Fit and Tasty...

Every once in a while I crave a good German meal.  I guess because I'm about 51% German heritage that makes sense. 

So this week I decided to make a nice kielbasa with sauerkraut meal.  Reminds me of my mother's mother. 

Luckily, I found a nice turkey kielbasa at Aldi's on my shopping trip.

It was German week, so there were all kinds of German products on sale.  Including a big jar of sauerkraut.  I paired my German specialties with some spinach that I sautéed in chicken broth, and some baby carrots, all of which were purchased at Aldi's. 

Here's the finished product. 

 

 

 

I was skeptical about the taste of the kielbasa because I had never tried the Fit & Active brand before.  But it looked good, smelled good and even tasted good after I cooked it in the sauerkraut.  Normally, when I buy heat and eat foods, I get bombarded with salt, but this product was definitely not overly salty.  It had a crisp bite to the meat and it wasn't too dry or too wet.  I was impressed with this product and will definitely purchase it again. 

 

 

 

Here's the cost breakdown for the meal:

 

Total Cost                              My Meal Cost

 

Kielbasa  $ 2.39                     $0.60

 

Sauerkraut  $1.69                   $0.22

 

Spinach       $1.79                   $0.90

 

Chicken Broth $0.49               $0.25

 

Carrots        $0.49                  $0.10

 

 

TOTALS:  $6.85                     $2.07

 

 

 

I cooked the meal intending to feed 4 of my 5 family members. (I have an Autistic son who only eats chicken nuggets, pizza, eggs and a few other things, so I generally don't factor him into my count for meals)  Unfortunately, that night 3 of the four of us who were going to eat were sick.  So I had the meal alone, giving myself a little bit extra, and saving about half for leftovers.  Numbers are approximate, but again, for $6.85 I could conceivably feed a family of 4 a meal that consisted of a healthy protein and 3 vegetables. 

 

I've also found a new, less expensive version of a product a normally buy that has less of the processed meat taste.   It's a win win in my book.

 

Stay tuned!  I've got more recipes, more product reviews and more tips for shopping at Aldi's coming up. 

 

You can find me at twitter, @camp3082 and on facebook, Toni Smith.  Thanks for reading!



 

 

 

 

 

 

Aldi Challenge, First Recipe....

Yesterday I was hungry but didn't want to make a big mess.  Such is my life, being the messy chef that I am....

*Note to Self...copyright and pitch the show "The Messy Chef" to Food Network


Cue the one pot meals.  I love these kinds of meals.  Everything in one pot means less dishes that need to be cleaned and put away. 

I checked my fridge and my haul from Aldi's, and I found some ground beef and some beautiful looking green peppers.  I knew that I had some frozen peas, some onion, some pasta sauce and some quinoa (again, I could have purchased these at Aldi's but I didn't want to be wasteful).

 

The choice was obvious....


STUFFED PEPPERS!!!!!!

So here's what I did

Ingredients
Approximately 1 lb ground beef (I used 80/20)
1 cup frozen peas
1 small onion chopped
2 medium green peppers, sliced in halves
2 cups pasta sauce
11/2 cup quinoa
1 tbsp. butter
4 slices provolone cheese (optional)


Directions

1.  Cook quinoa according to package directions.  Set aside

2. Heat butter in a sauce pan.  Add onions and cook until translucent. 
3. Add ground beef and brown until done.  Drain off excess grease (optional)
4. Add pasta sauce and peas.  Simmer for approximately 10 minutes, stirring mixture.

5.  Combine quinoa and meat mixture.  Mix thoroughly.
6.  Spoon mixture into green peppers halves.  Transfer to a baking dish.  Add enough water to cover
     the bottoms of the peppers.
7.  Cook on 375 for approximately 45 minutes or until pepper is tender. 
8.  Add optional cheese to tops of peppers 10 minutes before removing from the oven.

 

 

This recipe gave me a TON of leftover mixture.  I froze half of what remained for another night.  The rest I gave to my kids, who do not enjoy eating peppers.  They chose to top their mixture with "Chinese cheese" which to the layman is grated parmesan in a shaker. 

It was super tasty and super filling.  Cost wise, here is the breakdown:

Ground Beef: $4.35 (but more like$2.20 because I had leftovers)
Green Peppers: 66 cents
Peas:  50 cents for a can (based off prices at Aldi)
Pasta Sauce: $1.50 (based off prices at Aldi)
Onion: 50 cents (based off prices at Aldi)


*The quinoa I used I could not find at my store.  I will have to look for it again on my next trip.  I paid approximately $10 for a 2 lb bag, of which I used approximately 1 cup, bringing my cost to roughly $2 for the quinoa.

That brings my grand total for this meal to $9.51, leaving off the provolone cheese (which I don't have a price for), which I will divide in half, since I have leftovers.  The total cost is $4.75.  That fed two hungry adults, and two not so hungry kiddos. 

WOW!  I can't believe how little it cost to make so much!  As you can see, one pepper half is enough for me.  My husband ate 2, and we had one half leftover.  The meal is full of vegetables (I count 4 different vegetables, which includes the tomato sauce), protein and vitamins and minerals.  It's quick and easy, and involves minimal dishes. 

Let me know what you think of the recipe! 

TOMORROW NIGHT:  Turkey kielbasa, sauerkraut and sautéed spinach, all purchased at Aldi

Fresh Fruits and Veggies

How does one solve the problem of getting fresh fruit and veggies when they are super expensive? As you can see from the picture, my children LOVE fresh fruits and veggies. But when I go to the grocery store, at least a quarter of my bill is spent on fruits and veggies. I know they say that frozen veggies are just as good, which is fine when you are cooking them, but my kids like to snack all day long. They will often pull stuff out of the fridge without me knowing. (it's a sore spot for us, and they often get punished for it)

So what to do? I usually will stock up on fruits and veg when they are on sale (IE my carrot purchase) but that doesn't always do the trick. I'm at a loss here.