Cheap Spices for Donation

I was shopping in Aldi’s yesterday and took a closer look at their spice rack. The apartments where I live are having a three weeks Food Drive (July 14th – August 8th). I’ve got a lot of canned goods that I plan to donate (my knee jerk reaction to the Donald Trump Tariffs) so I was thinking about this in Aldi’s.

It then struck me that I might want to donate some cheap spices, to go with all these beans. I use powdered garlic often, and powdered cumin, both good additions to my homemade salsa, and refried beans. I’ve also been using more ground cinnamon. Aldi’s also had Italian seasoning, paprika, and chili powder.

Garlic (ground)
Cumin (ground) LIDL
Cinnamon (ground)
Italian Seasoning
Turmeric (ground)
Ginger (ground)
Salt (iodized)
Black Pepper
Cayenne Red Pepper (ground) LIDL
Crushed Red Pepper (LIDL)
Ranch Dressing Powder (.50) Food Lion

Dry Beans for Donation

Aldi’s has Dakota’s Pride Green Lentils – 16 oz. for $1.39 (07/21/25)

According to an AI, dry lentils are about 3 to 5 times cheaper per serving than canned lentils.

A Cheap Mexican Themed Meal

Brown your ground beef, add some chopped onion, diced tomatoes with green chilis, and maybe some more flavorful peppers and you’ve got a good salsa to go with refried beans and guacamole. I showed the can of refried beans and black beans because if you need to control the amount of your sodium (salt) intake, then use pinto or black beans to make your own refried beans easily at home.

… an alternative to refried beans.

Quinoa & Black Beans

This “Quinoa & Black Bean” recipe goes great with ground beef seasoned with diced tomatoes and green chilis and a little homemade guacamole. It only takes about 25 minutes to prepare and quinoa is highly nutritional.

Oh, I forgot. I’m pushing blue corn tacos and tortilla chips. Apparently they are more diabetic friendly than white or yellow corn.