Aldi Meal Planning: Week 3

This week’s grocery bill came to 84.02 and everything came from Aldi.  I am also using pantry items I had on hand, which I built my menu around.  Just like last week, I included all items on the list, but if I had it already, it is crossed out.  Here is the menu:

Chicken Caesar Salad Pizzas

Enchilada Casserole with Side Salad and Tortillas

Apple, Brie, & Caramelized Onion Sandwiches with Salad

Open-faced Meatball Sandwiches with Salad

Chicken and Caramelized Onion Burrito Bowls

McGriddle Bake

Banana Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal

Grocery List:

Bananas

Onions

Apples

Avocado (2)

Lettuce

Tomato

Lime

Chicken Tenderloins (12 tenders total)

Breakfast Sausage (12 links total)

Ground Turkey (1 lb)

Rice Cakes

Cereal

Fruit Cups (for B)

Enchilada sauce mix

Salsa

Black Beans

Diced Green Chilies

Tomato sauce

Old Fashioned Oats

Brown Sugar

Baking Powder

Bread Crumbs

Chocolate Chips

Peanut Butter Chips

Chicken Broth

Refried Beans

Gluten Free Crust Mix

Black Olives

Syrup

Ranch Dressing

Caesar Dressing

Flour

Balsamic Vinegar

Vanilla Extract

Minced Garlic

Italian Seasoning

Salt

Garlic Powder

Rice Pudding (2) (for the baby in my belly)

Eggs (2)

Milk

Brie

Shredded Cheddar

Shredded Parmesan

Light Sour Cream

Butter

American Cheese

Shredded Mozzarella

Hummus (2)

Wheat Bread

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Frozen Corn (2)

Breakfasts included: McGriddle Bake, Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal, Eggs with Toast and Sausage, Frozen Waffles (leftover), Omelet, Cereal. 

Snacks: Rice cakes with hummus, Rice pudding with bananas, Crackers with cheese and pickles, etc.

Lunches: tons of salads, grilled cheese, leftover meatballs, leftover enchilada bake (turned into nacho toppings, quesadillas and toppings for a salad). 

Here is how I did the dinners/breakfast plan:

Chicken Caesar Salad Pizzas

Lay a whole wheat prepared pizza crust on a foil lined baking sheet.  Top with tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese.  Bake at 450 for 10 minutes and cut into big pizza slices (I made 4 big slices).  While the pizza is baking, take 6 of the chicken tenderloins and pat dry, season with salt and garlic powder, and sear in pan until cooked through.  Take 3 tenders and chop for the salads, and chop the other 3 to use throughout the week for salads and lunches – the remaining raw tenders will be used for a different meal later in the week as my package came with 12). In a bowl, mix chopped lettuce, tomatoes, thinly sliced onion, sliced black olives, and shredded parmesan cheese.  Add in Caesar dressing and toss, top each pizza with the salad.  For Alex and I, I added chopped chicken on top as well, and just meatless for my Mom. This is obviously a fork and knifer, but the combo is my favorite!

McGriddle Bake

I have wanted a sausage McGriddle for a week and refuse to go to McDonalds, so I made this bake as a part of my meal plan.  Melt 2 tbsp of butter and grease a casserole dish.  In a mixing bowl, add 1 cup of flour, 1 cup milk, 4 eggs and a dash of salt and whisk until combined.  Pour mixture into greased casserole dish.  In a pan, cook 6 breakfast sausage links (only 6 are needed but I make all 12 – use 6 and save the other 6 for breakfasts throughout the week) until browned and cooked through.  Remove from pan and chop into small pieces.  Drop sausage into the batter.  Top with 3 pieces of American cheese, broken up into small pieces.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cut into squares and serve with maple syrup! Tastes just like a McGriddle!

Enchilada Casserole with Side Salad and Tortillas

Prepare 2 bags of brown rice (we buy the 10 minute rice that is already in a bag and you just boil it for 10 minutes).  Cook 1 bag of frozen corn in microwave (or however your directions tell you to do so).  In a mixing bowl, combine brown rice, corn, 2 cans of drained and rinsed black beans, 4oz can of green chiles (if you like heat, add an extra can, I just can’t have it too spicy for B), and enchilada sauce.  Aldi didn’t have enchilada sauce in a can, but they did have a dry powdered enchilada sauce mix that you combine with a can of tomato sauce and water, and I added some garlic to freshen it up a bit.  Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix in one cup of reduced fat cheddar cheese.  Season with salt to taste.  Add mixture in a greased casserole dish (I used pam), cover with a bit more shredded cheese and bake at 400 for 20 minutes covered, then remove cover and broil for a few minutes until cheese is bubbly and browned.  Top with light sour cream, avocado, and some hot sauce.

This was served with a side salad of lettuce, tomato, onion, black olives, and the dressing was salsa mixed with ranch.  Dinner was also served with some crisped up tortillas (leftover) by spraying the tortilla with pam and placed on a hot pan for a few minutes on each side, then cut into triangles.

Apple, Brie, & Caramelized Onion Sandwiches with Salad

In a skillet, melt 2 tbsp of butter over medium heat.  Add in 5 sliced onions (I used 5 because I am using caramelized onions for two different meals, and like to add them to salads and such throughout the week).  Stir onions so they are all coated with the melted butter.  Continue to cook for 10 minutes.  Add in a dash of salt.  Continue cooking onions for about 50 minutes, stirring every 5-10 so they brown but do not burn.  Once finished cooking, I added a bit of balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan and add extra flavor.  Put cooked caramelized onions aside.  Core and slice an apple into thin pieces.  Sear on the pan for just a minute or two on each side and set aside, to soften the apple a bit but still have a crunch.  Butter whole wheat bread and place butter side down on pan.  Add sliced brie cheese, top with sliced apple and caramelized onions and another small piece of brie cheese (to glue the other piece of the bread), and top with the other piece of wheat bread, butter side up.  Cover with a lid and allow to cook until bread becomes toasted and brown, and flip until the other side does the same (just like a regular grilled cheese).  I served this with a side salad of lettuce, craisins, beets, chopped apple, and candied pecans with balsamic dressing. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a casserole dish with pam.  In a bowl, mix 3 cups of oats with ½ cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp of baking powder, and ½ tsp of salt.  In another bowl, add 2 mashed bananas with 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, and 1 tbsp of vanilla extract. Combine wet and dry ingredients and add in chocolate and peanut butter chips.  I probably added 3/4 cup total of chips, but you could easily just do ½ cup.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Slice into squares and serve. 

Open-faced Meatball Sandwiches with Salad

To make meatballs, take 1 lb of ground turkey in a bowl and mix with 2 tbsp of minced garlic, 1 egg, ½ cup breadcrumbs (or crushed gluten free crackers), ½ cup grated parmesan, quarter of a minced red onion, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp italian seasoning, and ½ tsp salt.  Form into balls.  In a pan over medium heat spayed with pam, sear the meatballs until lightly browned on all sides.  In a saucepan, add in 2 cans of tomato sauce (I added fresh garlic, garlic powder, salt and some italian seasoning to freshen up the organic canned sauce I had).  Add seared meatballs into sauce and allow to continue to cook in sauce until cooked through (I cooked mine on low heat for 4 hours).  Take wheat bread, spread some butter, garlic powder, and italian seasoning blend and bake in the oven until toasted.  Top the wheat garlic toast with a few meatballs and sauce, top with provolone and broil until bubbly.  Serve with a side Caesar salad (mine had lettuce, tomato, red onion, black olives, diced beets, fresh parm and Caesar dressing).  Alex’s was made just in a bowl, without the bread, and my mom’s was made with vegetarian meatballs (which are surprisingly very good).  Plus – we had plenty of meatballs leftover for lunches!

Chicken and Caramelized Onion Burrito Bowls

Heat a can of refried beans according to directions (we use fat free).  Also, cook a bag of frozen corn according to directions.  In a pan, cook chicken tenders with ground cumin, chili powder, salt and garlic powder until cooked through and chop.  Cook brown rice (again – I use the 10 minute brown rice in a bag) and season with some ground cumin and chili powder.  In the bottom of a bowl, spread some refried beans.  Top with seasoned rice and chopped lettuce.  Add in chopped chicken, tomatoes, corn, avocado, reduced fat cheese and caramelized onions.  In a bowl, mix salsa, light sour cream and some hot sauce, and spoon on burrito bowls.

All of this week’s dinners were really good!  I appreciate all of the positive feedback that I have been getting!  I am by no means a professional chef or cook, just cooking for my family and sharing my ideas to eat as healthy as possible on a budget, and if I can help anyone in the process, that is just wonderful! 

Meal Planning on a Budget: Aldi - Week 2

I have to admit, it can sometimes be challenging to cook for a gluten free (Alex), a vegetarian (Mom), a toddler (B) and a pregnant-hormonal-craving-crazy person (Me).  FYI – Alex doesn’t have to eat gluten free for medical reasons, but tries out different things to see how it makes him feel, and honestly it has been good giving B a variety of things and trying GF dishes.  It is especially challenging when I make sure I am making basically the same meals for each of us, just small modifications for each person.  I also have to admit that I enjoy it, because it lets me think outside of the box and get more creative in the kitchen.  The only way it is possible is by pretty extensive menu planning, grocery list making, and meal prepping.  All of this week’s meals were $105.03 by shopping at Aldi, using items on hand, and products from the previous weeks shopping trip.

I always start by looking in my pantry to see items I have on hand, or in the freezer and fridge, to make meals out of what we already have to keep the costs down.  Our pantry is often stocked because we buy things when they are on sale for 10 for $10 or other great deals.  I almost always have pasta, sauces, multiple varieties of beans, dressings, different broths etc.  In the freezer, there is usually lots of ground turkey (we buy bulk at Costco) and frozen vegetables, and in the fridge I may have some cheeses leftover from the previous shopping trip.  So my grocery costs stay low because I work around what we already have on hand.  If you do not have the items already, I did include them in the grocery list, but I crossed them out as I already had them.  I even included spices, which many people have, so the list may look long, but it really isn’t).  Keep in mind that although a lot of the items I already had, many of them I bought in the previous week’s grocery trip for $103 total (Week 1 of my monthly budgeted meal plan was not blogged - but you can see some of the meals if you check out week 4).  And many of the items I bought this week will carry over into next week’s meal planning, so it all equals out. 

Also, in order to keep costs down, a lot of the meals revolve around central ingredients.  This week’s meals had a lot of Italian style components, but it is really the easiest way to keep it inexpensive.  But just because there is a lot of Italian, doesn’t mean the meals taste the same (at all).  FYI – next week’s meals contain a few Mexican dishes.

I grocery shop on Friday evenings.  It allows Alex to be with me (since I am not supposed to be doing anything anyways), allows my mom to be done with work to watch B, and gives me time to meal prep and such over the weekends.  Plus – we found we eat out mostly on weekends, so when we have fresh food – it kind of makes us stay in to eat it, and saves us money. I will be shopping Sunday this week though as guests are coming for the weekend and we planned for different meals.

Our menu generally consists of 5 meals for dinner, and 2 big breakfast or lunch ideas.  And the other 2 days, we eat leftovers or may order in one day (but to save on money, I try not to do that, but sometimes the baby in my belly needs it).  Leftovers are also doubled for lunches for Alex the next day.  I also buy staples for breakfasts and lunches for us all.  This week was a bit different though, as I started with a list of 5 meals, but then saw chicken was on sale and we ended up eating French fries one night for dinner.

Here are some breakfasts I made out of this week’s grocery trip: A big batch of hash browns, breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs (this lasted for 2 days of breakfast and 1 random lunch for me), gluten free blueberry pancakes with breakfast sausage and banana, scrambled eggs with toast, and cereal with milk.  I do not really plan out breakfasts; just use what we have on hand.

Lunches included leftover chili, tuna pasta salad, cauliflower soup, many regular salads, frozen pizza and random leftovers.

And lots of snacks, like yogurt and granola, rice cakes with peanut butter, carrots and celery with hummus, hard boiled eggs, fruit, and lots of chocolate covered pretzels (for baby) since my dad stopped at Sarris before visiting us!

Ok – Here is the menu …

Fri: Homemade Baked French Fries (with different items for everyone)

Sat: Chili with GF Cornbread and Mini Cheese Quesadillas

Sun: Zucchini Lasagna with Salad and Turkey Meatballs

Mon: Vegetable Pasta Bake or Sausage Bake

Tue: Honey Mustard Chicken with Cauliflower Soup

Wed: Cauliflower Crust Pizza with Salad

Thu: Meatloaf with Broccoli and Cheese (Frozen pizza for my mom)

And the grocery list …

5 lb bag of potatoes

Green pepper (2)

Red onion (4)

Lettuce

Zucchini (4)

Tomatoes

Fresh spinach

Garlic

Cauliflower (3 heads)

Carrot

Celery

Banana

Apples

Ground turkey (4 lbs) (bought bulk at Costco)

Turkey Italian sausage (5-6 links)

Chicken (3 breasts)

Breakfast sausage

Ground cumin

Chili powder

Garlic powder

Salt

Italian seasoning

Canned diced tomatoes

Black Olives (2)

Red kidney beans

Can creamed corn

Canned beets

Tuna (5 cans – for lunches and just to stock up)

Tomato sauce (I bought organic canned on sale and stocked up with 4 of them)

Fat Free Beef broth

Fat Free Chicken broth

GF corn bread mix

Pasta

Flour

Dijon mustard

Honey

Brown sugar

Ketchup

Hot sauce

Mayo

Sweet relish

Balsamic Glaze

Peanut butter

Oil

Light sour cream

RF shredded cheddar

Milk

Eggs (2 dozen)

Part Skim Ricotta

Parmesan cheese

Shredded mozzarella (2)

Feta

Yogurt (4)

Hummus

Mini corn tortillas (had leftover from fajitas the week before)

Bread

GF rosemary and olive oil crackers

Rice cakes (4 packs)

Cereal

GF Granola

Frozen broccoli with cheese

Frozen pizzas (2)

GF blueberry pancakes

(We also needed a few random items, like jelly, crackers, and snacky items that were a part of the 105 total but did not contribute to the planned meals)

And Yes – All of the items I needed totaled $105 at Aldi!

And here is what I did …

Baked French Fries

This was an odd night, but Alex said “I want a shit ton of French fries”, so I made 4 lbs.  They are super easy but making a big batch takes a while because of oven space.  All you do is either hand cut the potatoes into fries, or make it easy like me and use a mandolin that has this setting.  Soak the cut fries in water for at least an hour to remove the starch.  Then rinse the fries and pat dry (make sure they are really dry).  Toss them in 4 tbsp total of oil (I used heart healthy canola, but whatever you have will work.  I usually use olive oil).  Spread fries out on a foil lined pan and bake at 425 for 20 minutes.  I did 2 pans at a time and after the 20 minutes, I shook around the fries and alternated the racks each pan was on, and baked another 8 minutes.  After fries are done, they come out crispy, and I toss them in a bowl with salt or any other seasoning.  I am telling you – this night was really random because I used things we had already to go with the fries.  I made my mom a veggie burger to go with hers, made my dad a steak with his, Alex had fries seasoned a bunch of different ways, and I made mine like crab fries (seasoned with old bay with melted American cheese).  And that was our dinner …. P.S. with the leftover lb of potatoes, I shredded them up to make the hash browns for breakfast the next day.  Also – If you do not need 4 lbs of fries, because that is absolutely absurd – you can just bake some potatoes for leftovers and top with leftover chili and cheese, etc.  Or to mash as a side dish with the meatloaf…

Chili with GF Cornbread and Mini Cheese Quesadillas

The chili is super easy! Brown 2 lb of ground turkey and remove all fat.  Add in a good palm full of ground cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder.  Then add salt to taste, and allow the spices to cook with the ground turkey for a couple minutes.  Then add in ½ cup any tomato sauce (I usually always have some leftover in the fridge from a previous recipe).  Chop 1.5 green pepper (reserve the other half for cauliflower crust pizza recipe) and 1 red onion and allow to cook for 15-20 minutes to let the vegetables sweat and soften (heat is on med low).  Add 1 can of diced tomatoes with the liquid and 1 can of drained and rinsed kidney beans.  Add ½ carton of fat free beef broth and allow to simmer for at least an hour (we usually let it cook for 2-3 hours). When chili is done I top with shredded lettuce, light sour cream, hot sauce, a scoop of gluten free corn bread, and little quesadillas.

Cornbread: Gluten free cornbread mix from Aldi.  Instructions say to mix with 1 egg, ¾ cup of milk, and ½ cup of oil, but instead of the oil. I used 1 can of creamed corn.  Bake for 40 minutes, instead of 20, according to oven directions.

Quesadillas:  These weren’t a planned part of the meal, but because I had leftover corn tortillas from dinner last week, I quickly made these.  Just sprayed pam in a pan, put one corn tortilla, filled with reduced fat shredded cheddar, and another tortilla.  Cook and flip until crispy and cheese is melted. 

Zucchini Lasagna with Salad and Turkey Meatballs

Cut 4 medium size zucchini in long planks.  Put zucchini in a colander in the sink and lightly salt.  Leave for 10 minutes to allow excess moisture to be removed.  Rinse zucchini and pat dry.  I then seared each plank on a hot pan on each side to quickly dry out some more.  In a bowl, mix ricotta cheese with 1 egg and ¼ cup of parmesan cheese, season with salt.  In another bowl, I poured in the organic canned sauce and added some garlic powder, salt and Italian seasoning.  In a casserole dish, start with a layer of sauce, add the zucchini planks along the bottom of the dish, spread a layer of ricotta mixture over the zucchini, and then 1/3 of the bag shredded mozzarella.  Continue with another layer of sauce, zucchini, ricotta, and mozzarella.  Finish with another layer of sauce, zucchini, (skip the ricotta) and mozzarella.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes covered then 15 minutes uncovered.  Allow lasagna to sit for at least 10 minutes before cutting and serving.  Serve with a side salad (I just had lettuce, tomato, red onion and fresh parm).  And also served ours with turkey meatballs … made with 1 lb of ground turkey, salt, garlic powder, some crushed gluten free rosemary and olive oil crackers, and 1 egg, rolled in mini meatballs and baked at 350 for 30 minutes.  (I had leftover ricotta mixture that I used for the next nights meal, and also had lots of leftover meatballs for the rest of the week). 

Vegetable Pasta Bake or Sausage Bake (or both)

Cut 4 tomatoes into slices and put on a foil lined pan sprayed with pam.  Season with salt.  Roast at 350 until the rest of the meal is prepared (was prob 30-40 minutes).  In another pan, sear the Italian turkey sausages until cooked through.  In a separate pan, spray with cooking oil and add some garlic.  Add in ½ bag of fresh spinach and ½ red onion, sliced.  Once spinach is wilted and onion is softened, season with salt and garlic powder to taste.  Add in 1 jar of sauce (I had a butternut squash and roasted red pepper sauce in my pantry, but you could use any sauce) and heat through.  Then add the other ½ bag of spinach (I add this in toward the end so all of the spinach isn’t completely wilted down and some still has some bite to it).  Cook pasta according to directions. Serve the pasta or sliced sausage (or both) in a bowl, with the roasted tomatoes, topped with the sauce and fresh parmesan.  I also added some ricotta dumplings since I had some leftover ricotta from the lasagna.  To make them, I took the ricotta, egg, parmesan mixture and just added some flour until it was a dough consistency.  Rolled them into little dumpling balls and boiled them in the leftover pasta water until they floated.  Remove from water to drain, and sear them in the pan with the leftover turkey sausage drippings.  Serve over pasta.  (p.s. my mom is a vegetarian but doesn’t mind the dumplings and such being seared in the turkey sausage pan, or she doesn’t mind chicken broth etc… she just hates actual meat and seafood). 

Honey Mustard Chicken with Cauliflower Soup

Chicken: 3 large chicken breasts cut in half to make 6 cutlets.  Pat chicken dry and season each side with salt and garlic powder.  In a pan over medium-high heat with cooking spray, sear the chicken on each side for a few minutes.  Place chicken on a foil lined baking sheet.  In a bowl, mix 3 tbsp Dijon with 2 tbsp honey.  Spoon mixture evenly over chicken and bake at 350 for 20 minutes (FYI - don’t give to babies less than a year old because of the honey). 

Soup: 2 heads of cauliflower chopped in florets and put in a crock pot.  Add 1 carton of fat free chicken broth.  Cook on high for 4 hours until cauliflower can be poked with a fork.  Blend broth and cauliflower (I use an immersion blender but you can do this in a regular blender if you do it in small batches – do not fill blender to the top with anything hot, as it expands and can splash out and burn you!!).  Once blended, add in 1 ¼ cup milk (I used 2% because that is what B drinks, but I have used fat free before) and stir.  Turn crock pot on low.  Add in some chopped celery, carrots and onion (I had probably a cup and a half of chopped vegetables total – these were leftover from last week) and cook 2-3 more hours until vegetables are softened.  Season with salt to taste.  Serve with shredded reduced fat cheddar (and anything else you would like in it … croutons, bacon, sour cream, scallions, etc.). 

Cauliflower Crust Pizza with Salad

Take 1 med-lg head of cauliflower and grate on a box grater (or in a food processor).  The size of cauliflower I had gave me 4 cups of grated cauliflower “rice”.  Microwave the 4 cups of cauliflower for 8 minutes or until softened and allow to cool.  Add in 2 eggs (make sure the cauli is cool so the eggs don’t scramble when you put them in), 1.5 cups of shredded low fat mozzarella, 2 tbsp of grated parmesan cheese, and salt to taste, and stir.  Spray a foil lined baking sheet with pam and form individual crusts on the sheet.  I could have made 4, but I made one large one for Alex and 2 regular ones for my mom and me (the large one on one pan and the two regular ones on a different pan and baked them separately on the middle rack).  Spray each crust with a bit of pam on top.  Bake in 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Add sauce, some light mozzarella cheese (I didn’t add a lot since there is cheese in the crust), and any toppings you would like (Alex’s and mine had some leftover Italian turkey sausage, green peppers, red onions and black olives, and my moms had the same but with veggie sausage).  Bake in the oven until melted (approximately 6-8 minutes).  Served with a side salad of beets, feta and a balsamic glaze (because I ran out of lettuce).

Meatloaf with Broccoli and Cheese

I haven’t made tonight’s dinner yet, so I am not going to talk about it much.  But I am sure most have or can find a simple meatloaf recipe.  I always have a ketchup and balsamic glaze on mine … because ketchup is the best.  And it is being served with broccoli and cheese.

I hope this helps anyone who is trying to budget and make healthy meals.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  My next upcoming posts will just focus on the menu, lists, and instructions as long as baby doesn’t come before then!  I’ll be shopping Sunday this weekend but will try to still post sometime on Thursday!  Have a great day!