My first trip to Aldi was in 1988 when my sister and I lived in Urbino, Italy during the summer with a group from Ramapo College. Of course we thought we were the stuff, living in an apartment in a foreign country with no real adult supervision. The first week or so someone doled out our money and we pretty much stayed close to school. After we had picked up all the pertinent lingo like “Dove il bagno?” And “mi fai un sconto?” We were ready to blow that Popsicle stand. It was all fun and games until one by one we ran out of food…and spending money. We had all already figured out that school cafeteria food is school cafeteria food, I don’t care what language you speak. So we bravely set off in search of a 24 hour grocery with a deli counter and guess what? They don’t have any! The Saturday morning market on top of the hill sold one ply toilet paper and squid on ice. That’s going to come in handy. The market in the ever exciting downtown Urbino boasted the very American sliced cheese and (get this!) Weight Watchers sliced toast. It was basically a loaf of stale sliced white bread that had been “toasted”. So we racked up on toast, slices of American gold, and a stick of butter. Several days and about 10 grilled cheese later we realized we needed help. Some well meaning and I’m sure extremely dreamy Italian cab driver offered to take us to another city to visit the grocery. If you’ve seen the movie Taken you know it wasn’t our most adult decision, but hey…we lived and now we have Aldi in our hearts from way back.
Not gonna lie, I can’t use Aldi as my main grocery store especially since we do live in the 24 hours a day immediate gratification zone. I use Aldi mainly for their Fit & Active brands as well as some produce and a few frozen items.
I was starting to run out of a few things and decided I would stop on my way home from 4.4 mile walk with my Accountabilibuddy Karen. Not much time so I grabbed my two favorite things from Aldi and headed home for yet another grilled cheese. Even after all that, I still love me a good grilled cheese.
There are so many but tonight I want to focus on my two favorite Aldi items:
Aldi Fit & Active Whole Wheat Whole Grain Bread – 1PPV per slice. A soft and light whole wheat that is still only 2 WW Points Plus when you have two slices as opposed to most which kick on over to 3 points. Makes a delicious sandwich but on its own is still thick enough to make French toast, cinnamon bread or garlic toast. This is a staple at our house!
Clancy’s Barbeque Baked Potato Crisps – 3PPV for 14 chips. These are absolutely the best baked chips I’ve ever had. They are light and crisp, lots of bbq flavor. Good thing they are only 3 WW Points Plus because I can rarely keep from opening the bag on the way home.
So for dinner two of my favorite Aldi items became this yummy 9 Points Plus simple dinner
- 2 slices of Fit & Active WW bread
- 2 slices Velveeta Sliced Cheese
- 2 slices uncured Canadian Bacon
- 1 tbsp Smart Balance light mayo
- 14 Clancy’s BBQ Crisps
