I can't say i would ever be tempted to put those things into my cart!! besides being brussels sprouts...(yuck-o!) refrigerated, cryovac-ed cooked veggies? Nope!
Glad to hear your affirmation of what I suspected! LOL!

The good news is if you take them back - or just the package, they'll give you your money back, no questions asked.

I might just do that. Epic Fail!

Linda-. I was looking for quick and easy. I don't like Brussels sprouts but was attempting to make a veggie that he enjoys without ruining my manicure. Lesson learned, no more cryopacked veggies!

Showed DH this (we had Brussels sprouts with dinner tonight, halved and steamed with butter and smoked bacon in the microwave) and he said, "That looks like something in a horror movie, zombie Brussels sprouts that come back from the dead to eat your brains".

Definitely take it back for a refund; given proper feedback, they'll stop selling it. I wished TJ's would come up to Canada, love that place. I went to one in Washington DC last summer...the only thing I bought that was bad was a beverage called Maple Water. It tasted horrible.

I thought you were going to say your lesson learned was no more manicures before cooking! lol.

I can't see me buying those, either, but I understand wanting to try something new. I need to do that more often.

Sally

Love Brussels sprouts, but for me they have to be fresh. Tried TJ's frozen sprouts recently. One bite was all I could handle.

We are not brussels sprout lovers here, but I wonder if other veggies they carry have this same awful symptom. Oh, the only time a woman is helpless is when her nails are drying.

Suzi, what awful symptom?

I don't buy frozen veggies, save peas to add to a stew or as an ice pack LOL! It's a texture issue. I hate mushy veggies-- but they do need to be edible

I typically only buy frozen peas and corn. For some reason the frozen BS caught my eye. Never again! I've heard people say they love TJ's frozen haricots verts. I just can't imagine them being anything like fresh.

TJ's haricots vert are really very good.....

OK, I'm backing up here, and I love fresh haricots vert, and cannot eat them frozen no matter who has frozen them. The same is true for me with any green bean though, fresh or canned only, not frozen.

I've bought Safeway store brand Petite Frozen Brussels sprouts in the microwave steam package when fresh didn't look good, no sauce of any kind, just the sprouts and we like those. They are also a little bit of a time saver, not that I mind preparing fresh Brussels sprouts.

I'm guilty of trying the pre-cooked Trader Joe's roasted. We didn't have a problem with the doneness (microwaved those too, didn't find them rock hard) but the 'char' was a little excessive, giving some of them a bitter flavor. I haven't bought them again, but if someone served them to me, I wouldn't gag and hide them in my pants cuff ;-)

Morz, I don't care for frozen green beans either. Makes me wonder if people have actually tried them fresh. No comparison.

Fresh vegetables are quite expensive because of the low Canadian dollar. I bought a bag of frozen broccoli a while ago, and neither of us like it.

The only frozen veggies I buy are peas and corn. I've never, ever liked the texture of frozen beans. Even the French style is tough.

lindac92, I agree with you, TJ haricots are great. And we do grow our own in Summer. Also the price is very reasonable for the quantity.

For us, the frozen veggies we buy are generally corn, green beans (only the ones at TJ's), peas and chopped spinach. The chopped spinach is to be added to things, never as a side on its own. The haricot verts at Trader Joe's are indeed quite good. Are they as good as fresh, of course not, but the fresh beans out of season in my neck of the woods are not really worth eating.

Sometimes I will purchase a frozen veggie blend or frozen broccoli but to me those are for dire cooking situations, which generally translates into I need to make pureed soup so the heathens can eat when I have no energy left.

I love brussels sprouts, but I don't like them roasted, they are never done enough in the center before the outsides are far too well roasted. Green beans I like canned or fresh, but not frozen. Peas I like best frozen, but will eat canned. Fresh ones never make it past my kitchen, somehow, I love them as snacks.

Greens are canned or fresh, but I do freeze corn cut from the cob.

I also buy the Bird's Eye brussels sprouts frozen, a box serves two, or is supposed to. It makes a nice lunch for me, I love them!

Annie

Well you'll be proud of me, I wrote to Trader Joe's through their website and I returned the packaging of the brussels sprouts to the store today. Along with the brussels sprouts I also returned a bag of beet chips that tasted like dirt! The manager who helped me agreed with me. So I bought a bottle of wine with my credit and left ---see you later!

Canned green beans??? Olive green yuck?...Only fresh or frozen.
I grew up with fresh green beans only needing about 6 minutes in a pot of boiling water....then dump into a bowl so they stop cooking....add butter and salt and pepper.
When I got married and came to Iowa and was helping my new MIL "snap the beans" for dinner......and she said about 4 in the afternoon that she needed to get them on to cook.....and I was aghast! And I was right!
I think there are 2 camps when it comes to green beans.....either cook quickly so they still taste fresh and green, or cook forever with bacon or ham.
The frozen haricots vert are best briefly dunked into boiling water and served with butter and perhaps lemon....or spread on a cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil and perhaps some garlic and but into a blazing oven for about 4 minutes. I have even had the frozen TJ's ones wrapped on proscuitto and given the quick cook in a blazing oven treatment.

I think there are 2 camps when it comes to green beans.....either cook
quickly so they still taste fresh and green, or cook forever with bacon
or ham.

I can appreciate both. My mom always cooked them down with bacon or ham. Absolutely delicious! But now my preference is a quick steam or roast.

Enjoy the wine! You've earned it. :)

Yuck. And i like brussels. They roast fine if not too big or larger ones cut in half. Small ones roasted whole i cut the root end off then poke with a paring knife into the stem a bit. Parboil helps before roasting.

In the winter i buy peas, baby limas and spinach frozen. Don't care for anything but fresh for string beans. Tried freezing my garden beans but not so great....goes into the pups food.

I recently purchased a bag of small sweet potatoes and small red onions. Both went in the pantry in their separate bins. A few sweet potatoes rotted and stuck to the shelf in just a few days. They were firm. Not happened to me ever. Had to scrub the shelf and put the basket through the dish washer. The last few red onions i used for burgers last week. One was rotten inside and the others could have been a bit more firm in such a short time. (do they buy surplus stock?) Makes me wonder.

The closest store is too far away to return and closed on Sundays as all stores are in that area of NJ.

Silly packaging....already sweet on their own....

Okay, not buying those sweet potatoes! The items are plenty sweet enough already, no need for adding sugar or marshmallows!

Frozen veggies I buy: spinach, turnip greens, peas, corn, okra.

Back luck on the rot. If you have the packaging and receipt, you can take them in when it's convenient for you, to get your refund.

In general, they gear towards high sell through and their items often don't store well, even produce, but it's unusual to have them come in rotten. I think refunding stale cookies or rotten sweet potatoes is a better model for them than trying for "shelf stable" and all that it implies.

Artemis--you don't have to make ucky marshmallow sweet potato pie with them! That's for the non-cooks who don't know what a sweet potato is. :) The garlic aioli is for the hipsters. The plain ol' sweet potatoes inside are for the rest of us. :)

At TJ's, if it's identifiable as their product, you don't need a receipt. They give you your money back, no questions asked.

My teen was on a frozen fried rice kick (something she can make when I am not home). TJ's is pretty good but I made the mistake of buying it with chicken one time. Gross! The quality of the chicken they put in it is nasty.

To roast brussel sprouts, cut them in half, toss in oil and salt, roast. For faster cooking, parboil them. For even faster roasting, put in bowl, add a little water, cover, and par-microwave. Then toss and roast.