My Favorite Store-Bought Sauces

The food bloggers who cook everyday and love making time-consuming sauces and stews amaze me.

I’m nothing like that.

Sure, I like making desserts and even occasionally a dinner or two, but a lot of the time I have no problem phoning in meals. Cereal and yogurt for dinner is more than fine with me. But occasionally I like to pick up pre-made products at the store to help me make something easy and delicious that’s also a little bit more impressive than cereal.

Here are a few of the trusty, reliable, go-to sauces I’m sure to have in my pantry.

Trader Joe’s Marinara Sauce

Trader Joe's Traditional Marinara Sauce

Trader Joe’s sells my favorite marinara sauce. I would happily serve this to guests and not say a thing. It’s delicious, cheap, and has all vegan and gluten-free ingredients. I usually have 3-4 in my pantry at any time because that’s how many I’ll go through in between shopping trips.

Trader Joe's Traditional Marinara Sauce Pasta

Of course it’s good with (corn) pasta and (soy) meatballs. I also like poaching eggs in the sauce and putting that over pasta or rice or quinoa. Just add some fresh herbs and you’ll forget it ever came from a jar.

Thai Kitchen Curry Paste

Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste

I really have no clue about Thai cooking and yet I love eating it; that’s where the Thai Kitchen curry paste comes in handy. All you need to do is mix it over a stove with coconut milk and it turns into a curry sauce—super simple. All the ingredients are vegan and gluten-free, too! I like it more than the bottled curry sauces because it lasts longer and the ingredients are simpler. Again, this is something I usually have in my pantry waiting to be used.

Thai Kitchen Green Curry Paste Bowl

I always have tofu and frozen vegetables on hand and usually have some leftover brown rice in my refrigerator. When you mix them all together it’s a perfect combination.

San-J Stir-Fry Sauces

San-J Teryaki Sauce

Like I mentioned, tofu, vegetables, and rice are big in my diet so I like anything that makes those tastier without lots of pressing and cooking. San-J stir-fry sauces are great because you just have to dice a block of tofu and sauté it in a pan in the sauce. It’s also hard to find sauces that use gluten-free soy sauce and I love the fact that they have a variety of flavors that are all gluten-free.

San-J Teryaki Sauce Tofu

Perfect.

Have any favorite sauces I should try? By the way, none of these were given to me or offered compensation. I just really like the sauces.

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5 Responses to My Favorite Store-Bought Sauces
  1. Kim
    September 10, 2012 | 9:13 am

    I love San-J Thai Spicy Peanut sauce!! So good in a stir fry!

  2. lynn @ the actor's diet
    September 10, 2012 | 12:02 pm

    i really loved this coconut curry sauce: http://theactorsdiet.com/2012/06/21/felitas-fun-house/

  3. Sam @ Better With Sprinkles
    September 10, 2012 | 10:49 pm

    Cannot go wrong with Thai Kitchen. 🙂

  4. Melissa @ Bless This Mess
    September 11, 2012 | 1:51 am

    I love that curry paste too! Such a quick start to num-num-NUM. I’ll have to search for the other two if you are recommending 🙂

  5. janine hummel
    September 13, 2012 | 11:19 pm

    shop rite has a garlic sesame sauce in the “ethnic aisle” which is phenomenal. their thai ginger sauce is the bomb, too. both GF, of course.