My Last Post

Okay, so I am not a good blogger. I entered into this wanting to do better, but alas I have succumbed to my own weakness. I am lousy at maintaining any sites with all the other things I have going on in my life. My second job starting in May, killed whatever spare time I had to even go grocery shopping let alone write on this blog. So I am somewhat relieved to say that this is my last blog. I have been at times riddled with guilt that I have not done a better job. But I am hopeful that what I have done has encouraged some of you to explore this store and see if there are ways that you can help your family enjoy the products you need and experience some financial savings. One thing that I did find when I limited my shopping to only Aldi's is that I cut my time that I spent shopping down significantly. This was a huge help to me and I will continue to shop primarily at Aldi's So this is it. I hope those that followed enjoyed.

Long time no blog

It has been a long time since I last blogged. I have started a second job and that along with trying to graduate a senior this year has eaten up all my time. I thought I would catch you up. We are still going strong with Aldi. We have tried a few new things and have found them to be very good. We tried the garlic and cheese and garlic bread for a dinner one night and found it to be very tasty. We also tried their bowl of barbecue pork. Although it tasted good it has an interesting consistency that was not very appealing and I think had too much sauce in the pork. The kids would only eat it with their eyes closed! Kurt and I also went out one night for a meeting and left the kids with a "Hamburger Helper" box Aldi style. They used the Aldi brand of dinner for cheeseburger macaroni. Susan made it and said it was good but needed some more pasta so she added it. The frozen vegetables continue to be good and we are enjoying the milk products. There is no cheese I have had so far that is bad. Kurt is amazed at the cost of their flat round tortilla chips. Only $0.99! It is a great savings. they started carrying their brand of "Captain Crunch" so Kurt is trilled about that as well. Nothing like a sugary breakfast.

We are getting ready for open house here so will have some more reports. We are having ice cream sundae's and cookies for the menu so need to get lots of butter. The butter at Aldi is by far the cheapest I have found in town including Sam's. Enough for now will try to get a blog in tomorrow.

Disappointing Fruit and Aldi

Over the months as I have bought food from Aldi there is one thing that is usually disappointing. It is the Aldi fruit. I have yet to find reliable fruit that looks good tastes good and lasts. The only exception would be during strawberry season. Then they had good local berries that were very tasty and were not over-ripe. I have not bought apples, grapes or bananas there because many of them are spoiled. The vegetables on the other had have been very good on a regular basis. I can always find beautiful peppers, yellow, red and green, as well as mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes and broccoli. All these have been good and never disappoint.

Best Maccaroni every

On Saturday I had the privilege of participating in a birthday party. I wanted to bring something so I made my most popular Macaroni and cheese. Everything was from Aldi. I was wonderful. I had the chance to make a big batch and I put it in my crock pot and baked it for four hours. Here is the recipe:

1 8 oz box of elbow macaroni cooked according to direction
8 oz sour cream
8 oz mayonnaise
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 Tbs dried onion flakes or 1/4 cup chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
crushed saltine crackers

Cook macaroni, rinse and drain. Mix together rest of ingredients except crushed crackers. Mix in macaroni and put in a large buttered baking dish. Top with crushed crackers and bake 350 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes. SOOOO GOOD!

Shopping Again

I have gone shopping again for the next two weeks of dinner. I will write about the menu tomorrow or Monday. I have managed to keep our groceries down to about $400 this past month. This includes paper products and cleaning items. I will give a more detailed shopping cost next month. Earlier I wrote about laundry soaps at Aldi. I have some prices so you can compare. They have their Laundry soap that is called Tandil 2X Ultra that is comparable to Tide 2X Ultra in both regular and bleach alternative. It costs $6.99 for a 100 oz bottle. Their fabric softener is comparable to Ultra Downy it comes in 2 scent, Mountain Fresh and Spring Time Fresh. It is $2.99 for 51 oz of product. I also can see significant savings with the cereals they sell. They have kids cereals, raisin bran, mini wheat's, oatmeal, granola, and cereal like special K. They all cost around $2.00 with most of them at $1.89. They are also constantly changing their inventory and providing special items at different times of the year. During Christmas there are many more varieties of baking goods available. At Thanksgiving there are of course all the goods associated with that time of year.

Grandessa Signature

One thing that sets Aldi apart from other grocery stores is the fact that it carries its own brands of food. There are limited choices, but within the store there are a selection of different levels of food "quality". Their "premium product line" is called Grandessa Signature. I have never had anything in this product line that was not exceptional. I have used the tomato sauce for anything pasta related. It is wonderful. The fresh salsa is fantastic. I especially like the Artichoke and the sweet onion salsa. Then I found a new item this last time. It is a cream dip. They have spinach and artichoke as well as a delicious Mediterranean olive. Try out this product line next time you go.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

My birthday was a few weeks ago. My daughter, Debbie, gave me a wonderful gift, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking " by Julia Child. I have spent the last ten days looking through the book and last night I had my first opportunity to cook from the book. I made "Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons" or Chicken Breasts with Mushrooms and Cream. The occasion? A visit from our cousins from Michigan. We had a wonderful night and had a nice chicken flavored rice and broccoli to accompany it. To finish it all off we had a delicious Carmel Silk Supreme Pie from Aldi. Everything, with the exception of the chicken and some cream, came from Aldi and it was fantastic!

What about Household products

As I have shopped at Aldi i have looked at the non-food items that are sold there. This year I have decided to try the Tandil Laundry detergent. It is their version of Tide and it looks and smells just like it. It is great. I have also purchased both the softener that is the version of Downy and the dryer sheets that smell like bounce. All of these products are excellent. Plastic storage bags are good as well. I have not tried any of the paper products yet, but will. Tonight we came home to no electricity. Just a temporary situation, but there was no dinner to be made so we went out to dinner to Chili's. I got a certificate from a friend for my birthday. It was fun to go out together. Shopping tomorrow for a pizza party

Something Simple

Tonight there were only three of us. Mandi joined Susan and I for dinner. Everyone else was away for the night. So we had something simple. Grilled Balsamic Chicken Breasts, Rice and a nice green salad. Did not take much time, but it was really good. Yesterday I had to stop at Aldi to get the cheese. Tomorrow I need to make sure I get some milk. This weekend I will see what I need to purchase to last through next week. Stay tuned.

What's for dinner

Where I work three days a week, the people in my office always tease me because at least once every day one of my children will ask "What's for dinner". I am so glad that many years ago a friend shared with me the ideal of making a two week menu for dinners. It takes the stress of that question away. I know exactly what's for dinner on any given day. Tonight we had a quick and yummy favorite. Sausage and vegetable pasta. It all starts with Polish sausage sliced thin in a large skillet. Add to that any kind of vegetable you like and fry in the skillet with the sausage until the vegetables are cooked tender. Boil pasta until done and serve the fried sausage vegetable mixture over pasta with Parmesan cheese. We also like to add in green olives at the last few minutes of cooking.

Tonight everything I used came from Aldi except the pasta. If there is one thing I would like more of it is different types of pasta at Aldi. They have spaghetti, pene pasta, elbow macaroni, egg noodles and lasagna noodles. I would like a good bow-tie pasta. Sometimes they do have bow-tie, but I wish they would carry it on a regular basis.

Oh No I forgot the Sour Cream!

Well, tonight I did not eat at home. I had a meeting at the school until 8 p.m. My family had to carry on without me. I don't know if they enjoyed their dinner or not. I am only assuming that since there was nothing left when I got home the spaghetti was a big success. When I left this morning I made sure that all the ingredients for tonight's dinner was available, but what if they wanted that loaf of Italian bread? I had Kaitlyn comment on my last entry about this very topic. She knows me well. I was never so glad to have a child get a drivers licence. I was always running to the store for last minute ingredients. What about now. Aldi is over 20 minutes away. Not convenient for sure. Well, I am just going to try to do better and make sure I have everything I need to complete the recipe. If I don't I will probably just have to do without. If it is something I absolutely have to have I guess I will have to send a minion out to fetch it. Such is life, but I hope it is few and far between.

The Beginning

Today was the first day of all Aldi. Yesterday I went to Aldi and bought several things I would need for the upcoming week. I did not make a menu before I went shopping, but I purchased many of the main ingredients I would need for the week. One thing we are making for an easy breakfast is sausage and egg burritos. We usually make over 50 of them and freeze them. To eat we take them out of the freezer and microwave them and enjoy. All the ingredients can be purchased at Aldi. I prefer the small sized flour tortilla so I cannot purchase them there. Our menu for dinner is as follows:

Monday: Mongolian Beef, rice and pot stickers
Tuesday: Spaghetti
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Pasta, Sausage and Parmesan cheese
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Chili
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Chicken with Mushrooms and onions, rice and vegetable
Tuesday: Fish, Vegetable and salad
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Steak, Potatoes, salad
Friday: Pizza

During this time on Wednesday nights we have to eat on the run since Susan has basketball games and Philip has youth group. We have to leave home at 5:00 to get to all the places we need to go. This week Kurt and Philip are out of town Thursday through Sunday so it is hard to get motivated to cook. But cook we will. I have decided we will make all our meals with Aldi ingredients unless Aldi does not have what we need to make the food. Then I will probably get the extra ingredients at Publix.

The meal was good tonight, and everything except the pot stickers was from Aldi.

Tomorrow I have a meeting until 8pm so the kids will have to make the Spaghetti. This will be fun.

My Family's Reaction

I was not intending to blog until Monday. I have it all set in my mind what I am planning to do. A menu prepared over the weekend and shopping on Monday to get the items I need for the food that week. Posting the menu and the supplies along with what I spent at the store. All seems good to me. I have thought about my family and their part in this. Last night the questions flew!
"Mom, this all Aldi's thing, are we really doing this?" This came from Susan. "Yes," I said, "for three months."
"Three months, I thought it was only thirty days" was Kurt's surprised response.
I assured them that they would be fine, someone suggested that I sock up on items we can't find at Aldi, then came the realization from Debbie. "That means you will be doing my open house with all Aldi food, oh Mom!"

So do I or do I not? Does the celebration of a graduation warrant the deviation of this determined plan? I did say all our meals would come from Aldi. Can I therefore determine that the open house is not a "meal"? Fortunately I have time to wrestle with that before it happens. Also a Sundae Bar open house would be easy to do from ingredients at Aldi. We will just have to wait and see.

Be thinking about my family as they are dragged into this venture. They are not too sure about all this.

Why All Aldis?

My family lives in Orlando Florida. We are transplants from the upper Midwest. Although we have enjoyed living down in sunny Florida there are still many things we miss about being "up north". When we lived in the mid west we were aware the Aldi's chain and sometimes even shopped there, but where ever we lived we were never close to an Aldi's that we could shop as our main grocery store. All that changed last year when the Aldi's stores began popping up all over the Orlando area. I was so excited. I knew that I could purchase quality products at lower prices than any of the local store around my area. Over the past six months I have made Aldi the store where I go to purchase almost everything my family of six needs to eat. I am now ready to launch out and try for the next 3 months a project I like to call "All Aldi's". This project will restrict my family to the purchase and use of products solely from the Aldi store. I am allowing the use of spices and items I have already purchased to be used until they are gone, but from my starting date of April 19th on I will only purchase food items from Aldi. I will also purchase most if not all of my cleaning supplies and paper good.

I will track the cost of my weekly groceries and the meals I make on this blog on a daily basis and hope it will be an inspiration and help to all you "Aldi wanna be's" out there. Look for my blog to begin next Monday.

Wendy