On the whole not a bad box of cereal, the rice was puffy and crunchy.

I was most impressed with the length of time the cereal resisted the milk, staying crunchy for considerably longer that I would expect out of this sort of cereal.

The real downfall was the cocoa flavor. It was there, but it wasn’t up to the level of Cocoa Krispies, and certainly not Cocoa Pebbles. Still, it was decent, and would probably be a great substitute in making rice krispie bars.

A reasonable value for $1.89 at Aldi, if you aren’t looking for a blast of chocolate.

Milleville Cocoa Rice

Links

• Cocoa Krispie Treats Recipie
• Share your links in the comments!

As a consequence, I really like Vic’s White Cheddar pop corn. It’s amazing, but it comes in small quantities for a bit more than I’d like to pay. Searching out some Vic’s at Walmart I found this stuff. I pushed aside my concerns over it’s dubious name and paid out my $1.88 for all 18 cups of it.

1. Bad Cheese Taste
2. Too Much Cheese Taste
3. Too Dense Pop Corn
4. Too Many Hard Kernels

The cheese flavor was bold but not too strong. Definitely cheddar, and fairly consistent throughout the bag. I would compare it very well to the Vic’s white cheddar flavoring. There was possibly a bit too much powder on some parts of the bag, but on the whole it was a balanced taste.

As far the pop corn itself goes, it was dense enough to give you something for those front teeth to slice through, while giving a satisfying crunchy feel on the back teeth. My bag was almost entirely well popped, with some hard bits here and there but no more than Vic’s, possibly better.

This is going to be a permanent trade for me. It is a good facsimile of Vic’s version and it’s super cheap. Plus, I have since found it at other stores, so if there isn’t a Walmert around I can hit up Bag & Save or look around until I find it.

Jolly Time Cheddar Riffic Pop Corn

Links

• Chili Lime Pop Corn
• Cheddar Bacon Pop Corn
• Make Your Own White Cheddar Pop Corn
• Share your links in the comments!

This is a guest post by Sierra Black of http://childwild.com/, and, while brief, it covers some of the do’s and don’ts of bulk buying.

Her key points are:

1. Opportunity cost of “investing” in a product you need or love.
2. Buying something you use, but don’t really need in bulk.
3. The pressures of buying something you don’t exactly love, in bulk.
4. Buying things just because they are cheap.

I am a big fan of buying in bulk, but Sierra makes some good points. Buying in bulk is a lot more “dangerous” with food, as she points out in #2,3. I disagree with #1 to some extent, as I see value in the dollars and cents saved and the additional effects that bulk buying bring, as I’ll discuss a bit later.

#4 is probably my biggest personal problem, as we often go grocery shopping with a list, and end up with lots of “new meals” to try simply because they are cheap. They still get eaten, but since we don’t have a rigid budget it’s not really the right choice.

As always, GRS readers have tons of tips and advice of there own, here are two of my favorites:

Lesley Says:

Another issue that she didn’t touch on is storage. Every time you bulk buy, you have to find a place to keep it, and not only that, it has to be a place you will REMEMBER that you have it. Otherwise (particularly with a small item like pens) you will lose track of them and buy again before you have finished what you previously bought.

Beth Says:

Great points! One thing I’d add though is that when you have a lot of something, you tend to go through it faster. I’m willing to bet Sierra will keep a closer eye on those 10 pens than she would if she had 100.

What do you think about buying in bulk? Do you do it?

I decided to grill them, since all meat longs to be grilled in some way, that’s nature. This was my first time grilling pork, or rather my first time cooking pork in any way. I decided to season them with some Caribbean jerk mixed spices, one of my favorite ways to cook chicken with a little kick.

Everything came out all right in the end (as long as you don’t like bacon) and they cooked nicely. They came out plump and juicy, something I didn’t entirely expect from my first venture into the complex world of pork grilling. The flavor was excellent, the jerk spices cut through the more subtle pork flavor.

My one gripe is that they were a bit salty. I think this is because the “solution” mentioned on the front of the box was probably salt water, and I think it stayed in the meat pretty well.

So, on the whole it was tasty, but failed to provide the promise of bacon wrapped pork (because it fell off) and was a bit on the salty side. I enjoyed them, but I think we will go looking for something else the next time we want pork.

Photos

Roseland Bacon Wrapped Pork Filets

Links

• Zesty Grilled Pork Chops
• Grilled Bourbon-Marinated Pork Chops or Pork Tenderloins
• Citrus Grilled Pork Filet with Mint Fig Sauce
• Share your links in the comments!

It’s got some great information, I recommend reading it if you are skeptical about off brand foods.

In other words, store brands offer roughly the same quality as national brands, but at a much-reduced cost. How much reduced? Consumer Reports says that the store brands they tested cost an average of 27 percent less than the name brand equivalents.

The comments are good too, I like this one that supports my thoughts that low-processed staple foods, milk, eggs, rice, flour, etc. tend to be the easiest to replace with an off brand without losing quality.

We try store brand, but sometimes – i.e. when there are more than 4 ingredients – the taste is just not there! Thus we buy everything non-edible in store brand, and edible items if it has less than 4-ingredients (oatmeal, milk, pasta, flour, canned tomatoes, olives, frozen veggies); if more than 4 ingredients, then we get to decide (yogurt, frozen pizza). If you don’t buy a lot of processed food, you’ll be surprised how many store brand items you’ll buy!

Something I’ve overlooked is the “military discount” of the commissary, which can be a great incentive to just buy whatever you like.

And this is why I like the military perk of a commissary to shop at. :-) Prices are usually lower than other stores, AND they’re mostly national-branded items. Win-win for military families.

Not only are the prices cheaper for most national brands, but you can still use coupons and there’s no tax. It’s really the one perk that I use quite a bit to save us some money on groceries. (Since we really don’t buy a lot and eat out fairly often.)

Great to see that people are giving off brand food a try!

I’ve been noticing that low-processed staple foods, milk, eggs, rice, flour, etc. tend to be the easiest to replace with an off brand without losing quality. Premium Pride does not disappoint.  It cooked up nicely, and tasted great. A full pound of the stuff cost us $2.49 at our nearby Aldi store.

Photos

Premium Pride Sugar Cured Sliced Bacon

Links

• Candied Bacon Recipe
• Pan Grilled Bacon Rolled Prawns
• Share your links in the comments!

I’ve never had much luck with off brand “sandwich” cookies. They are usually pretty good, but never match up with the taste and quality of Oreo’s.

That just changed with these Mercer Chocolate Waves from Aldi. In two words, fan. tastic. We got the “fudge” version instead of the normal “cream” ones, but I think the magic is in the cookie part, not the filling. These cookies tasted dead on with Oreo’s.

This is as close as you can get to an Oreo without buying an Oreo, and they are pretty cheap at only $1.49 for 17oz (about 36 cookies I think, not sure, we ate them…).

Great snack, great taste. Who needs Oreo’s?

Photos

Mercer Chocolate Waves

Links

• Easy Oreo Cheesecake
• Deep Fried Oreos
• Share Your Links In The Comments!

Oreo® is a trademark of Nabisco, a division of Kraft Foods.

Our local Aldi store has a wide selection of Millville products that are alternatives to “name brand” foods, especially pre-prepared foods like toaster tarts and granola bars.  So I grabbed some frosted strawberry flavored ones to try out.

Now, to be fair, I want to make sure that I tell you that I rarely ever eat the Pop Tart brand pop tarts.  They are always just “ok” for me, I would usually buy the off brand, because I actually preferred the taste.  As such, this might not be a dead on comparison to Pop Tart brand toaster tarts, but rather a menagerie of toasted pastries I’ve eaten in the past.

So, for $1.75, what were my 12 pastries (in packs of 2) like?  On the whole, they were quite good.

The jelly filling was strong and flavorful without being too strong, or reeking of fake.  I mean, obviously they weren’t filled with real strawberries, but it was a good approximation, leaning towards the fake strawberry flavors found in candy.  A real surprise is how evenly distributed it was.  Pretty much the whole tart had filling in it.

While they were not frosted consistently, or evenly, it was a nice crunchy sugar coating, which added substance.  And there was always plenty of it, I just occasionally had to seek it out for certain bites. The pastry itself was nothing special, flaky and light, it could dry out your mouth alone.   I found it different from a Pop Tart pastry, not necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing, just different.  But really, it’s just a base around which to heap the gooey, crunchy sugar.

This is a breakfast treat that is going to stay with us.  It’s a good value, fun to eat and tasty, if not especially good for you.  While it may not be a dead on copy of Pop Tarts, it’s a decent equivalent. Photos

Millville Toaster Tarts: Strawberry

Links

• Share Your Links In The Comments!

So I thought, let’s see what Walmart has to offer as an alternative.  I ended up with two off brand (is Walmart really an off brand?) two-liters for just $0.78 each.  Thats more that 5 times cheaper per ounce!  But is it any good?

I selected Dr. Thunder (looks like a Dr. Pepper alternative, who knew soda was so well educated?) and Mountain Lightning (looks like the Mountain Dew alternative) for my test.

So did these off brand sodas sate my thirst for sugary stimulants?  Yes and no.

Dr. Thunder tastes a lot like Dr. Pepper, perhaps with more cherry and less of some other flavors, but on the whole it seems very similar, close enough that I could be happy substituting one for the other, especially at the $0.78 price point.

Mountain Lightning, on the other hand, is no where close to Mountain Dew.  It tastes a lot more like an extra sugary, lemony Sprite.  Not bad if you are looking to replace Sprite, but not a good swap for Mountain Dew.  So on the whole, not a bad pop, but it shouldn’t have “Mountain” in it’s name.

Dr. Thunder

Mountain Lightning

Links

• Share Your Links In The Comments!

One of my absolute favorite meals is a big, crunchy Caesar salad with some grilled chicken on top.  I love this meal, and I love my on brand Newmans Own Creamy Caesar dressing.

In the interest of being bold, I started here, with my favorite of favorites, and tried “Tuscan Garden, Garlic Caesar Dressing” from Aldi, at just $1.49.

The first thing to note is that “Garlic” really means “Garlic”.  This is some powerful stuff!  It doesn’t take much to pack a powerful, flavorful punch.  That’s a good thing I suppose, it means you can use less and make your $1.49 last longer! Below there is a minimal amount on my salad (plus some Parmesan, yum) and it is plenty.

It’s definitely not as good as Newmans Own, but it isn’t marketed as a replacement.  If you aren’t hooked on a specific brand taste, then this off brand could be a great, cheap Caesar dressing for you.  If you are hooked, then it’s still worth a try.  But like me, you’ll probably end up switching back after your bottle is gone.

Tuscan Garden Garlic Caesar Salad Dressing

Links You Might Like

• Easy Copycat Newmans Own Creamy Caesar Salad Dressing
• Honey Mustard Grilled Chicken <- Add some zing to your salad!
• Share your links in the comments!