Stock In Trader Joe’s

This post is going to read like a big ad for Trader Joe’s! I will apologize right off the bat to those of you who do not have one in your area. I know it’s frustrating when you see things that people rave about but are unable to find them in your vicinity. But, keep in mind that Trader Joe’s does a lot of private labeling, so you may find something in your supermarket that looks the same as what I find in Trader Joe’s. With that said, I’ll start off with the only meal that didn’t come from Trader Joe’s; breakfast! A simple bowl of Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran with 1/2 c. strawberries, 1 tbsp. dried cranberries and 1/2 c. unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze for 3 POINTS…

After breakfast, I did a 40 minute weighted workout on the elliptical followed by 20 wall pushups and 20 tricep dips. Then, I cleaned up and headed out to my home away from home…Trader Joe’s! Boy, I did some serious damage in there today. I bought lots of my staple items and a few new goodies. Grand total – $132!!! I’m going to make sure I really dwindle down the freezer items before I stock up again. I ran into someone I knew in there and ended up chatting for a while too. Before I knew it, it was almost 2:00 p.m. I was starving and shaky. I don’t like messing with my blood sugar like that. I knew if I didn’t eat a little something before I got home, I would start grabbing a bunch of junk, so I broke out a Larabar from my grocery bag to tie me over…

I ate half (2 POINTS) and my body thanked me…

That was a good move. It gave me time to put the groceries away before fixing some lunch which involved this great find…

Here are the facts…

I decided to top 2 slices with a Laughing Cow Light Cheese Wedge, 1 oz. smoked salmon (also from TJ’s) and a little fresh dill. I went with some good ol’ carrots and TJ’s Sour Cream and Onion Rice Chips for a long awaited 6 POINT lunch…

Note to self: don’t wait so long to eat. It seems when I do that, I feel munchie in the afternoon. I think I eat so fast, it doesn’t have time to register. I ended up grabbing a bunch of honey wheat pretzel sticks and a cheese stick. Then, I had one of these…

Can’t feel too badly, they are only 1 POINT…

But they sure are tiny little things…

Then, it was time for dinner. I got out my last serving of Rigatoni with Three Cheeses from the freezer and added a cup of Trader Joe’s Potato Vegetable Medley to it for a tasty 7 POINT meal…

I was pretty stuffed after that, but I couldn’t help digging into these…

Just a note about these; I bought them a while ago and noticed that the nutritional information was incorrect. It stated that the total fat was 4.5 gr., but under that the saturated fat was listed as 8 grams. Well, that doesn’t compute, so I contacted them and they finally emailed me back stating that all the nutritional information was correct, except the total fat and sat. fat were inadvertently switched upon printing. So it should be listed as a serving of 9 pieces are 130 calories, 8 grams total fat, 4.5 gr. of that is sat. fat, and there are 5 gr. fiber. That makes 9 of these guys out to be 2 POINTS. I should not know this. I did MEASURE out 9…

Plus another handful Ick. Now, I feel gross. I have crossed off all my Weekly Allowance POINTS. That’s it; I don’t want to use any more this week. *talking to myself* C’mon, you dope! You’re almost to goal. Now, KNOCK IT OFF!

Okay, I’m better now I’m not messing this up! Too close. Gotta remember…GOAL….GOAL….GOAL!!!!

I thought I’d throw out a Question (or two) of the Day for you all…

How much do you spend a week on groceries for your family? Do you think it costs more or less to eat healthy?