7 Trader Joe's Boxed Mixes To Make This Valentine's Day

With Valentine's Day approaching, it's time to start planning what you want to do with your loved one. There are plenty of activities to do that you may be considering — going out to dinner, taking a walk in the park, or going to a museum, just to name a few. But if you and your valentine prefer to spend the day at home, may we suggest the perfect activity: Grab a boxed mix from Trader Joe's and make something sweet together. Because it's a boxed mix, it doesn't require too much effort, so you can have a lot of fun with it — and maybe have a fun cocktail or two while you're baking, such as the Valentine's Day-esque Dozen Red Roses cocktail.

Trader Joe's offers a variety of boxed mixes to choose from. There are classic options, such as yellow cake or brownies. Or, there are more unique options like Ube mochi pancake and waffle mix, or everything but the kitchen sink cookies. You and your loved one can head over to TJ's and pick out your favorite — but read through this rundown of all of the options first to help you make your decision.

The bright pink box of this strawberries and creme pancake and waffle mix shouts Valentine's Day — it's bound to catch your eye as you're looking for the perfect mix for the day. It contains sweetened dried strawberries and white chocolate chips, resulting in sweet, creamy, fluffy pancakes or waffles. The batter is also a bit pink thanks to the vegetable juices, so whipping up this breakfast will feel really festive for V-Day. Top these pancakes or waffles with fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and maple syrup for the ultimate sweet meal to start off this year's Valentine's Day. Buy the Strawberries & Crème pancake and waffle mix for $1.99.

If you and your valentine are chocolate lovers, then the brownie truffle baking mix is the right choice. The mix contains Dutch cocoa, which gives the brownies a fudgy consistency. There are also chocolate chips in the mix, so the brownies will be ultra-chocolatey. Besides the mix, all you need is a couple of eggs and butter — the brownies will be ready in less than 30 minutes, during which you'll be able to smell just how tasty they're going to be. In fact, these are so good that we included this box on our list of Trader Joe's boxed mixes that are seriously worth it. Buy the brownie truffle baking mix for $3.99.

"Everything but the kitchen sink" essentially means there are a lot of different ingredients. In this case, these cookies include walnuts, semi-sweet chocolate chunks, pretzels, oats, caramel bits, coconut flakes, and sea salt. This perfect combination of tasty flavors is just as salty as it is sweet. When you and your loved one make these cookies, you can even add extra pieces of your favorite ingredients — perhaps you think they need extra pretzel pieces or could use white chocolate chips to go with the semi-sweet ones; the sky's the limit with this mix. Buy the Everything but the Kitchen Sink cookie mix for $2.99.

One way to get Valentine's Day off to a great start is to make this blueberry muffin mix in the morning, then enjoy them throughout the day. This mix already contains plenty of freeze-dried blueberries for the flavor, but you can always add a few extra fresh blueberries if desired. Then, all you need is butter, eggs, and milk — and voila, fresh blueberry muffins. To take them to the next level, pair them with homemade honey butter or two-ingredient maple butter. Buy the blueberry muffin mix for $4.49.

Blondies are essentially soft cookie bars that aren't quite as fudgy as brownies (nor are they as chocolatey). The blondies made with this baking mix have flavors of vanilla, butterscotch, and molasses, and contain chocolate chips. All you need is an egg and some melted butter, and you're good to go — these will take just 40 minutes in the oven. To take your blondies to the next level, add extra chocolate or butterscotch chips for the holiday celebration. The blondie bar baking mix costs $3.99.

Just about everyone loves a good batch of banana bread. And of course, it may be pretty simple to make banana bread from scratch, but it doesn't hurt to use a box every now and then to save a little time. In fact, a box mix is perfect when you don't have any ripe bananas on hand. TJ's banana bread mix uses dehydrated banana flakes to make sure that the banana flavor is prominent. Then there are flavors of vanilla and a bit of nuttiness from the wheat germ and bran. This mix is easy to upgrade if you like your banana bread with chopped nuts or chocolate chips, both of which make for perfect add-ons, so go with whatever you and your valentine are feeling that day. Buy the banana bread mix for $2.99.

Another blondie baking mix made this list — and this one is for cinnamon roll lovers. This mix is a perfect balance of the consistency of a blondie and the flavor of your favorite cinnamon roll, not only in the cinnamon filling but also in the icing glaze. On your end, all you need is butter, eggs, and water to bring these cinnamon roll blondies to life. Pair this dessert with a glass of wine — such as any of these wines that are perfect for Valentine's Day — and you have the ideal post-dinner plan. Buy the cinnamon roll blondie bar baking mix for $3.99.