy week back at school (report cards and more) so not much time for blogging or anything else clever. However, here are a few more of the scrapbook pages I have been working on:

Hanging Around Clever Karen - Episode 9

Flowery Blue Glass Beads
with crystal and silver beads