Wish Trader Joe’s fed me all the time

Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite stores. I’ve shopped there since 1975 when it was more of convenience store. I used to buy my Rolling Stone there in college. Nowadays it’s filled with great WLS-friendly food.

I had to stop there on the way home from work last night because I was out of pistachio nuts. TJ’s has these great roasted, 50% salted pistachios that are just right. I also picked up some heirloom cherry tomatoes for my daughter. One of my favorite aspects of TJ’s is the recent trend—at least for the past few years—of offering samples. Even if it’s a food I normally don’t or can’t eat, the portion is so tiny that it goes down just right. Last night’s sample was meaty spaghetti. I got about a tablespoon that was mostly meatball, plus a thumb-size piece of garlic bread. Hit the spot just right, as I hadn’t had my late-afternoon snack. At the sample station they also had a nice Chianti, but sadly, they weren’t offering any wine samples.  I didn’t buy the spaghetti because I don’t think I could eat much more than what was offered, and it was frozen and would be mush by the time I got home. Another visit I had chicken in a mango chutney sauce. The chicken was precooked and frozen, then simmered in the chutney. I bought a jar of the chutney for future use.

After visiting my husband in his nursing home, I picked up our daughter for shopping, which turned into dinner at Mimi’s Café. I had the fabulous cheddar broccoli soup.  When I got home, I was still a little hungry, so I had some pistachios with a few sips of red wine.

The verdict this morning is that my weight stayed the same. I wasn’t sure what I thought it would do, because I felt like I ate a lot of food. Apparently I’m OK.

This weekend I have a couple of eating events, although lots of walking is involved, so I suspect I’ll be OK.

See you next week.