I don't know about you but I love grocery shopping. I don't mean when you are rushed through the store and still have to cook dinner that night and I don't mean when you are couponing and watching every purchase. I mean when you can go to the store uninterupted and buy whatever looks good at the time and plan what you want to try that week. For me wandering the aisles of the grocery store and finding something new to try or even just stocking up on my favorites is fun and exciting. Aldi is my favorite grocery store. I wish I could say it was for the variety of items but this is not the case. My love of Aldi finds it's heart in how inexpensive it is to shop there and the Aldi finds.
Let me give you some history first. When I was a child my parents didn't always have a lot of extra money. I never felt like we were without and I don't mean it in that way but I also knew there was a reason I had never been to Disney World if you get my drift. One of the highlights was our trips to Aldi. My father would have us all load up in the car and put a big cooler in the back for anything cold. Then we would drive from our home in a Baltimore, MD suburb up into Pennsylvania for a trip to Aldi. Back then my dad would let my brother and I fill our own cart with what we really wanted to have at home. Of course, then he would go through it and say things like "You can't only buy cereal and chips" or pull out items he had already grabbed in his own cart. The fact that we were in elementary and middle school but were able to actually have a say in the groceries stuck with me though. This was the only store I remember my parents ever giving us that much free reign. It was inexpensive enough to do so and it made us all happy.
Back then Aldi was not wide spread throughout the US and they did not have an Aldi Finds aisle (more on that in a bit). Watching the cashier ring everything up was incredible because they had every price in the entire store memorized. This wasn't a place where bar codes were scanned but a place where they typed in the amounts manually. AND THEY WERE QUICK! I had never seen a cashier that fast in my life. I am still amazed so many years later. Driving over an hour (and it might have been closer to 2 but as a kid that was all the same to me) for grocery shopping was something no one else did. I had zero friends who had ever heard of that kind of family field trip. That love of doing something different and having my own say in what was purchased has been with me forever and will always be something I am thankful for even as an adult.
If you have never been to Aldi I want to give you a quick lesson on how it works. Even now that they are popping up everywhere this is not your typical grocery store.
First, you need a quarter for a cart. It is just a loan and when you return your cart you get your quarter back. This keeps the carts from being all over the parking lot or needing attendents to go collect carts from corrals. Everything about Aldi is about keeping prices down and keeping the number of employees low.
Second, once you have a cart be prepared to buy the store brand. Aldi does not carry name brand items other than a few exceptions. There are some misses but very often I have found I prefer the Aldi brands to the big brands. An example is their version of chicken flavor Rice-A-Roni. I'm telling you the store brand here is a lot more flavorful and 1/3 the price.
Third, your produce is not going to be perfectly stacked and removed from the packing crates. Aldi employees put the entire box of lettuce or the entire crate of carrots out to shop from directly. This saves time for the employees which saves you money.
Fourth, you will need to bring or buy bags and bag your own groceries. I have heard numerous complaints from people who hate that part but this is such a minor inconvenience. Again, it is all about saving cost that the store passes on to you.
Now that you had your crash course in shopping at Aldi let me tell you about the Aldi Finds! They have regular items carried every day that usually carry a yellow price sticker as you go through the store. However, if you see white or red then those items are limited time. Some things are for a month or more but most are only for a week or until they are sold out. If you see something you like with those stickers get them quick. Some of the best things are in that aisle or marked that way though. I once did all my holiday shopping over 3 weeks of Aldi finds and it was a ton cheaper than going out and scouring the regular stores. Looking on the website www.aldi.com for the upcoming sales paper is usually a good indicator if this is a good week for whatever you might need. I have gotten everything from a front door wreath to toys and games to kitchen tools to amazing food finds. If I love the food find enough I will either find a way to recreate it or I will find a name brand that makes it. Also, Aldi loves feedback. If you ever find something you love there send them an email. They always answer and if enough people love something it tends to come back again the following year.
One of my favorite food finds early this year was the Mexicali Dip. Of course, this was an Aldi find and was only out for a limited time. I managed to purchase 1 container, eat all of it and get a second one before it went away. I was sad and I found it in the store but the amount of fat and calories didn't fit in with what I am trying to do now. However, I did learn that as much as I love it with tortilla chips, corn chips, pretzels and potato chips.... I really loved it with vegetables too. Now I needed to find a way to make it fit into my calorie budget a lot easier.
I read the labels on the containers I had squired away and started looking online for recipes that had been put together for other Mexicali Dips. Truthfully, I made multiple versions and didn't hit any that I hated. If anything, I loved all of them... but still none that I found hit the goals I was aiming for yet. So I took everything I had been using and put together my own version. Unlike the version in the stores I was able to cut the calories down by half. 45 calories for 2 tablespoons of dip is pretty good. When that dip is easily added to taco salad, chili or even homemade french fries we have a winner. This is now a staple in my home for everyday snacking. See the photo below of my taco salad and you'll see I use it instead of dressing with extra salsa too.
Ingredients:
1 - 8 oz block Neufchâtel Cheese
1/2 cup Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Salsa
1 tablespoon Taco Seasoning
1 deseeded finely chopped Jalapeno
1 finely chopped Green Onion, scallion
I simply blend everthing together with my electric beaters until it is combined and refrigerate until we are ready to eat it. You won't regret trying this one. And as a bonus you can get all of the ingredients from Aldi as well.
Nutritional Information based on imputing ingredients to a recipe builder on www.myfitnesspal.com and is for a 2 tbsp serving size.
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