Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 12/5/21

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/5/21: This week, we’re cooking up everything from hearty arrabbiata vegetable soup, to garlic shrimp with white beans & tomatoes — and so much more!

Happy ALDI Meal Plan Day! (Though how is it December already, I ask you?) During this last month of 2021, let’s save time & money with meal planning — and, relax in the knowledge that dinnertime decisions are covered.

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

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 12/5/21 – 12/11/21

Use these meal plans to help reclaim some of your precious time, and you may no longer dread the perennial question: What’s for dinner?

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

But first, what’s new at ALDI this week?

Melting Snowmen, anyone?

Melting snowmen, Christmas tree brioche, holiday pizzas, very large gnomes, and so much more — Check out all of my favorite ALDI Finds of the week, and let me know what you’re planning to buy.

In the spirit of this holiday season, let’s also revisit an older post that still rings true for me: Most of what I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be… I learned in ALDI. (With apologies to Robert Fulghum.)

Now that we’re caught up with that, here’s your easy weekly ALDI meal plan for the week of 12/5/21!

ALDI Meal Planning week of 12/5/21 – 12/11/21

Pick up everything on the shopping list below, and start cooking on Sunday: As always, six complete dinners for four, $65 out the door.

Print your meal plan summary + grocery shopping list below this week’s detailed plan.
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 that you have the necessary pantry staples on hand for this week’s ALDI menu plan; see a list in the printable grocery list below.

Six easy dinners from ALDI for $65

ALDI Meal Plan — start cooking 12/5/21

Sunday

Greek chicken with sweet potatoes & kale
Mandarins

Monday

Arrabbiata white bean & vegetable soup, topped with shredded Parmesan to taste
Heat up the baguette to go with

Tuesday

Sheet pan lemon garlic chicken with potatoes & carrots
Mandarins

Wednesday

Caprese chicken thighs & kale skillet
Roasted potatoes & carrots (cut potatoes larger b/c you’re using red instead of russet; start in the oven 20 minutes before putting in the chicken)

Thursday

Lemony pork chops, tomatoes, & potatoes (use red potatoes — NOTE; if your pork chops are a little thinner than shown, you’ll want to take them out sooner than 30 minutes so that they don’t overcook)
Cut half of the head of cauliflower into florets, steam them, season with a splash of lemon juice & sea salt, and shred & melt on the rest of the mozzarella

Friday

Garlic shrimp with roasted cauliflower, white beans, & tomatoes
Roasted red potatoes (start these in the 425 degree oven 10 minutes or so before putting in the cauliflower — cube remaining red potatoes & toss with olive oil, seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, & black pepper & spread out on a rimmed baking sheet; roast until tender, stirring halfway through)

Saturday

Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), or order in.

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 12/4/21

Dairy & refrigerated

Priano shredded Parmesan, $1.99
8 oz block Happy Farms mozzarella, $1.95

Grocery

Specially Selected French baguette, $1.79
32 oz Simply Nature organic vegetable broth, $1.89
3 cans Dakota’s Pride Great Northern beans, $2.13
Can of Happy Harvest cut green beans, $.49
Can of Happy Harvest whole kernel corn, $.49
Can of Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $.91
Stonemill minced garlic in water, $1.79
Specially Selected arrabbiata sauce, $2.89

Meat

4 lbs bone-in split chicken breast, $5.16
3.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs, $10.12
1.5 lbs boneless center cut pork chops, $5.99
12 oz Fremont Fish Market medium EZ peel raw shrimp (frozen), $4.99

Produce

2 lbs lemons, $3.29
3 lbs mandarins, $2.79
12 oz Simply Nature organic chopped kale, $2.99
2 lbs carrots, $1.49
1 medium head of cauliflower, $2.69
3 lbs yellow onions, $1.49
2 medium sweet potatoes, $1.00
2 pints grape tomatoes, $3.78
5 lb bag red potatoes, $3.29

That comes to: $65.39

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 produce market.

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.
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 11/28-12/4 in Sunday ad markets, and 12/1-12/7 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 12/5/21.

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.

Happy ALDI shopping & cooking this week! If you find this meal plan useful, why not share it wi t h your friends on Facebook so they can save money with ALDI meal planning as well?