Thank you to ALDI for sponsoring this post!
Hey friends! On Sunday night, I had the pleasure of attending a special dinner: a multi-course feast with fellow bloggers at local DC fave Mintwood Place, hosted by and featuring food and wine from ALDI!
Have you guys heard of ALDI before? It’s a grocery store that believes that you shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money to enjoy quality food. I was first introduced to ALDI at Blog Brulee, the RD blogger workshop I’ve spoken at previously; they were the wine sponsor for the event one of the years and we were all so impressed with how delicious and affordable their wine was! (They have a really good Prosecco – the Grandi Mori Valdobbbiadene Prosecco – that’s only $8.99, and I’m also a fan of their $4.99 (!) Sayanca Malbec!)
I’ve also been impressed with how affordable their organic food is. We asked them on Sunday night how they keep their prices so low compared to other stores, especially for organic food, and they said it’s because they have very low operations costs compared to other grocery retailers. Basically, you bag your own food (and bring your own reusable bags), get and return your own cart (they make sure you bring it back by requiring a quarter deposit to take the cart – you get it back when you leave), etc. – so you are just paying for the food/wine, not for a ton of associated services. Interesting!
Their stores are also 90% exclusive private label ALDI brands, which helps save their shoppers money. I especially love their SimplyNature line, which features many organic items, as well as foods free of artificial colors, flavors and unnecessary enhancers. SimplyNature products range from pantry staples, such as cereal, honey, fruit bars and pasta sauce, to fresh items like bread, milk, kale, salad mixes and yogurt. They also have a whole liveGfree line, which offers gluten-free items ranging from snacks to granola bars, baking mixes, bread, pastas, and more. I like their liveGfree Sea Salt Multiseed Crackers!
It was fun sampling more of their fresh food at dinner on Sunday; every course we had was made using ALDI ingredients! We started with some appetizers, a wine and cheese course, and then moved into a multi-course dinner feast. We definitely did not go home hungry, that’s for sure!
Rather than sharing pictures of everything we ate, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite ALDI items that were featured throughout the evening. Enjoy!
1) Specially Selected Aged Reserved White Cheddar.
We started the evening with a wine and cheese pairing, and this white cheddar was PHENOMENAL. Only $2.49, too, which is a great deal.
2) Happy Farms Preferred Goat Cheese
Yep, #1 and #2 are both cheeses. You guys know I love my cheese! This goat cheese, on the left on the cheese board below, was only $1.99 and sooooo delicious – really creamy! It went well with the sweet Riesling.
3) Pickled Deviled Eggs, featuring SimplyNature Organic Cage-Free Eggs ($3.49)
How beautiful are these pickled deviled eggs that we enjoyed as an appetizer?! The pink color comes from beets!
4) Fresh Atlantic Salmon
One of our dinner courses was a crispy salmon with herbaceous fregola and mushrooms. The salmon was especially delicious, and only $7.79/lb which is great for fresh salmon!
5) SimplyNature Organic Grass-Fed Ground Beef ($5.29/lb)
This beef was featured in one of our last courses, an insanely delicious Tagliatelle Bolognese with Pecorino cheese. Soooo good. You guys know I’m all about organic, grass-fed dairy and beef – better omega 3 to omega 6 ratio!
What a fun night! I was sitting across from my friend Julie from PBFingers – I hadn’t seen her in WAY too long and we had the best time catching up over such a yummy meal. 🙂
I will leave you with a photo of the dessert – it has the ALDI logo on top! So creative. 🙂
Have you ever shopped at ALDI? Here’s a link to the store locator if you want to find one near you!
