Trader Joe’s is known for stocking its shelves with trendy, sometimes quirky, and often utterly crave-worthy snacks made just for the store — things like pickle-flavored popcorn, fried mochi squares, and apple pie cheddar cheese. There’s also the baking mixes, which are worth calling out.
Although they’re not ready to eat right out of the box, almost all are ready to bake in less than five minutes. And the lineup goes beyond the usual cake mix (think: blondies, pumpkin bread, and lemon bars). That means when a craving hits, or a friend is stopping by, or you want to drop off a treat to cheer someone up, you can easily squeeze a fresh-baked option onto your to-do list.
Of course, the burning question is this: Are they as delicious as they are fast? I decided to find out, so I rounded up the most popular baking mixes that you can only get at Trader Joe’s and fired up my oven. Here are the results.
Before I had children, people loved to conjure up their own fantasy of what dinner at a food writer’s house might be like — multi-course menus and lavish steak dinners every night. That only multiplied when my daughters arrived: “I bet you make some fancy purées,” “What sort of feasts do you cook for them?” and “Lucky kids!”
You know that feeling you get when you’re shopping at Target? The one that makes you want to buy every single thing? Now, imagine that feeling and multiply it by 10. That’s basically what overcomes you when you go to Monoprix. It’s essentially the Target of Paris — only even better. It’s got clothing, beauty products, wine, groceries, made-to-order sandwiches, housewares, and more.
During a recent trip to Paris, I ate Ina Garten’s favorite hot dog, and then I stopped in to a Monoprix near my hotel just to check it out. Of course, I ended up spending a few Euros on some stuff I simply just had to have. Specifically, one cute organizer bin.
One of the most frequently quotable lines in a movie that is made entirely of frequently quotable lines is “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.” That’s how Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, the Eagles-hating, rug-appreciating, White Russian-sipping protagonist of The Big Lebowski, responds to a graphic threat from one of his bowling league rivals. It’s also usually how I respond to anyone who criticizes ANYTHING from my beloved Trader Joe’s: “Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.”
In the deepest ventricles of my heart, I know that Trader Joe’s never does anything wrong. Or at least that’s what I thought, until I tried one of their newest products.
Slow cookers have saved our butts countless times, letting us serve hearty, yummy, family suppers without slaving away in the kitchen. But let’s face it — after dinner, the crocks aren’t always as easy to clean as we hope they’ll be. Even when they’re dishwasher-safe, they don’t always come out totally spot-free. You know what I mean. There’s that nasty line of cooked-on crud right where the top of the sauce simmered — and you just can’t seem to get rid of it.
Well, there is a way to make slow cooker cleanup just as easy as slow cooking itself.
The first and only time I ever ordered a whole lobster was when I was 17 years old. On the night of my prom, I climbed in a rented limo with my best friend Megan and went to the fanciest restaurant in our area, an overpriced little seafood restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. After I happily ordered a crustacean to feed my fancy prom desires, Megan widened her eyes.
“What?” I asked, as I put on my lobster bib. Megan replied to me what seemed obvious to her, that the animal was most likely alive before I ordered it, and would obviously die “right over there” in the kitchen as we were talking about it, and knew me enough to know I might not like that information. (I certainly did not, but I still ate the lobster. It was $60.)
That not-so-fond memory came shrieking back to me when I learned of the internet’s baffling new trend of screaming sausage videos.
Now that fall has settled in and a chill has returned to the air, it’s the perfect time for stocking up on hearty stews and curries to take you through the season. Meaty brown lentils star as the base of this wholesome and comforting vegan curry. It’s kissed with warm, sweet spices like garam masala and turmeric, laced with fire-roasted tomatoes, and finished with a can of creamy coconut milk for just a touch of richness.
Browsing Anthropologie’s home section can feel like a metaphorical warm hug. Filled with colorful and eclectic items that promise a life of cozy comfort, I have a very hard time walking out of one of their stores without at least one item. So I was really excited to see that Anthropologie is offering an additional 30 percent off of sale items online. (Full discount is reflected once items are added to your cart.)
Check out a few of our favorites below, but act fast — the sale is for a limited time and we don’t know when it will end!
In the list of exercises that can make someone feel powerful while seeming a little intimidating to those not familiar with them, the barbell bench press is certainly in one of the top positions!
Do you have questions about the barbell bench press? Not sure of the benefits or of how to perform the exercise?
We’ve got you covered!
What Are the Benefits of the Barbell Bench Press?
Exactly how you choose to use the barbell bench press is highly dependent of your overall technical ability and experience, how much weight you’re using, the set and rep scheme you select, where you place the exercise in your workout, what other exercises you do and what your rest periods are.
In general barbell bench presses can be used to do any or all of the following:
Increasing upper body strength, primarily in the chest, shoulders and triceps.
Increasing upper body strength in the biceps and the musculature in the upper back.
Increasing core strength.
Building muscle.
Fat loss (if your diet and exercise routines are conducive to fat loss).
Conditioning (if used as part of conditioning circuits).
Who Can Perform Barbell Bench Presses?
In and of itself, the barbell bench press is more of an intermediate lifting exercise. This means that you should wait until you have mastered the push-up and the dumbbell bench press before progressing to the barbell bench press.
As you start working on the barbell bench press, keep in mind that a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds. If this is still too much of a load for you, you may want to stick with the dumbbell bench press until you’ve built the strength required to use a conventional barbell.
Alternatively, some gyms have fixed-weight preloaded barbells that are shorter than a traditional barbell, and usually start around 20 pounds, going up in increments of 5 to 10 pounds.
When Should One Place the Barbell Bench Press?
Where the barbell bench press goes in your workout will depend on the workout itself. If you’re doing an upper-body pushing workout, you should place the barbell bench press somewhere in the first half of the workout, when your body is fresh.
If you’re doing a full-body workout, you can pair the barbell bench press with a lower-body compound movement, or an upper-body pulling movement. You can also make it part of a conditioning circuit.
To make the barbell bench press more challenging, you can of course add resistance to it. Another way to increase the challenge is to change the tempo of the exercise, by slowing down the eccentric (or lowering) part of the movement. You can also add a pause at the bottom of the movement, where the barbell is closest to your chest.
What’s the Proper Technique?
When it comes to your bench press technique, you must determine what your goal is. For instance, if you are a powerlifter and are looking to lift as much weight as possible, your bench press form will look very different from that of a bodybuilder, or the general population who is just looking to add muscle, get stronger, and feel good. If you are looking to develop your triceps, you will adopt a slightly narrower grip.
Set Yourself Up
Lie on the bench and position your body so your eyes are directly under the bar. Your feet should be in a shoulder width stance, and should be flat on the floor.
As for the setup of the bar, it is important that the bar is positioned not too high up, but also not too low down as this will make it tougher to lift up the bar to get into the starting position.
Grab the bar so your hands are slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and your wrists should be straight. This grip width seems to work best for most.
Prepare to Move
Before you press up the bar to the starting position, take a deep breath into your belly (360 degrees of air around your spine).
Brace your core (I like to pretend that I am about to block a soccer ball with my stomach), lightly tuck your rib cage towards your hips (close the space in your midsection), tighten the muscles in your upper back and draw shoulder blades together and down (towards the opposite back pocket in your pants), and squeeze your glutes.
Once you’ve unracked the bar, it should be directly over your shoulders and your elbows, forearms and wrists should be in a vertical position. Your shoulders should remain packed (keep your arms in their sockets).
The Movement
Before you lower the bar down in a controlled manner (you can think of it as a rowing motion rather than letting the bar drop), take another deep deep breath into your belly, brace your core, lightly tuck your rib cage towards your hips, tighten your upper back, squeeze your glutes, and lower the bar.
The bar should touch between your sternum and mid-chest, your elbows should remain at about a 75-degree angle with your body, and your forearms should remain vertical.
Once the bar touches your sternum to mid-chest, press the bar away from your body so it returns to the starting position (just over your shoulders), and lock your elbows at the top (but do not hyperextend them).
Drive your feet into the floor for the duration of the exercise as this helps engage the muscles in the lower body, and also provides additional stability to your entire body. The bench press is a full body exercise.
Unless you’re doing more of a powerlifting bench press, make sure that your back is not excessively arched. A slight arch is OK. Do not allow your hips to leave the bench.
Reset and repeat for the desired number of reps.
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For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
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