Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 3/15/20 – 3/21/20

It’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 3/15/20: Pick up everything on the shopping list below, then start cooking on Sunday. As always: Six complete dinners for four, $60 out the door!

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

Find the meal plan below; just a little super-quick Finds & food first.

Lobster roll dip, ALDI pantry meals, seafood recipe roundup…

Such a crazy week, I tells ya… First up, let’s talk ALDI pantry meals (when you won’t be able to get out to the store for a while).

What are you stocking up on? Beyond ALDI food items, I also stock up on household & health supplies with Amazon subscribe & save.

Then, let’s round up this week’s ALDI Finds of fun — everything from lobster roll dip to a Baby Shark suitcase (and so much more).

Lastly, how about 12 quick & easy seafood recipes (for Lent, or for any busy weeknight).

ALDI Meal Planning week of 3/15/20 – 3/21/20

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 $60.00

ALDI Meal Plan — Start cooking 3/15/20

Note: Because bags of pollock are on a great sale this week, Wednesday and Friday’s recipes substitute pollock for the original fish used in order to keep us under budget. Cooking times are similar (as always, depending on thickness — cook until fish flakes easily with a fork), and the flavor will still be lovely. 🙂

I also changed the formatting up a little this week to make the meal plan easier to read and follow — what do you think?

Sunday

• Tortellini soup with chicken. First trim & cook up half of the chicken tenderloins in a skillet over medium-high heat with a little olive oil, sea salt, & pepper until cooked through, then chop up the cooked chicken to use in the soup.
• On the side, serve the strawberries along with toasted & buttered English muffins.

Monday

• Lemon garlic chicken with potatoes & carrots (use tenderloin instead of thighs).

Tuesday

• Slow cooker corned beef & carrots. If desired, also cut half of the head of cabbage into large chunks and add those to the slow cooker for the last 2 hours of cooking.
• On the side: Boil half the green beans in salted water until tender. Drain and run under cold water in a colander. Then, add a little olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat and throw the cooked green beans, a little minced garlic, and the rest of your bag of spinach in there. Season everything with sea salt, black pepper, and just a teeny splash of lemon juice, sauteing until spinach is wilted.

Wednesday

• Sheet pan pollock & green beans with lemon garlic butter (substitute pollock for salmon; cook until it flakes easily with a fork; reserve the other half of the bag for Friday)
• On the side, have half of the grapes and oven roasted red potatoes.
• To make the potatoes: Dice up 2 lbs potatoes and toss with olive oil, seasoned salt, black pepper, & Italian seasoning to taste. Roast on a rimmed baking sheet at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until tender, stirring half way through — so, get these started in the oven 15 minutes before the fish, & put the fish & green beans pan in when you stir the potatoes at their halfway point.

Thursday:

• Egg roll in a noodle bowl
• Mandarins and grapes on the side

Friday

• Easy pollock & asparagus packets (substitute pollock for flounder; increase cooking time a bit if thicker fillets aren’t cooked through).
• On the side, garlic mashed potatoes (use red potatoes, topping with chopped green onion if desired), and mandarins.

Saturday

• Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), eat out, or date night.

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 3/14/20

Dairy & refrigerated

1 lb Countryside Creamery butter quarters, $2.35 (we’re using butter several times this week, so let’s restock!)
9 oz Priano three cheese tortellini, $1.99
Priano shredded Parmesan, $1.99

Grocery

L’Oven Fresh English muffins, $1.19
2 boxes 32 oz Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, $2.58
Simply Nature organic black soybean spaghetti, $2.75
Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.89
Stonemill minced garlic in water, $1.79

Meat

2.5 lbs chicken tenderloins, $4.98
3 lbs flat cut corned beef, $8.97
2 lbs wild caught pollock (frozen), $4.99
16 oz Kirkwood frozen ground turkey, $1.99

Produce

Head of cabbage, $.89
2 lbs lemons, $2.89
1 lb strawberries, $1.19
2 lbs green grapes, $2.38
3 lbs mandarins, $2.49
Bunch green onions, $.69
2 lbs carrots, $.95
8 oz bag spinach, $1.39
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, $1.89
1 lb green beans, $1.69
1 lb asparagus, $2.29
3 lbs yellow onions, $1.89
5 lbs red potatoes, $2.49
Celery, $1.19

That comes to: $60.77.

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, open this in Google Docs or 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 the ALDI 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 3/8-3/14 in Sunday ad markets, and 3/11-3/17 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 3/15/20.

Stay in the ALDI 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 out with your meal planning and 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.