I was a single mom for seven years, and when I first discovered Aldi, it felt like a grocery-budget lifeboat.
Items that were too expensive elsewhere were suddenly accessible to my son and me. Now, he’s 12 and going through a huge growth spurt, and I want to make sure he’s eating high-quality foods.
These nine items feel like luxuries, but at Aldi’s prices, we can afford them.
Prices may vary by location.
I use the Emporium Selection Parmesan cheese wedges to make homemade Alfredo sauce.
Parmesan wedges at other stores are often out of my price range, so I love that I can get an 8-ounce version for less than $5 at Aldi.
We’ve used this Parmesan to make homemade Alfredo sauce and Caesar salad dressing. Plus, grating it over most of our cooked vegetables is an easy way to elevate an otherwise boring weeknight meal.
My son and I love adding the Simply Nature freeze-dried strawberries to our cereal.
My son and I both love Kellogg’s Special K Red Berries cereal, but we always want more berries.
Once I discovered these freeze-dried strawberry packs at Aldi, we each started adding more berries to our cereal. We usually split one of the individual pouches to help us both avoid going overboard.
Each snack pack contains six bags of the berries and costs $5.75.
Savoritz almond-flour crackers with sea salt are a great gluten-free snack.
I love to eat Saltine crackers when I’m not feeling well, but I also try to avoid gluten as much as possible.
These almond-flour crackers from Savoritz are the best gluten-free substitute for Saltines I’ve found so far — and they only cost about $3.50 for a 4.25-ounce box.
I like to eat them alone as comfort food, with tuna for a quick, high-protein lunch, and with strawberry jelly on top for a sweet-and-salty snack.
We love the Simply Nature organic multi-grain tortilla chips.
Not only are these tortilla chips delicious, but they also make me feel like I’m actually eating something healthy.
They’re organic, gluten-free, contain flax and sunflower seeds, and cost about $2.30 a bag.
We eat them with salsa, hummus, and guacamole, and I also use them to make oven-baked nachos. I’ll even crumble the chips over salads for some extra texture.
I use Simply Nature plain yogurt as a sour cream substitute.
My son and I regularly eat yogurt bowls — complete with honey, chocolate chips, or granola, and topped with nuts and fruit — for breakfast or lunch. So, I always grab a container of the Simply Nature organic whole milk plain yogurt.
The most surprising thing about this yogurt is that we can use it as a substitute for sour cream. When put on top of tacos and baked potatoes, we can barely tell the difference.
A 32-ounce container costs just under $4.
My favorite organic half-and-half is also made by Simply Nature.
I love adding creamer to my coffee, but some types have thickening agents or other ingredients that I try to avoid.
Simply Nature organic half-and-half is the only one I’ve found that’s just milk and cream, costing about $3.70 for a 32-ounce bottle.
Plus, it tastes better than the others I’ve had, including those from my favorite coffeehouses.
I satisfy my sweet tooth with Aldi’s premium dark-chocolate chunks.
These dark-chocolate chunks are wonderful in cookie recipes, but they’re also great on their own as a bite-sized snack to help me get my daily chocolate fix.
For a more well-rounded snack, I’ll also pair them with walnuts.
A 10-ounce bag costs just under $5.
Both my son and I like to enjoy the Sundae Shoppe creamy mango fruit bars.
Sundae Shoppe creamy mango fruit bars are made with real fruit, so I don’t feel too guilty having them as a treat or giving them to my son, who especially loves them.
Six bars come in a pack for about $4.60.
I like to use the Southern Grove sliced and slivered almonds in a variety of dishes.
Southern Grove sliced and slivered almonds are unsalted, making them ideal for cooking.
I like to use slivered almonds in sautéed vegetable dishes, and I will usually use sliced almonds in yogurt bowls.
Six-ounce bags of each cost about $2.60.
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