Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 9/18/22

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 9/18/22! Cook up everything from pulled pork sandwiches to creamy tomato hummus soup this week, and so much more.

It’s ALDI Meal Plan Day: Six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door. Use our weekly menu plan to help reduce stress and anxiety around dinnertime, and to save time & money in the process.

Be sure to sign up to receive a weekly email alert about each new plan.

These meal plans work nicely as a starting point, too. Just modify your own meals around what is in stock in your area, what you have on hand in your pantry, and your own family’s dietary needs and preferences.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 9/18/22 – 9/24/22

Come cook along with us to learn the answer the never-ending question: What’s for dinner?

*** Subscribe to the weekly ALDI meal plans here ***

Before jumping straight into this week’s menu, though: New ALDI Finds and news.

Pumpkin butter, sleepy cats, and Instacart: Oh my

pumpkin butter and salted caramel apple spread

What will you Find at ALDI this week? How about WAY more fall flavor, pizza bagels, giant bags of chicken nuggets, and so much more. Check out all of my favorite ALDI Finds of the week here, and let me know what you’re planning to pick up.

gray cat on a gray couch with a gray pillow

What have we been up to over here lately? Find out in the latest Caturday with the Notorious BKL and Friends: Books & food edition.

easily add recipe ingredients to Instacart

Reminder: Easily add ingredients from any recipe on this site to Instacart with a single button. Read more on this new “add to Instacart” feature, how to use it, and things to watch out for — because there are a few caveats here, as there are with any automated system. This is brand new, and we’ll have to figure it out together.

*** Psst — also check below the grocery list in this week’s plan for easy one-stop Instacart shopping!

Lastly, here’s what’s new on the Amazon front:

Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include mac & cheese boxer briefs, “snot mittens,” and so much more.
This HUGE list of subscribe & save filler items is updated each Thursday.

That’s it! Without further ado, here’s your ALDI meal plan for the week of 9/18/22. Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 9/18/22 – 9/24/22

Pick up everything on the shopping list below, then start cooking on Sunday. As always, six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door.

*** Print your meal plan summary + grocery shopping list below this week’s detailed plan, in Word, .rtf, or PDF format. ***
I’m assuming that you have on hand some pantry basics like cooking oil, common condiments, and spices. Read through the recipes before you shop, to make sure that you have the necessary pantry staples on hand for this week’s ALDI menu plan. *** The printable shopping list includes a separate section of needed basics for the week.

Six easy dinners from ALDI for $70

ALDI Meal Plan — start cooking 9/18/22

Sunday

Slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches, served on hamburger buns with BBQ sauce
Super seasoned pan-fried potatoes (microwave 2 of the large baking potatoes until soft, per note in the recipe, then proceed with the rest of the instructions)
Half of the grapes

Monday

Salsa pulled pork soup (substitute cilantro-lime salsa for verde, since that doesn’t appear to be in stores right now)
Serve with the blue corn tortilla chips
Cut up the pineapple

Tuesday

Slow cooker garlic lime chicken thighs
Simple tomato cucumber salad (use yellow onion)
The rest of the grapes

Wednesday

Pork & spinach baked taquitos — stir a little of the leftover cilantro-lime salsa into the filling, too
Make a quick avocado mash for dipping, using the avocados + lime juice & sea salt to taste
Slice up several apples

Thursday

Roasted chile-lime chicken & potatoes
Slice up the rest of the apples, as well the rest of the cheddar on the side

Friday

Creamy tomato hummus soup
Toast up and butter the bagels
Garden salad

Saturday

Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), or order in.

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 9/17/22

Dairy & refrigerated

8 oz Happy Farms cream cheese, $1.49
8 oz block Happy Farms cheddar, $1.99
10 oz Park Street Deli roasted red pepper hummus, $2.49

Grocery

L’Oven Fresh hamburger buns, $.99
L’Oven Fresh everything bagels, $1.99
Simply Nature organic blue corn tortilla chips, $1.99
Specially Selected cilantro-lime salsa, $2.99
Burman’s BBQ sauce of choice, $1.19
El Milagro flour tortillas, $1.16
Chef’s Cupboard 32 oz chicken broth, $1.19
Simply Nature organic 32 oz vegetable broth, $1.89
Can Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.99
28 oz can Happy Harvest crushed tomatoes, $1.29
Can Dakota’s Pride black beans, $.71
Can Happy Harvest whole kernel corn, $.59
8 oz Stonemill minced garlic in water, $2.29

Meat

6 lb boneless pork butt roast, $11.94
5.5 lbs bone-in chicken thighs, $9.85

Produce

2 lb bag of limes, $1.99
3 lbs of green grapes, $2.85
3 lbs gala apples, $2.89
Pineapple, $1.99
8 oz bag of spinach, $1.49
Bag of garden salad, $1.49
1 cucumber, $.59
3 lbs yellow onions, $2.29
5 lbs baking potatoes, $4.99
8 oz jalapeños, $.89
4 Roma tomatoes, $.80
2 avocados, $.98

That comes to: $70.26

Or, maybe less…! These meals can run even less if you supplement this week’s ALDI purchases with: Clearance meat you already have in your freezer, pantry staples you picked up on sale, produce you already have on hand, and/or sale produce from your local fruit market.

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New! *** Add this week’s grocery list to your Instacart. ***

IMPORTANT! READ BEFORE CHECKING OUT:

The whole pork butt roasts in this week’s ad aren’t showing in my Instacart, because sometimes the special meat buys don’t populate right. ADD A SPECIAL REQUEST TO YOUR SHOPPER TO BUY THE CHEAPER LARGER SALE PORK BUTT, rather than the more expensive half pork butt I’ve added as a placeholder in this list. (Also, you might want to tell them you want a 5.5 lb pack of chicken thighs, because it’s defaulting slightly smaller.)
You’ll need to check your pantry for staples not included in this Instacart list. See needed pantry staples below.
It’s not letting me increase quantities of items, so, before adding the list to your cart you’ll want to change the following:
1. Change Roma tomatoes to 4
2. Change avocados to 2
3. Change green grapes to 3 pounds
Click “add” on any items you want to place in your cart; omit any items you don’t want or already have.
Add anything else you need for the week to your cart, and check out!

Add your list to Instacart is a new feature I’m testing out, so please use at your own risk and double check your cart against the recipes. It’s a work in progress! 🙂 Note: Instacart prices are higher than in store, so your total will be higher than shown above.

Pantry staples to check for before shopping: Olive oil, butter, red wine vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, Kosher salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, oregano, brown sugar, bay leaf, cumin, smoked paprika, crushed red pepper, sea salt, thyme, basil, seasoned salt, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, ground ginger

Printable ALDI meal plan & grocery list

Print this week’s meal plan:

*** Download this week’s printable ALDI shopping list and meal plan in Word format.
- Download in .rtf format
- Download in PDF format
If you don’t have Word, try opening in Google Docs or in Wordpad.

Edit and add in your own meal ideas, remove items you have on hand, and/or change regional pricing to match your own store. *** Day(s) next to each item in the printable shopping list show which nights use each ingredient, so that you can easily see what to delete if you’re skipping a night or modifying.

Things to know about these meal plans

A couple of notes

I try not to repeat main dish recipes more often than once a month, but you will see favorite easy recipes again in these weekly ALDI meal plans as the same meats and produce items come up again on sale. Part of the fun of meal planning lies in mixing old stand-bys with something new each week.
If one or more of these recipes isn’t to your taste, or if you have other ingredients to use up, adapt the recipes in this ALDI meal plan to your family’s preferences. Or, just use the ideas here to supplement your own meal planning! See: Pantry staples to stock up on and how to modify a meal plan for your family.

** ad markets & dates

This week’s ALDI meal plan reflects prices from the current week’s ad (running 9/11-9/17 in Sunday ad markets, and 9/14-9/20 in Wednesday ad markets). Non-advertised prices are from my local store in the Chicago suburbs. Prices and produce deals *can vary* by location & region. In either ad market, shop any time through Saturday and start cooking on Sunday 9/18/22.

Stay in the meal planning loop

More ways to stay connected:

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Browse all of the weekly ALDI meal plans here *** Note: prices may have changed since originally posted.
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Happy ALDI shopping & cooking this week! If you find this meal plan useful, why not share it with your friends on Facebook so they can save money with ALDI meal planning as well?