Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 3/26/23

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 3/26/23! This week we’re cooking up everything from a cheesy pierogi casserole to vegetarian lemon chickpea wraps, and so much more.

This latest ALDI menu plan takes us up through April 1! But no fooling, it has everything you need to get ready to cook up a week of dinners. Read on for all of the easy recipes, and pick up a printable shopping list (or easy add-to-Instacart list) that walks you through six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door. Bring your family together around home-cooked meals, and save time & money in the process.

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You can use any meal plan as an easy starting point, too. 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/or special dietary needs and preferences.

Free ALDI meal plan week of 3/26/23 – 4/1/23

pierogie casserole on a plate with strawberry spinach salad

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

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

Easter cheese and loaded potato pierogies

ALDI Finds for the week of 3/22/23 include Easter treats & Easter cheese, mac & cheese deli pizza, various spring-y home, kitchen, & garden items, and more.

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

Check out this week’s picks (and pix), and let me know what you want to Find.

And here’s what’s new on the Amazon front over here:

Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include a magic mushroom kitchen funnel, and so much more.
This huge list of HUNDREDS of subscribe & save filler items is updated every Thursday.

But with no further ado, here’s your ALDI meal plan for the week of 3/26/23. *** Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 3/26/23 – 4/1/23

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 3/26/23

lemon garlic chicken thighs with tomato cucumber salad

Note: Freeze your leftover broth for later. If you have a bit more wiggle room in your budget, I’d use it for things like: Grape tomatoes instead of Roma, add tortilla chips to the taco pasta and chili nights, and up the chicken thighs to 5 lbs. As food keeps getting more expensive, I’m making cuts to stay under budget — while still trying to maintain variety. (You could also substitute regular medium shrimp for the Gulf shrimp in order to make one of these swaps, but the Gulf shrimp is just so good. 😉 )

Sunday

Sausage, peppers, & onions pierogi casserole (use the yellow bell pepper)
Side salad — Chop up about half of the romaine, plus the orange bell pepper + some green onion

Monday

Vegetarian lemon chickpea wraps (use the flatbread wraps instead of spinach wraps, romaine for the lettuce, and cut up half of the Roma tomatoes instead of grape tomatoes)
Half of the grapes

Tuesday

Cheesy taco pasta, topped with chopped green onion
The rest of the grapes

Wednesday

Lemon garlic chicken thighs with tomato cucumber salad (use 4 lbs thighs & substitute chopped Roma tomatoes for grape, to help keep us under budget this week)
Roasted bell pepper and cauliflower — HALVE this recipe, using half the head of cauliflower, your last bell pepper, and one onion. Substitute dried parsley to taste for the fresh, and shredded Parmesan for grated.

Thursday

Basic easy chili, topped with shredded cheddar cheese + chopped green onion
Make a side salad using the remaining romaine, topped with chopped green onion, thinly sliced onion, and just a little bit of shredded Parmesan cheese

Friday

Garlic shrimp with roasted cauliflower, white beans, and tomatoes
Serve this over Parmesan pasta: Cook up the other half of the rotini and remove temporarily to a bowl. In the same pot you used to cook the pasta, melt 1-2 Tbsp of butter, briefly saute a bit of minced garlic, then stir in 1/2 cup of chicken broth, 1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese, and dried parsley & black pepper to taste, stirring until the cheese melts in nicely. Return the pasta to the pot and toss it with the Parmesan cheese sauce until nicely combined, thinning out with additional broth as desired.

Saturday

Leftovers, family pizza night (ALDI sells nice big take-and-bake deli pizzas), carryout, mix it up!

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 3/25/23

*** Check below this grocery list for Easy One-Stop Instacart Shopping, as well as an editable easy-print version.

Dairy & refrigerated

Happy Farms cream cheese, $1.59
2 blocks 8 oz Happy Farms sharp cheddar, $4.18
Emporium Selection shredded Parmesan, $2.49

Frozen

Bremer loaded baked potato pierogies, $2.49

Grocery

L’Oven Fresh original flatbread wraps, $1.79
32 oz Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, $1.29
16 oz Reggano rotini, $.99
Can of Casa Mamita diced tomatoes with green chilies, $.89
Packet of Casa Mamita taco seasoning mix, $.39
8 oz can Happy Harvest tomato sauce, $.39
Can of Happy Harvest tomato paste, $.69
2 cans of Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $2.18
Can of Happy Harvest whole kernel corn, $.49
Can of Dakota’s Pride black beans, $.79
Can of Dakota’s Pride kidney beans, $.79
Can of Dakota’s Pride great northern beans, $.71
2 cans of Dakota’s Pride garbanzo beans (chickpeas), $1.58

Meat

Parkview Polska kielbasa, $3.29
2 lb pack 80% lean ground beef, $7.58
Fremont Fish Market peeled & deveined wild Gulf shrimp, $6.89
4 lbs bone-in chicken thighs, $7.95

Produce

2 lbs red grapes, $2.58
2 lbs lemons, $2.99
Bunch green onions, $.85
3 hearts of romaine, $2.99
1 cucumber, $.69
1 large head of cauliflower, $2.49
3 lbs yellow onions, $2.29
3 heads garlic, $1.49
3 pack multi-colored bell peppers, $2.89
1 avocado, $.49
8 Roma tomatoes, $1.60

That comes to: $70.78

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 have on hand, and/or sale produce from a local fruit market.

Shop this week’s meal plan with Instacart

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is get-ingredients-with-instacart.png

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

IMPORTANT! READ BEFORE CHECKING OUT:

You’ll need to check your pantry for staples not included in this Instacart list. *** See needed pantry staples, below.
The list feature doesn’t allow me to add multiples of a single item or to change the weight of items, and the meat special buys don’t usually show up. So: Before adding the list to your cart, change the following
1. Quantities:
  - Change the quantity on the block cheddar to two.
  - Change the quantity on the fire roasted tomatoes to two.
  - Change the quantity on the garbanzo beans to two.
  - Change the quantity on the tomatoes to eight.
2. Notes for your shopper:
  - Make a note to your shopper that you want 4 lbs of the chicken thighs (unless you have a little bit of room in your budget, in which case, go with 5).
  - Make a note to your shopper that you want 2 lbs of the grapes.
  - The special buy loaded potato pierogies aren’t listed, so I subbed the regular potato & cheese ones. If you want the loaded potato ones, make a note to your shopper to make that swap.

Please use the add your list to Instacart feature at your own risk, and always double check your cart against the grocery list above. 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, chili powder, smoked paprika, oregano, unsweetened cocoa powder, basil, cayenne, Italian seasoning, sea salt, Kosher salt, rosemary, black pepper, crushed red pepper, parsley, salad dressing

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, or:
- Download in .rtf format
- Download in PDF format
If you don’t have Word, open the shopping list in Google Docs or 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

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 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 3/19-3/25 in Sunday ad markets, and 3/22-3/28 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 3/26/23.

Stay in the meal planning loop

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