Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 11/20/22

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 11/20/22! Let’s cook together through this Thanksgiving week, making everything from a comforting cream cheese pasta bake, to tangy leftover turkey tacos.

Happy Thanksgiving week! Can you believe we’re already almost in December? Yeesh. ANYway: As always, we’re going to be making 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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Meal plans can always be a starting point; just modify your own family dinners around what’s in stock (or on sale) in your area, what’s on hand in your pantry, and dietary needs and preferences.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 11/20/22 – 11/26/22

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

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Before jumping straight into this week’s menu, though, let’s talk briefly about this week’s new ALDI Finds, fall recipes, and news.

Gnomes, popcorn tins, and lambskin boots

ALDI Finds for the week of 11/16/22 include stollen bites, popcorn tins, lambskin boots, holiday inflatables, and even more gnomes — Plus, so much more!

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

Take a minute to let me know what you’re picking up this week. And, one last reminder: Did you see that ALDI is doing a Thanksgiving Price Rewind? From their press release:

ALDI is pleased to introduce the Thanksgiving Price Rewind offering affordable prices on holiday essentials. Starting November 2, holiday favorites ranging from appetizers, desserts, sides and beverages, will match 2019 prices for discounts of up to 30%.

Lastly, new on the Amazon front:

Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include gigantic gummy turkey legs, chip-shaped chip clips, and more!
This HUGE list of HUNDREDS 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 11/20/22. *** Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 11/20/22 – 11/26/22

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 11/20/22

Note: Usually Saturday is pizza/take-a-break-from-cooking night, but this week it’s moved to Weds. due to the holiday. If you have extra room in your budget, add more sides, desserts, or your own faves to Thanksgiving dinner, too!

Sunday

Cream cheese pasta bake with French fried onions — BUT USE ONLY SIX OZ CREAM CHEESE, reserving 2 oz for the end of the week.
Make garlic bread with about half of the sourdough, reserving 8 slices for tomorrow’s sandwiches
Put your turkey in the fridge tonight to thaw for Thursday.

Monday

Roasted asparagus grilled cheese sandwiches (you can also add in a little cheddar if you want, reserving half of the block to shred for Saturday’s recipe)
Cut up some carrots and celery into sticks
Leftover pasta bake from Sunday

Tuesday

Simple ground beef stew — Use one regular carrot instead of baby. Substitute chopped sweet potatoes for russet, reserving one uncooked sweet potato for Thanksgiving. (This will make the stew sweeter, so taste and see if you want to balance it out with more seasonings.)
Heat up the baguette

Wednesday

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

Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving! Roast up your turkey using your own favorite method, and also have:
This is not a green bean casserole
Homemade cranberry sauce (add some of that optional orange zest, plus cinnamon or other seasonings of choice), and
Peel and section out half of the oranges
Tonight: Chop up and reserve the leftover cooked turkey for Friday and Saturday. Also, start a batch of turkey broth going overnight in your slow cooker with turkey bones, water, a roughly chopped carrot, a roughly chopped celery stalk, a little roughly chopped onion, and seasonings of choice. On Friday morning, strain and refrigerate. Skim and discard the fat before using in Friday night’s soup.

Friday

Leftover turkey soup with rice and spinach (use regular spinach)
Side salad made with the rest of the bag of spinach + the garden salad, topped with shredded Parmesan & thinly sliced onion

Saturday

20 minute leftover turkey tacos, topped with chopped avocado & diced onion
Serve with the leftover, leftover turkey soup from Friday and
The rest of the oranges

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 11/19/22

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

Dairy & refrigerated

8 oz brick Happy Farms cream cheese, $1.59
Emporium Selection shredded Parmesan, $2.49
8 oz block Happy Farms cheddar, $2.09
7 oz Emporium Selection deli sliced Havarti, $1.99

Grocery

Specially Selected salsa verde, $2.99
Specially Selected sourdough square, $3.49
Specially Selected French baguette, $1.69
Box of original Earthly Grains long grain & wild rice mix, $1.99
Chef’s Cupboard French fried onions, $2.09
12 oz Reggano farfalle, $.95
24 oz jar Reggano marinara sauce, $1.49
32 oz box Chef’s Cupboard beef broth, $.99
El Milagro flour tortillas, $1.16
Can of Happy Harvest cut green beans, $.49
Can of Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.99

Meat

12 lb frozen Butterball turkey, $12.84
2 lbs 80% lean ground beef, $7.58

Produce

4 lb navel oranges, $2.99
12 oz bag of cranberries, $.99
2 lbs carrots, $1.89
8 oz bag spinach, $1.79
Bag of garden salad, $1.89
1 lb French green beans, $2.39
1 pack of asparagus, $2.39
3 packs 8 oz white mushrooms, $4.47
3 heads garlic, $.99
3 lb bag of yellow onions, $1.69
1.5 lbs sweet potatoes, $.74
1 avocado, $.79
Celery, $.95

That comes to: $70.86

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. Change the mushrooms quantity to three.
2. Change the sweet potatoes quantity to 1.5 lbs, or about three.
3. Make a note to your shopper you want a 12 lb turkey.
4. Make a note to your shopper that you want the cheaper (and better) El Milagro tortillas if available — my store was out, so I listed Pueblo Lindo instead.
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!

Please use the add your list to Instacart feature at your own risk, always double checking your cart against the recipes. It’s a work in progress! Also note that Instacart prices are generally 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, sugar, butter, dijon mustard, flour, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, oregano, Italian seasoning, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, smoked paprika, garlic powder, cayenne, sea salt, black pepper

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 11/13-11/19 in Sunday ad markets, and 11/16-11/22 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 11/20/22.

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?