Here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/24/17: Pick up everything on the shopping list below, then start cooking on Sunday!

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Useful resources for meal planning + ALDI shopping

Before we get started this week, here are a few resources to help you out with your meal planning and ALDI shopping:

Come join us in the BRAND NEW Almost All ALDI Facebook group, where we are sharing and chatting about recipes, meal planning ideas, ALDI food finds, and more.
Check out my new Amazon shop, which is full of cooking-related gift ideas plus some of my favorite useful items for your own meal planning!
Pantry staples to stock up on
How to modify a meal plan for your family
Cute & handy ALDI quarter keepers
Two pack insulated grab bag totes, and two pack clip to cart bags.
This week’s ALDI ad
Almost All ALDI, the eBook

But back to this week’s ALDI meal plan…

Let’s get ready to make six complete dinners for a family of four, just $60.00 out the door! Hope you find the free ALDI meal plans useful.

ALDI meal planning week of 12/24/17 – 12/30/17

I’m assuming here that you already have pantry basics like cooking oil, condiments, and spices. 🙂 *** Read through the recipes before you shop to make sure you have the necessary pantry staples on hand.

Six Easy Dinners from ALDI for $60.00

This is a non-typical meal planning week for many of you, with both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in there. If you’re at family’s for Christmas or will be cooking for a crowd, just skip ahead to the 26th or pick and choose what meals to make when the leftovers run out! 🙂

ALDI meal plan — Start cooking 12/24/17

Sunday: Ham in the Crock-Pot — Or do yours in the oven per package directions, if you prefer. Serve your ham with crescent rolls, oven roasted potatoes (dice and toss with seasoned salt, olive oil, Italian seasoning, a few whole garlic cloves and black pepper to taste and roast on a rimmed baking sheet at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, stir, roast another 10), and oven roasted asparagus (toss with olive oil, sea salt, a little crushed red or black pepper to taste, then roast at 425 degrees on a rimmed baking sheet for 10 minutes). Note: After carving your ham, reserve the bone for ham bone broth. Make this overnight in your slow cooker so it’s ready for tomorrow night’s recipe; see tomorrow night’s recipe for instructions.
Monday: Leftover ham soup with kale, potatoes, and white beans. Serve with a side salad (tear up half the romaine) and the baguette.
Tuesday: Easy spice rubbed fish tacos. Top with chopped tomatoes, avocado, shredded cheddar, cilantro, and green onions and serve with avocado-lime black bean salad (it makes a good hearty side as well as a light lunch — sub 1/4-1/2 a yellow onion for the shallots).
Wednesday: Mushroom, kale, & white bean pasta (use bottled lemon juice if you don’t have a lemon on hand; substitute orecchiete for whole wheat rotini if your ALDI, like mine, no longer carries). Serve with salad and a cup of leftover soup.
Thursday: Ham-ocado egg bites (double recipe & sub cream for milk). Serve with breakfast potatoes (use yellow potatoes & olive oil) and sliced pineapple. Note: I made these this week and it took five eggs and a little extra avocado + ham to fill all the cups — maybe I had really large eggs originally? So be forewarned. 🙂
Friday: Sheet pan chicken thighs & green beans. Serve with the rest of your tomatoes, sliced and topped with a little salt.
Saturday: Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells a nice big take-and-bake pizza), eat out, or date night.

ALDI shopping list — Shop through 12/23/17

Note: ALDI will be open 9AM-4PM on Christmas Eve, and closed on Christmas Day.

Dairy & refrigerated

Bake House Creations crescents, $.99
8 oz block Happy Farms cheddar, $1.79
16 oz Countryside Creamery heavy cream, $1.99
Dozen Goldhen eggs, $1.08
Priano shredded Parmesan, $1.99

Grocery

3 cans Dakota’s Pride Cannellini beans, $1.95
2 cans SimplyNature organic black beans, $1.78
Three 14.5 oz cans Happy Harvest diced tomatoes, $2.07
Specially Selected baguette, $1.69
El Milagro flour tortillas, $.89
Priano bronze cut orecchiette, $1.29
Specially Selected vinaigrette, $1.89

Meat

8 lb shank portion ham, $7.12
1.25 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, $2.86
1 lb fresh tilapia, $5.49

Produce

Pineapple, $1.29
1 lb limes, $1.49
1 lb asparagus, $2.69
12 oz SimplyNature organic chopped kale, $3.49
3 hearts romaine, $2.29
8 oz baby bella mushrooms, $1.99
Green onions, $.89
Bunch cilantro, $.69
3 heads garlic, $1.09
5 lb yellow potatoes, $1.19
3 lb yellow onions, $.69
1 lb green beans, $.99
Celery, $.79
16 oz Roma tomatoes, $1.39
3 avocados, $3.57

That comes to $59.40.

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!

*** Download this week’s shopping list in Word format so that you can 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

I try not to repeat main dish recipes more often than once a month, but you will see favorite easy recipes come up 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, you can 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.

Ad markets and dates

This week’s ALDI meal plan reflects prices from the current week’s ad (running 12/17-12/23 in Sunday ad markets and 12/20-12/26 in Wednesday ad markets). Non-advertised prices were collected on 12/20/17 at 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 12/24/17.

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Browse all of the weekly ALDI meal plans here *** note: prices may have changed since originally posted.
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Happy ALDI shopping and cooking this week, everyone!