Review of Alexia Crispy Seasoned Potato Puffs with Roasted Garlic and Cracked Black Pepper

I fired up the grill a few weeks ago to make burgers. Grilling season is always something to look forward to; especially on the weekends. Picking the meat dish to grill is the easy part. I often struggle to come up with a side dish to prepare that requires minimal work.  When we get great Saturday or Sunday afternoon weather, I want to enjoy family backyard time, and spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. When I am out of ideas for an accompaniment to burgers or chops, I will occasionally defer to a potato item (fries, wedges, tots) that can be easily cooked on a cookie sheet while I am outside grilling.

My side dish at the time ended up being the Alexia Crispy Seasoned Potato Puffs with Roasted Garlic and Cracked Black Pepper. These were on sale at the nearby Jewel and I have tried this brand’s sweet potato fries before and enjoyed the flavor. The bag of tots or “puffs” were on sale for $1.99 and figured this to be an easy sell as I enjoy the flavor of just about any items that includes hints of garlic and pepper.

The preparation of these puffs is easy as I unloaded the full bag onto a foil lined cookie sheet. I use a full bag to feed our hungry group of five. The oven was preheated to 425 F and baked for about twenty seven minutes. If you plan on making half a bag, then bake for about twenty two minutes. Technically you are supposed to turn them midway through baking. I did not perform that extra task as I was busy outside with grill and kids.

The result of skipping the turning step resulted in a more brown finish on one side of the tot which was really no big deal. If I was inside, I would have taken the time to flip them. Skipping this step for with some ovens may cause the one side to burn.

The potato puffs had a pleasingly light crunch and zesty garlic and pepper flavor. Four out of five of us enjoyed the puffs to accompany our burgers. My five year old was not a huge fan as he detected the slight hint of black pepper and wasn’t a big fan. I would definitely prefer this puff over a basic tater tot as it has a great flavor. A recommend the Alexia Crispy Seasoned Potato puffs as a strong buy.

Review of Meijer Frosted Pastry Treats - Blueberry

I have been a long fan of the Kellogg’s brand pop tarts for quite some time. I am guilty of indulging in my fair share of pop tarts during my train commutes to work. For a quick breakfast, it really doesn’t get much simpler than toasting a pop tart for a minute while I prepare my “to go” coffee.  My last trip to Meijer, I spied the store brand alternative to Kellogg’s Pop Tarts; which is the Meijer Frosted Blueberry Pastry Treats. I decided to give them a chance at the $1.79 price which was thirty cents lower than the Kellogg brand.

Description

The packaging is similar to Kellogg’s as the items are sold in a small rectangular box containing five packages for which each package has two pastries or “tarts”. The packaging is a foil wrapper. The toaster pastries consist of a white colored cookie or pie crust covered with a blueberry paste entombed below the white frosting layer speckled with tiny multi colored sprinkles. The physical characteristics are very similar to the Kellogg‘s Blueberry pop tart version, though the sprinkles appear a little different or more sparsely dispersed and much smaller.

Preparation of toaster pastries

As mentioned above, there is not much to preparing these. I know some people eat these at room temperature; I am not one of those people. I like the paste, jam, filling, or whatever you want to call it to be heated warm. I set the toaster settings to a low to medium setting to allow the pastry to obtain a light brown, and then wrap it in aluminum foil to stay warm for my commute.

Taste

Okay, now for the real test. The first munch on the corner of the pastry was nothing more than “meh”. The frosting and filling tasted below average. The blueberry flavor did not come out at all. It could have been any flavor berry for all I know. The real disappointment to me was the flavorless pastry. Not sure what Kellogg’s does to make their tart crust taste good, but Meijer needs to look into creating a similar taste or at least providing taste to the pastry. My suggestion would be adding some vanilla, almond, lemon or some other flavor addition to inject some life into the pastry crust. Maybe add some extra blueberry flavor as well.

Purchase

Okay so the pastries saved me thirty cents;  not very good savings as I see myself struggling to  get through  the rest of the box over the next few weeks. This was a bit of a letdown as I have experience good luck with Meijer brand products over the past few years. These were a clunker. I rate this product a “do not buy”. Spend more and go Kellogg’s pop tarts or get the Kellogg’s brand when they go on sale.

Review of Fit & Active Raisin Apple Crisps

 
In trying my best to lose 15 to 20 pounds by June, I have successfully dropped about eight pounds since the beginning of March. The secret has been nothing more than keeping a calorie journal and using calorie calculators to lose weight. I like calorie calculators because even though they require constant monitoring of daily caloric intake, there is an upside. The upside is the ability to cheat or eating more treats during those times when I will be spending part of the day burning excessive calories through doing a lot of physical work or exercise. When I don’t have the time to work out and my calories limits are rigid, I choose to cut back on calories and try snacks such as ALDI’s Fit & Active Raisin Apple Crisps. Just how good is this snack? Read on to get the skinny on this ALDI product.

Taste

Sandwiched between two thin wafer or cookie layers, there exists a spread of raisin apple jam; made with real fruit. I consider it a jam because it doesn’t seem anything like the processed fruit newton filling that I expected. The flavor was actually much better and seemed to resemble a jam or preserve that the nice elderly lady down the street would bring over after a Sunday of canning fresh fruit. The taste exceeded my expectations and does not come across too strong in the apple or raisin flavors.

Appearance

The product consists of a green package containing five mini pouches (each approximately 1.5 ounces).  Each pouch has three little crisps.   The crisp or cookie outside is light vanilla colored with the dark raisin tinted apple jam in the middle. These will hold steady at room temperature and make a great snack to pack in briefcase or kids backpack. The calorie count of the Fit N Active Apple raisin wafers are 170 calories per package.

Price

One box of these wafers sets me back about $1.99. The unit breakdown is $.40 a pack for a mid morning or mid afternoon appetite suppressant. I sometimes even have one for dessert after lunch and keep the remaining two as a mid afternoon snack to carry me over to dinner.

My overall opinion of this item is that these crisps are a solid buy. These crisps are also offered with a wild berry filling which is average in comparison to the apple product. Just my two cents.

Review of Parkview All Beef Vienna Hot Dogs

My last trip to Aldi was focused on getting something fun for the grill as I was in outdoor cooking mood with warmer spring temperatures coming in this past weekend. With yard cleanup going on, I opted for something easy (with little prep), so I bought a package of Italian sausage and a package of Parkview Vienna Beef Hot Dogs. The sausage will be reviewed at another time. For now, here is the skinny on the how the Aldi hot dogs measured up.

Taste

Just to emphasize, these were the all beef Vienna hot dogs. The taste was exactly the same as if I was to go to a Chicago area hot dog stand and purchase one; though I heated the hot dogs via grilling method as opposed to steaming or boiling. The flavor was a home run. This skinny, yet dense hot dog paired up well with the tableside condiments and tater tots. The kids enjoyed them as well.

Appearance

These are not the Ball Park Frank Angus jumbos but the skinny dogs. That’s okay. If I want more hot dogs, I will simply have two. The Parkview Vienna Beef hot dog packaging even includes the authentic Vienna Beef logo so I knew these were legit when I picked them out at the store. Aldi newbies, don’t be put off by the foreign name of “Parkview”; as these are the same dogs as the Vienna Beef.

Price

This package of eight all beef hot dogs set me back $3.99.  I rate it a solid buy because of the exact same package of Vienna Hot dogs at the local Jewel or Meijer will cost around five dollars. Aldi does sell other types of Parkview hot dogs for even a few bucks cheaper, but I am pretty adamant about getting the “all beef” variety and willing to pay the $3.99.