Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 1/3/21 – 1/9/21

We made it to 2021! This week’s meal plan takes us solidly through the first week of January — Yes, we are back. 🙂

As always, use this menu plan as a starting point, modifying as necessary according to 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 1/3/21 – 1/9/21

As our strange times keep on keeping on, I do hope you can use these meal plans to help restore some rhythm to your weeks.

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

But first, what’s new this week?

ALDI Finds, ALDI News, ALL-DI Recipes!

Get anything good on holiday clearance at ALDI this year? I may have picked up a holiday cat house + tunnel, plus $.97 peppermint creme cookies and more. I mean. It’s not like I already got the three bad kitties a cat scratching playhouse this year or anything…

And here’s some good timing as we’re trying to limit our in-store trips: ALDI now accepts SNAP EBT payments through Instacart for grocery delivery or pickup at over 90% of its stores! More details on using SNAP EBT on Instacart here.

What’s on sale this week? Here are your top twenty ALDI Finds for the week of 12/30/20 — From meal prep containers to Christmas storage, from tortilla strips to quinoa, and… 2021 planners!

Speaking of the top X rundown… how about the top 12 Mashup Mom recipes of 2020? Look back on some favorites, or pick one of these to make this week if one of the meal plan dinners doesn’t work for your family.

Need more ideas? Sure: Let’s try seven savory weeknight dinner recipes, each of which can be on your table in 30 minutes or less.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 1/3/21-1/9/21

But without further ado, here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 1/3/21. Pick up everything on the shopping list below, and start cooking on Sunday: As always, six complete dinners for four, $60 out the door.

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 you have the necessary pantry staples on hand for this week’s ALDI menu plan; see a summary in the printable grocery list below.

Print your meal plan summary + grocery shopping list below this week’s detailed plan.

Six easy dinners from ALDI for $60

ALDI Meal Plan — start cooking 1/3/21

Sunday

• Slow cooker quinoa chicken chili (omit jalapeño), topped with sour cream, chopped green onion, and tortilla strips (reserve some strips for Tues)
• Baguette

Monday

• Cilantro-lime chicken (cut your remaining 2 lbs of chicken breast into 4 equal pieces)
• Cilantro-lime quinoa (halve this recipe, so you have enough quinoa left for Weds.)
• Cups of leftover chili

Tuesday

• Shrimp taco salad, served over spring mix rather than garden salad
• Mandarins

Wednesday

• Southwest quinoa unstuffed peppers
• Mandarins

Thursday

• Creamy avocado pasta with chicken, topped with chopped green onion
• Spring mix salad on the side, topped with any leftover unstuffed peppers from Weds.

Friday

• Four ingredient slow cooker salsa chicken, served in tortillas with the last of the cheddar, sour cream, any remaining chopped green onion, & any leftover spring mix lettuce
• Grapes

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 1/2/20

Dairy & refrigerated

8 oz block Happy Farms cheddar, $1.89
Friendly Farms sour cream, $1.49

Grocery

Specially Selected French baguette, $1.49
12 oz box Reggano rotini, $.99
Tuscan Garden tri-color tortilla strips, $1.29
16 oz Earthly Grains white quinoa, $2.59
32 oz Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, $1.19
3 cans Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $2.67
El Milagro flour tortillas, $.98
Specially Selected 16 oz salsa verde, $1.99
2 cans Casa Mamita diced tomatoes with green chilies, $1.38
Pueblo Lindo chopped mild green chiles, $.69
Packet Casa Mamita taco seasoning mix, $.39
2 cans Happy Harvest whole kernel corn, $.98
4 cans Dakota’s Pride black beans, $1.94
1 can Dakota’s Pride kidney beans, $.49

Meat

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, $6.87
3 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, $5.07
12 oz Fremont Fish Market medium raw shrimp, $4.99

Produce

1 lb green grapes, $1.39
3 lbs mandarins, $2.89
16 oz bag of limes, $1.49
Bunch green onions, $.79
Bunch cilantro, $.69
16 oz organic spring mix, $3.49
3 heads garlic, $1.29
3 lbs yellow onions, $1.89
3 pack multicolored bell peppers, $2.99
Pint grape tomatoes, $1.89
4 avocados, $2.76

That comes to: $60.93

Or, maybe less…! These meals will likely run you 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 produce market. Let me know if you give it a try.

Printable ALDI meal plan & grocery list

*** Download this week’s printable ALDI shopping list and meal plan in Word format. (If you don’t have Word, you can open this in Google Docs or in Wordpad.)

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

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, 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 12/27-1/2 in Sunday ad markets, and 12/30-1/5 in Wednesday ad markets). Non-advertised prices are from my local store in the Chicago suburbs, but non-advertised prices and produce deals *may vary* by location & region. In either ad market, shop any time through Saturday and start cooking on Sunday 1/3/21.

Stay in the meal planning loop

More ways to stay connected:

• Subscribe here to receive weekly email messages about new ALDI meal plans — no spam, just get email notifications about new 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, as well as in the Hot Deals 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 things out with just a few resources to help you with your meal planning & ALDI shopping:

• Almost All ALDI — for more ALDI goodness, ALDI finds, reviews, and more.
• Master list of meal planning resources
• Come join us in the Almost All ALDI Facebook group for recipes, meal planning ideas, ALDI food finds, and more.
• Get cash back for ALDI shopping with cash back offers on the Ibotta app (search “ALDI” at the top of the app, if you can’t find it in the store list) and through the Fetch Rewards app.
• Pick up a pack of meal prep containers, & pack up any dinner leftovers for easy weekday lunches!
• Cute & handy ALDI quarter keepers.
• Check out my Amazon shop for some of my favorite useful items for your own meal planning. Also useful: Two pack insulated grab bag totes, or two pack clip to cart bags.
• Almost All ALDI, the eBook.
• How fun are these ALDI themed t-shirts I have for you guys?!

Lastly: You can always access your current regional ALDI ad here.