Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 10/16/22

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 10/16/22! Cook up everything from Tuscan style white bean & chicken soup to sheet pan gnocchi, sausage, & veggies this week — plus so much more.

It’s Wednesday, we’re about halfway through October, and all thoughts turn to comfort food. (At least, mine do…) As always in these meal plans, we’re doing six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door. Use our weekly menu plan to help bring your family together around home-cooked dinners, and save time & money in the process.

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You can also take any meal plan as a starting point, modifying your own dinners around what’s in stock in your area, what’s on hand in your pantry, and your own family’s dietary needs and preferences.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 10/16/22 – 10/22/22

chicken thighs with potatoes and mushrooms

Cook along with us to 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 about this week’s new ALDI Finds and news.

Gnocchi, meatballs, pumpkins, and more

ALDI Finds for the week of 10/12/22 include Italian Week foods, pumpkin spice (for dogs!), decorative pumpkins, and more.

Check out all of my favorite ALDI Finds of the week here

Let me know what you’re picking up this week.

Then, new on the Amazon front:

Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include novelty UFO earrings (complete with a beaming-up cow), and more!
This HUGE list of subscribe & save filler items is updated every Thursday.

That’s it, so, without further ado, here’s your ALDI meal plan for the week of 10/16/22. *** Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 10/16/22 – 10/22/22

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

sheet pan gnocchi with sausage and veggies

ALDI Meal Plan — start cooking 10/16/22

Sunday

Greek chicken with sweet potatoes & kale
Use and cook up all five lbs of the bone-in chicken breast — but shred the extra meat, reserving about 2 cups of cooked chicken for tomorrow’s recipe

Monday

Tuscan style chicken & white bean soup, topped with Parmesan (omit celery from this recipe; add an extra carrot instead)
Toast up the English muffins on the side

Tuesday

Vegetarian lemon chickpea wraps (cut up Roma tomatoes instead of grape tomatoes, and use spinach instead of spring mix)
Serve these with the leftover soup from Monday

Thursday

Wednesday

Broiled Parmesan pork chops & broccoli
Lemon-glazed carrots (double the recipe)

Friday

Sheet pan gnocchi with sausage & veggies

Saturday

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

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 10/15/22

*** Psst — also check below this grocery list for easy one-stop Instacart shopping!

Dairy & refrigerated

Priano shredded Parmesan, $2.49

Grocery

L’Oven Fresh spinach wraps, $2.99
L’Oven Fresh English muffins, $1.29
32 oz Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, $1.29
17.6 oz Priano potato gnocchi, $1.89
2 cans Dakota’s Pride garbanzo beans (chickpeas), $1.58
2 cans Dakota’s Pride cannellini beans, $1.58
Stonemill minced garlic in water, $2.19

Meat

4 lbs bone-in chicken thighs, $7.16
1.5 lbs thin sliced boneless pork chops, $7.49
5 lbs split chicken breast, $9.95
Parkview Polska kielbasa, $3.49

Produce

2 lbs lemons, $3.99
2 packs 8 oz white mushrooms, $3.78
12 oz bag Simply Nature organic chopped kale, $2.99
Bag of spinach, $1.49
1 lb broccoli crowns, $1.99
1 lb Brussels sprouts, $2.99
2 lbs carrots, $1.89
3 lbs yellow onions, $2.29
24 oz bag dynamic duo potatoes, $2.99
2 sweet potatoes, $1.20
4 Roma tomatoes, $.84
1 avocado, $.99

That comes to: $70.82

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

IMPORTANT! READ BEFORE CHECKING OUT:

You’ll need to check your pantry for staples not included in this Instacart list. See needed pantry staples below.
The list feature doesn’t allow me to add more than one of an item, or to change the weight of items. Before adding the list to your cart, change the following:
1. Add a note to your shopper to pick up a pack of potato gnocchi from the special buys aisle — it didn’t make it into Instacart this week yet
2. Add a note to your shopper that you want a 4-lb pack of the chicken thighs, as close to 1 lb of broccoli as possible, and 5 lbs of the split chicken breast
3. Change the garbanzo beans quantity to two; change the cannellini beans quantity to two
4. Change the mushrooms quantity to two, the tomatoes quantity to four, and sweet potatoes quantity to two
5. Add a single avocado — my store is out, and it won’t let me add it for you!
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 newer feature I’m testing out, so please use at your own risk and always 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 in the above grocery list.

** Pantry staples to check for before shopping: Olive oil, butter, Italian seasoning, oregano, crushed red pepper, black pepper, sea salt, rosemary, smoked paprika, seasoned salt, garlic powder, thyme, parsley, bay leaf, brown sugar, Kosher 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

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 10/9-10/15 in Sunday ad markets, and 10/12-10/18 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 10/16/22.

Stay in the meal planning loop

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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?