Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 12/25/22

It’s your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/25/22: Christmas ham, butternut squash & kale pasta, skillet pork chops & green beans, and much, much more!

We’re meal planning all the way from Christmas to New Year’s Eve this week, in our very last meal plan of 2022. Yes, this plan even includes Christmas dinner for four! As always: These weekly menu plans contain six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door. Use them to help bring your family together around home-cooked meals, and to help save time & money in the process.

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

Meal plans can be an easy starting point, too; just modify your own family’s dinners around what’s in stock (or on sale) in your area, what’s on hand in your pantry, and any dietary needs or preferences.

THERE WILL BE NO NEW MEAL PLAN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS — I AM SPENDING WINTER BREAK WITH FAMILY. THE NEXT PLAN WILL BE PUBLISHED ON 1/11/23!

See you all again in the New Year, for a whole new round of cooking, planning, and enjoying home-cooked meals together.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 12/25/22 – 12/31/22

Cook along with us and answer the never-ending question: What’s for dinner?

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

Before jumping straight into this week’s menu, though, let’s talk briefly about this week’s new ALDI Finds & get a couple more updates.

Strudels and Chicken Nuggets

ALDI Finds for the week of 12/21/22 include some German Week foods (like Bavarian soft pretzels & sweet strudels), some convenience foods (like chicken Cordon Bleu, chicken nuggets, and meatballs), and some holiday organization products (like Christmas tree bags and holiday light organizers). Check out this week’s picks and let me know what you want to Find!

*** All of my favorite ALDI Finds of the week, here. ***

In case you missed this one a couple weeks back, we’ve had a lot of fun cooking together over the past year, haven’t we? Let’s look back on some of that fun, with the top ten Mashup Mom recipes from 2022! Let me know your own faves, too.

Lastly, new on the Amazon front:

• Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include Freudian slippers, a “raining men” umbrella, and more.
• This HUGE list of HUNDREDS of subscribe & save filler items is updated every Thursday.

Without further ado, here’s your ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/25/22. *** Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 12/25/22 – 12/31/22

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, 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 12/25/22

Sunday

• Happy Holidays! Enjoy a Christmas ham — do it up in the Crock-Pot, or use your own favorite method.
• Basic baked potatoes (make 2-3 extras, and keep in fridge to use on Tuesday)
• Parmesan Brussels sprouts
• Bake up the biscuits
• Cut up the pineapple
• Make ham broth in your slow cooker overnight, using the instructions in tomorrow’s soup recipe.

Monday

• Leftover ham soup (use russet potatoes)
• Heat up the baguette
• Make salad by chopping up half of the romaine, and top that with sliced mini cucumbers, a little shredded Parmesan, and thinly sliced onion

Tuesday

• Skillet pork sirloin & green beans
• Super seasoned pan fried potatoes
• Dice up a couple of the cooked chops and keep in the fridge for Thursday’s recipe, still leaving 1 1/2 pork chops for each person.

Wednesday

• Ham hand pies with spinach — brush these with a little melted butter to help them brown, if you don’t have an egg on hand
• Sauteed everything bagel zucchini with Parmesan — If you don’t have everything bagel seasoning, use some sea salt, black pepper, and a little garlic instead

Thursday

• Salsa verde pork & spinach baked taquitos (add some of the salsa verde to jazz up the filling, since you’re using plain cooked pork)
• Spicy potato wedges, with some of the salsa verde if you like. Start in oven 1/2 hour before the taquitos and drop the temp to 425 for the last 15 minutes; substitute a bit of dried parsley for fresh. Lastly: See comments on that recipe; I’d cut down a bit on the butter & olive oil.

Friday

• Butternut squash & kale browned butter pasta
• Salad made with the rest of the romaine, diced avocado, and diced tomatoes

Saturday

• Enjoy your own New Year’s Eve tradition!

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 12/24/22

*** Psst — check below this grocery list for easy one-stop Instacart shopping, as well as an easy-print version.

Dairy & refrigerated

Countryside Creamery butter quarters, $3.49
Happy Farms 8 oz block cream cheese, $1.59
Emporium Selection shredded Parmesan, $2.49
8 oz block Happy Farms cheddar, $2.09
Bake House Creations refrigerated pie crust, $1.99
Bake House Creations jumbo flaky biscuits, $1.49

Grocery

Specially Selected salsa verde, $3.49
Specially Selected French baguette, $1.69
Pack of El Milagro flour tortillas, $1.16
12 oz Reggano farfalle, $.95
2 cans Happy Harvest diced tomatoes, $1.78
1 can Happy Harvest diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, & oregano, $.89
2 cans Dakota’s Pride cannellini beans, $1.58

Meat

2 lb boneless pork sirloin roast, $3.58
12 lb Appleton Farms spiral-sliced half ham, $10.20

Produce

Pineapple, $1.69
16 oz green beans, $1.79
12 oz bag Simply Nature organic chopped kale, $2.99
8 oz bag of spinach, $1.79
5 oz Simply Nature organic baby spinach, $2.99
Pack of 3 hearts of romaine, $3.49
16 oz Brussels sprouts, $2.29
16 oz mini cucumbers, $1.89
3 lbs yellow onions, $1.69
20 oz zucchini, $1.74
2 lb butternut squash, $1.78
10 lb bag russet potatoes, $3.99
3 heads garlic, $1.49
Celery, $1.39
2 Roma tomatoes, $.38
1 avocado, $.79

---

That comes to: $70.63

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.

Shop this week’s meal plan with Instacart

Easy-peasy: *** Add this week’s grocery list to your Instacart. ***

IMPORTANT! READ BEFORE CHECKING OUT:

1. You’ll need to check your pantry for staples not included in this Instacart list. See needed pantry staples, below.
2. The list feature doesn’t allow me to add more than one of an item, or to change the weight of items. So: Before adding the list to your cart, change the following
   1. Change the weight of your ham to 12 lbs.
   2. The sirloin pork roast is a meat special buy that didn’t make it into Instacart; add a note to your shopper to look for and purchase a 2 lb boneless sirloin pork roast.
   3. Change the quantity of diced tomatoes to 2.
   4. Change the weight on the zucchini to 1.25 lbs, and the weight on your butternut squash to 2 lbs.
   5. Change the Roma tomatoes quantity to 2.
   6. If your store doesn’t have El Milagro tortillas in stock, substitute another brand.
3. Click “add” on any items you want to place in your cart, and omit any items you don’t want or already have.
4. Just add anything else you need for the week to your cart, and check out!

Please use the add your list to Instacart feature at your own risk, always double checking your cart against the recipes. Also note that Instacart prices are higher than in store, so your total will be higher than shown in the above grocery list.

** Pantry staples to check for before shopping: Olive oil, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, smoked paprika, cayenne, cumin, chili powder, Kosher salt, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, sage, seasoned salt, parsley, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, black pepper, sea salt

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

1. 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.
2. 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 12/18-12/24 in Sunday ad markets, and 12/21-12/27 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 12/25/22.

Stay in the meal planning loop

More ways to stay connected:

• *** Subscribe here to receive weekly email messages about new ALDI meal plans.
• Browse all of the weekly ALDI meal plans here *** Note: prices may have changed since originally posted.
• Come over and join us on Facebook in the Almost All ALDI group.

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?

Resources for meal planning & ALDI shopping

Let’s close out our week with some additional resources on meal planning & ALDI shopping:

• How to cook around grocery shortages
• Master list of meal planning resources
• Get cash back for ALDI shopping, with cash back offers on the Ibotta app and through the Fetch Rewards app.
• Pick up a pack of meal prep containers, & pack up any dinner leftovers for easy weekday lunches. Also useful: Two pack insulated grab bag totes, or two pack clip to cart bags.
• Check out these cute & handy ALDI quarter keepers.
• How fun are these ALDI themed t-shirts I have for you guys?!

Lastly: Access your current regional ALDI ad here.