I bought all the main ingredients for these 7 dinners at Aldi and the cost was around $70 (in 2018)–AND there were leftovers for additional meals.
Nice work, Aldi!
A few details about this list of Aldi Dinner Ideas:
** I planned these dinners around my family of 4, which includes 2 adults, 1 teenager, and 1 tween. Both of my girls eat as much as adults. In a few meals, I used the cook once, eat multiple times method. You’ll see details in the instructions.
** I listed the price I paid for the main ingredients. I didn’t list a price for pantry staples, such as seasonings, cooking oils, butter. I had those things on hand and you might as well. Review the ingredient list carefully to determine what you need to buy.
** Prices may vary by region and some prices may have been the sale price. For example, I paid $1.39 for a pineapple. It was so sweet and delicious, so I went to buy another one the next time I was in the store and the price went up to $2.29.
** RICE! I intentionally wrote this post so that many ingredients would coordinate with the other dinners. This plan includes 3 dinners that have rice. You can easily use white or brown rice in these dinners, whichever you prefer. Aldi offers organic brown rice for the same price as white.
Note: 1 cup dry rice usually yields 3 cups of cooked rice. Keep this in mind when preparing these recipes–they call for 2 cups of cooked rice. You could prepare all 6 cups that you will need at one time and refrigerate the portions. When it’s time to re-heat, add a little water to the rice. Personally, I prefer freshly prepared rice, so I end up with about a cup leftover each time. I either add more to the recipe or it gets gobbled up by my kids as a snack.
Aldi Dinner Idea #1. Grilled Salmon, Roasted Brussel Sprouts, Bake Sweet Potatoes, Crescent Rolls.
This was a special birthday dinner for my husband and it was super easy to prepare. It’s also a partial cook once, eat twice meal. See the instructions below for details.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Fresh Salmon: $8.07
- 1 bag of Brussel Sprouts: $1.59
- 1 3 lb. bag Sweet Potatoes $2.39 for entire 3 lb bag. There were 5 potatoes on the bag. I used 2 potatoes for this dinner, and the balance in Dinner #3.
- 1 tube of Crescent rolls .89
Instructions:
- Wash and dry the sweet potatoes and poke holes in each one with a fork. Bake or microwave all of the sweet potatoes (you will use extra in dinner #3). If baking, place potatoes on a backing sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 – 60 minutes or until they are baked through. There were 5 large potatoes in the bag, but I only used 2 sweet potatoes for this dinner–we each ate a half and that was enough since there was a lot of other food for dinner. Refrigerate the 3 remaining sweet potatoes for Day 3’s dinner. Remove skin prior to refrigerating if you don’t like the skin.
- Wash and dry the Brussel sprouts and cut in half. Place in a bowl and drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper. Mix well to cover all of the sprouts. To save time, carefully pull the hot baking pan with the sweet potatoes out of the oven the last 15 minutes of baking and add the Brussel sprouts to the pan. After about 7 minutes, pull pan from oven and stir the sprouts. Bake until tender, about 7 more minutes. Watch Brussel sprouts carefully so they don’t burn.
- During the last 10 minutes of the potatoes baking, I grilled the salmon. I drizzled olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper all over the salmon. See below link for how I grill salmon.
- Lastly, bake the crescent rolls right before serving. Cover food in foil to keep warm while you’re waiting for rolls to bake, or bake them towards the end of the potatoes/brussel sprouts baking if you have room in your oven. Also, if the potatoes are taking forever to bake all the way through, poke a few more holes and microwave them for a few minutes. Caution: they will be hot!
Related links for tonight’s dinner:
- My directions for Grilled Salmon is in this post.
- I pulled together a delicious dessert for the birthday boy with ingredients I had in my freezer: Blueberry Crumb Pots.
Aldi Dinner Idea #2: Grilled Chicken Burrito Bowls
Ingredients:
- Chicken breasts: I bought a package of 6 chicken breasts weighing 4.32 lbs @ $1.89/lb. Total cost: $8.16. I used the chicken in dinners #2, #3, #4, and #5. See instructions below.
- 1 can organic black beans: 89 cents
- Organic White Rice: Paid @2.59 for a 28 oz bag. Prepare 1 cup dry rice=3 cups cooked rice. This bag will cover Dinners #2, #4, #5, and #7.
- Organic salsa: $1.89. Will also be using this jar in Dinner #3.
- Salad greens. (see below)
Instructions:
- Marinate 4 chicken breasts in Italian dressing or your favorite marinade. Grill at least 4 of the chicken breasts. Once cooked and cool enough to handle, dice and divide into 3 equal (approx. 2 cup) portions. You’ll use the portions in dinners #2, #3, and #4. My pack had 6 breasts–refrigerate the 2 remaining breast for later in Dinner #6.
- Chop up and make a large garden salad–see Side Bar below. You’ll use for tonight’s dinner and as a side for any remaining dinners.
- Top with cheese, organic salsa, avocado
Related links for tonight’s dinner:
Side Bar: Make Once, Eat Multiple Times Garden Salad!
Prep a big garden salad using all your favorite vegetables that you find at Aldi. You will use the salad as a side in many of the dinners. I paid $7.76 for these 4 salad fixings.
Aldi Dinner Idea #3: Grilled Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Black Bean Quesadillas
Ingredients:
- Leftover sweet potatoes from Dinner #1.
- 1 can organic black beans: 89 cents
- Use 2 cups of the grilled chopped chicken. Cost is listed in Dinner #2.
- Medium sized Flour tortillas: 99 cents.
- Shredded cheddar cheese: 1 (12 oz) bag costs $1.99. Save 1 cup to use in Dinner #5.
- Organic Salsa: Cost is listed in Dinner #2.
- Avocado: 59 cents
Instructions:
- Heat the sweet potatoes in microwave and smash them.
- Drain and rinse the black beans. Mix together the black beans and sweet potatoes.
- Read: Chicken, Sweet Potato, and Black Bean Quesadillas for my quesadilla method.
- Makes about 4 (medium sized) quesadillas.
- Top with salsa, avocado, sour cream.
- Serve with a side garden salad,
Aldi Dinner Idea #4: Chicken Fried Rice
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Steamed Asian Seasonal Medley: $1.59
- 2 cup diced grilled chicken: Cost is listed in Dinner #2.
- 2 cups cooked rice: Cost is listed in Dinner #2.
- 1 onion: I bought a 2 lb bag of red onions for $1.79.
- 1 egg, Soy Sauce: I had these on hand, so I did not have to purchase these items.
- Fresh pineapple: $1.39 (optional)
Instructions:
- Microwave the veg medley in the bag according the package instructions.
- I followed a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com: Chicken Fried Rice. I made the following changes: I used 2 cups cooked chicken and I added the bag of cooked vegetables at the same time the recipe tells you to add the cooked chicken. I also used more soy sauce to make up for the additional chicken and vegetables. Add according to your taste.
- Serve with fresh chopped pineapple and side salad. The pineapple I picked was delicious!!! I was going to use it for 2 dinners, but it didn’t make it. My family devoured the whole pineapple.
Aldi Dinner Idea #5: Smoked Sausage, Rice, and Broccoli Skillet
Ingredients:
- 1 package of Smoked Sausage: $2.29
- 1 package of Steamed Broccoli Florets: $1.19. I LOVE the ease and convenience of these microwaveable bags, and the cost is very budget-friendly!
- 2 cups of cooked rice: Cost is listed in Dinner #2.
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Cost is listed in Dinner #3
- Applesauce: I served my sugar-free homemade applesauce that I had in the freezer, however, Aldi’s unsweetened applesauce was $1.89 for 48 oz.
Instructions:
- Cook rice according to package instructions.
- As rice is cooking, microwave the broccoli according to the package instructions.
- I used this recipe: Sausage & Rice One Skillet from All Things Mamma. I made 1 change: I added the steamed broccoli the same time I added the cooked rice and seasonings.
- Serve with a side salad and applesauce.
Related Links for Tonight’s Dinner:
Aldi Dinner Idea #6: Baked Broccoli Alfredo Chicken
This is a carbo loaded dinner that I made the night before a long weekend of swim meets for my girls and a 5 mile road race for myself.
I used the last 2 chicken breasts (see Dinner #2 for the cost) and my plan was to grill the chicken and serve sides of Alfredo pasta and steamed broccoli. However, there was a rain storm when it was time to prepare dinner, so I stayed indoors and baked the dinner instead. It all worked out and dinner was delicious!
Ingredients:
- 2 chicken breasts, flattened and cut into 4 serving pieces. Cost is listed in Dinner #2.
- 1 bag of frozen Steamed Broccoli: $1.19
- 1 jar of Alfredo sauce: $1.69
- 1 box of organic pasta: $1.09
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella (if making baked version): 12 oz bag for $1.99
- Italian Take & Bake loaf: $1.69. It’s a large loaf, TRY to save half for dinner #7. Might be hard though!
Instructions:
- You can prepare this dinner 2 ways: (1) Grill the chicken and serve side dishes of the Alfredo pasta and your favorite steamed veg, OR (2) prepare a very easy recipe: Broccoli Alfredo Chicken Bake from the Pinning Mama.
- If making the baked recipe, I microwaved the broccoli for 3 minutes so it wouldn’t be completely frozen when I baked the chicken.
- Serve with sides: a side salad (if you have any left from the large salad you made this week), applesauce, and garlic bread.
Related Links:
- How to Grill Chicken Breasts and Not Dry it out like the Sahara
- My Homemade Sugar-Free Applesauce recipe
Aldi Dinner Idea #7: Italian Sausage, White Bean and Spinach Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 pound Italian sausage: $2.89
- 1 onion: The recipe calls for yellow, but used my red onions.
- Shredded carrots: A 10 oz bag of organic shredded carrots was $1.69. You will only use 1 cup, so we also sprinkled on our salads. I think this is quite the buy–organic, inexpensive, and saves time.
- 3-4 garlic cloves: a bag of 3 heads of garlic was 89 cents.
- Chicken stock: Need 6 – 8 cups. Could use homemade if you have it, but the cost at Aldi was $1.49 for 32 oz. I bought 2.
- 2 (16 oz) cans of white beans: 49 cents a can.
- 4 – 8 oz baby spinach: $1.19 for 8 oz bag. My Aldi didn’t have kale, but had plenty of spinach. I used about half the bag in the soup and I added the other half to my salad mix. This recipe originally called for kale, but my Aldi didn’t have kale. However, they had plenty of spinach. Either green works well.
- Optional: 1-2 tablespoons jarred or homemade Pesto: 6.7 oz jar was $2.19. I highly recommend adding it to the soup–the pesto adds some zest and flavor. If you don’t think you’ll use the pesto before it goes bad, freeze in 1 tablespoon portions and store in a freezer bag. Pesto is great to add to most soups and sauces for additional flavor.
Instructions:
- This soup is so easy to pull together. Recipe: Italian Sausage, White Bean, and Kale or Spinach Soup.
- Serve with any leftover salad from the week, applesauce, and half of the Take & Bake bread from Dinner #6.
I hope you enjoy this list of dinner ideas. Let me know in the comments what you think of Aldi.
Want more ALDI dinner ideas?
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