It’s a new year, and my family has made a commitment to eat healthier and be more active. We already try to limit sugar and make sure we regularly walk or hike, but there’s always room for improvement. Our goals this year include adding strength training to our fitness regimen, and limiting carbs and ultra-processed foods.
If you’re specifically looking to reduce your intake of sugary foods and carbs while still enjoying something sweet, Aldi is selling limited-time frozen keto blend bagged smoothie mixes that fit the bill. The keto diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that helps you burn fat for energy and possibly lose weight and protect against certain diseases.
These smoothies are loaded with fruit and veggies and may appeal to all kinds of people, not just those on keto diets. All you need to make smoothies with these mixes is some water and a blender that can handle frozen foods.
Season’s Choice Cherry Berry Keto Blend and Season’s Choice Pineapple Greens Keto Blend are Aldi Finds, so they’re only in stores for a short time. Each store receives one shipment, and after that sells out, they’re gone unless Aldi decides to bring them back at some later time. You can’t order these online if they’re sold out at your local Aldi.
These cost $7.49 for a 24-ounce package at the time of publication. That comes out to about 31 cents per ounce. Each bag contains about seven 8-ounce servings once prepared, which comes out to about $1.07 per serving.
The Cherry Berry flavor features “strawberries, tart cherries, raspberries and avocado chunks with blueberry puree blended cubes.” The Pineapple Greens flavor features “pineapple and avocado chunks with spinach and coconut cream blended cubes.”
These do contain an ingredient you wouldn’t find in a homemade smoothie made from scratch. Besides fruit and greens, both flavors contain natural flavor, which can be highly processed.
You’ll also want to be aware that both flavors contain stevia leaf extract. Stevia is a sugar substitute made from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant from South America. It’s a nonnutritive sweetener, meaning there are almost no calories. Research is ongoing as to whether stevia helps with issues such as diabetes and weight management.
When you open the bags, they look like this:
Cherry Berry.
Pineapple Greens.
The backs of the bags have preparation instructions. Add 2/3 cup of the keto blend with 2/3 cup of water to a blender. Blend to desired consistency.
I used my Ninja blender to make these smoothies, and it was quick and easy. (Again, make sure you have a blender that is up to the task of blending frozen foods.) I made roughly two servings at a time and blended everything to a smooth yet pleasantly slushy consistency in less than a minute.
I made these with water, but I think you could substitute milk or non-dairy alternatives for a creamier taste. You could also experiment with adding a scoop of plain, unsweetened yogurt for a probiotic boost.
Keep reading for more information on each flavor.
Season’s Choice Cherry Berry Keto Blend:
Cherry Berry smoothie.
This is probably our favorite flavor of the two, but both are very good. This is a classic berry smoothie, with strawberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, along with some avocado for good measure. Our taste testers can be very particular about the taste of non-cane sugar sweeteners and they often steer clear of them, but we couldn’t really tell this was sweetened with stevia. You can’t go wrong with this flavor.
Ingredients are strawberries, tart cherries, raspberries, blueberry puree, avocado (citric acid, ascorbic acid [to promote color retention], salt), blackberries, rebaudioside A (stevia leaf extract), and natural flavor.
Berry Cherry nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
One 2/3-cup serving as packaged or 8 fluid ounces as prepared has 60 calories, 2 grams of saturated fat (3% DV), no saturated fat, no sodium, 10 grams of total carbohydrates (4% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 6 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 1 gram of protein.
Season’s Choice Pineapple Greens Keto Blend:
Pineapple Greens smoothie.
We were a little skeptical about this flavor, which includes spinach along with pineapple, avocado, and coconut cream. However, it’s quite good. If you don’t like pulp or a lot of texture in your smoothies, you might not like the pineapple bits in this, but I blended this for less than a minute, and blending it longer might smooth it out more. It has plenty of pineapple flavor with a hint of coconut and makes a fun tropical drink. Again, we couldn’t really tell that this gets a boost of sweetness from stevia.
Ingredients are pineapple, avocado (citric acid, ascorbic acid [to promote color retention], salt), spinach puree, coconut cream (coconut, water), rebaudioside A (stevia leaf extract), and natural flavor.
If you’re looking out for allergens, this contains coconut.
Pineapple Greens nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
One 2/3-cup serving as packaged or 8 fluid ounces as prepared has 70 calories, 4 grams of total fat (5% DV), 2 grams of saturated fat (10% DV), 15 mg of sodium (1% DV), 9 grams of total carbohydrates (3% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 6 grams of total sugars, no added sugars, and 1 gram of protein.
The Verdict:
Season’s Choice Cherry Berry Keto Blend and Season’s Choice Pineapple Greens Keto Blend feature frozen fruits and veggies, along with a bit of stevia for added sweetness. Blend one of these mixes up with some added water and you have some good smoothies. We like both flavors, with a slight preference for the Cherry Berry flavor.
