Even more awesome Trader Joe Products (under $5)

Peanut butter goodies
This is my new favorite cookie! The bottom is a crunchy cookie with some creamy peanut butter on top. That's all dunked in milk chocolate and sprinkled with peanut bits. Sorry, girl scouts, but these are better and cheaper than your expensive badge-earning cookies. For only $2.99, you get 16 goodies. I didn't get these on my last shopping trip because I'm trying to lose a few pounds. If you get these, get 2 because you'll want one for yourself and the other one, well, you can decide whether you'd like to share it.

Watch out, girl scouts - these Goodies will give you all a run for your money!

Dark chocolate covered peanut butter wafer cookies
These cookies are about the size of a large chocolate caramel candy. The thing that makes them tasty is the combination of the crunchiness of the wafers, the creaminess of the peanut bitter and chocolate, and there is a slight saltiness from the peanut butter. As good as these cookies are, I think the dark chocolate gives the cookie a slight waxy texture. I'm not the only blogger who thinks that these snacks are not a hit - others have been a little more critical. Milk chocolate would make these a bit more melty and perhaps make them just as good as the Peanut butter goodies. Having said that, these wafer cookies are less messy than the goodies because you can pop a whole cookie into your mouth. The nuts on top of the goodies will fall all over the place if you're not careful. For $2.99, these are worth a try, especially if you prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate.

Dark chocolate covered peanut butter wafer cookies

Dried unsweetened dark cherries
Even though I have a food dehydrator, there are some dried fruits that I would rather just buy from Trader Joe's. Cherries and strawberries are two fruits that take a long time to dry properly and are not always in season. Additionally, cherries require that you pit them one by one before putting them in the dehydrator. So, $4.29 is actually a great price for a bag of dried dark cherries. The strawberries are great too but they're only available during the summer months.

Dark cherries are a great snack either by themselves or dipped in chocolate. I also use them in brownies or other baked goods. Give these a try!

A tasty and healthy snack - imagine that!

Vegetable root chips
These are basically Terra chips but cheaper. For $2.99, you get a bag of taro, beet, sweet potato, and yucca chips. Another snack that I have to hide from myself or else I'll eat them in one sitting.

like Terra chips but only $2.99 a bag

Growing your own scallions

This is not a new idea. Several others have made youtube videos about growing (by StarofParis) or regrowing (by TeeRiddle) scallions from the stumps. If you click on the links in the previous sentence, they will take you to their videos. Both of them are pretty good and give you step-by-step instructions on how to do this. I know that scallions are not the most expensive thing in the supermarket but it's just nice to be able to have fresh scallions whenever you need them. I often have to create uses for all the scallions that come in a bunch. Home-grown scallions don't take up space in the fridge and won't rot. It's also cool to be able to cut a fresh scallion and chop it up to throw on your wonton noodle soup. Just make sure you water them on a regular basis and you won't have to buy scallions for about a year.

The basic steps are:
1. Buy a bunch of scallions that still have the roots attached.
2. After using the scallion, plant the stump with the roots attached in a pot of soil (if you drink coffee, save the grounds and mix it in with the soil).
3. Water it.
4. Let it grow. It should take a week or two to see the green parts emerge. Just water them at least every other day and be patient.

Here are a couple of pictures of the ones I recently planted:

Lone scallion growing in the pot on the right

Added some new scallion stumps

Only 5 days later

10 days later - they grow very fast!

Orion Cakes - Custard and Tiramisu

Orion is a Korean company that makes a variety of snack cakes. The Custard cream and Tiramisu cakes are probably two of the best cakes they make. Each box contains 12 individually wrapped cakes. For about $3 to $4 a box (depending on whether they are on sale), they are an awesome deal. They are comparable to American cakes like Twinkies but the portions are smaller and the cream is not as sweet. I suppose they are not "diet foods" but the nutrition information indicates that they are 100 calories or less per cake. Why eat a bag of dry pretzels when you can have cake?

In the Boston area, they are available at Hong Kong Supermarket (formerly Super 88) on Brighton Ave. They're probably at other Asian markets too. Enjoy!

Orion Cakes - Custard Cream filled - 12 in a box!

Individually packaged (0.81 oz) cake

Orion Cakes - Tiramisu flavor - 12 in a box!

Individually packaged (0.81 oz) cak

Orion Cakes - Nutrition info for Custard Cake (only 100 calories per cake!)

Orion Cakes - Nutrition info for Tiramisu Cake (only 90 calories per cake!)

More Awesome Trader Joe Products (under $5)

 Every now and then, I like to stop by Trader Joe's to pick out some new products to try. They're not very expensive and sometimes the products don't come back after one season. I think the reason they don't mind if people return stuff they don't like is because that's how they know which products suck. It's just fun to try some new things there. Here are a few recent products (that cost less than $5) that were pretty cool.

1. Gluten-Free Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten free Chocolate Chip Cookies

The fact that they're gluten-free makes them unique already.

Gluten free Chocolate Chip Cookies

They're definitely crunchier than other chocolate chip cookies. I really don't miss the gluten. They contain rice flour.

The Mideast Feast - only 600 calories!

2. The Mideast Feast is one of my favorite prepared meals from Trader Joe's. Ok, it's not new but I wanted to let you all know about it, in case you've never tried it. It's very filling, healthy, and tasty. The box includes hummus, tahini, falafel, pita bread, and tabbouleh. It's meat-free but there's enough protein. I'm not vegetarian but I still like this meal very much. At $4.99, it's very affordable too.

Nutrition Info for Falafel Chips

3. Falafel Chips - This is a new product. They are made with corn and garbanzo beans so the texture is a little different from regular tortilla chips. The spices are very tasty but they are a little harder than corn or tortilla chips. Try these with a dip or something to put on them because they are really almost like a cracker. If you look at the nutrition info, they have a healthy amount of fibre and protein, which make them a little healthier than regular chips. For $3.49 a bag, it's worth a try. The chips are packaged in a sealed plastic bag inside the paper bag.

Falafel Chips

Asian Markets - a poor student's friend

In most large cities, there is at least one large Asian market that has a huge variety of products that you won't find at the other supermarkets, where anything that's remotely "ethnic" is premium priced. At the Asian markets, you can save a lot of money and have the opportunity to try new foods. In Boston area, there are plenty of stores with products from all over the world. There's an Indian store named "Shalimar" in Cambridge, a Korean store (forgot the name) near MIT, and Hong Kong Supermarket (formerly "Super 88") in Allston. At HK supermarket, you will find more than just Chinese products. They have Japanese curry and a small selection of Korean and other Japanese products. Their produce and meat sections are probably a lot more diverse and perhaps exotic than what you'd see in an American supermarket.

The fun part about going to HK supermarket is that they also have a food court attached to it, called "Super 88 Connection". I also noticed that they have a new Japanese restaurant there that serves rice (curry rice and "don") and ramen dishes but no sushi. The food court includes a Thai place, a Korean booth, an Indian booth, and a variety of Chinese booths. Dim sum chef has a pretty good selection of dim sum and they have pictures of the dishes on their menu, in case you don't know what they look like. They cook everything fresh, so you might have to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for your food. Fresh is good. Kantin is the place that has the roasted animals hanging in the window. Their menu is pretty long and has every Hong Kong style and Chinese-American style dish that you can imagine. That's the place I go to when I am very hungry.

Here is a selection of things I bought on a recent trip to HK supermarket:

1. Yeo's soy milk is made with Canadian soybeans. It comes in sweetened and unsweetened versions. The sweetened one can be a little too sweet so the unsweetened one can be used to make your drink less sweet by mixing it 50-50. The regular price is $1.29 for a 1 L box and goes on sale for about $1 now and then. It definitely tastes different from the stuff made by Silk or 8th Continent.

Yeo's soymilk - made with Canadian soybeans!

2. Shrimp flavored chips. These come in regular and wasabi flavors. Since they're baked, they're a little healthier than potato chips.

Wasabi flavored shrimp chips

3. Braised beef and wonton noodle soup (from Kantin, Super 88 Connection). If you get this to go, they will give you the soup part in one container and the rest of it in another container. This is so the noodles don't get too soggy and mushy by the time you get home. This is an awesome dish. Look for the booth with the roasted ducks hanging in the window. If you're coming from the supermarket, turn left after you go through the door that connects the supermarket to the food court. The booth is on the left.

Deconstructed Braised Beef and Wonton Noodle Soup

Braised Beef and Wonton Noodle Soup