Pea and Bacon salad-

 

I hate peas. No seriously, I really do....ok, well I used to hate peas. I had taken a deliberate vow against peas since the first grade when I tried them for the first time. There they were on my lunch tray, green little balls of skin filled with a mushy substance that exploded mid bite. Ok so I'm not painting a lovely picture of peas, but I had never again tried them. To give you some background, I'm half korean, my parents were divorced, so my mother raised me on a primarily Korean diet. And yes, while she did sneak them into fried rice and various soups, I had never again eaten them as a side until last winter. I was at a christmas party, and I had decided to get a little bit of everything because it all looked really delicious. There it was, the bane of my existance...peas, or more correctly pea salad. I picked up a small spoonful, and I headed off to my seat next to my husband. I took a bite and suddenly that spoonful had changed my life! Ok, to put in not quite so dramatic words, it was good. Not just good, but amazing. It had bacon and cheese in it, it was crunchy. It was really just delicious. I headed home that evening determined to figure out how I would recreate this delicious pea salad and out of it I came up with this. It costs about 4 dollars to make when using ingredients from aldis and its great for parties! I guess I should also add, (Aldi's does not pay me to advertise for them, I just think they're underestimated!)

Things you'll need from Aldi's

• 1 14 oz bag of frozen peas
• 1 medium sweet onion diced
• 1-2 heaping tablespoons of Mayo (per taste)
• 1 1/2 cup of sharp cheddar cheese
• 6-8 strips of thick cut applewood smoked bacon cut up
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
• Large mixing bowl

Directions:

• Go ahead and start cooking your chopped bacon on medium high heat. Pay attention, and stir frequently. Cook it until its just crisp- not too crispy. I reserve my bacon grease as you'll find in future recipes, but thats up to you :)

• While the bacon is cooking, stir your frozen peas and sweet onion, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper, lemon juice,  and mayo together. I let my peas thaw as I'm cooking. I find that it keeps the salad cold, and the peas are deliciously crisp once thawed.

• When bacon is finished cooking, drain grease and let cool. Once cool add into salad and stir, and its done!

Crockpot chicken and roasted potatoes

I'll be honest- this was an expiriment. I have absolutely never cooked a whole chicken. This was absolutely delicious. My brother in law went on for 15 minutes about how good this was. Chicken is one of those things that there is about a thousand ways to cook, and I had avoided putting chicken in the crockpot for fear of the stringiness of shredded chicken. So I tried it anyway, and eureka...success!! The roasted potatoes were that perfect roasted color on the outside and buttery on the inside. this was really a delicious and very simple meal...again using only ingredients found at aldi's. The chicken costed me 4.17 and was huge! This meal fed 4 people and there was plenty of left overs for possibly chicken salad?? We'll see.  I would say this meal may have costed 6 dollars total, and fed all of us and then some!

Ingredients for crockpot/ roast chicken

• a whole 4-5lb chicken
• two packages of "chef's cupboard" onion soup mix
• 2 Tablespoons of garlic powder (give or take depending on how much you like garlic)
• 1 large onion
• 1 bag of baby carrots
• 1 T of dried parsley

1. Dump your carrots into your crockpot
2. Remove the giblets from your chicken by removing the bag in the cavity
3. Rinse your chicken well and put peeled onion inside the cavity
4. Use the onion soup and garlic powder and rub all over the chicken underneath the skin as well as on top of the skin.
5. Sprinkle parsley over top
6. Refrigerate the chicken for an hour or more\
7. Replace crockpot and cook on high for five hours
8. Preheat oven to 375 and cook chicken for 15 minutes to get a nice crispy skin

While the chicken is cooking work on your potatoes.

Ingredients to make roasted potatoes for 4 people

• 3 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 large gold yukon potatoes
• 1 T of garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon of parsley

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Cube potatoes, and toss in garlic salt, parsley, and olive oil
3. Bake for 1 hour in foil lined pan of your choice
4. Delicious!

 



and the finished product...

Hi there!...and our first Aldis' recipe

Our names are Zack and Kristi. We're married, 3 years now and we have a two year old...it's ok, you can do the math.-Enough about us!
 So for several years we have been shopping at Aldi's and it seems that people aren't aware of how much you can get from Aldi's for SUPER low prices and have a really delicious meal! I will admit we don't shop only at Aldi's, but we do buy the majority of our food there. There are some things that you just can't buy there, such as K-cups, and some of those things that you just can't replace like Cheetos. mmm cheetos. Ok, moving on...

So tonight we had Chicken and broccoli pasta. My dad used to make this chicken garlic pasta that my brother sister and I loved! This is a variation on that recipe. This is something I make pretty regularly, and I add the broccoli just to get my veggies in, so they can easily be taken out if you aren't a fan of greens. Sometimes I"ll add in crushed red pepper or onions, but this is what I did tonight!

 The end result looked like this:

 

and it was awesome!  All ingredients were purchased at Aldi's!

 

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon of minced garlic(jarred or 3 cloves)
• 3 cups of fresh cut broccoli (I LOOOVE broccoli)
• 1 package of Aldi's "kirkwood" fully cooked grilled chicken strips (found with the lunch meats) make sure you get grilled because the southwestern kind would not taste right with this meal ;)
• 1/4 package or 8oz of Aldi's spaghetti
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

 

 

Preheat olive oil on medium in a large chef's pan (large skillet should do), then add chicken and broccoli leaving lid propped to let steam escape. Using a stockpot heat water per directions and cook spaghetti using the least number of minutes (usually 8 minutes boiling)-al dente -regular, not thin spaghetti works best for this recipe. Drain spaghetti reserving a minimal amount of water in the pan (just a couple tablespoons) and then stir in the chicken and broccoli and add parmesan. it does get hard to stir once the parmesan starts to melt so you have to stir quickly. Salt to taste. simple and tastes great!

 

maybe some action shots next time!