hey I tired some Kroger Brand mac and cheese yesterday and it actually tasted cheesy not watered down like the Kraft Dinner stuff... I was sooo happy.... I am going to be buying that form now on

when I mixed the powder with the milk it kind of turned into this thick paste instead of all watery ...

I the Kroger brand... the only things I haven't liked so far are their canned diced tomatoes and their instant oatmeal...

I hate High Frictose Corn Syrup. I love sweet stuff, but its just way too sweet.

I do miss the Bulk Barn! There's no such stores like it around here anywhere, if anything is sold "in bulk" its just in bigger packaging, rather than in bins where you can choose exactly how much you want.

Now we have an Aldi in town though, and they actually have a few products without HFCS in it! Wonder of wonders...they only have one type of salad dressing without it though (why do you need to sweeten salad dressing anyway? ) I've been making my own lately. Its just fine without sugar!

Oh, I miss Bulk Barn too! I have tried to explain the concept to a number of people here and they all look at me like I am slightly crazy! What, buying only the amount of food that you want out of a bin instead of taking the pre-packaged -over packaged items that are offered on the grocery shelf?

Aldi's are wonderful. They are actually a German owned chain that are all across Europe and have now expanded into the US. They don't carry the same variety of items - although ours does have about 5 or 6 different types of salad dressings available - and they do carry a lot of items from Europe and Canada along with their own store brand. Their store brand products are very good - and their prices are wonderful. They are my main grocery shopping venue. The only thing I don't like is that their fruits and vegetables come in prepackaged amounts so you sort of have to take what is offered rather than what you need/want. Do yourself a favour and buy one of their 'freezer' grocery bags - I think they are about a $1.00 - but they are incredible. I re-use mine all the time and they really do work - they keep the food cold even in a hot trunk so that by the time I get home after running my errands the frozen foods are still frozen.

Another useful place to stop for non-standard grocery items is Big Lots - I have found Canadian products there fairly regularly - and they get in ceylon tea often so we stock up when it is in and enjoy good tea all the time.

yeah count me in as someone who misses buying stuff from the bulk bins.... hubby was surprised to see those things at the Superstore... he had never heard or seen of anything like that before....

I miss Bulk Barn too. I also miss proper fruit and veg markets where you're able to pick which and how many items you want, also, instead of buying a ton of them already packaged for you.

I won't buy pre-packaged produce, I think its a waste. Except those salad bags, because if I buy a whole head of lettuce, plus everything else that goes in a salad, we end up throwing most of it out because we can't eat it all before it goes off. Shrink wrapped bananas though is silly, so I buy those at Bi-Lo or one of the other gorcery stores in town. I usually split all my shopping between 2 or 3 stores to get the best prices. Best price for imported chocolate is hands down at Aldi's that's for sure! 99 cents for 2 German wafer chocolate bars, can't beat that anywhere! Probably not even in Germany!

hmmm, everywhere I have shopped allows you to pick as much fruit or vegetables as you want... a few things are prepackaged but they usually offer them not packaged too...

My best suggestion for swiss chalet sauce is in Canada you can buy small packets of it powdered from the grocery store and you just add water and it tastes EXACTLY like the restaurant stuff. It's only like $1 a package and it very easy to ship/bring back with you!

I do miss dill pickle chips and ketchup chips a lot...

We can buy heinz ketchup here...i get it at all of our grocery stores.

yeah but it tastes completely different then the Heinz Ketchup in Canada

Yup because it has HFCS!!

I'm totally going to stock up on the swiss chalet sauce packets.

We have Wild Oats or is it now Whole Foods out here and you can get bulk candy, nuts, grains etc at those stores. They're in these plastic containers and you just grab a bag, fill it up, weigh it, put the code on and you're set to go. They also have that for spices too. Not sure what stuff Bulk Barn in Canada has as I have never been to one, but it might be similar from the way it's being described here...

Apparently Heinz sells an organic brand that is a little more similar to the Canadian Ketchup since it uses Sugar instead of HFCS. There is more sugar in Canadian ketchup so it doesn't taste quite the same.

Also I found this website from a link about the differences between the two. It seems to have some of the products that can't be found in the US.

http://www.canadianfavourites.com/

Mark

Wild Oats/Whole Foods is not the same as Bulk Barn...imagine a huge store with nothing but everything bulk bins for you to scoop out and just buy what you need. No packaging just plastic bags....everything from spices to grains, candy to nuts, dog food, freshly ground peanut butter, pie filling, and sooo much more. There are rows and rows of food all in bulk. The bins are a lot bigger than the ones in Wild Oats and Whole Foods.

Ahhh the memories. I think I'll have to make a pit stop there when I go back up to visit.

I have never been or even heard of the Bulk Barn.. sounds cool....

I just know that most big grocery stores up in Canada had a bunch of bins you could buy stuff from... Superstore had them and Save On Foods had them...

it's a crazy place I tell ya...

Here's a pic I found....

http://www.scarboroughtowncentre.com/st_images/bulkbarn.jpg

Just imagine the whole place with huge bins!

Just looked at this website a bit more and they ship to the US...easy way to get some of the stuff that we are missing down here!

Yeah, the website is great and a lot of us have taken advantage of them - the only problem is that their shipping costs are astronomical and they have a minimum order amount that may be more than you want to spend:-).

Hi Krikit

Wow, what a comprehensive spreadsheet list of Canadian foods and products. It sure brings back a lot of memories of carting carloads of food over the border..lol...I'll definately have to shop in Canada sometime soon.

By the way, can you add the following items to the list. Thanks.:
1) Smarties (I know you already have that one, but I can't help but mention it again...)
2) Bagged milk (Any brand. Jugged milk doesn't taste any good here)
3) Tylenol with codeine (only by prescription in the US, ask behind the counter in Canada)
4) Non-food item: Videos/DVDs of Canadian TV shows
5) Kinder Surprise Chocolate Eggs
6) A Canadian English Dictionary (Lol...American English isn't the same...)
7) Loonies, Twoonies (No wait, you can leave those behind in Canada)

Ant (Craving smarties...)

a lot of them are available down here.. like Corner Gas...

AntandD is so right SMARTIES, I so miss them. Great memories with my grandfather and he always had smarties when you went to visit. I get my mom to bring me some when she comes to visit.

I should probably lose my Canadian citizen automatically for saying this but I like M&M's better then Smarties

i ate Smarties but I was never a big fan of them... :shrugs:

OMG Marilyn we are going to have hold a vote and see for sure

We went to Walgreen's today, they had ketchup chips and shreddies - I don't generally eat either of those things, but good to see anyway!

Get outta town! *scratches Shreddies from shopping list*

not sure if I mentioned this before but "The Dollar Tree" used to sell coffee crisps.... but i haven't seen them there the last couple of times I have been there

I am hoping for the day I see Mr big bars down here...

I'm so going to Walgreens tomorrow. With this pregnancy, I've been craving everything I haven't had in a long time and those 2 are on my list of "have to eat items" lol.

Mary

We have also seen Ketchup chips at The Dollar Tree, they are Herr's brand and very flavourful.

I'm with you, they were way too sweet I recall and they were worse then a leaky pen. You'd have the coloring all over the place from when the dye would come off. I'll stick to Reese's Pieces for my candy yum.

With the Ketchup chips, Walmart at one point had them selling here and my friend at work bought be a few big bags. They discontinued them a short time later before I could get anymore. They where Herr's and tasted just like any other brand. Not sure what dollar stores we have around here, but I might have to go check...

Yay Trailmix for saving PFC from a fate worse than death! (I.E. a hormonal pregnant wife who can't get her Shreddies.)



Oh no! Those bleeding colours were ESSENTIAL to having pretend lipstick! You would get the red ones wet then rub them all over your lips! Plus I liked the psychedelic colours it left all over your hand.

phew, so I am not the only one.. yeah I thought Smarties were too sweet too... I will stick with the dark chocolate M&M's ...

Just so you know krikit, it was this Walgreens - just in case you don't find them at your local one - they are open 24 hours, so say at 3 a.m. you get a hankering for some shreddies, you can just drive over here:

1201 International Pkwy S, Lake Mary

ok I havent reread this thread but wante to add something. I dont think it would be the same all over the US but i sure cant find them here. Its wax beans you know the yellow bean like the green beans fresh or canned and they are my favorite vegi and i'm way too fusy of a eater to not have them.

Oh ya whats with the kool-aid here they cant even make the orange kool-aid orange.

Danielle

butter beans?

The Kool Aid here isn't orange??? What color is it?

Safeway here sells Red Rose. Actually, I found Red Rose tea down south too.



Danielle, again, I have found wax beans in Safeway. Maybe it's because I'm so close to Canada? Don't know.

As for Orange Kool-Aid, the funny thing about that is that I found it in New Orleans, but it took years for me to find it in Seattle when I moved. My sister used to send me orange kool-aid, mayonnaise and coffee with chickory when I first moved up here

I was going to add that in addition to Trader Joe's, Cost Plus World Market sells a lot of Canadian food items (as well as German) for pretty decent prices. I don't know if that's (again) just because of my location or if this is normal at all their stores.

Also, around here anyway, most of the grocery stores like Safeway and Fred Meyer, sell bulk grains and spices so we dont' have to go to a health food store.

I have found wax beans in Big Lots - no definitely not the same thing as butter beans - butter beans are like lima beans only different VBG. I love the yellow wax beans too!

Not sure what butter beans are but the wax/yellow beans are like the grean string beans just yellow. Going to look it up.

As for the orange kool-aid its almost a clear colour of orange you can barely till its orange.

I just tried about 6 or so Walgreens from Leesburg to New Smyrna to Orlando and didn't find the stupid ketchup chips at all...

Do you have any Dollar Tree store's in the area. They sell Herr's brand Ketchup chips that are really good. The only place we have found them is at the Dollar Tree though.

they sometimes have those herr's brand ketchup chips at Walmart...

I have also sometimes seen coffee crisp bars at the Dollar Tree...

you can see if there is a Dollar Tree near you here....

http://www.dollartree.com/

Hey! Did you just drive here from Denver, Warlord? You must have driven right past me. And Trailmix! Thanks for checking out all the Walgreens.... now I know to go directly to the one that Trailmix mentioned.

Oh wait. I don't eat ketchup chips.... I eat Shreddies. You didn't happen to see any Shreddies in Mount Dora, did you?

I can't wait for my cheese whiz to arrive.. thanks to Krikit

Cheeze Whiz, oh that would be great on some toast right now

Nope flew down to hang out with my friends for the long weekend who live in Central FL. So used to be down there a lot, now just a couple of times a year. I figured there might be more on I-4 and I-95 due to all the Canadian snow birds that use those roads. Didn't bother with Wal-mart though, ours here sold the Herr's brand for a few weeks and that was the end of that...

hopefully by the end of this week I will be enjoying some cheese whiz on toast ... mmm mmm mmm

Someone else noticed that you can't get Kraft pizza mix and sauce in the US. WTF is with that? I've gone without this for 1 1/2 yrs now and I am planning on bringing a case of the stuff back when I go to visit family /cry

I will have to add aero bars to my list too. Damn Americans! Why? Why? Why?

I just found a site that will ship canadian items throughout the world. OMG thank goodness! Now I can get my Kraft pizza mix, smarties and aero bars. There is a god!

be careful with the shipping and handling though.. it can get expensive..

Which site, as some I have seen are very expensive for Chocolate bars or at least just expensive enough that I won't pay it. Perhaps that is the good thing lol.