Aldi

Do you have an Aldi in your area? If so, do you go there? If not, why?! We do not have an Aldi in our town, but we do have one to the east about an hour in Springfield, MO, one to the north about 45 minutes in Carthage, MO, one to the south about 1 hr and 15 min in Rogers, AR, and we used to have one about 45 minutes away in Joplin but the tornado took it down :( I pray they are rebuilding it? Well, I just checked on their website and it's completed!

I have to wait till I have business to attend to in one of those cities before I can go to Aldi, but I look forward to the times I get to go. Yesterday we went and got some good deals. Pineapples were 99 cents each (big, juicy pineapples!) so we got 21 of them. Sweet potatoes were on sale for .25 a pound a few weeks ago, but now they are .33 a pound (which is still a great price). When we got them last time, I 'wished' I had gotten more because these things are YUMMY! and good for you too. I got 42 pounds this time. Sunkist oranges were 4lbs for $1.50. I only got 24lbs of them because we still have several pounds left from our bulk food order. They wont last long though. Bananas are going for .44/lb right now, which is pathetic if you compare it to a few years ago, but really good if you compare it to right now (.59/lb where we are). During the summer Aldis had cherries for .59 or .69 a pound, I forget which. Either way, it was a great deal. I bought a lot of them. A lot. Blueberries too ... .99 for 12oz. Grapes have been going for less than .80/lb but they just stopped that deal recently. We like grapes. A lot.

We like fruit. We like Aldis. Aldis is a good way to support our fruit habit.

Of course they have other veggies too besides sweet potatoes. Broccoli was less than a dollar a pound yesterday, but during the summer they had that and cauliflower for less than fifty cents a pound. I stocked up; chopped them and froze them all. I don't care much for frozen broccoli or cauliflower, but I really appreciated the price, so I'll just deal with the frozen part. Carrots usually go for .50 a pound, but I've seen them for .25 a pound.

Here is a link to the Aldi store locator. Check it out!!!

And in case you are wondering "wow, what do they do with all that fruit?!" the answer is, we eat it! We eat what we can raw, but then as it starts to get too ripe we freeze it and have it in smoothies.

And sweet potatoes ... I wash them, throw them whole (skins on) into the crock pot and set the heat to high. I let them bake about 3 hours, maybe four depending on the size, and then eat. YUM! The children like to put homemade applesauce (unsweetened) and cinnamon on top. I just like mine plain, but the other stuff tastes good on it too.

p.s. don't forget to bring your own bags and a quarter for the cart deposit!