Hello, everyone!

I am back after a long hiatus! Life has kept me busy for the past month or so; I've been fortunate enough to travel to a lot of places back to back. Over the past month, I went to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, and the Coachella festival in Indio, California. While all these places were exciting and fun to visit, I'm a bit relieved to have some downtime at home again on the weekends.

This weekend, I was also able to finally stop by Trader Joe's! I picked up some new items to try and review for you guys (okay, okay, for myself as well) over the next few posts. One of them is what I will review in this post: Trader Joe's Beef Stroganoff.

Trader Joe's Beef Stroganoff can be found in Trader Joe's refridgerated section where the meats, salads, and vegetables are. I really wanted to try it because I saw that it came with pappardelle pasta. For some reason, even though it tastes no different from any other forms of pasta, I really like parappadelle. I love how the flat noodles absorbs pasta sauces and subsequently, is more enjoyable to eat. At least to me anyway.

It comes with pasta, pearl onions, and mushrooms in a mushroom gravy sauce. I would say that it comes with a fair amount of beef. As with Trader Joe's other, "fresher", microwaveable meals, you can simply pop this dish into the microwave for 2-3 minutes, and voila! You have a yummy dinner ready to consume. I believe you can also heat this up in the oven, but who has time to wait 30+ minutes when you're famished?

This serving is enough to keep one person stuffed. I shared it with my boyfriend and it was filling as a snack. For $5~, it's on the more expensive side for a microwaveable meal, but again, it's in the section where Trader Joe's keeps their perishable items so the ingredients are typically fresher than what is offered in their frozen foods aisles.

As for the taste itself, I'd say it was pretty tasty for a grocery store meal! I wish I plated it differently to photograph it, as in my opinion, it tastes like something I could get at a restaurant. The beef was tender, the onions were fresh, and the gravy was surprisingly really good for a boxed meal. It was very rich in flavor.

If you are a fan of pappardelle pasta or gravy, I recommend purchasing this meal. It is a meal you can stow away in your refrigerator  to heat quickly at work, or a meal you can eat if you want restaurant-quality but want to save a few dollars.
What other TJ's "precooked" meals have you tried?

-Mina