Trader Joe's Spicy Honey Sauce

So there's this viral protein bowl thing Sonia told me about the other day. Apparently, it's all the rage on TikTok and all the TikTok ripoffs like YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels and the young fitness gurus love it for its high nutritional value and low carbs and flavor. It involves lean ground beef, avocado, sweet potato, cottage cheese, and hot honey.

When she first listed the ingredients, I was kinda like: "You just named five things that don't go together in any way whatsoever." And she was just like: "They all say it's good and I wanna try it." You know me, I'll try just about anything once. So she made it and we tried it and it's just amazingly good.

She heated the beef on the stove top and spiced it up with some taco seasoning. The sweet potatoes received some garlic powder, paprika, sea salt and olive oil before roasting at 400° for about a half hour. Then you stick it all in a bowl with roughly equal quadrants of the above-mentioned beef and sweet potato, cottage cheese, and avocado. You'll have a beautiful white, brown, green, and orange mosaic of flavors. And then it all gets topped with Mike's Hot Honey, Bees Knees, or Trader Joe's Spicy Honey Sauce...or Trader Joe's Organic Spicy Honey Sauce.

Of course you can make a vegetarian version by omitting the beef...or a vegan version by omitting the beef and cottage cheese. Or you could sub tofu for the animal products. Whatever floats your boat.

It's creamy, salty, savory, sweet, and a little spicy. If anything, I wish it were a tad spicier. And by that, I mean I wish this spicy honey were spicier. It's got a little kick, for sure, but I could go a notch or two higher on the spice-o-meter.

The organic spicy honey is three bucks. This product is five bucks. Yes, you read that right. The organic product is cheaper than the non-organic product. Go figure. I guess it's because there's more sauce in this 12 oz bottle as opposed to only 8 in the other one. This product is definitely currently available—generally speaking, of course. Not sure about the organic version.

Sonia and I would buy again. Kosher. It was on an end cap at our TJ's last time we went, but it'll probably wind up with the other condiments. Do not refrigerate, even after opening. It is real honey, after all. Sonia gives Trader Joe's Spicy Honey Sauce eight and a half stars. I'll throw out eight out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.25 out of 10.

Trader Joe's Maple Brown Butter Almonds

These almonds remind me a lot of Trader Joe's Cinnamon Sugar Almonds in terms of texture, the quality of the nuts, and the thickness of the candy coating. If anything, the overall flavor is just a tad richer here, boasting sweet maple and rich brown butter. It's quite satisfying.

I'd heard nothing but good things online about this snack, and no wonder. They're really much more tasty than you might assume by just glancing at the packaging. The buttery maple candy flavor brings just the right amount of pizzazz to the snack, turning ordinary whole almonds into something that could quell even the strongest of sweet tooths.

The sea salt on these nuts combines with the rich butteriness in a way that reminds me of Trader Joe's Salted Maple Ice Cream. Yes, the flavor is that indulgent. It's not a far cry from what you'd get if you took Trader Joe's Butter with Brown Sugar and Maple Syrup and sautéed almonds in it.

They're delicious on their own, but they'd work great for baking applications also. As is, I think they're a little too big to serve as an ice cream or yogurt topping, but you could always chop them up in a food processor and toss them in with your favorite creamy dessert.

$3.99 for the 8 oz resealable bag. Kosher. Would buy again. I give Trader Joe's Maple Brown Butter Almonds eight and a half out of ten stars. Sonia gives them nine out of ten.

Bottom line: 8.75 out of 10.