Banish Dry Hands

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hand soap and lotion in a bathroom

Banish dry hands with Trader Joe’s Products!

We can admit this now… we purchase these products due to sheer laziness!

As you know we are regular shoppers at Trader Joe’s. But we usually just shop for food items. Over the Holiday’s we were soo busy and had run out of hand soap and lotion. Was it time to make the trip to the big box store?

Not so fast…

We have seen soap, lotions and shampoo products at Trader Joe’s before, just never thought to purchase them. How much better could they be we asked? Would they work on our dry, cracked, winter hands?

Well….

They are amazing! Incredible even!

We stuck these products in the bathroom and washed and moisturized as usual.  The soap is a lavender and chamomile scent and it pumps out thick and foams nicely.  The Moisturizing cream is unscented and pumps out thick as well. We thought they were working out great. Our hands became soft and did not become dry, red and cracked as it became colder and colder outside. In fact, it was not until we went to Kansas City for New Years that we really noticed how well these products were working for us.

On vacation, our hands became dry, rough and looked just horrible!

Now to be fair, there is a little bit of a temperature difference between Tucson and Kansas City in December, but we think it had more to do with the soaps we were using.  Because we were on the road, we were using whatever soap was available in the hotels and in restaurants. Eeks! Our hand quickly went from bad to worse. No matter how much or what brand of lotion we used, they stayed dry, red, and rough.

Once we returned to Tucson, we quickly resumed using the Trader Joe’s products on our dry winter hands. In only a few days, our dry cracked hands were smooth once more.

Official Names:

Trader Joe’s Hand Soap, Lavender & Chamomile

Trader Joe’s Moisturizing Cream, Unscented, Extra Dry Formula

So check out these product the next time you are shopping at your local Trader Joe’s. Let us know what you think about them.  Did they cure your dry winter hands?

Today’s Sample: Mango Chicken Sausages

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chicken sausages from Trader Joe's Package of 5

Trader Joe's Mango Chicken Sausages

Yes, the samples got us again….

You could smell the food cooking as soon as you walked into the store. We tried to act as if we did not care and gathered up our bananas, apples, cheese  and bread–all the while our mouths are watering as we work our way back to the sample area.

The sample today was scrambled eggs with these Mango Chicken Sausages  and sprinkled with cheese. This was served with a slice of sourdough toast. A delicious way to keep up our strength while shopping on an otherwise cold  day. Of course we usually eat the samples to be polite…. but WOW was it good today. I grabbed one of the package from the display to take them home even before I finished eating.

The sausages came 5 in a package the perfect amount to have a couple of meals and then to have one sausage left over to make our own scrambled eggs and cheese, just like the sample today.

Interesting, while we were trying to balance our sample plates, forks and sample coffee on a nearby display, we observed other customers taking there first bites. It seemed that everyone agreed that these sausages were just fabulous!

One of these customers walked over to where we were watching and told us that she has purchased these sausages before. She liked to serve them sliced up with pasta, diced tomatoes and artichoke hearts.  She said the sweetness in the artichoke hearts matched up with the sweetness in the mangoes.  (I just love that about shopping at Trader Joes! The fact that folks are excited about products and will just start to tell you how they are cooking them up)

When we tried them for the first time, we just browned them up in a pan for a few minutes (they are fully cooked). We served them with mustard, a nice salad, and some crusty bread. When you cut up the sausages, you can see LARGE chunks of mango inside. These chunks also give each bite a different degree of sweetness.

So check out this product the next time you are shopping at your local Trader Joe’s. Let us know what you think and how you are using it.

Another great product discovered at the sample station!

Trader Joe’s stuffs chicken in box?

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package of chicken broth liquid concentrate

Well, not quite, but we discovered on a recent trip to Trader Joe’s a new product– chicken broth in a box. Well, actually it comes in little packets in a box and the packets sorta resemble sugar packets.

Official Name: Trader Joe’s Savory Broth Chicken Flavor. (Also comes in a vegetable flavor too).

WHAT- Purchase chicken broth?

Now don’t get me wrong, we love to make our own chicken broth. Browning up the chicken pieces, adding in carrot, celery and onions Then making a little cheesecloth bag of herbs and a garlic clove or two. Finally letting it simmer on the stove for a few hours… Yum!

Confession: we have the time for making homemade broth about once a year.

But we love to cook with chicken broth. What we usually do is buy those quart containers- you know, “Stock in a box” as Rachel Ray says. We use the broth to cook rice or add it to a pasta dish to add liquid and flavor.  Broth is a great way to moisten up stuffing- there are a zillion uses for chicken broth.

Unfortunately, what also happens is we always have some part of the box left over. We always have plans and good intentions to use this leftover broth  up in another meal…. yeah, right. Frequently, this open box is discovered at the back of the fridge weeks later…. Ugh!

So we are always searching for other ways to have broth in the house when we need it. This Trader Joe’s stock is a liquid concentrate that comes in 12 little packets so you can easily choose how much to make. We used it last night when we made brown rice. It added a nice subtle flavor to the rice. Next time we might add two packets when we make rice for a more “chicken soup” strength flavor.

Additional bonus: This liquid concentrate is LOW SODIUM. 1 cup =360 mg Sodium. The “other” brand of dry chicken stock we were using has 870mg Sodium in 1 cup. Eeks!
Also: No MSG in the Trader Joe’s Savory Broth. Yeah!

So check out this product the next time you are shopping at your local Trader Joe’s. Let us know what you think and how you are using it.