Simply Nature Brownie Sweet Bites + Birthday Sweet Bites

If you’ve shopped at Aldi for very long, you know you can sometimes find some unusual things among the limited-time Aldi Finds. Some of the weirdest Aldi food products I’ve seen over the years include strawberry piñata cakes, green bean casserole pizza, and a cheese assortment with names inspired by popular 1980s songs.

This week, I spotted some things in the Aldi Find freezer case that piqued my curiosity so much that I just had to buy them. They were these:

Simply Nature Brownie Sweet Bites and Simply Nature Birthday Sweet Bites look like hash browns or tator tots shaped like stars, dinosaurs, and (we think) bears. However, they’re loaded with veggies and whole grain oats. And, they’re lightly sweet, with only 5 grams of added sugars per serving. The Brownie ones taste like fudge brownies, and the Birthday ones taste — and smell — like birthday cake. No, really. They do. Also, the Birthday ones have sprinkles, which ups the fun factor.

These look a lot like something Aldi has sold for years: Sweet Potato Bites, Spinach Bites, and Broccoli Bites. Those are savory concoctions that help sneak some veggies into your diet, or your kids’ diets. These Brownie Sweet Bites and Birthday Sweet Bites offer a sweet variation on Aldi veggie tots.

The boxes for the Sweet Bites advertise that these contain “5 different veggies.”

The box for the Brownie Sweet Bites says:

The sweet treat you can feel good about giving to your kids! Kids will cheer for these delicious chocolate treats, and you’ll know they’re packed with good stuff like (shh!) black beans, zucchini, sweet potato, butternut squash and spinach.”

The box for the Birthday Sweet Bites says the same thing, except the veggies are a little different — navy beans, zucchini, sweet potato, cauliflower, and butternut squash.

I bought these for review purposes and paid $3.99 per 12-ounce package at the time of publication. That comes out to about 33 cents per ounce. With about nine 2-bite servings per box, that’s around 44 cents per serving.

These are Aldi Finds. That means they’re in stores for only a brief time. Each store gets one shipment, and after they sell out, they’re gone. It’s possible Aldi might bring them back later, but it’s not a guarantee. Aldi does not offer online ordering for products that are out of stock at your local store.

If you’re looking out for allergens, both of these contain sesame, wheat, soy, and eggs.

The Brownie Sweet Bites ingredients list includes black beans, whole grain oats, zucchini, chocolate chips, expeller pressed canola oil and/or sunflower oil, brown sugar, sweet potato, butternut squash, black bean flour, spinach, oat fiber, cocoa powder, arrowroot powder, milled chia, and sea salt.

One two-bite serving of the Brownie Sweet Bites has 120 calories, 6 grams of total fat (8% DV), 1 gram of saturated fat (5% DV), 60 mg of sodium (3% DV), 15 grams of total carbohydrates (5% DV), 3 grams of dietary fiber (11% DV), 6 grams of total sugars, 5 grams of added sugars (10% DV), and 2 grams of protein.

The Birthday Sweet Bites ingredients list includes whole grain oats, cooked navy beans, zucchini puree, brown sugar, expeller pressed canola oil and/or sunflower oil, potato flakes, sprinkles, sweet potato puree, cauliflower, butternut squash puree, oat fiber, arrowroot powder, sea salt, and natural flavor.

The Birthday Sweet Bites also contain palm oil and palm kernel oil that is certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

One two-bite serving of the Birthday Sweet Bites has 100 calories, 3.5 grams of total fat (4% DV), 0.5 grams of saturated fat (3% DV), 50 mg of sodium (2% DV), 16 grams of total carbohydrates (6% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (8% DV), 5 grams of total sugars, 5 grams of added sugars (10% DV), and 2 grams of protein.

The boxes have directions for preparing these in a conventional oven/toaster oven, air fryer, or microwave.

To bake in an oven, preheat the oven/toaster oven to 450 degrees. Bake in a single layer on a baking sheet for approximately 6 minutes until browned. Then carefully flip and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until heated through.

To air fry, preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees. Place in a single layer on the tray and air fry for 6 minutes, flipping halfway through.

To microwave, place on a microwave-safe plate and cook on high for 1 minute and 10 seconds or until hot. (The microwave directions don’t say how many Sweet Bites to heat at one time, so you might need to experiment with heating times if you choose this preparation method.)

I chose to air fry the Sweet Bites so they would come out slightly crispy on the outside. They were easy to air fry and were done in 6 minutes as advertised.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with these. Would they really taste sweet? Would they really taste like brownies and birthday cake? Would they be weird? What would my kids think of them?

It turns out, these are really good.

The Brownie Sweet Bites are fudgy, chocolatey, and have real chocolate chips we could taste. They taste enough like freshly baked brownies that we really liked them, and they are less overwhelmingly sweet compared to real brownies.

The Birthday Sweet Bites actually smell exactly like birthday cake, and their sweet flavor is an accurate imitation of a confetti birthday cake, if less cloyingly sweet than real birthday cake. Both the Brownie and Birthday Sweet Bites are sweet enough to help you satisfy a sweet tooth hopefully without spiking your blood sugar as much as the real desserts would.

My family and I had a discussion about whether these are a side dish to go with lunch or dinner, or whether they’re a dessert or a snack. We ultimately decided they’re a dessert or snack, but these aren’t bad for you, so you can really eat them whenever you want. Honestly, you could eat them for breakfast and they’d be a lot better for you than many sugary cereals on the market.

If there is any downside to these Sweet Bites, it’s that one serving is only two pieces, which will net you 100-120 calories. Most of us didn’t want to eat just two pieces. We wanted more like four pieces, which is 400-480 calories. So, just keep in mind that while these have a lot of good-for-you ingredients and are low in sugar, the calories can quickly add up if you eat a lot of them in one sitting.

The Verdict:

Simply Nature Brownie Sweet Bites and Simply Nature Birthday Sweet Bites take the kid-friendly shaped tator tot / veggie tot trend and turn it into dessert. These are made with a lot of healthy ingredients, including whole grain oats, black beans, navy beans, cauliflower, butternut squash, sweet potato, and zucchini. They include some fun components like chocolate chips and sprinkles, but they have just 5 grams of added sugars per serving.

The best part? These taste similar enough to fudge brownies and birthday cake that they’re actually quite good. They’re good enough that we’ll be picking up a few more boxes to stock our deep freezer with.