Free ALDI Meal Plan week of 4/9/23

Welcome to your free ALDI meal plan for the week of 4/9/23! This week we’re cooking up everything from a whole Easter dinner for four, to a comforting ham & lentil stew — plus, so much more.

Happy ALDI Meal Plan Day — and yes, this one even includes Easter dinner! (Plus, of course, a couple of yummy meals using that leftover ham.) Read on for all of the easy recipes, as well as a printable shopping list and easy add-to-Instacart list. As always, you get six complete dinners for four, $70 out the door: Bring your family together around home-cooked meals, and save time & money in the process.

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

You can also use any of these meal plans as an easy starting point. 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 4/9/23 – 4/15/23

Come and cook along with us for the answer to 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 new ALDI Finds & updates.

Easter lilies & other flowers

ALDI Finds for the week of 4/5/23 include Easter flowers, organic heavy cream, sale ham, Norwegian crisp bread, & 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 lately:

• Last week’s fun & weird Amazon finds include a unicorn build-your-own bricks mug, a dumpster fire pencil holder, & 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 4/9/23. *** Be sure to sign up for our weekly emails, so that you never miss a new one.

ALDI Meal Planning week of 4/9/23 – 4/15/23

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 4/9/23

Sunday

• *** Update 4/7/23 — They just put the shank and butt hams on sale for $.72/lb AND the spiral ones for $.96/lb this weekend ONLY. ***
• A note on hams and prices: ALDI didn’t discount the shank and butt hams this year; they’re both $1.79/lb and weirdly more expensive than the spiral (which is also higher than last time, at $1.49/lb). If you have more wiggle room in your budget, get a bigger ham, add more dessert, and/or otherwise jazz up your Easter dinner further as desired.
• Ham — whether you make it in the Crock-Pot, per package directions, or from your own favorite recipe
• Parmesan sweet potatoes (cook just a little longer to desired tenderness at 425 instead of 450 degrees; substitute a little dried parsley to taste for the fresh parsley garnish)
• Simple sheet pan green beans (put these in after the sweet potatoes have been roasting for about 10 minutes)
• Cut up the pineapple
• Sopapilla cheesecake hand pies — *** HALVE THIS RECIPE,*** reserving one pie crust for Wednesday and the other half of the cream cheese for Friday.
• Save the ham bone for tomorrow, and reserve at least 2 cups of cooked diced ham for Mon & Weds.

Monday

• Ham bone & lentil stew
• Heat up the baguette on the side

Tuesday

• Roasted asparagus grilled cheese (use 1/2 the pack of asparagus; the other half is for tomorrow)
• Half of the grapes
• Leftover stew from Monday

Wednesday

• Leftover ham & asparagus quiche
• Toast up the rest of the sourdough on the side

Thursday

• Slow cooker cheesy chicken enchilada chili, topped with chopped green onion and sour cream
• Serve with the tortilla chips

Friday

• Smoked salmon scramble
• Leftover chili, if desired
• The rest of the grapes

Saturday

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

ALDI Shopping List — Shop through 4/8/23

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

Dairy & refrigerated

Dozen Goldhen eggs, $2.32
Friendly Farms sour cream, $1.99
Happy Farms cream cheese, $1.49
Emporium Selection deli sliced Havarti cheese, $1.99
Happy Farms sharp cheddar cheese block, $2.09
Emporium Selection shredded Parmesan, $2.49
Bake House Creations refrigerated pie crust, $2.49

Grocery

Specially Selected salsa verde, $3.19
Clancy’s restaurant style tortilla chips, $1.89
Specially Selected French baguette, $1.79
Specially Selected sourdough square, $3.49
32 oz box Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, $1.29
16 oz Dakota’s Pride green lentils, $1.29
Can Pueblo Lindo chopped green chiles, $.79
2 cans Happy Harvest fire roasted diced tomatoes, $2.18
Can Happy Harvest tomato sauce, $.39
2 cans Dakota’s Pride black beans, $1.58

Meat & seafood

8.5 lb Appleton Farms spiral sliced half ham, $12.67
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast, $7.58
Specially Selected cold smoked salmon, $3.99

Produce

Pineapple, $1.29
2 lbs red grapes, $1.98
8 oz spinach, $1.49
1 lb asparagus, $1.79
16 oz green beans, $1.79
Bunch green onions, $.89
3 lbs yellow onions, $2.29
3 heads garlic, $1.49
2 lbs sweet potatoes, $.98

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That comes to: $70.97

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

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 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 black beans quantity to two.
      • Change the fire roasted diced tomatoes quantity to two.
   2. Notes for your shopper:
      • Make a note that you want a smaller 8.5 lb ham (unless you have room in your budget for a larger one)
      • Make a note that you want a 2 lb package of chicken breast.
      • Make a note that you want 2 lbs of the sweet potatoes.

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, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, Dijon mustard, bay leaves, cumin, smoked paprika, paprika, parsley, oregano, chili powder, thyme, turmeric, cayenne, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, sea salt, salt, black pepper

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

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 4/2-4/8 in Sunday ad markets, and 4/5-4/11 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 4/9/23.

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 latest regional ALDI ad here.