A New Favorite...

Two Unknown Facts about Me:

1. I have a secret obsession with Aldi's

2. I am grossed out by milk and most dairy products as well

Ever since I was a little kid, I have been freaked out by milk. I hate touching jugs of milk (especially in the summer heat), having to wipe up spilled milk, cooking with milk, etc...it just grosses me out! Therefore, if I absolutely have to use milk in something I'll use either soy milk or dried milk flakes that I add water to...and to keep things weird, I will not mix them together and add them to the recipe. The flakes go in the pot, then I add the water!

As a result of my milk phobia, I really don't like dairy products in general--ice cream upsets my stomach, I hate the texture of yogurt, cottage cheese is too runny for my liking and the list goes on. But the one exception is cheese--I absolutely LOVE cheese! Luckily enough, it doesn't upset my stomach either :-)

So what does this have to do with Aldi's? Let me say, Aldi's is the best place on earth--especially for your pantry items, bottled water & canned veggies. You can't beat 49-cent canned green beans and 99-cent PAM cooking spray! However, there are some items you just don't buy at Aldi's if you can help it. A lot of their food is highly processed and duh, that's why the price is low! But that's why I like buying my basics at a cheap price because then it opens up the grocery budget for fresh fruits & veggies, whole grains, my weird "super foods", etc.

Anyhow, I was at Aldi's the other day and they had some yogurt smoothies in the refrigerated section. I looked at the nutritional label and they were surprisingly low in sugar (and no crazy sweetners were added!) and had a good amount of protein. And I'm all about protein!!! I must have been hungry because I became EXTREMELY curious about these smoothie things, to the point of where I was shaking the bottle to see how thick or runny the drink was. I'm sure someone watching me would have been convinced I was crazy, but whatever!

Since they were extremely cheap, especially for a 4-pack, I threw them in my cart. By yesterday, I had talked myself into trying one and they were super yummy! The consistency wasn't like yogurt at all, but more like the Naked-brand juices. I was in protein heaven! I'm sure these little bottles of loveliness will become a staple item on my grocery list, so I've already started praying to the protein-angels that Aldi's continues to keep them on their shelves!