Aldi Makes Holiday Entertaining Affordable and Delicious!

This year, an Aldi supermarket joined our neighborhood. I'm really picky with my food, but I absolutely love some of their products. Their price on "essentials" (read: bread, milk, eggs) are AMAZING- much more affordable than any other grocery store or super store in the area.

I love reading their fliers to see what weekly specials they have on products. The only thing I'm not that excited about is the fact that they have some of their products ONLY for that week, and because my location is the only one within 30 miles, they usually sell out ridiculously quick. This holiday season, I've turned to Aldi for much of my entertaining purposes, and have found a ton of amazing products that I know to stock up on next year, (like their amaaaaaaazing stuffed clams!)

One thing I noticed was their very affordable section of wine. They have so many different flavors, from all over the world, and the prices were too good to be true. They literally had bottles starting at under $3! I never purchased wine from them until this month.

I received an opportunity from Mom Central and Aldi to share my holiday entertaining habits with you- including a review on wine, so I was super excited to finally give the Aldi wines a try. I just had one minor problem... this year, I'm pregnant. That being said, the doc said that I could have a glass of red wine for the holidays, so I wanted to make sure I chose wisely. 

I received a gift certificate as well as an extensive explanation of the types of wine and holiday assortments Aldi carries. I consider myself a wine lover, but I learned so much more about wine with the guide they sent me! I think it would be great for a pamphlet to be in store along with their selections, because finding the wines to perfectly compliment meals always seemed to be a case of trial-and-error, for me, anyway.

I learned that Sweet Red is perfect for desserts like chocolate and cheesecake. I learned that the Chaza Moscato from South Africa was really enjoyed in between the dinner and dessert, one night where we had chicken alfredo and a spiral ham. The husband told me that after we have this bean, that he's going to bring a bottle to the hospital for me. We had some family come over for a hearty roast and served the bottle of Chianti pictured above.

Every year for Christmas, I make stuffed mushrooms and the key ingredient is White Zinfandel. Their bottle was only $2.69!! The most expensive bottle of wine I purchased was only $5.99.  Now, I will admit a few of my friends were astonished that I would give $3-5 bottles of wine a chance.. and frankly, gasped in utter horror, laughing, and wishing me good luck. Several of those friends were given this wine while they were visiting, and they all had NO idea that it was the wine I bought from Aldi. They were pleasantly pleased, and even expressed intent to purchase it themselves. They could not believe that the wine they were tasting were award winning wines, were under $6 a bottle, and had such flavor. Once upon a time, we always had wine in our house, ready to entertain.

Since the economy crashed, and the hubster lost his job, we really haven't had a large selection of wine in our home. Now that our eyes have been opened, we realized we can afford to still entertain with Aldi, even with our lower budget.

Aldi doesn't only have great wines, but they also have a large selection of rich and flavorful German chocolate, nuts of every variety, and many different cheeses. I love brie and soft cheeses, but being pregnant this year, the soft cheeses were off limit. This year I purchased Savoritz Garlic and Chive Pita Crackers (SOOOO good!), and paired it with sliced block cheese, stuffed clams and lemon wedges, nuts, and overloaded on sweets. We had a candy dish of German chocolate balls, cookies, and cream puffs- all purchased from Aldi- well, everything except the cookies, but most of the ingredients were!

Their baking section is extremely affordable! If you love to bake during the holiday season and winter break- make a run there to stock back up. Their chocolate chips, white chips, and butterscotch chips were only $1.69 a bag. They were SO good, and they were larger than standard chips, they were more like chunks. The cookies I made with them were scrumptious!

All in all, we had an amazing holiday filled with great surprises from Aldi. The hubster had so much fun shopping with me for Christmas, that he invited a house full of company for New Year's Eve. My only complaint is that I won't be able to make the stuffed clams for the New Year. (Can you tell that's not a good thing for this preggo lady?!)

If you don't believe me about the prices at Aldi- click some of the links to the foods. It will bring you straight to the product at their site with the price! I don't know how they make money with some of their prices- but I'm grateful for them, and to Mom Central for allowing us to participate in this blog tour.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of ALDI and received a gift certificate to facilitate my review.” All opinions are mine.