Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 3/21/21! Spring is almost sprung, and this week, we’re making everything from kielbasa quesadillas to an easy sheet pan tilapia dinner — plus so much more.
As always, use this menu plan as a starting point, modifying it as necessary according to what is in stock in your area, what you have on hand in your pantry, and your own family’s dietary needs and preferences.
Free ALDI meal plan week of 3/21/21 – 3/27/21
Use these meal plans to help restore some rhythm to your weeks, and reclaim some of your time!
*** Subscribe to the weekly ALDI meal plans here ***
But first, what’s new this week?
Easter Cheese, We missed Pi Day, and… Cute Cats?
The cutest little Easter cheese, big bags of meatballs, turkey breakfast sausage… Check out these and 25+ more top ALDI Finds of the week! See my weekly picks, and let me know what strikes your eye from the special buys in the current ad.
It was PI DAY this past Sunday 3/14 — did you miss it? In belated celebration, enjoy a little roundup of mostly savory pie-related recipes.
Lastly, just for funsies: Say hello to some of my furry co-workers in this latest edition of Caturday with the Notorious BKL and Friends. Yes, this is the notorious Bad Kitty Lucy above — she may look innocent, but this morning I found her head-deep into a pack of hot dog buns I’d foolishly left out on the counter. Now, to rework today’s lunch plan…
ALDI Meal Planning week of 3/21/21 – 3/27/21
But without further ado, here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 3/21/21. Pick up everything on the shopping list below, and start cooking on Sunday: As always, six complete dinners for four, $60 out the door.
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
ALDI Meal Plan — start cooking 3/21/21
Sunday
- Lazy Sunday pork & vegetable stew
- Heat up & butter the baguette
Monday
- Easy pork & potato sheet pan dinner (use yellow potatoes)
- Half of the grapes
Tuesday
- Kielbasa quesadillas
- The rest of the grapes
- Cups of leftover stew from Sunday
Wednesday
- Slow cooker very vegetable soup (use yellow potatoes instead of red; crushed tomatoes instead of whole)
- Garden salad with chopped tomatoes
Thursday
- Fajita inspired sheet pan chicken thighs & peppers (just use your last 2 bell peppers, but add more onion if desired)
- Perfect roasted broccoli
Friday
- Sheet pan tilapia dinner (substitute roughly chopped yellow potatoes for baby, dijon for coarse ground mustard)
- Cups of leftover soup from Wednesday
Saturday
- Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), or order in.
ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 3/20/21
With a little wiggle room in this week’s budget, let’s re-stock on a couple of pantry staples, like butter and dijon mustard. Use part in this week’s plan; and have plenty left for future recipes!
Dairy & refrigerated
8 oz block Happy Farms mozzarella, $1.95
Countryside Creamery butter quarters, $2.99
Grocery
Specially Selected French baguette, $1.49
Burman’s dijon mustard, $1.59
El Milagro medium flour tortillas, $.98
32 oz Chef’s Cupboard beef broth, $1.19
32 oz Simply Nature organic vegetable broth, $1.49
14.5 oz can Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.89
28 oz can Happy Harvest crushed tomatoes, $.89
2 cans Happy Harvest whole kernel corn, $.98
2 cans Happy Harvest cut green beans, $.98
1 can Dakotas Pride Great Northern beans, $.59
Meat
2.5 lbs boneless thick-cut pork chops, $7.48
3.25 lbs bone-in chicken thighs, $3.22
Parkview Polska kielbasa, $2.49
1 lb fresh tilapia, $4.99
Produce
2 lbs red grapes, $2.38
2 lbs carrots, $1.29
8 oz bag spinach, $1.49
Bag of garden salad, $1.49
8 oz white mushrooms, $1.89
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, $2.09
1.5 lbs broccoli crowns, $2.24
1 lb asparagus, $1.89
5 lbs yellow potatoes, $3.29
3 lbs yellow onions, $2.49
3 heads garlic, $1.29
3 pack multi-colored bell peppers, $2.99
Celery, $1.49
2 Roma tomatoes, $.40
That comes to: $60.90
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, you can open this in Google Docs or in 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 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, 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 3/14-3/20 in Sunday ad markets, and 3/17-3/23 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 3/21/21.
Stay in the meal planning loop
More ways to stay connected:
- Subscribe here to receive weekly email messages about new ALDI meal 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 with your meal planning & 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.