Aldi Nutty Bars and Other Snacks

So I'll confess I don't know the brand name. I think they might be Baker's Choice? All I know for sure is that the Aldi near me always has them.

You can buy a pack of nutty bars, though they call them something like peanut butter wafers (I swear I meant to post this before my husband threw away the box) for 99 cents and they taste just like what you get from Little Debbie.

In general, we go to Aldi on a monthly basis to fill our snack drawer. 20-30$ usually fills it to the top and we have more than a month's worth of snacks for the entire family.

My kids especially love their fruit snacks. You have to be careful though because they have two brands. One brand comes in the shape of dinosaurs and sharks and they are basically compressed pure sugar. The other brand promises they are made of real fruit, are shaped like real fruit and they are pretty much awesome.

Aldi also has a great selection of Granola Bars and other wonderful treats for the family.

As long as you stay away from the dino and shark shaped fruit snacks, you can't go wrong with Aldi's snack selection.

Kroger "Value" Brand Mayonnaise

First, please don't confuse this product with Kroger brand "Classic Mayo". They are two completely different products.

The first thing to note: While the main ingredient for mayo should be egg whites, it's not even listed as an ingredient in Kroger's "value" mayonnaise. The egg part that is listed is egg yolks. Yeah, that makes a big difference. The taste and consistency is off. Pretty much all of it is way off.

My dad bought the "value" stuff hoping to save some additional money and the rest of us pretty much refuse to touch it, save for what I tried on a sandwich for the sake of this post. You're welcome. My dad is using up what's left (waste not, want not) and then is going back to the "classic".

Want to save money on your mayo? Go with Kroger's "Classic Mayo" and stay away from the "value" stuff.

Kroger Brand Cheese

Ok let's be honest here. They've been making cheese for at least a few years now. So theory is they have it down to an art and it should be pretty hard to mess of cheese. Well maybe the first few times an individual makes it. But still. A big business? You'd have to be trying to not make it right, in order to mess it up.

With that in mind, save a few bucks and buy the store brand. I don't even care what store you're at. Cheese is cheese. Save some cash.

Now, on the other hand I do openly acknowledge that some cheese is better than others, even if the others aren't bad. And if better than good cheese is your thing and you have the money to splurge, go for it.

Otherwise, Kroger brand cheese is pretty good. I, for example, love their muenster cheese.

Kroger Brand Pasta Sauce

Ok let's be clear on one fact: I'm picky about pasta sauce. I don't know what it is about the different sauces that make me picky, but I am. For example, I LOVE Prego but HATE Ragu.

So when my husband bought the first couple of jars of Kroger's sauce, I was ready to pitch a fit and refuse. But for the sake of being a broke adult I decided to give it a try.

I also wanted to hate it. I wanted to hate it so I could refuse to eat it so we could go back to the Prego. Because I'm mature like that. I also have a few slight issues with change. Pasta is one of my comfort foods and changes to my comfort foods are hitting below the belt. So yes, I wanted to hate Kroger's Pasta Sauce.

Only I didn't.

I in fact fell in love with it.

We stick to the mushroom sauce for basic pasta. We also use the six cheese blend for chicken Parmesan. I'm sure the other blends are just as good.

So go give it a try!

Grandessa Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunks with Peanuts cookies (Another Aldi brand)

Photo: Copyright ©2010 Joseph L. Harris Photography

I love Aldi's Grandessa Chocolate Chunk and Toffee cookies. They're the best store-bought cookies that I've had. But I didn't buy them this time, so I'll talk about them later.

On my last trip to Aldi, I bought a 1 pound package of Grandessa Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunks with Peanuts cookies. 10 cookies in the package (instead of the 8 in the chocolate and toffee cookies). In any case, 1 pound of cookies was $2.99, which makes about 19 cents an ounce for these cookies.

I had expected a crispy chocolate chunk cookie with peanuts and peanut butter bits in it, but they're actually more like the soft peanut butter cookies you get with that distinctive hash-mark on the top, plus the chocolate chunks, peanuts and peanut butter bits.

They could stand to be a bit more chocolaty, but there's plenty of peanut flavor, and they're a Hell of a lot better than Chips Ahoy or most other name brands. Still, I like my cookies more the buttery, crispy type. But that's a matter of personal taste. I recommend you give these a try yourself.

Aldi Chorizo

I'm not a chorizo connoisseur. I've had it exactly once before this time, and that was sausage manufactured by the Johnsonville company, who are known for the brats and Italian sausages rather than their chorizo. So I cannot really compare this product to other chorizo, particularly authentic chorizo, I can only judge how I enjoyed it.

I saw this in the cooler at Aldi when I stopped to pick up some milk and cereal. We were having tacos for dinner, so I thought I would mix some chorizo in with the beef. The label on the package said "Hot", so I expected it would help spice my tacos up a little. It came in two plastic tubes, a little over a foot long each. It's so red, I thought it was smoked or something, like a kielbasa (which I knew is not how chorizo is supposed to come, but I bought it anyway).

When I opened it, I discovered the plastic tubes, and the rich, fine grained, red paste which they contain. I was cooking a pound of ground beef for my tacos, so I squeezed out half of one tube (about 4 ounces) in the frying pan with the beef and some chopped onion and mashed it all together. When I started cooking it, it filled my pan with a wonderful, spicy, red grease and the vapor coming off of it was intense. I knew that I had made a good choice.

The tacos (which were seasoned with an envelope of taco seasoning from Aldi also) were possibly the best I've made. The Aldi taco shells, by the way, are decent, but every time I've bought them there have been at least 2 broken shells out of the 12.

This morning, I had the other half of that first tube still in the fridge, and I've heard that chorizo is awesome with eggs. I put about 2 ounces in the pan, some chopped onions, fried it, then added a couple of eggs on top and some cheese on top of that. No salt or pepper. It was delicious.

I'm going to have to think of other ways to use this stuff. I love it. It's awesome.

Introduction, and some quick reviews of a variety of products from Aldi

I'm Joe. I'm a freelance photographer and when I'm not making images, I'm taking care of my two kids, Maria (turns 5 next month) and Joseph (3). Being a self-employed parent, particularly during this recession, it's extra important that I'm frugal with the shopping. So I do 90% of my grocery shopping at Aldi. In fact, this blog was born from my idea to review Aldi's store brand products, because the quality can be hit-or-miss.

If you're not familiar, Aldi is a German owned grocery market that is known for their low prices. I think they're unfairly labeled as a "ghetto" market. Some of the ways they keep prices down are by requiring a quarter deposit to get a shopping cart, assuring that you will return it yourself and they don't have to pay someone to retrieve it, like the baggage carts at some airports. And if you want plastic or paper grocery bags, you have to pay for them. They sell mostly products that are various store brands of their own (you can tell because they have a "Double Money Back Guarantee" on the back) but also sell some major brands, though the don't tend to stock the same ones all the time.

I will try to do some more thorough reviews later, with photos of course, but for now I can just offer you a list of a few of their products and what our family thought of them. The "brand" names I don't remember necessarily. If I list one, it might be wrong.

Mama Cosi's Rising Crust Pizzas - We got the Philly Cheesesteak and Chicken Spinach pizzas. The toppings were great, but the bottoms of the crust were incredibly hard and unpleasant. We cooked them just as we do DiGiorno and Freschetta, directly on the over rack. Perhaps a different cooking method would product better results.

Clancy's Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Kettle Chips - I am addicted to Mike Sell's salt and pepper chips. Clancy's (Aldi's store brand for chips) makes a salt and pepper kettle chip. I'm not crazy about the kettle chips, they're too crispy. Mike Sell's are regular thin chips, and they're light and crispy. I much prefer the Mike Sells chips to Clancy's. But I bought a second bag the last time I was there, so they must be alright. I do need to compare the per ounce cost of the two though. A 9 ounce bag of Clancy's is $1.99.

Clancy's Tortilla Chips (small and large round) - Not much to say. They're tortilla chips. They're ok.

Chocolate Chunk and Toffee cookies - These are the bomb. The downside is that there are only eight in the package. I've loved toffee cookies since the Heath Bar cookies at Insomnia, 10 or 15 years ago. Pat knows what I'm talkin' about.

Frozen Gumbo and Jambalaya in-a-bag - These were a little disappointing. They lacked flavor. Though, with a lot of extra salt and pepper, the jambalaya was edible. The gumbo was ok, but I don't think I'm going to buy it again.

Chinese Food - All the frozen Chinese food is great, especially the egg rolls and pot stickers (I love the pot stickers). The bottled sauces are also awesome, particularly the Plum sauce. The frozen Orange Chicken is delicious, but there's only about enough for one fat guy (like me) or two regular people (for $3.99). I've tried several of the frozen in-a-bag entrees, generally suplementing the included noodles or rice with some of my own. I've not been disappointed by any of the Chinese-style food from Aldi.

Cheddar bratwurst - I know brats, and these are not brats. Which is surprising from a German owned company. They're more like seasoned hot-dogs with cheese in them. which sounds unappetizing to me, but with some good mustard they're really good. They come cooked and in a sealed hot-dog-like package, so I usually keep some in the fridge for myself.

Schwabian style Spätzle - If you don't know spätzle, it's a German egg noodle. They come dry, in a bag, like any other noodles. They're longer than I'm used to, but the flavor and texture are very good. We made Kassespätzle the other day (spätzle w/ Swiss cheese and onion) and it was awesome.

Iced-coffee drinks - They're Frappuccino knock-offs. They're pretty good. No caramel flavor though. :(

German Roast coffee - I've long been a fan of coffee, though only in the last year or so have I become more particular about it. I ran out of my usual brand, Crimson Cup, and was at Aldi, so I bought a bag of this stuff. It was watery and not very flavorful. I was disappointed. Will not buy this again.

That's enough for now. I intend to write more about all these products in the future.

Big K Lemon Lime

My dad lives off this stuff. It's the same recipe as Sprite at like half the cost. It is definatly a must buy for the penny pincher that loves soda.

Kroger Brand Macaroni and Cheese

Not that mac and cheese is expensive, but the Kroger brand boxed macaroni and cheese is even cheaper. That being said, it's packed with yummy real cheese and noodle goodness. My family, in fact, likes it even better than the national named brand. We like to use it to make tuna noodle casserole at least twice a month. A easy, inexpensive hot family dinner that even the 2yo will eat. You can't go wrong there!

Kroger's Deli Thin Sliced Lunch Meat

So Kroger's Lunch meats, the ones in the little plastic containers, pretty much rock. They look delicious, smell heavenly, and taste oh so good. We've tried most of them, here at my house, and they are all a hit. My personal favorite is the honey turkey. It is so moist it literally melts in my mouth. And the little plastic containers it comes in? Totally makes the best cheap Tupperware! They are less expensive than the name brand equivalent and taste just as good. This is one store brand hit you'll love.

Now I'm hungry again...

Walgreens Brand Root Beer

Little known fact, the root used to flavor root beer is liquorish root. In proper root beer, you can't really tell. It just mildly enhances the flavor. Not only does Walgreen's root beer taste like black liquorish, but it smells like it too. You can smell it from like 2 feet away. Now if you like black liquorish this might not be a bad thing. If you don't, well, spend the extra 50 cents and go with a named brand.

Kroger Brand Bulk Bagged Cereal

Looking for bulk cereal but don't have a ton of money to spend? Check out your local Krogers! (If you don't have a Krogers I imagine your local chain grocery store has it's own brand as well.) There are 4 types my family, especially my 2 year old, live on: crisp berry crunch (captain crunch), apple dapples (apple jacks), fruit rings (fruit loops), and honey nut toasted oats (honey nut cheerios). First and foremost, we can't taste the difference and almost as importantly, the bags are huge! The four bags of cereal will last us months! Defiantly a store brand worth checking out.

Dominos New Pizza

I have never been a big fan of Dominos. I hate the crust and sauce, and that's half the pizza. So when they recently changed their entire recipe, my family got curious. When we got a coupon for 2 large pizzas for the price of one, good only on Tuesdays, we went ahead and gave them a try. I have to say, all in all it wasn't bad. I got the deep dish with black olives and (huge chunks of) mushrooms. My husband got the hand tossed with pepperoni and banana peppers. His crust was better than mine, but mine wasn't too bad. Was the pizza, whichever crust, OMG amazing? No. Would I get it again? With another coupon perhaps. It did seem a little expensive. We spent 18$ on just the two pizzas (remember one was free) and delivery. So I'd hate to pay full price for both pizzas. However, with our coupon we did get what we paid for. So go ahead, get yourself a coupon and give them a try.