Saturday Night Sauté

You know, I'm not usually one for prepackaged meals or fancy bagged food kits. 

Ninety nine times out of one hundred, I'd rather buy simple, fresh ingredients and cook them up at home, seasoned mostly with onions and garlic, olive oil and pepper.

But then again, I have cooked up and served about a billion dinners in my lifetime, and I am always looking for something new and different to try. 

Enter this new product from Trader Joe's. 

While wandering around the internet last week, I came across a complimentary review of these veggie-based sauté kits, and asked my husband to grab one on his next Saturday morning trip to TJs. 

I do all the regular grocery shopping, but my husband loves his monthly trip to Trader Joe's. 

So that evening, along with a gorgeous fillet of lemon and dill baked salmon, I whipped up the Brussels Sprouts Sauté Kit.

What I found inside the main bag was a lot of loose Brussels sprout leaves and a few slices of the actual heads with the leaves still connected, if that makes sense. There were also smaller packets of hazel nuts for roasting, lemon vinagrette for dressing, and lovely Parmesan flakes for melting. The ingredients were fresh and generously portioned; the directions were simple and clear. 

The salmon baked for ten minutes, and the veggies were even faster. Honestly, the most time-consuming step for the entire meal was ripping off a properly sized piece of parchment paper to fit the baking dish for the fish. 

A bowl of fresh red raspberries rounded out the quick, easy, and visually appealing meal. 

The verdict was unanimous. My husband, my fourth-born daughter and I agree that the Trader Joe's Brussels Sprouts Sauté Kit was every delicious thing it was touted to be, and I have no snobbish regrets about using a kit.

In fact, I've authorized my husband to make an unscheduled visit to TJ's this Saturday to pick up the green bean version.