Let’s take our meal planning into OCTOBER: It’s totally fall, y’all! This week’s ALDI meal plan runs from 9/27/20 – 10/3/20.
As always, use this plan as a starting point, modifying 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 9/27/20 – 10/3/20
As our strange times keep on keeping on, I do hope you can use these meal plans to help restore some rhythm to your weeks.
*** Subscribe to the weekly ALDI meal plans here ***
But, what’s new this week?
New Naan, Fall Flavors, and Meal Prep Containers
From meal prep containers to pumpkin cinnamon rolls, from hand sanitizer to sweet potato waffle fries, from a new kind of naan to Halloween pumpkins — and more Finds from this week’s ALDI ad. See all of my favorite Finds of the week, here.
ALDI Meal Planning week of 9/27/20 – 10/3/20
But without further ado, here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 9/27/20. 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 9/27/20
Note: Because the sale family pack of ground beef this week is 73% lean, it will cook down quite a bit — so use 1.25+ lbs in each of the beef recipes, rather than 1 lb, depending on how meaty you want them. Freeze any leftover ground beef for another week.
Sunday
- Sheet pan Parmesan chicken drumsticks with carrots & potatoes (use two regular carrots, chopped, and one smaller baking potato)
- Roasted Brussels sprouts & butternut squash (use dried thyme to taste, and cook at 400 degrees alongside the chicken; may take a few minutes longer)
Monday
- Butternut squash & kale browned butter pasta
- Warm up the baguette
- Chop up and steam up the broccoli. and top it with half of the cheddar, shredded, along with a little sea salt and/or seasonings of choice
Tuesday
- Keema inspired ground beef quesadillas (use 1.25 lbs ground beef)
- On the side, warm up the rest of the bag of peas in a small saucepan with a little butter, minced garlic, salt, and pepper to taste until heated through over medium heat, stirring occasionally
- Enjoy some of the mandarins
Wednesday
- Simple ground beef stew (use 1.25 lbs ground beef & substitute 1-2 regular carrots, diced)
- Sliced apples
- Side salad made with half the romaine, half the tomatoes, and half the cucumber
Thursday
- Basic easy chili (use 1.25 lbs ground beef)
- Bake up the rest of the potatoes and serve chili over 1/2-1 baked potato per person (depending on how many you have left, and the carb/hunger level of the people you are serving)
- Mandarins on the side
Friday
- Instant Pot kale sausage soup — No Instant Pot? Make in a big pot on the stove top. After sauteing the sausage, carrots, onions, & garlic and adding all of the other ingredients, bring to a boil, then simmer on medium low until vegetables are tender. Wilt in the kale at the end just the same.
- Slice up the rest of your apples
- Side salad made with with the rest of your romaine, halved grape tomatoes, chopped cucumber
Saturday
- Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), or order in.
ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 9/26/20
Dairy & refrigerated
Priano shredded Parmesan, $1.99
Happy Farms 8 oz block mozzarella, $1.65
Happy Farms 8 oz block cheddar, $1.65
Frozen
16 oz Season’s Choice frozen peas, $.99
Grocery
Specially Selected French baguette, $1.19
32 oz Chef’s Cupboard beef broth, $1.29
32 oz Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, $1.29
12 oz Reggano farfalle, $.99
Can Happy Harvest green beans, $.49
8 oz Happy Harvest tomato sauce, $.29
6 oz can Happy Harvest tomato paste, $.39
3 cans of Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $2.67
Can of Simply Nature organic black beans, $.89
Can of Simply Nature organic kidney beans, $.89
Can of Dakota’s Pride Great Northern beans, $.59
12 ct El Milagro flour tortillas, $.98
Meat
Parkview Polska kielbasa, $2.35
2.5 lbs chicken drumsticks, $3.23
5 lbs 73% ground beef, $7.95
Produce
3 lb butternut squash, $2.07
3 lbs Gala apples, $1.49
3 lbs mandarins, $2.69
1 lb Brussels sprouts, $2.89
2 lbs carrots, $1.29
12 oz Simply Nature organic chopped kale, $2.99
3 hearts of romaine, $2.29
Cucumber, $.59
8 oz mushrooms, $1.89
16 oz broccoli crowns, $1.49
3 heads garlic, $1.19
3 lbs yellow onions, $1.89
5 lbs baking potatoes, $3.49
Pint grape tomatoes, $1.89
That comes to: $59.90
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, 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 9/20-9/26 in Sunday ad markets, and 9/23-9/29 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 9/27/20.
Stay in the 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 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.