No tomatoes, please

This weekend I went to Trader Joe’s for the second time in my life, but actually shopped there for the first time ever. The first time I went, it was right after the one in Charlotte had opened (and broken fire code), and it was a friggin zoo, and my mom and I were so freaked out by the sheer amount of hippie overwhelmingness that we just kind of ran away and wrote it off as a weird store filled with generic-brand organic food.

For those not in the know, which, apparently, was just my mother and I until this weekend, Trader Joe’s is basically a private-label grocery store that sells organic and interesting foods for super cheap.

But alas, I gave it another try. I went in with an open mind and a basket, and I shopped. I looked around at everything, and I bought too much. I even got some of the infamous “three buck Chuck,” (chardonnay and shiraz) and it was delicious. So delicious, in fact, that I kind of drank most of the bottle of chardonnay and was then unable to attend a rockin’ show that I wanted to go to. Almost kind of worth it, though.

Everything we have eaten from there has been surprisingly good, and of really good quality, and it was super cheap too! The best thing ever in the world that they sell are these 1-pound bags of frozen shrimp that are huge (16-20/pound) for like, $7 per bag. Though I thought the shrimp would be tough or otherwise completely fail to meet my expectations in some way, they defrosted really quickly and were so tender and beautiful, it made me really happy that I didn’t pay much for them. I kinda feel like I got away with something there.

So, anyhow, the other night, I used the shrimp to make a super delicious dish with some frozen artichoke tortellini we also bought. I basically just cooked the pasta, and in the time it took to cook it (7 minutes), I sauteed up a bunch of garlic, quickly sauteed the shrimp and finished it all off with some white wine and lemon juice and bam, done.

It took less than 10 minutes, seriously, and probably cost less than $15 altogether, and it was really really good. We also made a killer chicken curry last night and made some frozen naan from Trader Joe’s too. Like, srsly, it was awesome. I think there’s one in New York thank Odin.

Related:

Trader Joe’s [Web site]