Look. Freezer Meal Frenzy is a frozen food review site. It maybe seems weird, then, that we’re sitting here today and reviewing a salad today. Yes, we agree with you — this does seem kind of weird.
But we’ve been reviewing Trader Joe’s products for so long, and we have so much love for their line, that we wanted to do something outside the box a little bit. Plus, we’ve reviewed over 300 Trader Joe’s frozen products; we think it’s okay if we step out of the freezer aisle once in a while at this point, if for no other reason than to offer our readers a more complete view of the Trader Joe’s line.
So as weird as it might seem, today we’re checking out the Trader Joe’s Waldorf Salad with Grilled White Chicken Meat. Once again, this is found in the refrigerated section of the store rather than the freezer aisle.
This does take a little bit of prep work, since everything is sort of separated out into its own space in the package in the package. Well, the term prep work is a bit of an exaggeration. Really, all you have to do is toss everything a bit and cut open the included pouch of dressing so you can drizzle it over the top.
So let’s talk about what’s here. First up, you’ve got your greens (or reds and greens, more accurately), which is a blend of romaine lettuce, spinach, and a “spring mix,” which includes oak leaves, tatsoi, red romaine, green lettuce, and more. It’s a whole bunch of stuff, and it tastes fresh and lovely.
Then you’ve got some fruit mixed in. There are apples, which are lovely and crisp, and purple grapes, which are nice and firm. The fruit adds a bit of natural sweetness, and even a little bit of crunch. The real crunch, though, comes from the walnuts, which come in big chunks here rather than all chopped up.
There are also some bits of white-meat chicken, which add a much-needed savory twist to the blend, as well as upping the protein level. The chicken here is cold, obviously, but it still tastes pretty good — especially considering how many sweeter ingredients are in this salad.
And to really drive home the sweet end of the spectrum, you’ve got an incredible dressing. This is a brown sugar maple dressing, which gives the entire salad a really strong sweetness. It would be almost overwhelmingly sweet if there was too much dressing, but Trader Joe’s has provided the perfect amount to get a wonderful flavor without going overboard. The dressing also gives it a fall flavor, which is a nice contrast to the spring flavor of the greens and the summer flavor of the fruit. You’ve got a three-season blend here, and it’s great.
If you glance quickly at the nutritional content on the bottom of the package, you might see the numbers 70 and 130 in the calories section. 70 is the number of calories in just the salad, and 130 is the number of calories in the salad when you add dressing.
Hold on, though. This only refers to one serving, and there are supposedly three and a half servings in a package. When you do a little math, you end up with a box of salad that contains 245 calories without dressing and 455 calories with dressing. If you go into this thinking it’s a super low-calorie meal, well, we’ve got some bad news for you: This isn’t as diet-friendly as it might appear at a glance. Then again, with the chicken and fruit content, this is actually pretty filling, and the portion size is quite generous. You could probably stretch this across two meals if you wanted to.
The Trader Joe’s Waldorf Salad with Grilled White Chicken Meat is great. If you’re looking to take a break from the freezer aisle and give some healthier foods a try, this is something we strongly recommend. Of course, that calorie count can be a little deceiving, so if you’re on a strict diet, keep your portion sizes in check. It seems weird to say that about a salad, but you should definitely keep that in mind if you’re looking into picking this up.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients for this Trader Joe’s salad, check out our package scan below.
