Hi Everyone,
Sorry for not having a recipe yesterday. The server crashed and I lost all of my posts for this week, so that means I need to re-write them. On a positive note, if you follow me on Instagram, you will see that I did a little shopping at Trader Joe’s this past weekend. I got a little excited over all of the pumpkin items they had. Matter in a fact a Trader Joe’s employee told me that they have 97 new pumpkin items this year. Yum! I only bought a handful of items, but I do have a lot more to try! I can’t wait. So today I thought I would share with you my reviews of TJ’s pumpkin items.
First up on my list is Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Soup. I buy this soup every year, it’s creamy, full of pumpkin flavor and is only 100 calories a cup. Each container is two servings, which makes for a perfect light lunch or dinner. I just heat it up, add a pinch of cinnamon and top with some greek yogurt or cream and I have the perfect little meal. If you like pumpkin soup I highly recommend TJ’s Pumpkin Soup.
Pumpkin O’s Cereal – This cereal is really crunchy, but I didn’t taste a lot of pumpkin flavor. Actually I found it a little boring, but it makes for a great topping for my yogurt. I’ll finish up my box, but I probably won’t have it again.
Trader Joes Pecan Pumpkin Instant Oatmeal – This is an instant oatmeal cereal that is easy to make, just add hot water. It’s creamy, nice pumpkin flavor and I love the little bits of pecan in it. Plus it fills you up and it’s comforting on a chilly day. I bought the box to take to work for a quick breakfast. Each package contains 180 which isn’t to bad considering it has nuts in it. I would bu this again!
Trader Joes Organic Pumpkin – Ok, I didn’t officially eat this from the can, but I stock up on it every year. I love that it is organic, healthy and great for using when baking pumpkin items, and so much more. How can you not love pumpkin?
Trader Joes Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramel – I have to say I was disappointed in this chocolate treat. It’s dark chocolate filled with a pumpkin flavored caramel center and sprinkled with sea salt. I found that it didn’t have a big pumpkin flavor, which can be because I found the salt to be overwhelming. I love caramel and salt together, but it was just way to much salt. Each serving is 3 caramel’s and is 210 calories. I am kind of glad I didn’t like it because that means I don’t have to worry about the calories.
Trader Joes Ginger Pumpkin Ice Cream Mouthfuls – I love these little ice cream mouthfuls. It’s a soft ginger cookie filled with pumpkin ice cream. The ginger is a little strong but compliments the pumpkin perfectly. Each cookie is 80 calories, which I didn’t think was too bad. I have a feeling these will come off the shelves quickly. I highly recommend them.
Trader Joes Country Pumpkin Spice Granola Cereal – I love this cereal! I buy it every year. It has dried pumpkin, coconut, raisins, puffed corn, rolled oats and of course lots of spices to give it the ultimate pumpkin spice flavor. The only thing is 2/3 cups is 240 calories, which is kind of high. I like to sprinkle it on my granola or just take a little handful. This cereal is good in moderation.
Trader Joes Ice Pumpkin Scone Cookies – These cookies are so soft, light and has a great spicy, pumpkin flavor. I find it more of a soft cookie than a scone. The frosting over the top is fantastic! Each box contains 16 cookies at 60 calories each. These cookies are a perfect paired with a cup of coffee or chai tea. I could easily eat half a box if I allowed myself too.
Trader Joes Pumpkin Dog Treats – Ok, I’ll be honest, I didn’t try these, probably because it’s for the dogs! But I can tell you my dogs love them. They smell amazing and are shaped like little pumpkins. I do buy these every year for my dogs and I can tell you they do not stay in stock very long.
That is all I have tried so far this past week. But I did manage to buy a few new items, which I will share with you next time. Trader Joe’s does carry other pumpkin items, which I wanted to buy, but I had to limit myself since I can go a little crazy shopping. I did see Pumpkin Ravioli’s, Pumpkin Pie Mochi Ice Cream, Pumpkin Cream Cheese, Pumpkin Croutons, Pumpkin Yogurt, Pumpkin Joe Joe’s, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancake Mix.
Have you tried any of the new pumpkin items at Trader Joe’s? If you have any recommendations, let me know, I would love to try them
Have a great day! I will have a fantastic Crock-Pot recipe tomorrow!
Toodles,
Jennifer
Pumpkin Bread
Preserving Pumpkins
Classic Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cones / Giveaway
I was at Trader Joe’s this past weekend too, and loved all the pumpkin stuff! I didn’t see the scone cookies. I will definitely have to look for those the next time I’m there!
tried the pumpkin bars and I do love them, but could have more filling in them. The jury is still out on the pumpkin coffee, but I’ll let you know. I did love tge fresh pumpkin cubed in the produce, just baked with some other root vegetables, olive oil and salt, pepper, thyme and a little sage. Yummy!
Enjoy, and thank you for your great blog!
I don’t mind the pumpkin coffee, but I could get bored with it. I saw the pumpkin bars and I think I will try them next time. Yeah, this year they have the cubed pumpkin which is great. I was going to buy it, but the batch they had didn’t look great, but I’ll check it out next for sure. Your recipe sounds simple and delish!
I’m sorry the chocolate treats didn’t work out. On those rare occasions when we are near a Trader Joe’s we always buy a ton of their dark chocolate bars (plain, cacao 70+%) and love it.
Also want to say that I really appreciate that you mentioned about what happened when your server crashed. That supports my desire to do my blog on off-line software. There are plenty of other reasons, too, but this one is major.
I love TJ’s dark chocolate bars! I buy them all of the time. This was a new item and thought I would give it a try. It was just to salty for me, but my co-workers ate it up.
The server issue is a problem, but it’s rare. Don’t let it stop you from doing something you love. I learned a lesson and that is to save my posts in a word file and then back up my computer. I am doing that now. So if anything does happen I will always have my posts for future use.
I really enjoyed this post!!! My favorite pumpkin Trader Joe’s treats are the pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds…SO AMAZING! You NEED to try those 🙂 I think you might have gotten a bad batch of Pumpkin O’s 🙁 because the one’s I have in my pantry have an extremely strong pumpkin flavor and an even stronger pumpkin spice flavor. I was crazy surpirsed by their flavor, actually. Everyone I know who’s tried them has said the same. But who knows! LOL
I saw the pumpkin spiced pumpkin seeds, that will be on my list next time! Ok, you convinced me, I must try the Pumpkin O’s again. I was a little surprised that they didn’t have much pumpkin flavor. Now I am excited to try them again! Thank you for commenting! Now I am excited to go to TJ’s again!
I am surprised to hear you didn’t like the Pumpkin Os! it is my favorite TJs cereal, too bad its only seasonal. You must also try their Pumpkin Pancake and waffle mix! its amazing! 🙂
Hi Patricia, I am going to give TJ’s Cereal another try. I may have had a bad box! I will most definitely try the pumpkin pancake mix. Thanks for telling me!
The pumpkin ravioli is good I just wish there were more in the pack for the price. I make a sauce with pumpkin butter and heavy cream. Start with 2 tablespoons cream and add more to get desired texture once it is warmed through. If you don’t wait your sauce will be too thin and will turn into soup once it heats through. For a side fill croissants with plain pumpkin butter and use to mop up sauce. I love the pumpkin toaster pastries and cereal bars. The ice cream is great too. The pumpkin os i didn’t try because them seem boring. I wish they would have made them similar to the strawberry os with some pumpkin yogurt covered bits and pumpkin yogurt chunks. Now that would be amazing.
I forgot the pumpkin cream cheese and yogurt are great as well.