The obvious product to compare these happy frozen dessert treats with is Trader Joe's Maple Leaf Ice Cream Sandwiches. We enjoyed those quite a bit. Judging by appearances, they're coming from the same third party supplier up in the Great White North straight to your friendly neighborhood TJ's grocery store.
Like the maple leafs, Trader Joe's Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches come in a fun shape, although the beautiful wifey points out that the leaves were slightly more intricate and aesthetically pleasing. As you might have guessed, the cookie part of these sandwiches is indeed gingerbread flavored. The ice cream, on the other hand, is vanilla bean. I guess they were going for a balance of gingerbread spices with creaminess. It's not like Trader Joe's can't do gingerbread ice cream.
The overall effect is nice. The vanilla sweetness is offset by mildly-spiced ginger cookies. There is a hint of grittiness in the cookies. They're not 100% smooth. However, like their predecessors, they are nice and soft. I think crispy, crunchy cookies might have killed the mood with this product.
$3.99 for four ice cream sandwiches. Product of Canada. Kosher. Would buy again. In the end, we liked these for sure but maybe just a tad less than we liked the maple leaf sandwiches. Eight out of ten stars from me for Trader Joe's Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches. Sonia will throw out eight and a half—just a half star less than what we gave to the leaf sandwiches from each of us.
Apparently there's another viral sensation going around involving lasagna soup. There are myriad variations on the particular ingredients used—some are high-protein, some are optimized for the crock pot, and others have lots of greens and veggies. This offering from Trader Joe's is pretty much ready to go if you're not into the whole DIY thing. It can be heated in the microwave or on the stove top.
It's got a fair amount of lasagna pasta. They're not big sheets. They're more like "bits" with an occasional "chunk" of wavy Mafalda macaroni. There's ground turkey, as well. Most of the turkey appears as little meat crumbles with a few larger wads floating around in the soup. It's all suspended in a thick, tomato-based broth with Asiago cheese and traditional Italian spices including onions, garlic, basil, oregano, fennel, salt, and black pepper.
It's a nice hearty overall flavor. Sonia and I are both fans. We finished the whole 2.5 serving tub in one sitting. We love that TJ's chose turkey meat. Perhaps it's fate that we're putting this review up right after Turkey Day.
Complaints? Sonia wants more pasta. I want veggies like diced tomato, spinach, kale, and bigger onion chunks. We think it would be better with turkey meatballs instead of ground turkey. But we're nitpicking. We always nitpick.
Five bucks for the 20 oz tub found in the refrigerated section. Would buy again. Eight and a half stars from Sonia for Trader Joe's Lasagna Soup with Turkey. I'll throw out eight out of ten stars.
