Tuesday Bargains

Well, I ended up going to Aldi again today after a trip to Food Town and HEB earlier this morning. My plan was to make Eggplant Lasagna tomorrow but there was no eggplant to be had at HEB and Food Town had four badly shriveled ones. So, I decided to see if by any chance Aldi had any. I figured that I might as well go there and pick up milk and eggs so the trip wouldn't be wasted if they didn't have any eggplant, which they didn't. It's a shame because I bought the mozzarella and parmesan cheese for the recipe last week but they will keep. I know that I already made them earlier this month but I've decided to make Sloppy Joe Stuffed Peppers instead of the Eggplant Lasagna. I think it's probably best if from now on I don't actually put Egpplant Lasagna on my menu in advance and only make it as a spur-of-the-moment treat when eggplant is on sale. Food Town quite frequently has them 2/$1.00 so I'll just keep an eye out. One nice thing about that recipe is that I can easily keep all of the other ingredients on hand so that I'm prepared when eggplant is available.

My decision to switch from Eggplant Lasagna to stuffed peppers was due to Food Town having ground beef marked down to 99-cents per pound, getting a free bag of shredded cheddar cheese at HEB and the fact that Aldi had packages of three green peppers for only 79-cents. I bought six peppers so my plan is to brown three pounds of the cheap hamburger and mix in a double batch of my Favorite Sloppy Joe sauce. I've got half of a 16-ounce bag of shredded cheddar cheese left from something I made the other day and if I need more cheese I've got the free bag of shredded cheddar that I got today to add to it. I always have cans of tomato sauce in my pantry. I stock up on 8-ounce cans when Food Town has them five or six for a dollar.

So, here are my deals for today...

At Food Town I got six pounds of ground beef marked down to 99-cents per pound. Not food, but I also got a good deal on 50-ounce bottles of Fab laundry detergent for $1.77 each.

HEB had a deal where you got a free 8-ounce bag of shredded cheese if you bought two rolls of their store brand pork sausage at 2/$5.00. I got one regular pork sausage and one roll of Italian sausage. While digging through their clearance bin, I found a jar of Bacon Salt marked down to $1.50. I have tried it before and I'm pretty sure that it usually sells for well over $3.00. I recall that it doesn't taste anything like bacon but the flavor reminded me of the seasoning on BBQ potato chips. I might sprinkle it on my pork rinds or cheese crisps. It does contain maltodextrin but no other sugar. I just noticed that the one I got is the "Natural" variety. I see that it also says "Gluten Free - Low Sodium". I looked up their "Original" flavor and it contains corn syrup and flour and a whole long list of additional ingredients that my jar doesn't have.

Besides picking up milk and eggs at Aldi, I got the green peppers that I mentioned. I also found 14-ounce packages of jalapeño & cheddar smoked sausage links marked down to $1.69. They have 2 carbs each, which isn't terrible. I also bought 8-ounce packages of both sliced and chunk Swiss cheese for $1.79 each. Oh, and I picked up a bag of their mild roast Breakfast Blend coffee to try. That was $3.99 for 12 ounces.

While I was at Food Town, I noticed that they had Nathan's hot dogs. I don't think I've seen them there before. Nathan's used to be one of the few brands of hot dogs that were low in carbs and not loaded with a lot of extra junk. Hebrew National was another brand. Well, it looks like both brands have changed since the last time I bought them several years ago. I've heard that there are now twice as many carbs in Hebrew National's hot dogs as there used to be (they haven't updated the nutritional info on their site with the new counts yet) and now Nathan's contain hydrolyzed corn protein. Actually, it's even worse than I thought. There is soy, corn and wheat in them. I found the ingredient list for Nathan's Skinless Beef Franks on the Walmart website and this is what's in them:

Nathan's Hot Dogs: Beef, Water, Contains Less Than 2% of Salt, Sorbitol, Sodium Lactate, Hydrolyzed Soy, Corn and Wheat Gluten Protein, Paprika, Natural Flavorings, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite, Contains: Soy and Wheat

At least there is no sugar in them but I'm not crazy about sorbitol either. I think it's high enough in the ingredient list to cause gastric distress if you're sensitive to sugar alcohols. Hebrew National doesn't put any sweetener in theirs but they do add soy:

Hebrew National Hot Dogs: Beef, Water, Contains 2% Or Less of Flavorings, Garlic Powder, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Paprika, Potassium And Sodium Lactate, Salt, Sodium Diacetate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite, Spice. Contains: Soy

Goodness knows how the Hebrew National website can claim "No Fillers" at the top of their web page when they are stretching the beef with hydrolyzed soy protein which is a filler if I ever saw one.

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