"SimpleMeals" news and stories

When I was growing up in Los Angeles, we lived down the street from one of the very first Trader Joe's (Eagle Rock). My family moved up to Portland when I was nine and one of the things that we all missed most was Trader Joe's. My parents, sister and I were all thrilled when the expanded north to Portland. These days I am lucky to live three blocks from the Center City Philly Trader Joe's and do more than half of my grocery shopping there.

I know that there are many folks out there who practically live at their local Trader Joe's and now there's a cookbook expressly for them. Written by Dana Gunn and Wona Miniati, Cooking with all Things Trader Joe's, offers more than 250 pages of recipes and photos in which all the dishes are made with ingredients from TJ's. Their theory is that we could all cook tasty and beautiful meals, if only we hand someone to help with the prep. Trader Joe's becomes your sous chef and these recipes makes it possible to create an array of dishes using just a few things straight off the shelves.

It's a fun book, with lots of big, colorful pictures and easy to understand recipes. It would make a great gift for a new cook or someone who doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook (most of the recipes come together really quickly). For those of you who are thinking about getting yourself a copy, the authors have a special deal to offer Slashfood readers. If you buy it from their website, you can get $5 off if you input the code SLASH5 when you're checking out (this offer is good through April 31st).

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According to Gawker, Organic Style magazine is about to shut its doors. I can't say I was a loyal fan, but I've certainly picked it up a few times, usually in the midst of one of my quarterly Attempts to Streamline All Aspects of Life. They had a great section called Simple Meals, full of tips that'll help you get something in your belly on those "God help me if I have to spend more than 20 minutes in the kitchen" sort of days. I assume it'll eventually disappear as the magazine progressively folds, but as of right now they still have the Simple Meals database online for browsing. I've tried this Roasted Red Pepper Sauce several times: you can throw the garlic in the oven and zone out to E! News Live (or, really, use the pre-diced garlic you already have in the fridge), and then one blender zap later you've got the perfect topping for George Foreman-ed chicken breasts. You can search the database by ingredient: a craving for potatoes turned up this awesome-looking kebab of grilled lamb chunks and Yukon Golds.

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