The 3-Ingredient Trader Joe’s Meal I Make When I’m Too Tired To Cook

Welcome to Fearless Meals, a column where we help you get through your busy week with speedy, easy, low-stress dinner recipes that call for 5 ingredients or less from our favorite grocery store, Trader Joe’s.

Trader Joe’s routinely saves me on weeknights when I just can’t. I can’t make my brain work and I can’t bring myself to whip up a meal from scratch. And while they have lots of ready-to-eat options in the refrigerated and freezer sections, these complete meals tend to be single-serving. If you’re feeding more than one person, you’ll want to throw a few items together to call it a meal.

TJ’s recently started selling a stir fry mix of vegetables that includes Napa cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, and snow peas. I’ve been picking it up fairly regularly because it’s nicely priced at $3.49, shaves off lots of prep time, and saves me from buying each veggie individually for one dish. 

Recently I combined the stir fry mix with two other favorite items—their baked tofu and squiggly noodles—and it was the quick, delicious meal of my dreams. It makes enough for two very hungry people or three that are moderately hungry (I often end up saving one serving for lunch the next day). 

This meal is well-balanced with a protein, lots of vegetables, and a carb, and a steal at about $3.33 per serving. Did I mention it takes less than 15 minutes to make? A true weeknight win.

How to Make My 3-Ingredient Trader Joe’s Meal

For roughly three servings, you’ll need:

Bring a medium to large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, cut the tofu into squares, reserving the sauce. Heat the oil over medium heat in a wok or large sauté pan.

Once the water comes to a boil, add the two packets of noodles (reserving the sauces) and set a timer for four minutes. Add the stir fry blend to the heated wok or pan and stir. Stir fry as the noodles boil, stirring the noodles once they have softened. Add the tofu to the vegetables halfway through the four minutes along with the sauce from the package and continue stir frying.

Once the timer goes off, either drain the noodles and dump them in the pan with the veggies or use tongs to transfer them from the pot to the pan. Add the contents of both noodle sauce packets and toss several times over the heat. Taste, adding salt as needed, and serve.

Make It Your Own

My husband and I like to top our bowls with chili crisp and dig in, but you can offer other condiments, like more sriracha or sweet chili sauce. You can swap the sriracha tofu for TJ’s teriyaki tofu with equally delicious results. 

If you’re not a tofu fan in general, you have a couple of very tasty options. First, there’s Trader Joe’s Argentinian Red Shrimp with Ginger Garlic Butter in the refrigerated seafood section. Add the shrimp at the same time you would the tofu and stir fry until opaque. Or swap the tofu for Trader Joe’s frozen BBQ Teriyaki Chicken for a bit of extra saucy goodness. Heat according to the package directions and stir the chicken and sauce into the stir-fried vegetables.