Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 12/18/22

It’s your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/18/22, from a sweet & spicy chicken & butternut squash dinner, to basic easy chili! As always: Six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door.

We’re ALDI meal planning all the way up to Christmas Eve this week (SO almost done with 2022!). As always: These weekly menu plans include six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door. Use them to help bring your family together around home-cooked meals, and to help save time & money in the process.

• Be sure to sign up to receive a weekly email alert about each new plan.

Meal plans can be an easy starting point, too; just modify your own family’s dinners around what’s in stock (or on sale) in your area, what’s on hand in your pantry, and any dietary needs or preferences.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 12/18/22 – 12/24/22

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

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

Before jumping straight into this week’s menu, though, let’s talk briefly about this week’s new ALDI Finds & get a couple more updates.

Sweatshirt dresses and keto dinner rolls

ALDI Finds for the week of 12/14/22 include their comfy sweatshirt dress, Lacura eyeshadow, little personal planners, keto dinner rolls, beef tenderloin, and more — plus, new seasonal holiday Finds to check out.

*** All of my favorite ALDI Finds of the week, here. ***

But wait, there’s more…

Lastly, new on the Amazon front:

• Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include options for the kid at heart, from a farting poop emoji ninja pen to cat butt refrigerator magnets. Think white elephant gifts…
• 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 12/18/22. *** Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 12/18/22 – 12/24/22

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 12/18/22

Sunday

• Low carb taco casserole, served with sliced avocados
• Cucumbers & onions in sour cream (use regular pepper if you don’t have white)
• Half of the grapes

Monday

• Roasted cauliflower, potato, & corn chowder (you’ll likely need only one of the larger baking potatoes), topped with chopped green onion
• Side salad, made with the spinach/arugula mix

Tuesday

• Basic easy chili, topped with the rest of the cheddar and chopped green onion
• Serve this over roasted spaghetti squash
• Warm up the baguette and have that on the side

Wednesday

• Sausage & sweet potato sheet pan dinner
• The rest of the grapes
• If you have leftover soup from Monday, enjoy cups of that as well

Thursday

• Sweet & spicy chicken with butternut squash (use 2.5 lbs chicken)
• Roasted broccoli (just do it at 400 instead of 425 on a second baking pan in the oven along with the chicken, for a few minutes longer than the original recipe calls for)

Friday

• Fajita-inspired sheet pan chicken thighs & peppers (use 3 lbs chicken)
• Baked potatoes, topped with sour cream & chopped green onion (start these in the 425 degree oven about 20-30 minutes before you start the chicken & peppers)

Saturday

• Enjoy your own Christmas Eve tradition!

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 12/17/22

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

Dairy & refrigerated

Friendly Farms sour cream, $1.99
12 oz bag Happy Farms shredded sharp cheddar, $2.99
Half gallon Friendly Farms whole milk, $1.99

Grocery

Specially Selected French baguette, $1.69
32 oz box Simply Nature organic vegetable broth, $1.89
1 can Dakota’s Pride black beans, $.71
1 can Dakota’s Pride kidney beans, $.79
1 can Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.91
1 can Happy Harvest tomato paste, $.69
1 can Happy Harvest whole kernel corn, $.51

Meat

Parkview Polska kielbasa, $3.49
5.5 lb family pack bone-in chicken thighs, $9.85
2 lbs 80/20 ground beef, $7.58

Produce

3 lbs red grapes, $4.77
2 heads of cauliflower, $3.78
1 lb broccoli, $1.99
1 cucumber, $.69
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, $1.99
Bunch of green onions, $.89
Simply Nature organic arugula & spinach mix, $2.89
3 lbs yellow onions, $1.59
3 heads garlic, $1.49
5 lb bag baking potatoes, $4.99
1 large sweet potato, $.65
2 lb butternut squash, $1.78
2 lb spaghetti squash, $1.78
3 pack multi-colored bell peppers, $3.49
2 avocados, $1.58

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That comes to: $69.43

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.

Shop this week’s meal plan with Instacart

Easy-peasy: *** Add this week’s grocery list to your Instacart. ***

IMPORTANT! READ BEFORE CHECKING OUT:

1. You’ll need to check your pantry for staples not included in this Instacart list. See needed pantry staples, below.
2. The list feature doesn’t allow me to add more than one of an item, or to change the weight of items. So: Before adding the list to your cart, change the following
   1. Change the weight on the grapes to 3 lbs; change the weight on the broccoli to 1 lb; change the weight on each of the squashes to 2 lbs.
   2. Change the weight on the chicken thighs to 5.5 lbs
   3. Change the quantity of cauliflower to two; change the quantity of avocados to two.
3. Click “add” on any items you want to place in your cart; omit any items you don’t want or already have.
4. 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 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, butter, brown sugar, sugar, cocoa powder, Kosher salt, seasoned salt, sea salt, salt, cumin, oregano, basil, onion powder, smoked paprika, sage, cinnamon, Italian seasoning, black pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne

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

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 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 12/11-12/17 in Sunday ad markets, and 12/14-12/20 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 12/18/22.

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.

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 out our week with some additional resources on meal planning & ALDI shopping:

• How to cook around grocery shortages
• Master list of meal planning resources
• Get cash back for ALDI shopping, with cash back offers on the Ibotta app and through the Fetch Rewards app.
• Pick up a pack of meal prep containers, & pack up any dinner leftovers for easy weekday lunches. Also useful: Two pack insulated grab bag totes, or two pack clip to cart bags.
• Check out these cute & handy ALDI quarter keepers.
• How fun are these ALDI themed t-shirts I have for you guys?!

Lastly: Access your current regional ALDI ad here.