We’re up in Canada these days, so our closest Trader Joe’s is in Bellingham. We venture down every once in a while to pick up some of our favorite things, but it is always the first stop on any road trip south of the border because they have the best road trip snacks and we love a good road trip.
When we lived in California Vivi and I went to Trader Joe’s every few days to pick up a few things. When she was little she loved to push the mini shopping cart and she still loves to get me a coffee sample at the back of the store. They have a lot of fantastic products, and I find that their prices are competitive even though they seem to be a boutique grocery store.
When I worked on yachts I hoarded food, and am embarrassed to say, a lot of it was wasted. In Cozumel, our small grocery stores carried very little, and it was mostly ingredients for preparing local dishes. When the big shiny Chedraui opened, we were excited, and hoped that we’d have more and better products to choose from. That optimism didn’t pay off. I remember reaching into the broccoli and my hand coming back covered in green mush. Yech. We usually made a trip across to Cancun once a month to stock up on imported food from Costco and CarreFour.
In Roatan, the ship would come in about every 2 weeks, and I would rush down as soon as I heard that they had unloaded the containers. Unfortunately, buying several packages of pasta or rice only meant that my cupboard would be crawling with weevils. The mainland of Honduras produced amazing fruit and veggies, but on the island our produce was being imported from the states! Now that I have access to fresh, I’m happy to shop more frequently and buy less. Hardly anything is wasted!
Here are my favorite things from Trader Joe’s to buy for road trip snacks.
- Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels
- Bamba Peanut Snacks – I want to say it’s a peanut butter cheeto, but that sounds wack. They are goooood.
- pumpkin seeds in the shell
- dried mango – plain for Vivi, the spicy chili ones for me
- Very Green Smoothie
- Simpler Wines Rosé (canned sparkling rosé that is crazy cheap and doesn’t suck)
- Toscana cheese, I can’t choose between the pepper and the Syrah, so … both obviously
- Coconut cashews – sorry kids this is just for grown-ups (because I don’t want to share them)
- Everything but the Bagel Seasoned Smoked Salmon
- Some kind of cracker to deliver the smoked salmon to my mouth
- Whipped cream cheese to stick the salmon to the cracker
- Cold Brew Coconut Cream Lattes
If we get these thing with us I think our trip will gonna be very good. Bread, peanut butter is the great for these kind of trips and other items as well. Thanks mate for these great list of snacks, I really appreciate.
I was there today and forgot to get the peanut butter filled pretzels. Someone in my house was not happy!