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Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 12/31/17 – 1/6/18

Looking for a free ALDI Meal Plan December 2017? Here's this week's ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/31/17. Find new free ALDI meal plans every week, and save time + money with meal planning!

Here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/31/17: 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:

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 12/31/17 – 1/6/18

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 another non-typical meal planning week for many of you, what with New Year’s Eve in there and all. If you’re at family’s for New Year’s, or will be cooking for a crowd or eating appetizer party food all night, just skip ahead in the week — or pick and choose what meals you wish to make when the leftovers run out! 🙂

ALDI meal plan — Start cooking 12/31/17

  • Sunday: Lazy Sunday pork & vegetable stew (reduce pork to 1 lb), along with toasted sourdough (reserve 8 slices for Tues).
  • Monday: Pepita salad with avocado & orange. Note: The pepitas at ALDI are already roasted/salted, so skip the toasting step. Serve with cups of leftover stew and tortilla chips (reserve about 7 oz for Thurs).
  • Tuesday: Jalapeño popper grilled cheese sandwiches (use sliced cheddar; reserve at least 2 slices for tomorrow), plus organic spring mix salad topped with pepitas, diced tomatoes (save two for Friday), and the last few pieces of bacon (cooked and crumbled).
  • Wednesday: Sheet pan cheddar Parmesan pork chops & green beans, along with carrot & celery sticks.
  • Thursday: Crunchy tortilla chicken fingers (use tenderloin since it’s already in strips — might need to cook a little less time if they’re thin; double recipe to serve four). Serve with baked garlic Parmesan potato wedges (use gold instead of russet; bake at 400 along with the chicken fingers, but may reduce cooking time a bit due to higher temp). Also, whip up some quick chipotle sour cream for dipping the chicken fingers and potato wedges: Mix 1/2 cup sour cream with 1 minced chipotle pepper and 1 Tbsp (or more) of chipotle sauce, to taste, along with a little sea salt, to taste.
  • Friday: Squash & tomato frittata (use all zucchini or all yellow squash, your choice). Serve with sliced oranges.
  • Saturday: Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells a nice big take-and-bake pizza), eat out, or date night.

ALDI shopping list — Shop through 12/30/17

Dairy & refrigerated

8 oz brick Happy Farms cream cheese, $.95
8 oz Happy Farms sliced sharp cheddar, $1.99
Priano shredded Parmesan, $1.99
Dozen Goldhen eggs, $1.33
Friendly Farms sour cream, $.89
8 oz block Happy Farms cheddar, $1.79

Grocery

32 oz SimplyNature organic beef broth, $1.49
1 can Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.89
1 can Happy Harvest corn, $.49
1 can Happy Harvest green beans, $.49
1 can Pueblo Lindo chipotles in adobo, $.99
6 oz Southern Grove pepitas, $2.19
Specially Selected sourdough square, $2.89
13 oz Clancy’s restaurant style tortilla chips, $1.29

Meat

3 lbs thick cut boneless pork chops, $8.97
Appleton Farms 16 oz premium bacon, $4.19
2 lbs chicken tenderloins, $3.98

Produce

3 lbs yellow onions, $1.69
3 heads garlic, $1.09
2 lbs carrots, $.99
Celery, $1.29
8 oz mushrooms, $1.29
5 lb yellow potatoes, $3.49
16 oz SimplyNature organic spring mix, $3.49
1 avocado, $.69
Cilantro, $.69
8 oz jalapeños, $.49
3 lbs organic navel oranges, $3.79
1 lb green beans, $1.69
16 oz zucchini or yellow squash, $1.59
16 oz Roma tomatoes, $1.69


That comes to $60.76.

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

  1. 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.
  2. 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 12/24-12/30 in Sunday ad markets and 12/27-1/2 in Wednesday ad markets). Non-advertised prices were collected on 12/27/17 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 12/31/17.

Stay in the ALDI meal planning loop

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Happy ALDI shopping and cooking this week, everyone!

Danielle

Wednesday 3rd of January 2018

I just came across your blog from Pinterest while researching meal planning. I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU! I'm brand new to meal planning, and this is going to help me so much. It's so kind of you to take the time to publish these plans every week. I shared your blog link on my Facebook and will be telling people about you whenever I can! Thank you again, and happy new year! :)

rachel

Wednesday 3rd of January 2018

Thanks for taking the time to come and comment -- Hope you enjoy the recipes! :)

Mandy

Wednesday 27th of December 2017

I feel I should post a note about the demise on Christmas Eve of our almost 9 year old Igloo freezer from the Jewel freezer deals in the good old days of couponing. I can't complain about a technically free freezer only lasting 9 years, but, thought maybe some others that have them would want to watch them closely. The lights on the front remained on, but, it only hums instead of the motor running. I'm glad it was in our kitchen and we noticed quickly that it was not working. We emptied what we could into our fridge freezer and bought 20#'s of ice to put on the stuff still in the freezer and moved it outside in the cold. We only lost some frozen bananas and the ice is keeping the rest of the items frozen. Trying to eat what's left in the freezer is a challenge, when we really want Holiday goodies!

rachel

Thursday 28th of December 2017

Aw, RIP Jewel freezer! At least it didn't die during the summer. :)

Christina

Wednesday 27th of December 2017

I've been following your meal plans for awhile now. I've heard from multiple people that every time they go shopping at Aldi, they can count the number of items they buy and multiple by 2 and that's about how much they'll spend. It's almost always been true for me - but I live in a LCOL area so I wasn't sure how true it was for everyone. It seems to be true for you as well. It's amazing that it seems to work out the same all over.

I love you meal plan this week. I'm going to try to copy a lot of it for next week

rachel

Thursday 28th of December 2017

Thanks! And I guess I never counted the items in the meal plan before, but that's a fun experiment, lol.

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