Trader Joe’s Fall Finds
Out of all the seasonal items, I have to recommend the Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese the most.
November 21, 2022
As soon as Halloween is over, I feel like people want to jump right into the Christmas season, but the month of November is severely overlooked. A lot of people tend to see November as the waiting time before the “actual holiday” season starts, but I have to disagree with that. I think that November is very underappreciated. It has Thanksgiving, all the fall vibes, and the weather is not freezing yet- it’s just the perfect amount of cool. In order to really get me into the fall spirit, one thing that brings me a lot of joy is all the fall-themed merchandise and foods that you can buy. There’s nothing that really gets me like a pumpkin spice creamer or an apple cinnamon-scented candle. I wanted to find a couple of really cool items that were both high-quality and at a very affordable price so everyone could enjoy this month properly. After doing a little bit of research, I realized that the best place to do this is actually Trader Joe’s. They sell some of the best foods and a number of home and skin care products.
One of my favorite things about this season is all the pumpkin treats. I can’t stress enough how much joy these items bring me. And I think that one thing that Trader Joe’s does really well is baked goods that are so accessible and delicious. Some of the items I want to highlight are the pumpkin bagels, the pumpkin brioche toast, and the pumpkin blondie bars. My favorite from this list is definitely pumpkin bagels. Bagels are one of my favorite foods because they have just a hint of flavor that is not too sweet but still tastes so good. These are totally good enough to eat on their own, but I recommend trying them with just a little bit of plain cream cheese so that it’s the perfect balance of flavors and textures. Another honorable mention that kind of fits into this category is all the different pumpkin baking mixes that Trader Joe’s has. I’ve never tried these, but I’m super excited to, and this is a really fun activity that you can do with your friends or family to get into the spirit.
Moving on to the savory side of things, Trader Joe’s has some really interesting frozen foods that they do with the produce that’s in season, mainly squashes and pumpkins, and these make such good easy lunches and dinners. Some of the items I want to specifically mention are the butternut squash ravioli, the butternut squash mac and cheese, pumpkin empanadas, and pumpkin samosas. I’ve actually tried two things from this list: the pumpkin samosas and the butternut squash mac and cheese. The samosas were still good; they were definitely not sweet but rather a little spicy, and they had an exciting flavor to them. One of my recommendations is to cook them in the air fryer which makes them really nice and crispy. The butternut squash mac and cheese was so good, I actually crave this all the time now. It was so easy to prepare- you literally just pop it in the microwave and it’s delicious.
The last thing I want to talk about is the non-food holiday items at Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s is one of my favorite places in the world because they have such a wide variety of items, and almost every single one of them is just so good. The first thing is their new holiday candles; I actually bought both scents of these candles because they’re so tiny and affordable that I couldn’t help myself. The two scents are honey crisp apple and vanilla pumpkin. One of my favorite things in the world is candles because of the energy and the feeling that is so nostalgic and comforting. To end things off, I want to mention the pumpkin body butter. This isn’t an item I have tried but I have tried a different scent of Trader Joe’s body butter and I really like it. It’s so thick and moisturizing, and it’s good for colder months because my skin tends to get so dry.
The items that I have mentioned above don’t even scratch the surface of the sheer amount of different holiday products at Trader Joe’s. I really recommend that you go into the store and see for yourself because you never know what you may find. Anything that gives you the slightest amount of joy during this holiday season is so worth it. A YLHS Student Hannah Jebelli (10) commented, “My favorite thing for fall has to be all the different pumpkin spice items,” so if you feel the same way, go check out your local Trader Joe’s.
