Image by Petr Kratochvil, in the Public Domain

Occasionally on this blog, I’ll mention products or services, and I should make pretty clear that the makers of those products haven’t provided me with compensation of any sort.  Unless you count the enjoyment or benefit I’ve gotten from discovering the product or store itself!  And that’s definitely case with my new favorite place, Trader Joe’s.

I’ve heard friends and colleagues rave about Trader Joe’s for years, and I had successfully avoided setting foot in one until about a month ago.  I’m the type who if everyone in my world seems to be doing something, it makes it kind of not so interesting to me.  Not that I want to be different, because my alternative is shopping at the regular, old-fashioned supermarket, but more that I’m not one to get caught up in trends and more often than not, I find things that get rave reviews to almost always fall short of the hype.  So I’d drive by the Trader Joe’s stores in the city and almost purposely avoid them.

Then some of my blogger friends began tweeting and blogging about Trader Joe’s pumpkin butter, and it sounded really good.  So one evening after work, I decided to drop in and pick some up.  If you haven’t been to Trader Joe’s before, their philosophy is » Read more: Nutrition Monday: My New Favorite Place, Trader Joe’s!