March 11, 2017
Now I’m not the world’s most prolific falafel eater. But I have had them in restaurants. And for no other reason then to attempt to pronounce the name, you should give them a try sometime when you’re around Mediterranean food. If you do want to give them a try, DON’T (do not) try these.
A falafel is one of those foods that’s a blank canvas to which the chef has to add the splashes of color (metaphorically). These have few splashes of color.
March 4, 2017
It’s predominantly* almond (Kind) versus predominantly* peanut (Simply Nutty) in this nut-off challenge. For those who need to know quickly, Kind has the bigger nuts. That’s important, because when you bite into them, Kind requires a little more jaw power. However once in the mouth and chewed around some, the texture is indistinguishable between the two.
For those who like their nuts slightly salty, Kind would be your choice. In comparison, Simply Nutty is just that – not much of a salty experience here. Holding all the nuts together at the base, for both, is a dark dark brown chocolate. Some of the same is drizzled on the top of the nuts. I guess the drizzle is for decoration, but could be there for the lickers among us who might want to slowly savor the experience. Licking from the bottom would be too messy. So, the dark chocolate on both is very much the same, good, but nothing to write home about.
The products are very similar, with small individual preferences being the deciding factors between the two for most of us. Finally, these type of comparisons usually come down to price. The Kind bars are 4 bars for $4.99 and the Simply Nutty bars are 5 bars for $4.99.
Kind – Calories 200 per bar, Price $4.99 – box of 4 bars
Trader Joe’s Simply Nutty – Calories 200 per bar, Price $4.99 – box of 5 bars
*Based on the first ingredient listed on the ingredient label
March 4, 2017
Now that we know how we got here, how are the chips? Surprisingly, these are much better than one might expect, considering that most of us don’t have a clue what a parsnip is.
The bag has a mixture of thin, moderately long and short, curly pieces of slightly orange crispy things in it. There’s not much flavor to them. A slight sweet flavor predominates. That’s about it. For a chip, there’s barely a hint of salt.
A good chip has only one real test, can a person sit and eat the whole bag in one sitting? For these chips, the happy answer to that question is, yes.
Price $2.99 – 5.2 ounce bag
Calories 120/ounce (28g) (about 12 chips)
February 23, 2017
There’s not much on the cork. In the glass there’s a deep red to purple color and not much aroma. This is a medium-light bodied simple red wine that tastes good and is easy to drink. There are a few tannins around to give the wine a little character, but not enough to upset very many people. There are no negatives.
There’s little information on the bottle or the internet about the grapes or process used to make this wine. Since it’s a Bordeaux, we can assume most of the grapes used in this wine are Cabernet and Merlot. Most other reviews on the web give this average ratings (3.5 out of 5). It’s a fairly mild red wine and should pair well with most foods except the most delicate. I could sip this all night – regrets in the morning of course. Price $8.99.
February 23, 2017
We buy this all the time. We use it mostly on salads and “Italian” dishes. Most recently it was used on some homemade pizza. This is a low-moisture part-skim milk (assumed cow’s milk?) shredded mozzarella cheese that’s pretty much indistinguishable from similarly priced mozzarella cheeses elsewhere. It has a mild taste.
Although the price seems to vary with the market, it’s generally priced competitively with sale prices of similar cheeses at other stores. The only negative about this is, my ALDI store keeps moving it around, so it’s hard to find.
Price $2.99 (16 ounce bag) Calories 80 per 1/4 cup (28g)
February 17, 2017
Andy Warhol would be proud!
Here we have another two mundane food items up for review. It’s a chicken noodle soup-off between ALDI’s Chef”s Cupboard Chicken Noodle Soup and America’s sweetheart Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. And while the ties are still in the dry cleaner for spot removal, the winner is Andy Warhol’s poster child, Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, with the one exception of price. Campbell’s costs significantly more. But I’m guessing you knew that already. So click the “read more” button below to further unravel the noodles.
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February 17, 2017
A warning: while this is labeled as medium heat there are touches of hot dispersed throughout.
Along with the strange heat characteristic is the strange taste characteristic. The strange taste which comes across as a form of bitterness appears to come from the diced tomato in the salsa. Getting back to the strange heat, this appears to come from very small pieces of garlic in the salsa. Whether that heat is native to the garlic or the garlic just absorbed the heat from some of its neighbors is up for debate. The texture is thick like a paste. This is not a chunky salsa, if that’s your preference. The salsa is labeled as organic.
If you’re willing to give this a try, buy a jar of your usual salsa to go with it. That way if this turns out to be too radical for your taste, there’ll be a backup plan on the shelf to go with the chips. Price $1.99 Calories 10 per 2 Tbsp. (31g)
February 11, 2017
Today we fudge off three “no sugar added” frozen chocolate pops. Having only 35-40 calories per fudge pop and total carbohydrates per pop under 10 g, these are a quick pop of chocolate for people wanting to watch their carbohydrate consumption. There are also “sugar added” versions of these pops, so look at the label carefully if you want to avoid the extra sugar.
As you may have guessed, with no added sugar, artificial sweeteners including sugar alcohols help to sweeten the deal. So do check out the ingredient labels just in case you have an aversion to any of the ingredients. As a matter of truth in testing, two testers (with totally different tastes) fudged off for this review.
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February 6, 2017
February 6, 2017
I’ve been drinking this for a couple of weeks now as my daily coffee fix. I’ve got nothing bad to say about it. It’s a pretty decent coffee, and for a little less money than my usual brew (TJ Tarrazu).
This is not a very dark, dark roast. Trader Joe does a pretty good job on their dark roasts. They manage to leave out most of the bitterness that some other dark roasts have. There is some bitterness in the coffee, making this coffee less smooth than my normal coffee. But it’s still not objectionable. If you’re looking for a Starbucks-like dark roast, this ain’t it.
The beans come from Ethiopia and Brazil which may explain the difference in size of the beans in the can. The coffee is not listed as organic or fair trade, if those things are important to you.
Price $4.99 (13 ounce can)
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