Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 10/8/23

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 10/8/23 — and it’s a GOOD one, you guys! This week we’re cooking up everything from loaded potato naan pizza to sweet & spicy chicken with butternut squash, plus so much more.

Happy October! Fall foods are now on my mind, as well as on the menu — how about over at your house? Anyway: Just a quick reminder that our ALDI meal plans are no longer posted every week. But, THIS particular week is indeed a meal planning week over here, so read on for all of your:

Easy family dinner recipes for the week of 10/8/23
An editable, printable shopping list to take to the store
An easy add-to-Instacart list for pickup or delivery, and
Six nights of sitting down to easy & affordable meals!

Our easy ALDI meal plans feature six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door. Bring your family together around the table for six straight nights, and save time & money in the process.

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Use any of my meal plans as an easy starting point, modifying your own family’s weekly dinner menu around what’s in stock (or on sale) in your area, what’s on hand in your pantry, and/or dietary needs and preferences.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 10/8/23 – 10/14/23

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

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Before jumping straight into our menu, though, let’s talk briefly about this week’s new ALDI Finds.

Halloween cheese and pretty fresh flowers

My fave ALDI Finds for the week of 10/4/23 include Halloween-shaped pizza, Halloween-shaped cheese, fresh flowers, patio furniture covers, and more!

*** Five Fave ALDI Finds of the week, here ***

Check out this week’s picks (and more pix!), and let me know what you want to Find. Then extend your savings just a little further on Amazon, with this huge list of HUNDREDS of subscribe & save filler items.

And now, with no further ado, here’s your easy ALDI meal plan for the week of 10/8/23. *** Be sure to sign up for our emails, so that you never miss a new meal plan post or Mashup Mom update! ***

ALDI Meal Planning week of 10/8/23 – 10/14/23

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 10/8/23

chicken thighs with potatoes & mushrooms

Sunday

Sheet pan chicken thighs with potatoes & mushrooms (cut up yellow potatoes, instead of using little ones)
Carrots need butter & thyme (cut up 4-5 of the regular size carrots instead of using baby ones, and start these in the oven a bit after you put in the chicken so that everything finishes around the same time)

Monday

Sweet & spicy chicken with butternut squash
Cut up and steam half of the broccoli; toss it with shredded cheddar to melt

Tuesday

Loaded potato naan pizza
Half of the grapes

Wednesday

Sheet pan balsamic chicken drumsticks with carrots & asparagus (use about 3 carrots, reserving the last couple for Friday’s recipe)
Cut up some of the honeycrisp apples

Thursday

Sheet pan rosemary chicken drumsticks with broccoli & potatoes
The rest of the grapes
Any remaining apples

Friday

Squash-age harvest vegetable stew
Heat up the baguette
Garden salad, topped with chopped green onion & chopped tomatoes

Saturday

Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), carryout, mix it up!

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 10/7/23

*** Check below this grocery list for Easy One-Stop Instacart Shopping, as well as an editable & printable list. ***

Dairy & refrigerated

Emporium Selection garlic & herb cheese spread, $3.69
12 oz bag Happy Farms shredded sharp cheddar, $2.99

Grocery

Specially Selected naan, $4.49
Specially Selected French baguette, $1.69
32 oz box Simply Nature organic chicken broth, $1.89
8 oz Stonemill minced garlic in water, $2.29
Can Dakota’s Pride garbanzo beans (chickpeas), $.79
Can Happy Harvest cut green beans, $.69
Can Happy Harvest tomato paste, $.74

Meat & seafood

Parkview Polksa kielbasa, $2.59
2.5 oz bag Tuscan Garden bacon bits, $1.69
4.25 lb family pack Perdue chicken drumsticks, $4.21
6.5 lb family pack bone-in chicken thighs, $10.34

Produce

3 lbs green grapes, $4.47
2 lbs honeycrisp apples, $2.49
2 lbs carrots, $1.69
1 lb asparagus, $2.89
1.5 lbs broccoli crowns, $2.24
Bunch green onions, $.85
8 oz white mushrooms, $1.89
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, $2.09
8 oz bag of spinach, $1.49
Bag of garden salad, $1.79
3 lbs yellow onions, $2.49
5 lbs yellow potatoes, $3.49
1 butternut squash, $1.77
1 acorn squash, $1.18
3 Roma tomatoes, $.84

That comes to: $69.75

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 have on hand, and/or sale produce from a 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:

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 multiples of a single item or to change the weight of items, and the meat special buys often don’t show up. So: Before adding the list to your cart, change these quantities and make the following notes.
1. Changes and additions
  - Add broccoli crowns and make a note that you want 1.5 lbs of these — they’re currently out of stock by me, so Instacart won’t even let me add to the list for you today.
2. Notes for your shopper:
  - Make a note that you want a 4.25 lb family pack of the PERDUE chicken drumsticks special buy that are $.99/lb (if available in your area) instead of the $1.29/lb regular family pack that I’ve substituted in here.
  - Make a note that you want a 6.5 lb pack of the chicken thighs.
  - Make a note that you want three Roma tomatoes.

When using the add your list to Instacart feature, always double check your cart against the grocery list above, and see the notes and quantity changes above.

** Pantry staples to check for before shopping: Olive oil, butter, brown sugar balsamic vinegar, honey, rosemary, paprika, smoked paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, rosemary, Italian seasoning, cayenne, cinnamon, thyme, seasoned salt, sea salt, Kosher salt, black pepper, salad dressing of choice

Instacart prices are higher than in store, so your total will be higher than shown in the above grocery list.

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, or:
- Download in .rtf format
- Download in PDF format
If you don’t have Word, open the shopping list in Google Docs or Wordpad.

Edit and add in your own meal ideas, remove items you have on hand, and/or change regional pricing to match your 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.

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 10/1-10/7 in Sunday ad markets, and 10/4-10/10 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 10/8/23.

Stay in the meal planning loop

More ways to stay connected:

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Browse through every ALDI meal plan 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?