When ALDI on East Monroe Avenue was built in Heather Mills’ neighborhood, she thought she’d stop by to check it out.
She hasn’t shopped at another grocery store since.
“I was cooking dinners every night and I was making jokes, ‘I guess all I need is ALDI!’” Mills said.
Unlike other grocery stores, most of ALDI's goods are private label, and the store doesn't stock the wide variety that other stores do. ALDI carries very few major national brands.
However, the grocery store has a dedicated following. Shoppers rave about the selection of cheese and wine, in addition to the low prices. And the more unique elements of ALDI — no bags and you need a quarter to unlock a shopping cart — don't bother the store's fans.
With encouragement from her husband, in November of 2018 she started the Instagram account @AllIneedisALDI, where she shares meals that she whips up using only ingredients from ALDI.
She now has more than 41,700 Instagram followers.
Mills does not work for the grocery store and is not affiliated with it in any way — she just loves it. She went in for the convenience and stayed for the prices.
Now, her Instagram account showcases everything from breakfast to deserts. On Thanksgiving, she posted a mini pumpkin pie recipe, with all the ingredients from ALDI. One of her most popular recipes has been air fried spicy chicken, cooked using an air fryer she bought from ALDI.
The pandemic has pushed more people to cook and eat at home, and her account has gained more than 12,000 fans since the spring.
The Calm of Cooking
Mills has always loved cooking. She worked as a director for corporate marketing for a tech company, and cooking is a way for her to unwind.
“It’s my calming place,” Mills said.
Despite working in marketing, Mills wasn’t very keen on promoting her kitchen creations. When she first started her Instagram account, she didn’t even share it with her family or friends.
She didn’t really think she would continue posting for that long. However, she realized she joined a large community of die-hard ALDI fans, called ALDI Nerds, and that other people were responding really well to her posts.
“A lot of working moms commenting, ‘Thank you so much for the recipe. My kid ate it.’” Mills said. “It was motivational.”
The positive feedback drove her to start promoting herself. She told her friends and family. She started posting about the account on her personal social media platforms, too, after one of her ALDI Instagram posts about mimosas got more than 400 likes when most posts were getting fewer than 20 likes.
Cooking for Kids
“I always try really hard to get them things that are 30 minutes and under, super simple meals,” Mills said. That has always been important to her. With working a full-time job, it was necessary for her to be able to throw something together quickly.
Parents also find her posts useful because Mills talks about feeding her four-year-old son, who like many kids can be a little picky about things like seasonings, textures or whether his foods are touching each other.
Often what Mills will do is pull out a portion of the food she is cooking before adding seasoning for her son, or if she is making chicken noodle soup, she will separate noodles, chicken and carrots for her son to eat separately.
“If you are trying to get them to try something new, try putting a safe food on their plate, something you know they will like,” Mills said she has learn about trying to get her son to eat a new food.
“One thing I do is always make sure there is a safe food, something I know that they will eat.”
Just recently, Mills was able to get him to eat a meatloaf with spinach in it — a food he had recently decided he didn’t like.
“Oh my gosh, this is amazing! Maybe I’ll be able to start putting spinach in stuff again,” Mills said, recalling her excitement when he ate it.
Of course, her recipes work for food purchased at other grocery stores, but Mills wanted to show that you can cook amazing meals with only the ingredients available at ALDI.
“It took some getting used to, but I learned how to live with it, have to do without some fresh herbs,” Mills said. “Which can be frustrating at times, but you learn to live without it.”
For anyone who is a first-time shopper at ALDI, Mills wants to remind them to bring their own bags as they don’t provide any free disposable ones, and bring a quarter to unlock a cart.