Healthy Budget Food Shopping at Aldi
Looking for healthy and cheap groceries? Budget reduced fat and/or gluten-free foods? Aldi to the rescue.
What's Aldi? I don't really know, other than that they are stores that started in Europe. They have cheaper foods that are actually good quality and it doesn't feel smarmy to shop there. You don't really see "People of Aldi" photos on Facebook...
We've just had some Aldi stores open in California, so I take a road trip to the closest one every couple of weeks. It's bout 20 minutes away. It's a) cheap and b) they have a lot of healthy foods.
What are healthy foods? You know, fruits, vegetables, chemical/additive-free foods, and reduced fat thingamabobs.
And, if you've gone gluten-free, they have less pricey gluten free foods too. Just for you. I'll eat your portion of gluten, thank you very much.
By healthy foods I also mean mentally healthy foods, like European chocolate European chocolate doesn't taste all waxy and nasty like the chocolate in the U.S. The European chocolates are Aldi are pretty cheap, too. It's not worth the calories for you to eat crappy chocolate (so throw away that leftover candy from whatever holiday just passed. Bleh).
Aldi is also making improvements and working on:
- Expanding their organic and gluten-free stash
- Removing some more artificial ingredients (they have removed certified synthetic colors, partially hydrogenated oils, and MSG from their private-label products)
- Expanding their fresh and organic meat and produce, with their “Never Any!” brand of meats with no added antibiotics, additives, hormones, or animal by-products
- Expanding their SimpleNature line (free of more than 125 artificial ingredients - yippee)
- Expanding their yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc. to be free of artificial growth hormones (like their milk is)
They are expanding so we won't! See what I did there?
Yes, you can eat real, healthy foods on a budget now.
Remember to check Aldi's frozen food section for veggies and other healthy thinggies for easy-to-fix meals. It's all about easy. Easy helps you stick to your plan. If you don't have anything healthy to eat quick, #healthy #eating goes to hell in a hand basket. If you come home from the store and don't have anything healthy to make quick, all bets are off and the idea of eating healthy goes to hell in a hand basket Because when I'm hungry, I'm hungry now.
Don't forget to bring a quarter for the shopping cart and your own bags. Laying across the front seat and scrounging in the car for a quarter is not the most flattering of positions...
Do you have an Aldi near you? Do you shop there or where do you like to shop for healthy foods that aren't frighteningly expensive? Trader Joe's is still one of my faves, but paying over $4 for cheese is a little off putting. But I still love that store...and their free coffee. You?
