Take your choice of fresh, frozen, canned and pre-prepared vegetables at Trader Joe’s. Start in the produce section where you can buy all the usual suspects, plus many vegetables that have been cleaned and prepared for easy cooking.
These include trimmed green beans, pieced broccoli, halved and chopped brussels sprouts, diced butternut squash, fingerling potatoes and a variety of diced/sliced raw veggie combos perfect for quick sautéing.
There’s even a really convenient mix of diced carrot, celery and onion that is great for soups and perfect for Thanksgiving stuffing. I used to feel lazy buying these items, but it’s better than throwing away vegetables I never get around to cleaning and chopping.
Canned vegetables are typically less tasty than fresh or frozen and TJ’s only carries a limited selection. The canned corn is fine and makes a good add-on to soup or a Mexican dish.
The frozen case contains some standard veggie offerings, but most of the frozen vegetables are enhanced (roasted and seasoned) or combined with other vegetables and a sauce. The organic peas make a nice addition to the frozen gnocchi entree, the roasted corn is a great addition to soups and Mexican dishes, and the roasted balsamic vegetables are great over polenta or pasta.
The chilled prepared foods case contains some vegetable side dishes that vary with the season. Most notably some variation of creamed or scalloped corn, kale or brussels sprouts usually arrives in fall. These are tasty additions to fall meals, but the high calories (a lot of cream and cheese) are worth noting.