product reviews

Aldi’s Celebrates National Celiac Awareness Month

Aldi’s has some new gluten free stuff of late.  May is National Celiac Awareness Month so everyone I know who has celiac is buzzing to help everyone understand celiac disease and it seems Aldi’s has brought out a bunch of new LiveGFree products in the past few weeks.  Aldi’s is a German company but they have a number of stores in the US and sell many gluten free products (the LiveGFree line comes to mind) and mark some of their store brand prepared foods GF which is a big help…I get tired of reading tiny print to check for questionable ingredients.  Anyway, I got a few things there last week and I want to share my thoughts.

First off, gluten free spinach and cheese ravioli sold as frozen loose ones in a bag. I boiled them for 7-8 minutes and served with a simple puttanesca sauce; spicy tomato sauce with black olives and capers.  Topped it with some fresh grated real Parmesan cheese.  Fantastic! The texture of the dough was great and the filling delish. Bet they would be great sautéed with onions and butter.

aldi ravioli

I have some plain cheese ones too; I am guessing they are good too. They also sell a rectangular box of ravioli in sauce that is pretty tasty when heated in the microwave, get them often for a treat. I just don’t have time to make homemade ravioli these day so I am thrilled that Aldi’s is providing tasty choices for me; was really missing my ravs!

multigrain tortilla chips

Secondly, I love their Simply Nature multigrain tortilla chips….just addictive with hummus.  Speaking of which, Giant has store brand hummus in a wide variety of flavors.  Most are marked gluten free right on the lid.  Excellent flavor and texture and I especially like the spinach artichoke and roasted garlic varieties.hummus

Aldi’s has some yummy crackers and chips; these sweet chili ones are nearly addictive if spicy! chili rice crisps

Finally, I found a couple varieties of gf hot pockets, ham and cheese and spinach, artichoke and kale pockets. I think I wrote before about the tasty pepperoni hot pockets and the Southwestern ones which are okay.  Ham and cheese hot pockets are quite nice but I really enjoy the spinach, artichoke and kale ones, really great flavor.  Love them for quick work lunches, with a yogurt and a piece of fresh fruit. spinach hot pockets

They sell eggs cheap which I use in great quantity when I bake as well as decent produce like baby kale, arugula, berries, citrus and avocados.  Better prices than most grocery stores.

I got a few other new food items at Aldi’s.  I will be testing them in coming weeks. Yumm!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread Mix Review

A good friend gave me a gluten free bread mix for Christmas, Bob’s Red Mill Cinnamon Raisin Yeast Bread.  I haven’t done many mixes for bread so it was a new experience. I made it the other week, it turned out great.  Very simple to create, not that much to add, water, two eggs and oil and beat it well, let it rise and bake the loaf.  Mine went together in a few minutes and I poured it into my tall sided 8 ½ x 4 inch bread pan and smoothed the top with a wet spatula. I let it rise the maximum; one hour.  Baked it and it rose nicely.  Cooled and sliced…very tasty.  This is not a sweet bread; rather low in sugar which can’t hurt and not overly cinnamoned, just enough.  I froze most of it sliced so it won’t spoil. I like to toast it after defrosting (my toaster has a defrost setting) and butter the hot bread.  It makes a very satisfying snack and goes well with breakfast choices like scrambled eggs or an omelet.

lemon velvet pie 004

lemon velvet pie 010lemon velvet pie 011Warning, this is not a traditionally sweet cinnamon raisin bread: seriously lowered sugar so I was put off a bit at first bite but once I adjusted my expectations I was pretty darn happy with it.  I think it would be awesome for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Maybe I will try that for lunch tomorrow.

If you can’t find it in your store (try Wegmans) you can shop for it on line: http://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/mixes.html

Happy baking!

Aldi’s…My Latest Finds

Okay, I confess to loving cheese curls, baked ones… bag marked gluten free and totally addictive in the cheesy crunch of these treats. But this post is not about them.  It is focused on treats you can buy for cheap at Aldi’s. These are products new to me. Just forget I mentioned cheese curls…for now!

aldi's

green pea crisps

Ever eat Green Pea Crisps by Simply Nature? Never tried them until recently, you can find these interesting snack crisps at Aldi’s… This is a baked whole pea pod with less fat than potato chips; about 120 calories for a one ounce serving.  They are very tasty, irresistible in their fluffy powdery crunch. Labeled gluten free, baked instead of fried and free of a lot of additives.  The coating is rice flour, baked with any of three vegetable oils.  I had even almost half the bag before I realized they had the note “Processed in a facility that uses, milk, wheat and soy.”  Whoops! Now that was a big downer.  I hadn’t gotten ill, it was my second time of eating them with no issues so I did keep and finish them another day.  Not sure I will buy again, a bit chancy in my opinion. I wish they would not use wheat in the same facility.  Probably not safe for those of us with celiac because even a crumb of gluten (wheat, rye or barley) is enough to make a celiac really ill.

I also bought some Aldi’s Gluten Free Mini Pretzels.  They were rather hard and crunchy; fairly similar to other gf mini pretzels.  Cheaper but not better tasting.

mini pretzelsfiesta lime crisps

In the liveGfree food line available only at Aldi’s a stand out is their black bean and rice flour fiesta lime crackers.  They are spicy and crisp.  We tried them with a goat cheese spread I made with fresh herbs.  Amazing combination: the spread is basically plain goat cheese made smooth by adding a tbsp. of organic yogurt and flavored by a tbsp. of minced fresh herbs like oregano, garlic chives and thyme or rosemary.  Also ate some with extra sharp cheddar cheese and tomato jam; wonderful combo.  I have been enjoying their sea salt multi seed gf crackers for a while now; they are lightly salted and perfectly flavored.  Go with cheese or dips and are priced to please.  Why spend $4 bucks on crackers when you can go to Aldi’s and get these for less than half of that?multi seed crackers

Saved the best for last: Aldi’s Hazelnut Dark Chocolate bars, big, crunchy, delish and only $2.  A must buy if you like dark chocolate, made in Germany and marked gf.

hazelnut chcolatehazelnut chcolate

So, yes…get to Aldi’s; great prices, interesting and tasty gluten free products.  Just take a shopping bag or two with you; bags are extra!