Review of SimplyNature's Organic Linguine

I live close to the US border, so I like to go there occasionally to shop. A few months ago I was there and discovered Aldi. I was immediately hooked, because their store brand organic foods are so much cheaper than anywhere else!

I have talked on other posts about how affordable organic food is getting due to store brands. Aldi is taking this to whole new level. Even after the exchange rate, the extra fee my credit card charges for international purchases and the toll on the bridge, it is still cheaper to shop there.

When I first saw this pasta I couldn't believe the price. It is ridiculously cheap! It's almost the same price as regular non-organic pasta. So I bought one to try.

And I wasn't disappointed. The taste is great. It's got a good consistency too (if you cook as indicated in the package). And it's also very easy to cook (like all other pastas).

Here's a picture of a dish I made with it:

(note: reviews for the other organic ingredients (also bought at Aldi) are coming soon!)

And of course I also love it because it has no refined sugar, and the ingredient list is simple:  just organic wheat and water.

My only complaint about this product is that I wish it came in a bigger package - for even more savings! (though its the same as other brands' package size) After I first bought and tried this, I've been buying 4-6 boxes per month. It would be much more practical if I could just buy one big package.

In conclusion, if you live on the US or near the border, I highly recommend this product (and most other organic things at Aldi too - stay tuned for more reviews). It's much more affordable than anything we buy in Canada. And for the Americans, it's a great and affordable way to buy organic.

Review of Great Value's Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce

In the picture you can see Walmart's Great Value Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce with Felicetti's Organic Fusili, Raincoast Trading's Sustainable Tuna, Yves Veggie Cuisine's Organic Canned Peas, and Swiss Chards from my own garden.


I have talked on previous posts about how excited I am that there are more and more organic store brands.

This tomato sauce is one of my latest reasons for excitement. The sauce is much cheaper than regular organic brands - end even cheaper than PC Organics. Walmart's regular price is the sale price at Loblaws. So thats one more reason to shop at Walmart.

Another main reason why I decided to try this is because it has no refined sugar. I love that Walmart has tuned into that and added such a healthy product to their organics line.

Now moving on to the sauce itself:

Yes, it is not as wonderfully amazingly tasting as other fancy expensive brands - that cost 2 or 3 times more - but it is good enough for daily pasta meals. And if you are on a budget, good enough is.... well, good enough.

I do have to say that it tastes pretty good for a Walmart brand. I can taste the tomato, and even a bit of the basil. I think if they added some more spices they could make this taste really amazing.

Overall, this is a good sauce. I have bought it many times, and plan on continuing to buy it every time I'm at Walmart - especially because the price is so much better than anywhere else.

This is one more product that, as I've mentioned before, is making organics more affordable and more accessible to people. Kudos to Walmart for doing that. I just hope they keep on selling this product (instead of suddenly removing it off the shelves like they did with their store brand organic cereal). I also hope they add even more organic products to their store brand line (Great Value).

Conclusion: I highly recommend this if you are looking for a tasty daily pasta sauce. Plus, your wallet will thank you.

Review of Daiya's Cheezy Mac - Deluxe Cheddar Style

I bought this product because I love trying new things, and I do enjoy the shredded and block cheeses from this company.


My first disappointment came when I opened the box. There was another package for the pasta inside. These days I am working on being more conscious of my waste footprint by making an effort to avoid buying products that have a lot of unnecessary extra packaging (for example, individually wrapped toilet paper). So it was disappointing to have to open (nevermind throw away) another package just to get to the pasta.

The instructions were clear and easy to follow, for the most part. I almost missed the "drain" step because of how their instructions are formatted: one column with the verbs and the other with the rest of the sentence (for example "cook" and then "for 7-8 min"). But in the "drain" step, the sentence next to it is not the rest of the sentence (like "pasta using a colander") but rather another step ("return to sauce pan"). In my opinion, that verb ("return") and the rest of its sentence ("to sauce pan") should be in a new row.

The other thing I noticed was how smaller the macs were when compared to regular original Kraft Mac and Cheese (from what I remember - it's been years since I've had it). However, after mixing the cheese, they did look just like the original one.

Looking at the package, I was disappointed to notice that it has refined sugar (and wondered why I had bought this product if that was the case). But since it is listed as 0g in the nutritional facts, I thought it might be ok (and maybe that's why I bought it). I was wrong. Hours after eating it I kept getting the same addictive urge from my brain that I get when I eat refined sugar: I want to have "more, more, more".
It was disappointing because their cheeses don't have refined sugar. I don't know why they decided to add it to this product.

The cheese sauce itself didn't taste completely creamy. I felt some grains in my mouth (like when you put a but too much cocoa powder in your milk and it doesn't all dissolve). Or maybe I just didn't keep it in the pan for long enough?

It does taste almost the same as the Kraft M&C (from what I remember). But that also means it still tastes kinda unhealthy, artificial, chemical.

I think if I just buy the separate mac and put their own cheese into it, it will taste better than this product - and wont have sugar.
Either way, I wont be buying this product again.

I'm sad to give such a bad review because I do like this brand. But I have to be honest with my readers and myself.