My favorite dinner, entirely from from Trader Joe's

I love Trader Joe's. Pretty much anyone who has been to a Trader Joe's will tell you they love it. It's really good food for surprisingly little money.
Sadly, I'm about an hour away from either of the nearest TJ's, West Hartford, CT, (across the way from the Westfarms Mall) and Hadley, MA (next to the Hampshire Mall on route 9).
I see a doctor in Northampton for integrative medicine, so every couple months, while I'm up in that area anyhow, I go to TJ's and stock up like mad on whole wheat pasta, nuts, dried cranberries, castille soap (entirely natural/cruelty-free/non-toxic, doesn't dry my skin out, and can be used to get wax off fruits and veggies), and the all-natural powdered detergent which is eco-friendly and fragrance free (my skin is absurdly sensitive, so I need fragrance free) and about $10 for a box that does about 80 loads.
Having spent a long day out of the house (it takes at least 2 hours on the bus system to get there, though Chris picks me up after), I want something easy for dinner--something so easy, even Chris could do it. Here it is.

*Rice (we get slow-cook brown rice, but TJ's also carries microwaveable heat-and-eat rice in the freezer case)

*Mandarin Orange Chicken (in the freezer case)

*"Harvest Hodgepodge" frozen vegetable blend (which includes peppers, water chestnuts, and mini corns, so it's like authentic Chinese restaurant veggies.)


If you are doing slow-cook rice, start it first. If you are doing heat-and-eat rice, do it last.

Cook the Madarin Orange Chicken chunks according to the oven directions.

Set aside the sauce packets from the Mandarin Orange Chicken

When there's about 5 minutes left for the chicken, warm a a couple tablespoons vegetable oil in a skillet, and stir-fry the vegetables according to the package directions.

When the veggies look mostly done, add the sauce packets to the skillet, and stir.

When the chicken is done in the oven, transfer the chunks to the skillet and toss until uniformly coated in sauce.

Serve over rice.
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Googling " Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken " (not in quotes) generates over 7,000 results. Looking around, it's apparent that people really love this stuff. According to Trader Joe's and cited in Gourmet News, an industry newspaper, Mandarin Orange Chicken is the #1 favorite product of Trader Joe's customers.

Besides the official Trader Joe's website, there is a fan site (hmm...what doesn't have a fan site out there on the wild wild web?)

http://www.traderjoesfan.com/ which has helpful reviews, and could have been a major time sucker for me if I let it.