Here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 10/15/17: Pick up everything on the shopping list below, then start cooking on Sunday.

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And before you go to ALDI this week, who needs one of these cute & handy ALDI quarter keepers?! Lots of options here…

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But back to this week’s ALDI meal plan…

Let’s get ready to make six complete dinners for a family of four, just $60.00 out the door! Hope you find the free ALDI meal plans useful.

ALDI meal planning week of 10/15/17 – 10/21/17

I’m assuming here that you already have pantry basics like cooking oil, condiments, and spices, although there was room in the budget this week to add both soy sauce and Gochujang to your stash. 🙂 *** Read through the recipes before you shop to make sure you have the necessary pantry staples on hand.

Six Easy Dinners from ALDI for $60.00

ALDI meal plan — Start cooking 10/15/17

*** NOTE: A couple of this week’s recipes use Sriracha. I went to ALDI today, and my store had stocked specialty Asian sauces where the Sriracha used to be. If your store also doesn’t carry Sriracha this week and you don’t have any at home, substitute Gochujang from that special buy sauces section instead — it should work fine for the purpose of these recipes, and I’ve included it in this week’s grocery list.

Sunday: Sticky balsamic chicken drumsticks with a side of rice (see above note about using Gochujang), plus kale & red onion (use half the bag of kale; reserve half for Weds., and stir the sauteed kale & red onion right on into the rice if you like). Tonight you’ll want to make a double batch of balsamic drumsticks using 4 lbs of the chicken and shred the leftovers for Monday; also reserve 4 cups cooked rice for Monday’s recipe.
Monday: Spicy chicken fried rice (omit sesame oil if you don’t have on hand; use red onion instead of white). Have blackberries and pineapple on the side, plus Fusia egg rolls for a treat. 🙂
Tuesday: Baked dry rub chicken drumsticks, with sweet & spicy baked cauliflower and sliced honeycrisp apples on the side. Put the cauliflower in the oven about 20 minutes into the cooking time for the drumsticks, and substitute a little less honey if you don’t have maple syrup on hand. Reserve 1/3-1/2 a head of cauliflower for Thursday, depending on size.
Wednesday: Harvest vegetable rice bowls. On the side, easy egg drop soup.
Thursday: Harvest veggie & sausage sheet pan dinner, honeycrisp apples, and garlic mini potatoes.
Friday: Spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms & peas. (Use 8 oz mushrooms instead of 16 oz; use all 12 oz bacon and the rest of your bag of frozen peas from Monday.) On the side: Open up that Caesar salad kit, and make garlic bread with the Italian bread.
Saturday: Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells a nice big take-and-bake deli pizza), eat out, or date night.

ALDI shopping list — Shop through 10/14/17

Dairy & refrigerated

Dozen Goldhen eggs, $.98
Priano shredded Parmesan, $1.99

Frozen

16 oz Season’s Choice frozen peas, $.95
Fusia egg rolls, $2.49

Grocery

Cook House Gochujang, $2.39
Fusia soy sauce, $1.49
3 lbs Earthly Grains white rice, $1.29
Can Dakota’s Pride chickpeas (garbanzo beans), $.65
16 oz SimplyNature organic spaghetti, $1.19
Box of SimplyNature organic chicken broth, $1.79
Specially Selected Italian bread, $1.69

Meat

6.5 lbs chicken drumsticks, $5.14
12 oz Appleton Farms center cut bacon, $4.59
12 oz Never Any chicken sausage, $2.99

Produce

Green onions, $.89
3 heads garlic, $1.19
2 lbs carrots, $1.19
2 lbs red onions, $2.19
2 acorn squash, $1.98
Two 8 oz white mushrooms, $2.98
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, $1.89
12 oz SimplyNature organic chopped kale, $3.49
Two heads cauliflower, $5.38
Blackberries, $1.39
Pineapple, $1.29
2 lb honeycrisp apples, $1.99
Little Salad Bar Caesar salad kit, $1.99
24 oz bag of bite size medley potatoes, $2.99

That comes to $60.45.

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!

For your ALDI shopping: Who needs one of these cute & handy ALDI quarter keepers?! Lots of options here…

Download this week’s shopping list in Word format so that you can 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 the ALDI 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 come up 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, 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.

Ad markets and dates

This week’s ALDI meal plan reflects prices from the current week’s ad (running 10/8-10/14 in Sunday ad markets and 10/11-10/17 in Wednesday ad markets). Non-advertised prices were collected on 10/11/17 at 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 10/15/17.

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Happy ALDI shopping and cooking this week, everyone!

Mrs. M

Tuesday 17th of October 2017

There might not be regular sriracha (the one with the rooster) anymore because they stopped production in May of this year. Apparently, the family who makes it was getting really sick from the production/processing of working with chili.

rachel

I think that is actually a false news story that was going around. Back in 2014 there was a lawsuit alleging the factory was affecting air quality nearby, but the only story that it was shutting down in May comes from some weird site that's not a reputable news site.

Jessica

Thank you so much for the meal plans! We have been using them for over a month and after each grocery trip my husband always asks me how you give the plans away for free and not charge (we are very grateful that they are free for our budget but they are definitely worth money!). I have been doing Weight Watchers since March and love that all these meals are pretty decent points wise and I have still been able to lose weight. I also love that for the first time in my life I am actually getting close to the recommended amount of fruits and veggies! Growing up my mom made a handful of fast homemade meals but the other times were processed food from the frozen aisle that was quick to make (can't blame her with 4 kids and having an hour drive home from work it was what she could do to get a meal on the table at a decent time). However, those eating habits than transferred to me when I got married (hubby was also use to it from growing up with his mom). For the first 3 years of our marriage it was processed food or quick things like tator tot casserole and spaghetti. So glad to be making almost all homemade meals and seeing my 21 month old son actually try new veggies and like them!

Stacey

Monday 16th of October 2017

I want to try your meal plan but I have a step daughter that won't eat alto of these can u try and make a meal plan just for kids she is age 15

Hi Stacey - Unfortunately I'm not able to make multiple plans, sorry. There are often reasons all the meals in a plan won't work for every family, so you might find this post useful on how to modify a meal plan for your family: https://www.mashupmom.com/modify-meal-plan-family/

Lauren

Sunday 15th of October 2017

I've been using your meal plans since about July. I tell anyone who will listen about them. I just want to say thank you so much! Solving the riddle of food that is healthy (ish), fits my budget, sometimes is ready quickly and my kid will eat has been so much stress out of my life. Thank you thank you thank you. I love coming a shopping again.

Jen

Thanks so much for your hard work on meal plans every week!! My family frequently benefits from your meal plans!! ;) I wondered (and it may be on the blog somewhere-I looked around a little and didn't see it), how long do you spend meal planning weekly? Do you use the aldi sale ad or just what you know they typically have? And finally, how often do you vary from your meal plan--do you keep backup meals ready (freezer or heat and eat prepackaged meals)? Thanks again!!

Hi Jen -- Glad that the meal plans are useful! I spend more time on meal planning weekly than a typical person might since I'm doing the plan to write up for the site -- and since I'm often coming up with new recipes to use in these and cooking and testing them out a week or two before, I don't necessarily follow my own plans, lol.

I do use the sale ad (which is why there is a note in the post about ad dates), so will often use the sale meats, produce, and limited time special buy items, for instance. I go to ALDI every Weds. am to collect in-store prices (which do of course vary by store, but it tends to often average out). You might find this post useful on how to modify a meal plan for your family: https://www.mashupmom.com/modify-meal-plan-family/