WIAW - Trader Joe's

Stop me if you've heard this one before, "4 girls from Florida walk into Trader Joe's...."

No? Great because that's all covered in this week's What I Ate Wednesday- an ode to Dirty Girl Atlanta. (and if you read that fast it doesn't say "dirty Atlanta" - it looked that way to me too for a second)
Thanks again to Jen for hosting this weekly food round-up and for being genuinely awesome.



Saturday morning we ate a fast breakfast in our hotel before heading out for our dirty adventure.  I brought a packet of protein oatmeal from home and added a few random Froot Loops on the side.

The coffee offerings at the Sleep Inn left a bit to be desired, so we all brought out our smart phones for a massive Starbucks hunt.

One grande coffee + cold soy milk later and we were ready to shop!

WELCOME TO TRADER JOE'S! <insert heavenly choir>

This was my first time heading into TJ's. I had heard so much about it online and the rumors of low prices on healthy fare got me very excited.

It was probably a good thing that we didn't have a cooler, because I could have spent A LOT more! I also tried to avoid buying too many "healthy" or "gluten-free" processed products.  Empty calories are still empty calories even if they are gluten free.

Here's a run down of my $46 of goodies:
- TJ's Curry simmer sauce
- TJ's Everyday Seasoning Spice
- Sweet Potato tortilla chips
- Guilt-free tortilla chips
- TJ's Gingerly Macadamia trail mix
- TJ's edamame crackers
- Fruit leather (for Kyle)
- Dark chocolate with chocolate butter cream filling
- Almond meal (anybody have recipe ideas?)
- Wine, wine, wine, wine (what great prices! Holy moly!)

I was really surprised with the reasonable prices.  If I lived near a Trader Joe's, I don't think I would shop there every week, but I would use it to buy a lot of my healthy essentials.  Oh, and I would buy wine there.  Lots o' wine.

After Trader Joe's, we needed food.  We chose a place called "MetroFresh" that served healthy salads, soups, and sandwiches.
I had an amazing dairy-free Thai coconut lentil soup and roasted chicken salad.  It felt good to find such healthy, fresh fare.

The Dirty Girl Mud Run was up next on the agenda.  What a blast! I have a full recap coming this week once I get all the pics back.  Stay tuned.

There was a serious lack of post-race food at Dirty Girl.  Like zero.
Once we cleaned off and got back to the car I downed a 100 calorie Clif bar, green smoothie, and then I stole a LaraBar from Alexis.

On the drive home we stopped for dinner at Chili's.  Alexis and I split chicken fajitas with an extra side of black beans.  It was actually very good.  We were bad bloggers and didn't document the food.  But I bet if you close your eyes you can picture the sizzling goodness.

I made an effort to not nibble too much on the drive home. I had a few edamame crackers and stuck to water and one diet coke.

Have you ever been to Trader Joe's? What's your favorite thing to buy?

Love and Jose el Trader,
Carissa & Kyle

ps- today is the last day to enter our BENGAY Zero Degrees giveaway!