We Found ALDI's Hidden Vegan Goldmine For Under $100

I haven't been to Aldi in a while and it's not our regular grocery store by any stretch of the imagination. Actually Giacomo does the vast majority of our grocery shopping, believe it or not, and he never even thinks of Aldi as an option. So Aldi is actually a German grocery store. They're all over Europe and in the last, I don't know, five or six years they've started being in the United States as well. They're really, really cheap and you can find a lot of different things in there and it changes frequently. So we found some really cool stuff especially around Christmas but like I said, I haven't been there in a while so we're gonna go. I'm gonna take Giacomo so he can actually like see the stuff that's in there. Remember that it's a good quality store so he can hit that place up sometime. Xander says hello. That's right. And yeah, I'm gonna take you along with us and see what we find. What is that? Put it back on! You can't have music on in the background in YouTube. Come on! It was Four Nine Blondes, what's going on? Yeah. What's going on fam? Where are we going? Aldi. Aldi? What's an Aldi? So I actually was wrong before when I said they first came to the United States like five years ago. Their first store in the United States was in 1976 but they did start like blowing up in the United States in the late 2010s. So we all need to know why Danny knows so much about everything. Because I looked it up because I don't want to say the wrong thing, which I already did. All right, let's roll. So from what I can remember when we do shop together hun, when we go into Aldi's there are like these interesting things that you just wouldn't expect to find there. Is that the whole goal for today is to get like rare vegan treats? Like what are you thinking? I was just thinking we could go check it out, see what's there. Get some of the good cheap vegan stuff that's way cheaper there than at our regular grocery store that you forget exists. Okay, so there's a Dollar Tree here. Do we get to go to Dollar Tree also? Now it's time to find out what kind of food stuffs we can get. Okay, so first we have to get our cart and we need a quarter for that. Do they return it to you afterwards? There we go. Open. Okay. I will say I am typically impressed by the abundance of fruit and selection here. You wouldn't think it, but there's like so much to choose from. Cherries. Yep. $2.50 a pound. I love cherries. They look really good too. And there's that too. It's actually affordable. How much are they? 65 cents. You bring the little produce bags? I did. Can I have one? Would you like one? Yes, please. I got it. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Actually feel pretty good. Are they ripe? Almost, which is what you want, right? Yes. They're not like rocks. I'm only gonna get like two though because I know us and we won't eat them. Love me an avocado. It's good. Mini avocados. Those are cute. I'm not gonna get them, but I like little mini avocados. That's what I said. So this is like their snack aisle and sometimes they have some really weird like Aldi brand snacks that are accidentally vegan. So let's see what we can find. These are some cauliflower crackers that the first ingredient is potato starch. I do always think it's funny when they say cauliflower anything and that's almost never the first ingredient. But they are vegan and may be good. I don't know. I don't know what a pita chip, like pita cracker is. It's not pita chips. They're vegan. When I see something like that, I'm like wait a minute. This could be something weird. Sounds good. Weird could be good. We're not really cracker people. See here's the problem when you're vegan and you're going grocery shopping like this. Like on a oh I wonder what they have kind of uh what's it called exploration. You end up buying a bunch of stuff. Yeah. That you wouldn't normally buy. I want like a combination of weird iffy, weird good, and weird bad. We'll see. We'll see. Are we gonna get to try these out as well? Like gotta let people know like. No we're gonna take them home and put them directly into the trash. Not vegan. Okay. How long does it take to identify whether or not a product's vegan? How fast can you do? Two seconds. Time it. One went down. Vegan. That fast? Damn. Not good for you. Yeah that's what like. Do I want this in the That's a lot of cookies. But it's the chewy ones. You bring up a good point. No we don't need that. All right all right. But. Off the temping. Vegan. Also really good. Well definitely really good. And yeah these are all like weird off Aldi brands. No. It's really easy to load up on like some crazy cool snacks but then you turn around. I'm only gonna get it if it's something different. Uh-huh. Yes that's the plan. I love how we're spending the most time right now in the snack section. Well there is a produce parasite going around. Let's not get that please. Yeah. All right you're stressing me out now. You're stressing me out. I'm sorry. I just get excited. I see snacks and I black out. S'mores, Monster, Key Lime, Peanut Butter. Oh these are Girl Scout cookies. Like it's the Girl Scout type of cookie. Okay. This one is. Well you don't want to put the Girl Scouts out of business. We gotta buy some cookies for them too Dani. Well I haven't seen them in a long time. That's different. Those look really good and those are. Are they really? Yeah. Oh my gosh. For science. We gotta go shopping together. So this is like all weird European stuff. So this is like the Speculoos cookies. I guarantee those are vegan. But you see because it's a European chain sometimes they have weird fun European snacks. This is $2.59. I think that's about what they cost at the other store also. But now we have a bunch of crackers. $4.12. Oh this one's cheap. That's because it's organic. Roasted pine nuts. Significantly spicy. Roasted garlic. That looks like roasted red pepper. Roasted red pepper. Do you really want to deal with my garlic breath? Double check. You sure you want to do that? I don't. That's why I didn't get the roasted garlic one. Okay in that case grab two please. No. Okay this is my favorite when you see all these cheeses out here. But wait a minute. Hold up. They got vegan cheese. But I don't like it. I've had this one and I don't really like it. What do you compare it to? Which brand name that we're familiar with for sure? One I don't like. Not day and not by our life. Not anything. So delicious. Nothing. So they have it. You might like it. I might. Not you. Talking to the viewer. Oh okay. You'll definitely like it. You like everything. They got like vegan meat stuff as well. No. Not usually. But that's the whole point. Tofu for $1.49. $1.49 for a block of tofu. That's ridiculous. It's usually like triple that. I know. That's why I try to tell you to come here. And we don't have any at home right now. Right? No. We don't have any. And I still have to do the tofu challenge. I'm still holding out. Don't do that. You sure? It's terrible. It's gag worthy. I think this is when you have to start getting all judicious and get into like the heavier. I know. Richer stuff. So sometimes they have brand name stuff and it's usually kind of expensive. But occasionally it's cheaper. Like I'm not going Are you kidding me? They have the lesser evil and it's only $3.19. Yes. Check that out. I feel like at other stores that's way more expensive. Wow. Those are nice size bags too. Creamy creations. Well yeah. Less than two bucks. Although I am curious. I'm curious about the waffle cone. Wishful thinking. High hopes. It's vegan. Are you kidding me? It's probably just this but bigger. Is it? It looks good. I mean the picture looks really convincing. It is convincing. Show that to the camera. We're gonna try it. We're gonna try it. Let's see. 99 a pound. Like we have a ton of walnuts so I'm not getting them. Walnuts for $5.99 a pound is pretty good. All right. Chocolate chips have become so hard to find vegan at places. How about those? No luck. Damn it. No luck. But I do think this is cool. So if you're a vegan that looks for this, they have sugar that is non-bone char. Which I think is cool. Nice. Still looking for the chocolate chips right? It's so hard to find them now. It's so frustrating. There used to be accidentally vegan chocolate chips everywhere and then it's like they realized that the vegans were buying them. So they threw milk in those and then made special vegan ones that are like twice the price. So frustrating. Whatever. Everybody. This one says dark chocolate. No. And it's the last ingredient also. You check out the very last. Those are butterscotch. There's no hope. No hope. This one's good. How do you even say that? Mozeroth. Prevet chocolate tears. But we have chocolate at home don't we? Because you said you got some already to make s'mores. But that just means we have to make twice as many s'mores. We need indoor s'more making chocolate and outdoor s'more making. That's too many s'mores sweetheart. I'm getting nervous. I can't even get words out. You buy these kinds of things a lot at other stores. I don't know what the price is. Power boiled rice. $1.29. So they have coconut jasmine, cilantro, lime, which is not allowed. Not allowed. Not permitted in the house. How are you? Yeah so they're great when you don't have a lot of time. Exactly. You just want something flavorful good. You don't want to think about it. That's why I love that stuff. Vegan. Fat-free refried beans which I love. Fat-free refried beans and they're only 99 cents. It's usually $1.59. Refried beans for me personally are when I have a giant pit in my stomach and it's an enormous void and nothing will fill it. I have a can of those and suddenly I'm satisfied. I have had a can of refried beans for dinner more than once. More than once. You're not picking up ragu are you? Don't do it. This is their organic pasta sauce marinara. $2.19. All right. And they have even cheaper ones down here. I don't know how good they are because I've never had them but all right. I know I like this one because I've had it before. And they also have things like protein pastas like chickpea rotini. This is gluten-free too. $3.09. Okay. Chickpea penne. Chickpea penne. Talk much? It's just plain pasta. It's not pre-seasoned or anything right? Yeah it's just pasta. Protein. This is I've not seen this one before. Okay. They have protein What's the base? It's not chickpea right? What is it? It's flour. Oh cool. Because I'm like I have a lot of mixed feelings with the chickpea pastas. I feel like they kind of if you don't cook them just right they just sort of melt. They saw our protein pasta review. Yeah. So they have these plant-based taco fillings. Textured soy protein. The macros are okay. $2.99. So in my opinion a bit more expensive. But I've never tried them. It's even got a certified vegan thing on it. That's awesome. And they have a pad thai konjac noodles that I'm really afraid of trying because I don't like konjac noodles at all. It says 60 seconds to make. I wonder if they're like they already got the smell taken out of it. Oh why'd you even say that? I like them personally. Are there more? Lentil and veggie tikki masala. That's probably not. It contains coconut actually. Yeah this one's okay. Okay. This one is not. But we could try these. Yeah. Does everyone know about your applesauce obsession yet? No. We have about seven of these in rotation on any given Sunday. How much are they at Market Basket? I don't know. Maybe I should do a quality test. I think you might have to. God I really like applesauce. We already have these. But I want more. 20 grams of protein. All vegan. They're so good. Just add water and then I add a bunch of veggies to them and they're 150. What? Yeah. Crazy. All right. I am setting myself up for disappointment. You should. It is the supplement section. The bars. The shakes. Yeah. That are ready to drink. The protein powders. When I've come here I haven't been able to find anything but maybe I just have a bad set of eyes. So this is a protein bar but it's not. Like it's vegan but it's got 10 grams of protein and 250 calories. Right. It might as well just be like a regular candy bar. Exactly. Let's see. That's too bad. Tell me there's something here, Dani. Anything. I keep trying. These look like a builder bar. Uh this is it. Really? Just found one. Yeah. Get out of town. I think these are like builder bars. Like knockoff builder bars. I'll take it. So $6.49. So six bars. They have the peanut butter one and the chocolate mint one. Does it say vegan right on it? Plant based. Five grams of fiber. 20 grams of protein. Perfect. Yeah it basically is a builder bar. Can we get the mint one so we can try it? Yeah. We don't eat those a lot but it'd be interesting to try it. Yeah. Veggies. They have frozen veggies. We have so many frozen veggies though. The steam fresh bags too, right? I would imagine. Yeah actually they are. They are. I want to see if they have anything else. They used to have some really good like vegan burgers but I haven't seen them in a long time. They have a knockoff Uncrustable. That's probably vegan. I should check if I'm going to say that. They're good. Honestly it's been practically impossible to find soy milk. I know. There's been a shortage for like three weeks and usually it's a super sugary kind. Because we're out. Out out. And one for you? Yes please. What is it? It's a froze. I've never seen this anywhere. Quinoa veggie blend. It looks like edamame, quinoa, peas, chickpeas, mushrooms. That's definitely worth trying. Oh the weird last minute find what the heck is here section. Nothing makes sense. Pineapple, coconut and jelly. I don't know how I feel about that. That's like going the weird bad list and we have to do it like you say for science. Strawberry guava, raspberry lychee. Are we talking like sugar sugar or like actual jelly? It's like jelly. It's like jelly. Yeah. Okay. I mean that's so weird. That's bizarre enough to try. That's Danny. What the heck just happened? I turned around and this genuine stick of watermelons weren't here before. Oh. Is that what that guy that said what's up to us? It must be. Let us know that you can deliver us all the watermelons. Unless none of the vegans were coming. I almost feel like we have to grab one of those watermelons now. We haven't had watermelon all season. I know. And he literally just brought them out just for us. It needs to happen babe. Make it happen. How do you pick out a good watermelon? Do you like knock on it? Yeah. Is it talking to you? Seedless. Bring it home. It's coming home with us. Full roasted almond stuffed dates dipped in chocolate and it is vegan. You remember when you met me what I was really into right? Oh this is almond and cashew. Tons and tons of dates. We'll do just one. I remember you would buy them by the case. Yeah but I will tell you they got a little skimpy on how they stuffed them so I want to see like are these stuffed as well as the package is showing them because I'd be the judge of that. Fun fact. Giacomo waits in all the lines for me because it stresses me out. I love that they let the cashiers sit down here. That's what they should do. Thoughts? Well I was thinking that a bill like that at a different store would be between a buck 40 to buck 70 and I was going on the conservative side and saying okay maybe we'll save a little bit and it'll be like a buck 25. That whole bill was not even $99.18. That was shocking. So for those who don't know when he says a buck 40 a buck 70 he means 140 or 170 dollars. Yeah. And it was 99. Why? What do you think you're gonna go there in the future for stuff? Yeah I've been there in the past but I got out of the routine of shopping there regularly but yes absolutely. Specifically for produce. You excited to try some of those things? I'm ready. Why are we waiting? What are we waiting for? The camera to eat? We have to try this stuff in the car. Why did you not open something up before we left? This is an illegal left-hand turn you're trying to make. We're gonna make this turn anyway. Zan are you helping mama put away the groceries? He sure is. I'm not really putting them away. I'm just laying them out because I do want to pick out like what of these would we have not got if we were not making this video. Like these three jellies. No. Cookies. What else did we get to try for science? Um I would say probably at least one of these crackers. We don't get crackers normally. How much were those stupid jellies? $3.29. Okay so that's like 10 bucks. Crackers. So $12.50. 15 bucks. So 15 of the dollars were like expensive silly things we wouldn't normally buy. I'd say I wouldn't probably wouldn't normally buy this either because it's the konjac noodles which no thank you. Oh the stuff dates. I feel crunchy. We should probably try the weirder things. Pineapple coconut jelly? Like what? What do you even put that on? Mmm a peanut butter and pineapple coconut jelly sandwich. I think we do have some Ritz crackers. That's probably what we should try them on because the crackers we got are like flavored. This is what happens when you invite me onto the camera. Really weird things go down. Are you helping us Zander? Yeah. Yeah say hi to everybody. Very sanitary. All right we are back. We've put everything away and we're not going to try everything because that is crazy but we are going to try some of the weirder things that we found there. This is exactly why I live for this stuff. I like that literally not one thing here is like a whole or healthy food in any capacity really. What are you most enamored by right now? We're going to try this first because it's the one I'm most afraid of. So this is the Pad Thai with the konjac noodles. It's got to be microwaved for 60 seconds. It's got good macros. 260 calories, 7 fat, 36 carbs, 13 protein. Like it's pretty good for a little but konjac noodles. And how does it compare to the stuff that you normally just buy that's not pre-packaged and you have to cook it on the stove? That's what I want to know. What are you talking about? I usually buy these noodles and then I pan fry them and I sear them and blah blah blah. That's the only way I've had them and it's gross. Same. Okay I like them. Gonna cook it. Tear pouch. Do you want to put the non-prego, non-ragu sauce in there? What? Mix up Pad Thai with tomato sauce. Sorry I like to make everything in two. Terrible? Don't you eat anything over there without me. I make no promises. Look it's like they're little mini stuffed date packages. I think it's so cool. Oh that's why it felt okay. Yeah. You're not selling it Dani. I'm afraid of it. It doesn't look like any Pad Thai I've ever had. Smells good. Does it? I think so. Where are the noodles at? There they are. You found them. Where are these? Yep. Okay. All right. Well hold on. Hold on. You gotta. Don't eat every noodle in one twist you weirdo. Can you do the same thing you do with spaghetti where you twirl it? Does that work? Yes. I'm so afraid. Oh and the sounds of the chewing. What's wrong with that? I don't know. I'll try. They're perfect. Save ham or not. Other than the fact that we can't sit down together because I think like from a sensory based standpoint I think you might lose your absolute ---- if we were eating those. Because of the food sounds? Yeah. What's like what are these like little meaty bits that are going on? Like a soy meat. Really? Yeah. That is ideal. That's way better than stuff that I make. It's got a kick to it and everything. You're really not a fan? Really? The sauce is good. The meaty chunks. Good. The veggies. I actually didn't try a veggie. Okay I have a more important question. What are the macros? I read the macros to everybody. I don't remember. Repeat it. I threw it away. Is it macro friendly? Rewind the tape. 60 calories, 7 fat, 36 carbs, 13 protein. Okay so here's my problem with these noodles and maybe it speaks more to me as a kid than as an adult. Tell me there's somebody else in the 35 to 45 year age bracket that remembers that super green Nickelodeon Gak. What is Gak? Gak is great stuff. That came out in the 90s. It's very similar to what kids play with as slime now. It had a very distinct smell. Oh yeah. Very distinct and I definitely bit into it once as a kid. Why were you biting into Gak? You're not supposed to eat Gak. Doesn't everybody try to bite weird stuff when they're a kid? Play-doh perhaps but I draw the line at Gak. It's that exact texture. Really? I remember. I mean I only did it once. I only needed to do it once. Well that's on you. Again I ask who eats Gak? What is Gak? All the other coaches like the noodles. Lots of our clients really like them. I love them and that to me is ideal because again usually you have to prepare them so much. Then that is yours. This is yours. Let's try anything else. Okay we have the cauliflower crackers that the first ingredient is potato starch. So why wouldn't they call them just potato starch crackers? That doesn't sound as good. There one cracker. Cheers. Cheering. Okay I'll take it. That's fine. Yeah. Barlexes that I want to throw out the window. You know what they remind me of? I know what it is. What? Sun chips. Remember sun chips? Maybe. Not the texture because didn't sun chips have ridges in them? Yes the shape was different but I feel like they were made of the same thing. I could see that. I'll go with that. Thumbs up. Yeah. Pita crackers. I don't know what makes a cracker pita because they don't look like they came from a pita but these are garlic and chive flavored. Immediately yes. You know what I'm thinking? Because it's leaving the residue it's like the kind of snack that like if the camera's not on you just like want to lick all your fingers and lick all the good stuff up. I'll spare you. Actually what I was thinking is because it leaves like that powdery feeling on your fingers I was like is there milk in this because that's the only reason that I can think there's dairy and like all of the weird ingredients there's dairy in is to make it stick to the thing better but they there is not dairy. Let's try the weird dates. So they're individually wrapped. I was not going to guess that. Me neither. And there's only eight in there so I don't remember how much they were 225 or something. Can you split that or do we need our own? We need our own. Yeah I think so. Oh it's like 53 calories per date. That's not bad. That's a perfect little snack. That's good chocolate on there. Dates, chocolate, coconut, sugar, almonds. Hot damn. I'm impressed. This might I think this might be the clear winner of everything. I mean these obviously but this was a surprise. Oh my gosh. I wish I had a peanut one because I bet it would taste just like a Snickers. You know it tastes good if I start doing this in my seat. Right? In three dates there's two grams of added sugar. That's. So that's like 0.7 grams of added sugar to each date. That's awesome. Yeah that was a big win. And we found it at the very last second too. Let's try the cliff builder bar knockoff. Is it a legitimate builder bar that's rebranded or is it? What do you think? It doesn't look like it. It's a little too squared. Yeah that's not an actual builder bar. Yeah the textures are very different too I could tell. Cool I'm glad I'm gonna get a nice normal bite. You're welcome. I think if we gave this to any of the coaches blindfolded they would say it's a builder bar. Really? I don't know. I'm probably not selling it when I say this but it kind of has like an old-school protein bar approach to the way that the taste and the texture is kind of coming through. Like a early 2000s protein bar which I personally like. So I know a lot of people don't like mint and chocolate which is crazy to me. I love mint and chocolate. I think this is mintier than the builder bars though. It's got a ton of flavor I'll tell you that. A ton of flavor. I'm gonna have to do a little more research on this one because I am also very impressed by it. That was surprisingly good. I like it and they came in a pack of I forget six. So they were a pack of six for $6.49 or something. So just barely over a dollar per. Does it pass a 10% what the 10% test when 10% of the calories are from protein? How does that work? I forgot. What? The total number of calories coming from protein. So be like this is something that's protein dense. Oh I don't know I would probably say 30. 30% of the calories coming from protein which in this if it's 20 grams of protein then that would be 80 of the calories. 80 is more than 30%. So yes that is a true protein bar right there. Okay let's try the weird jellies. Least weird to most weird. The lychee is weirding me out a little bit. Strawberry guava. Smells very good. What is this brand? Berry Hill. There you go. So this is probably going to be the most familiar flavor. I feel like I should have eaten something in between the mint and this. That's fine. That tastes like a decent jam to me. There's nothing surprising about that to me. Would you even know there was guava in it if you didn't see it? I guess I don't really know what guava tastes like. So it's not a jelly like a clear jelly where they've strained everything out of it. There's still fruit bits in there. That's good. Oh yeah I do taste a little bit of guava. They put enough and then trying it that way. Yeah exactly. That's um kind of awesome. Raspberry lychee or lychee. How do you guys say it? Smells like neither raspberry and I don't really know what lychee smells like. I've had them but do it. Okay I get the raspberry. I'm trying to taste the lychee. I'm getting a little bit of lychee not overpowering. Maybe just again all I taste is raspberry when it's on the cracker. The raspberry is pretty overpowering that one. They're not selling the lychee for me either. All I taste is raspberry. Not bad. Okay this is a super weird one. This is the weirdest. Pineapple coconut what what are you even calling it? Summer fruit spread. Ingredients sugar, pineapple, coconut milk, citric acid, pectins. Smells like a pina colada. It looks like congealed bacon grease. That's an odd texture. Everybody can't have crushed pineapple. Kind of looks like it started with that. Not appetizing. I love pineapple and coconut like those are two of my favorite flavors. But in a jam. I don't know. I have mixed feelings so far. It's growing on me a little bit but it is also a little weird. This definitely stays in a weird pile. I think if you're getting bored to death with what you're eating and you want something really different to mix it up you just throw this into the mix. It's pretty good I just don't know what you do with it. Like put it on toast? Like what do you do with it? Is it a true jam? Is it a little bit fatty? It says it's got zero grams of fat but it could also be because of the serving size. I don't know. It's got no fat. Weird. Nine grams of carbs. So what else would you do with it aside from using it? That's what I'm saying. I don't know. Put it in a put it in a stir fry. Maybe like a sweet and sour stir fry that I would normally put pineapple in. I don't know what I would do with this other than put it on toast. Would be weird. What would you guys do with it? All right last one. I think we can pretty safely say these are probably going to be very good. The peanut butter cookies that are like tag along dupes. It looks like the cover. That's good. That is a straight up Girl Scout cookie. Tastes just like it. No different whatsoever. I would not be surprised if they literally purchased a surplus from Girl Scouts and turned them into these. That's how. I would be very surprised if that was the case. That was a good thing to end this on. Yeah. Yeah. So how do you eat a tag along? Personally when I eat tag along I eat all the top first and then I chew on it. I've never done that. Thought about it? No. Eat like a regular cookie? There are some foods I eat really weird but this is not one of them. I do. Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this video of us are in our Aldi adventure. Uh we don't have a Whole Foods. We don't have a Trader Joe's. We have Market Basket and Target and Aldi's and the Dollar Tree and Shaw's but Shaw's is huge. That's like a Kroger. That place is insane. Anyway I hope you guys liked it. Go check out your local Aldi if you have one. I think it gets overlooked a lot and it's a really interesting fun little cheap grocery store where you can find lots of cool stuff and it's always changing also which is why I like going there once in a while. So anyway if you're looking for any kind of one-on-one coaching that's what we do here at Vegan Proteins. That's what we've been doing since 2008. Go ahead and fill out an assessment down below. You'll hear back from this guy within a business day and if you like the video don't forget to like the video, subscribe, hit the bell, all the things I'm supposed to tell you to do at the end of a YouTube video. I almost forgot what I normally say and we'll talk to you soon. Bye. See ya.