The Trader Joe's Product Discussion Thread (S/D)

You will never convince me, but I will stop trying to convert you to my Safety First worldview. Leave it on for weeks! Use it in the shower! Live on the edge.

If I have extra rice I put it in the fridge and microwave it when I want to eat it again. (Don't own a rice cooker, seems superfluous).

nickn otm; you all with your rice cookers must have lots of counter space.

hmm. i feel like 99% of the korean families around me growing up left rice in the cooker w/o worrying about fire hazards or food safety and i have continued this great tradition.

tbh I put it in the fridge and microwave most of the time

the korean standpoint leads me to believe you can leave it going, unless you have a fan going and the windows are closed, in which case everyone dies

i was pretty dubious about rice cookers, but i came to believe they had value and now that i have one i really appreciate it. the automation is the thing that makes it indispensable (or at least really useful) for me. i gave up on non-quick-cook rice ages ago b/c i always forgot about it and it burned.

besides being dummy-proof, i like that it has a basket for steaming vegetables, etc. also very nice: throwing some spinach or meat or whatever in with the rice so you have jazzed up rice for later meals.

i cook large batches of rice and then divvy them up into zip lock bags, which i freeze and microwave later.

i do this w/ a lot of foods, actually: bacon (i bake a couple packages), pasta, pasta sauce, chicken, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacillus_cereus

a rice cooker costs like $12

I have used the micro-bags of brown rice to eat with the TJ's cheapo indian box food that doesn't have rice already in it. It still works out to like $3 for lunch.

the frozen palak paneer is maybe the best thing ever (also, the full tray is like 3/4 of your daily sodium intake)

this is one of those times where it's kinda hard to justify posting bc it's so vague but: yeah apparently reheating rice is bad, someone explained it to me once and said the rice wear little jackets and they disappear during cooking & it's bad to eat rice that doesn't have its protective jacket on, unless you just cooked it. like hopefully someone will swoop in with some real science, but apparently it's bad. i still reheat rice sometimes, risotto especially, because there are lots of things that are 'bad' that don't have noticeable or immediate ill-effects, or like you shouldn't use a metal spoon to stir something because it conducts heat but it isn't like your spoon/pan is particularly efficient anyway so it's fine. but just so you know, even though you don't because i didn't prove anything, i just remembered, at you, apparently rice is bad to reheat

I eat reheated rice all the time

Me, too. Am I going to die?

maybe we already have

yeah it looks like if it drops below 140 degrees, it is bad. I am thinking that having the rice cooker constantly on makes it stay at a good temp

if you are a moron like me and reheat it, you will likely get food poisoning. I credit my past prodigious liquor consumption for a lack of poisoning

Us rice reheaters must just be ticking time bombs.

Well, I have better historical luck avoiding food poisoning from reheated rice than I do avoiding fires due to household appliances, so I'm going to stick with the reheating method.

For the veg/fake orange chicken, bake them in a toaster oven, then remove and finish them off in a pan for two minutes with the sauce and a small amount of grapeseed or vegetable oil. Probably works with the regular too although I haven't had it yet.

Spencer bringing the wise decisions

That's exactly what I do - bake it in the toaster oven first. Sisters.

Jar of speculoos paste is fucking silly.
It's like DIY Nutter Butter...out of anything.

Also: what do I do with this coconut oil?

rub it on your skin and hair

good for popping popcorn with xp

popping popcorn in coconut oil is good if you like popcorn that tastes like sunscreen instead of popcorn

I've been using it as lotion xp

What do you do with it in an eating capacity?

Baking! I use it in fudgey chocolate-cherry-chili-walnut cookie recipe

when I bought my jar, the lady suggested I use it to fry porkchops in

the japanese fried rice (with hijiki, edamame, tofu) is delicious.

that sounds yummy... How's the sodium content? They have a bibimbop thing now but I'm scared to even look!

the wasabi roasted seaweed snacks are dope

How's the sodium content?

i haven't looked, but it's probably terrible.

the wasabi roasted seaweed snacks are dope

Oh good. I grabbed a pack on impulse tonight.

Are those just the thin seaweed pieces? I had issues with those.

Yeh. I haven't opened them yet.

I got a big-ish bottle of green tea. That will be nice to throw into a water bottle w/ ice for morning commutes. Had to restrain myself from drinking more than a few mouthfuls tonight.

I bought some of the Japanese fried rice on the way home today (per JBR's recommendation, better be good!), and they are 450 mg sodium per 1 cup serving, 3.5 servings per package. Don't know if that's good or bad, but it's 19% of the daily rec value.

Love that Japanese fried rice, too, I throw in some faux-beef, spring onions and snow peas. Tasty.

I think I regularly go into 2000/3000 mg of sodium per day territory :/

Amateur.

http://consumerist.com/2011/03/do-not-drink-an-entire-bottle-of-soy-sauce.html

I think the food I made (homemade) yesterday ended up being close to a salt lick as far as sodium content. I might see if I can make more rice/vegetables and blend it in.

i usually end up throwing a bunch of other veg into any of their rices to try to cut it a bit - makes a better meal and you eat less of the sodium rice.

Also: what do I do with this coconut oil?

Use it like any cooking fat. Sub 1:1 for butter/crisco in baking. I like the flavor, so use it for stir-fries etc especially with pork. But it doesn't go well with garlic/onions imo.

their chicken broth sux

Today I am snacking on radish wedges dipped straight into the smoked salt, so I know from sodium.

their soy chorizo is quietly remarkable

You KNOW, you're right! I had it at a taco-making party, served by a real Mexican woman (my friend Laura) who is vegetarian and LOVES it and she was right, too!

I like to mix it up in a rice dish with corn, peas, various chiles, frozen gandules, w/e.
also good in tortillas/frittatas/egg dishes