Sore? SORE?! HA!
I didn’t even know the meaning of the word sore until TODAY. I wish I was only as sore as I was yesterday. Damn you second-day soreness! Damn you!
I’ll spare you my whining, but today was…not pretty. I refused to stay in another day though, plus we had some semi-warm temps, so I hobbled to the local basketball court with Ben to shoot some hoops after work! Well, he shot. I stood in one spot and hurled the ball at the backboard with my noodle arms…
After 10 minutes, my better half got annoyed that I couldn’t run after the ball, and some kid was hogging the court anyways, so we ditched and went for a nice, albeit slow, walk around the ‘hood. 
Mercifully, my thighs finally loosened up a few minutes in. Not enough to you know, bend more than 15 degrees, but at least my stride surpassed 5 inches for the first time in 2 days! Wheee!
Got home, and went the craaaaazy easy route for dinner. I cooked the simplest Trader Joe’s Night meal to date – Gnocchi & Meatballs!
I’ve seen these two in the frozen aisle several times, and I thought it was high time I give ‘em a go.
Up first, Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina.
Aka gnocchi in a cheesy, tomato-basil sauce. Stats were not too bad, although we halved the bag – no way it was 3 servings!
I opened it up and giggled. Frozen sauce pucks!
All you do is dump the bag in a skillet with a tablespoon of water and heat.
The sauce simmers and loosens up,
and the last thing to melt is the cheese. It gets all gooey and stringy and happy.
This is the third Trader Joe’s gnocchi I’ve tried – the other two being Whole-Wheat Gnocchi and Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Butter & Sage – and while it was good, I think I’d give it third place. The sauce was very flavorful and restaurant like, but the gnocchi were much more firm than the others.
Nestled on top were Turkey Meatballs.
These babies are fully cooked then frozen.
You can bake them for a crispier ball, or go the lazy-gals route and use the microwave like I did. 
The flavor was excellent, but we didn’t dig the texture so much. I didn’t study the package hard enough when buying, and learned while preparing the balls that they have mechanically separated turkey in the ingredient list which made them kind of spongy.
The grade:
Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina: 7/10. The sauce was great but personally I’m looking for a more tender gnocchi.
Turkey Meatballs: 4/10. Good flavor, and I bet they would have been better if crisped up in the oven, but I don’t think I like eating things with mechanically separated turkey in them no matter how good it tastes!
So Trader Joe’s Night was kiiiiiind of a let down this week, folks! But hey, it’s what I do. I make and eat marginal Trader Joe’s food so you don’t have to.
Oh wait.
There was ONE redeeming item on my plate: steamed broccoli.
This is actually frozen broccoli the Schwan man sent me!
FYI there are three veggies I never ever buy frozen:
1. Brussels sprouts: why would you when fresh are SO good?!
2. Green beans: the texture of frozen green beans is like tire rubber
3. Broccoli: usually the only thing in the bag are stems. I only like the “trees.”
I was totally pumped when I got my Schwann delivery though, because the re-sealable bag of broccoli included in it was chock-full of big, beautiful crowns, which cook up in minutes. It’s so convenient to have in my freezer, and the broccoli taste just as good as fresh-cut!
Gosh, the Schwann man always makes me think of eating massive spoonfuls of cookie dough, from those giant pails they sell, with my best friend circa fourth grade. Her parent’s fridge & freezer was always stocked with the best Schwann goodies!
Good times. 
Ok I’m off to read! Unbroken has my complete attention. I am fascinated by the story of a young Olympian runner who gets lost at sea during WWII and has to fight sharks off his tiny life raft with oars! I can’t put it down!
Goodnight!
ps Top Chef All Stars finale tonight – Team Blais!
~~~~~
What did your parents ALWAYS have in the cupboard for after-school snacks?
Mine always had at least one type of Little Debbie snack – star crunch, zebra cakes, ho-ho’s, nutty bars (still can’t eat Little Debbie to this day) and/or Nacho Cheese Doritos. Other than that, it was all pretty healthy stuff. My Mom refused to buy what we really wanted – Fruit by the Foot!!!
Hmm, I don’t like any of those three veggies! I never buy capsicum, mushroom or asparagus unlesss it’s fresh.
I agree, that gnocchi was good but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Sweet Potato with Butter and Sage.
We always had triscuts and cheese and poptarts! I remember coming home from school and making triscut sandwiches as my after school snack almost every day.
Yess!! Brown Sugar Pop Tarts – me too!
I hate frozen green beans, gag!
The only junk food we really had for after school snacks were nutty bars, other than that it was usually fruit or yogurt.
Trader Joe’s frozen green beans are really really good! You should give ‘em a try! They’re long and thin and crispy…yum.
Totally agree! TJ’s green beans top my must buy list!
Dunkaroos & Gushers were always a staple for a snack! Healthy, right?!
I don’t really remember after school snacks actually.
But now a days, I chow down on Cliff Kids Bars after school. I saw after school, because I teach third grade.
In college, I loved eating cereal after class.
I spent a year going to college in Marshall, MN, which is the same city as the headquarters of Schwan’s!
It was great because we would often get free ice cream treats at various campus events, and you could be a taste tester for $10/hour. I never did it, but several other college students did!
um.. taste testing ice cream for $10 bucks an hr?? that’s a WIN-WIN! lol. Growing up my family always had granola bars for snack. Occasionally my parents would go crazy and throw in some sandwich cookies. heh.
Love Nutty bars! Popcorn was always an after school snack for me.
Oh goodness our house was FULL of unhealthy treats! Not going to lie, I’m surprised my brothers and I aren’t overweight/have some kind of heart condition haha!
We always had choices of Entemen’s Doughnuts (drool), DUNKAROOS, Pop Tarts- I requested blueberry, any kind of sugary cereal you can think of, soft-baked cookies, muffins…i could go on but it’s making me hangry! I think we all stayed in decent shape because we all had after school sports- me: swim team, brothers: lacrosse and basketball
Just had to stay active
Ditto to trader joe’s green beans. Saute with olive oil and some grated garlic.. yum! I used to roll my eyes at people when they would tell me how great they were, but I’m a convert and will probably never buy any other kind of green beans now!
Oh, I hope Richard wins! Michael has gotten SO annoying! Your dinner looks yummy..
I’m loving these TJs reviews so I know what to buy when I go there! Another veggie to never buy frozen = squash. It gets all mushy!
And we actually never had afternoon snacks when I was growing up. Both of my parents worked so I was usually at aftercare or sports practice.
Unbroken is sooo good! I listened to it on my ipod while training for a half marathon, I would have never went out and run in the snow if I didn’t have that book to look forward to listening to, enjoy!!
Ahh yes, after school snacks… my mom had a “snack drawer” that we ran to after school! Usually filled with Little Debbie stuff, my favorite being Nutty Bars! And crackers or homemade goodies! My parents hid the potato chips and Doritos up high so we could not have those. As if it mattered? What’s the nutritional difference between potato chips and Little Debbie??
I don’t quite know what their logic was. Oooo… probably because we limited ourselves to 1 Little Debbie, and the bag of chips could be endless! 
Haha
We always had fruit snacks and Little Debbies! I loved the Marshmallow Supremes and Swiss Cake Rolls! YUM!!
Totally agree on the green beans – blech! Although I do like the sqooshy canned ones
I never buy frozen spinach either – I like how versatile fresh is: salads, smoothies, sautees, steam it, can’t go wrong!
Hi, I’m new here!
Look for frozen Broccoli Florets – they’re just the heads!
OMG I loved little debbies!! My favorite were fudge rounds or honey buns! When I was in elementary school my mom had to ask the lunch ladies for a print out of the food I was buying, because I was blowing threw my mom. Needless to say, the list was fulled of little debbie snacks. I also loved pop tarts, cheez balls, and cant forget lunchables!! Loved the hot dog ones… haha I was a junk food junkie!
We always had healthy stuff and/or some junk food for after school snacks. My bro and I got to pick out one “special” snack a week…so…dunkaroos, gushers, oreos, etc. But we could only have 1 pack or 2 cookies. As for the healthy snacks, we ate a ton of frozen grapes, yogurt, carrots, and pretzels and mustard.
After writing all of that, I want some oreos!!;)
mmmm what didn’t I have as an after-school snack? Yodels, Cheez Its, Cooler Ranch Doritos, Pecan Rolls, some sort of coffee cake, Fruit by the Foot….holy moly, how am I not a roly poly?
We hardly ever had junk food in the house when I was a kid. I think i can probably count on one hand how many times my mom bought Gushers, my absolute favorite snack!
Bread bread bread! My mom always had fresh loaves of whole wheat from Whole Foods in the pantry…swoon. That was my after school snack, smeared with PB or butter. I wish after school snacks still existed.
I went through a phase where my after school snack was always either a s’mores or apple cinnamon poptart. It’s crazy to think I ate them all the time without thinking twice, and finding out now how unhealthy they are! =X
They have healthy versions of EVERYTHING nowadays, they gotta get on healthy s’mores poptarts STAT!
My parents owned a restaurant most of my childhood, so we had pretty much any kind of junk food stuff you could ever want. I didn’t learn to eat healthy until adulthood. I have a soft spot for beef jerky though, we always had that on hand to sell
If you buy the frozen bags of broccoli crowns they are the “trees” only 
It is more expensive than broccoli cuts, but at least you will eat them all that way! I love frozen veggies because then they don’t spoil if I don’t cook them right away. Except I hate frozen onions, they smell weird!
Oh wow, the Schwan man?!? That totally brought back childhood memories! We always used to buy the orange push-up pops…they were our favorite!!
Oh I forgot about those! My parents bought those too! They used to have a chocolate malt kind too that was pretty tasty!
My parents always had ice cream sandwiches and sundae cones from the Schwan’s man in their freezer. To this day, I’m still kinda sick of them… but if I do have one it has to be Schwan’s! The others don’t even compare.
Kristin,
Long time reader, first time commenter. I’m a student at the University of Southern California and I just wanted to comment about Unbroken. Louie was actually a student at USC and he came to speak to my class a few weeks ago. He’s such an inspiring man and still so full of life. His stories are incredible (I mean, the guy met Hitler) and he’s really funny. He also spoke about hope, forgiveness, and never letting stress invade your life. If Louie can find hope on a raft and then forgive the men that tortured him during WWII, it really should give us all hope that we can handle anything. Hope you enjoy the rest of the book!
I love frozen green beans!! The rubberness is the best part!!
And I think we always had those swiss cake rolls growing up
yum.
Gotta love DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness!) You know you did a workout well when you feel it 48 hrs after!
The Schwan Man brings back sooo many memories! Growing up in MN, my best friend and I always raided her freezer for icecream drumsticks- they were the best! Yay, I miss the Schwan man!
My parents always had fruit roll-ups- the best!
Sorry to hear about your soreness, although your descriptions make me laugh. I think we all can relate to that at one time or another, lol.
I usually buy only fresh veggies however recently, I started buying organic frozen broccoli (mostly trees, very little stems) at WF for $1.99/bag. The organic fresh broccoli was very expensive plus I never buy fresh broccoli at WF because they leave the giants trunks on so it costs more. I’ve been separating the frozen broccoli into four glass jars when I get home and that way, I can put one in the refrigerator so it’s always thawed and leave the rest in the freezer. I use the refrigerated one for toppings on pizza or just to cook up faster for dinner. If I purchase fresh broccoli, it’s usually at a different store, although it’s non-organic and still sells for $1.69/pound so I actually get a little more when I purchase the frozen organic. I agree with the brussel sprouts though-they’d be horrible if they were frozen!
As for treats growing up, it was twinkies or some Hostess treat, but only every now and then, never on a regular basis!
LOL @ tomato sauce pucks. Funny story: Back in the day when I would eat Lean Cuisine frozen foods, I bought a bag of their one-skillet meals. Well, when I dumped it into the pan it had a zillion water chestnuts in it and I I don’t like them AT ALL, so I picked them all out. Big mistake. They were not water chestnuts at all, they were little frozen sauce pucks! LOL Ooops! hahaha
Powdered sugar donuts: Sa-weeettt!
Gold fish… and Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes… yes those were for me….. I used to make them after school, practice, for lunch, anytime… ADDICTED
Back when Trader Joe’s used to sell Balsamic Drizzle, I used to make that Gnocchi and drizzle some of the reduced balsamic on it. If you give it a try again, definately try it! I think they used to sample it that way before?
LOL I actually like TJ’s frozen french cut green beans! Just run them under some warm water and they are ready to eat in salads and etc!
Oh the schwann man. … Good times. You can not beat their plain vanilla ice cream. As for frozen broccoli, I used to agree. But now I buy just the “florets” and there are no stems. Target brand is the best.
we just had the gnocci the other night
we both really liked it, but now i want to try the other two that taste even better!
we always had… pretzels (the 5 lb bag from costco), sunbelt fruit snacks (the orange ones taste like orange peels) and tortilla chips. haha. not so exciting
I honestly can’t remember a specific thing we always had for snacks- but sometimes my mom would have a “treasure hunt” ready for us with clues to find our snack when we got off the bus!
I LOVE Little Debbie to this day… Can’t keep that stuff in the house though- outta sight, outta mind!
I was dying yesterday, too! And I just woke up so I can’t tell for sure, but I’m prepared for today to be much worse, especially because I went on a gimpy run yesterday.
I actually just bought some frozen brussels sprouts out of curiosity, and they weren’t too bad because I roasted them. You’re right, though, they’re not as good as fresh. I like to keep a variety of veggies in the freezer, though, and I’ll let these guys hang around.
I actually never use frozen veggies! I always buy raw and eat them raw, so there’s no need to cook anyways!:)
Oh goodness, our mother’s must be from the same tree because your afterschool cupboard sounds just like mine, except with adding licorice!
Those frozen meatballs looked terrible. You are a brave girl!
I really need to try some gnocchi’s from TJ. They look so good! I really appreciate you telling your readers what products are good at TJ and which aren’t. It makes shopping there so much easier. I definitely need to get there asap so I can try these things!
Let’s see, we had Little Debbie too but we had more Tastycake’s. It’s a Philly thing
We also had chips, and pop-tarts. Ahh, those were the days!
We buy a lot of frozen broccoli. My husband eats it every day for lunch and I eat it a lot, also, so its so nice to have always on hand. But…we hate all the stems, too. Instead of buying the broccoli cuts….we buy broccoli florets. It is only the tops and they are really good.
I hear you with the body pump…it hurts so bad especially when you havent been in awhile. ive been training for boston marathon and havent gone to body pump but plan to return right after the marathon….should be interesting!!! and my mom always had Jax in the cupboard!!! sooo good! would come home and eat jax and watch full house and then play outside until it was dark….oh the life.
My husband used to make those meatballs for me all the time when we were dating and he wanted to prepare a so-called “fancy” meal. Ha! They are excellent and quick to prepare but, boy, do they hurt my stomach. Hope they agree more with yours. I no longer eat them, sadly. also, totally with you on those veggies!
i never buy frozen carrots…. ewww mushy!!
Mechanically separated turkey? Blech. I hate that spongy texture. Bummer! Even sauce pucks couldn’t make me want to eat those! I’ll just stick with the gnocchi maybe?
We always had fruit by the foot or some kind of fruit snacks, brown sugar pop tarts, and nutty bars. And I ate a lot of Nutri-Grain bars, Lean Pockets, and bagels. It’s funny because aside from the bagels, I don’t have any interest in eating any of that stuff now!
I’m an Iowa girl as well, and I happened to stumble upon your blog! I love what I’ve read so far. Great work.
I also read your post about BodyPump and I am taking the same class – it’s horrifying at first, but soooo rewarding. And it does get easier!
I was (and still am) a big bowl of cereal kind of girl. I think we had assortments of yogurts, cookies, rice cakes, etc….but if Mom and Dad weren’t home..I dug into the cereal cabinet and went to town!
gonna have to agree w/ you on the frozen brussel sprouts. i tried them recently and they have a mushy texture on the inside even if you roast them. TJs actually sells frozen broccoli that comely w/ hardly any stems though – i use it all the time!
when i was younger, an ice cream truck used to park in the lot across the street right after school got out. i always got a Chipwich or a Frozen Fruit bar – they were the best! I loved Dunkaroos and Enteman’s donuts and coffee cake too. you can only get away with eating these things all the time when you’re little..