Trader Joe's Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs

This blog post completes what will inevitably be known as the What's Good at TJ's Meatball Trilogy of June 2025. The series began with Trader Joe's Meatball Calzone. The adventure continued with Trader Joe's Homestyle Angus Beef Meatballs. And now we find our heroes returning to poultry with a Japanese flair as our story concludes with teriyaki meatball subs and pineapple stir fry rice bowls.

We heated these puppies in the air fryer. They weren't dry in the slightest. Their flavor wasn't overbearing at all. It was a typical chicken taste but also slightly sweet with plenty of teriyaki tang. I think I liked the meatballs by themselves as much as I liked our meatball sub and stir fry dishes.

They went well with every sauce we tried them with. It's just a matter of what you're after. Soy sauce gave them extra saltiness. Soyaki sauce gave them saltiness as well as sweetness. Yangnyeom did the same but with a bit of spiciness, too. I don't think I'd throw them in any tomato based sauces, but if you've tried that and liked it, let us know in the comments.

What else could you do with these? I've heard good things about pineapple teriyaki chicken meatball pizzas and flatbreads. I've heard you can just throw them in a bowl of noodles, spicy or otherwise. It might be easier to ask what you can't do with them rather than what you can.

$4.29 in the refrigerated section for about 24 meatballs. Fully cooked. Gluten free. Would buy again. Eight out of ten stars a piece from Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Breaded Shrimp

On special occasions as a kid, if my parents asked me for any input about where I'd like to go for a big meal, I'd almost invariably choose Bonanza Steakhouse at the local mall. They knew before we even got to the restaurant that I'd order fried shrimp with cocktail sauce. I loved that stuff. The fact that my favorite video arcade, Aladdin's Castle, was right next door was also a bonus. I mean, Ponderosa and Hoss's offered scrumptious seafood and salad bars too, but the promise of blowing my entire weekly allowance on Golden Axe or Double Dragon before my parents even finished their dessert tipped the scales in favor of Bonanza every time.

My love of fried shrimp followed me into adulthood. Popcorn shrimp, coconut shrimp, honey walnut shrimp—you name it. If it has breading and shrimp, I'll eat it and most likely love it. 

Enter: Trader Joe's Gluten Free Breaded Shrimp. Having sampled many, many gluten free offerings from TJ's throughout the years, I had a pretty good idea I'd be fine with their GF shrimp, even if the batter wasn't wheat based.

And I was right. Tapioca and coconut flours do the trick just fine. Six minutes in the air fryer had these delicious morsels sizzling and ready to be thrown into our shrimp soft tacos with corn tortillas, salsa verde, feta cheese, and freshly chopped onion. I did try them on their own, as well, and they're just as good as wheat-battered shrimp. They go great with sweet Thai chili sauce.

Ten bucks is a little steep for a 3 serving Trader Joe's product, but decent shrimp is pricey anywhere these days. Add to that the fact that these meet a very important dietary requirement for gluten intolerant folks, and the price tag seems downright reasonable. 

Sonia and I would buy this product again. Imported from Thailand. Eight and a half out of ten stars from both of us on Trader Joe's Gluten Free Breaded Shrimp.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Tres Leches Cake

Tres leches is without a doubt my favorite style of cake, so we actually picked up this specimen from Trader Joe's for my birthday last week. It comes frozen, but it's quite simple to prepare: thaw overnight in the fridge or at room temperature for three hours.

Predictably, I was ready for cake before the beautiful wifey, so I simply started eating the product straight out of the cardboard container that it comes in. It was still a bit frosty on the inside, so I had to wait a bit longer to finish my piece. Like the recently reviewed macarons, this is another one you actually want to thaw fully before consuming.

Sonia skipped the part where she scolds me for eating straight out of the product packaging since it was my birthday and all, and she managed to salvage an only slightly mangled piece from the cardboard container. She's been eating tres leches pretty much her whole life, while I only came to know and love the spongy Latin milk cake as a young adult.

We both agree this selection from TJ's is great. It's not the number one best tres leches we've ever had, but it's definitely up there. 

Considering the convenience and price: $8 for four servings, it's definitely something to check out if you're not familiar with tres leches or if you need an easy dessert for a small gathering or family meal.

Kosher. Found in the frozen section. Would buy again. Sonia and I will go with eight and a half out of ten stars for Trader Joe's Tres Leches Cake.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Homestyle Angus Beef Meatballs

Honestly, I don't eat meatballs of any kind all that often. Sure, Sonia made some of her own to go with our pasta and Red Pepper & Almond Pesto a couple weeks ago. And we recently reviewed Trader Joe's Meatball Calzone, which is absolutely packed with meatballs. Furthermore, we may have yet another Trader Joe's meatball product on deck for a review in just a week or so...

But I mean, other than that, I really haven't had meatballs in a while and I've never eaten them with any regularity at any point in my life. June 2025 has been the meatballiest month of my entire life thus far. Some of you might be quick to point out that "meatbally" as well as its comparative and superlative forms are not even real words. Well then, friends, you must not have been following this blog for very long. Making up fictitious adjectives is a thing we do here.

These all-beef meatballs are scrumptacular. Maybe it's the high quality Angus beef in them. Maybe it's the stellar spice blend and panko crumbs. Maybe it's the way Sonia prepared them with love...but they're probably the best meatballs I've ever had. Certainly, they're the best pre-made, store-bought ones I've ever had.

For nine bucks, you get a dozen big beef meatballs. They've got a nice texture that's meaty and bready, soft and juicy. Garlic and onion purees give the product a uniformly savory flavor in every bite. Romano cheese, parsley, basil, and cherry powder round out the spices and secondary flavors for an outstanding overall taste.

We at ours with some elbow macaroni, marinara sauce, and cheese—but honestly they're quite noshable on their own. We'd love to try an all-beef calzone with this product inside. We'd also try a simple meatball sub with these the next time we pick them up. They're absolutely delicious.

$8.99 in the refrigerated section. Would buy again. Sonia and I will both go with nine out of ten stars on Trader Joe's Homestyle Angus Beef Meatballs.

Bottom line: 9 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Peaches + Cream Cream Cheese Spread

You'd think peaches and cream cream cheese would have, you know, peaches in it. And it does. It's right there in the ingredients right after milk, cream, and sugar.

But it's sooo faint. It's like, why even pretend this is flavored cream cheese at all? There are no discernible chunks or even pieces or even bits of peach in the whole tub. I mean, look at the picture. The entire package was like that. No peaches.

There is just the vaguest whisper of peach flavor in the cream cheese. It's nice what little is there I guess. But even the cream cheese itself isn't very interesting. It almost tastes like light cream cheese or a diet version of full calorie cream cheese. It's not indulgent at all. It's a weak flavor and the texture is indistinguishable from traditional cream cheese.

Crank up the peach presence by a hundred fold and we'll try this again. Apparently this product was around a couple years ago and then it disappeared for 2024 and now it's back again. I'm wondering if Trader Joe's didn't find a new supplier..?

$2.79 for the 8 oz tub. Kosher. Found in the refrigerated section. Would not buy again in this current format. Five out of ten stars from Sonia and me on Trader Joe's Peaches + Cream Cream Cheese Spread.

Bottom line: 5 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Teeny Tiny Strawberry Rhubarb Pies

Does rhubarb actually exist outside of berry pies? I don't think I've ever even seen a rhubarb plant. I've never laid eyes on rhubarb in a culinary context either except for little red bits inside already-made baked goods. I mean, I've gathered that rhubarb is red, so it's hard to tell where the strawberries end and the rhubarb begins.

I guess it's more sour than a strawberry. Strawberry rhubarb is always nice and tangy. This product is no exception. It's sweet, tart, and like all of TJ's mini pies, there's a soft, flaky, buttery crust around the outside of the pastry.

I found my pies to be oddly lacking in filling. Other Trader Joe's mini pies seemed to absolutely burst with fruit filling. These? They had enough fruit juicy sweetness to still be delicious, but I wanted more berries and 'barb.

We air fried ours and they came out great. Three minutes at 350° seemed to do the trick. We added vanilla bean ice cream to our sweet little treats and as you might have expected, they were even better a la mode.

$5.49 for four small pies. Kosher. Found with the baked goods. Supposedly they'll be in and out of stores until the onslaught of fall stuff later in the year. We'd buy 'em again. Eight out of ten stars from Sonia and me for Trader Joe's Teeny Tiny Strawberry Rhubarb Pies.

Bottom line: 8 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Meatball Calzone

Ah, it's been a while since I've had a good calzone. Found this $7 offering in the refrigerated section on our last TJ's run. Most of you already know we're not pork people, but we thought we'd give it a whirl anyway. The meatballs in this item are a mixture of pork and beef.

Twelve minutes in the air fryer had the insides of this calzone piping hot. It was quite a bit of food for just Sonia and me. It's actually a three serving product, and that makes sense.

The bread was a little firm and toasty, crusty and chewy, soft on the inside...all in all, pretty good. The meat? Well there was a ton of meat. In fact, it was pretty much all meat on the inside. The ingredients did mention some parmesan cheese and a tomato-based sauce, but they were barely noticeable.

We were pining for big globs of mozzarella and waves of rich, velvety marinara sauce bursting with oregano and basil flavors, and they simply weren't there in any significant quantities. The product might as well have been all bread and meat. The spices were there along with some whispers of onion and garlic, but we just both wanted more.

We could definitely tell the meatballs were part pork, too. We know a lot of you are big fans of that stuff, so by all means, please try this product and report back here with your thoughts. We just don't think it's as good as the calzones we've had from mom and pop's Italian places or even your run-of-the-mill pizza joint.

$6.99 for the three serving calzone. Found in the refrigerated section. Can be heated in the microwave, conventional oven, or air fryer. Sonia will throw out six and a half stars for Trader Joe's Meatball Calzone. I'll go with six.

Bottom line: 6.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Mango Pineapple Pico de Gallo Salsa

Quickie for today: more or less what we have here is some traditional pico de gallo but with little mango and pineapple pieces tossed into the mix.

It's sweeter than regular pico, but it's not as sweet as you might expect. Despite some jalapeño pieces, it's not very spicy at all. It's a very light flavor.

This is a nice refreshing salsa with a tropical twist for chip dipping on a hot day, or it would go great with fish tacos, shrimp tacos, or even chicken tacos. At ten calories per serving, the nutritionals are perfect for summer snacking, too.

$3.99 in the refrigerated section. Would buy again. Sonia and I will go with eight and a quarter stars out of ten on Trader Joe's Mango Pineapple Pico de Gallo Salsa.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Raspberry, Vanilla & Blueberry Macarons

Not to be confused with macaroons, the macaron is a French sandwich cookie made with egg white, almond flour, sugar, and some creamy or fruity filling. We've seen a bunch of different macaron offerings from Trader Joe's steadily over the course of this blog's tenure. One highlight: the pumpkin macarons. Those are probably still our favorite (although we haven't had them in many years. Let's hope they didn't change suppliers or recipes or anything like that) but these would have to be a close second.

Preparation: you simply thaw the entire pack at room temperature for an hour or in the fridge for four hours. Pro tip: actually let them thaw the whole hour. As much as I love cold desserts and iced treats, the flavors of these macarons hit just a little nicer when they're fully unfrozen.

The blueberry flavor was our favorite by a pretty solid margin, the raspberry our second favorite, and vanilla—though not bad by any means—fell in third. The fruity flavors actually tasted like their namesake berries thanks to the inclusion of actual raspberry and blueberry puree. There's apple in there, too, since apple tends to just lend sweetness and rarely overshadows the tart intensity of something like blueberry or raspberry.

The vanilla cookies tasted nuttier and creamier than their fruit-based counterparts but perhaps not quite as sweet or indulgent somehow. Again, nothing to complain about, but if I had the opportunity to buy a dozen blueberry macarons all by themselves, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Texture-wise, like most good macarons, these were meringue-esque but also soft and slightly chewy. You could feel the almond meal, too, but they never came across as gritty or unpleasant in any way. Very pleasant mouthfeel.

$5.99 for 12 macarons. Product of France. We'd give the blueberry flavor nine out of ten stars. The raspberry and vanilla flavors would get eight and a halfs and eights, respectively. So, in the end, averaging all three scores, both Sonia and I would give Trader Jacques' <ahem> Trader Joe's Raspberry, Vanilla & Blueberry Macarons eight and a half out of ten stars. Would buy again.

Bottom line: 8.5 out of 10.