Menu Plan Monday + A Few Aldi Meal Ideas

Hi! Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend?? Despite having nothing planned, we ended up being really busy...we got a lot of things done around the house and went to several stores and got the refrigerator and pantry all stocked for this week and I got everything we need for our Thanksgiving dinner! 

And now we are back to Monday and the start of a new week!

If you happen to regularly read my weekly menu plan posts, then you already know I like to keep things SUPER simple.  You won't find super fancy or complicated meals at our house- but you WILL find homemade or semi-homemade :) meals and our family sitting down to dinner EVERY night.  Having an easy, relaxed meal plan allows me to get everyone around the table without being a total stress case...because as we all know...that period of time from about 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm....well...it can get really NUTTY really fast! HA!

Anyway...here is what is on the menu at our house this week!

Monday: Beefy Mac and Steamed Zucchini and Yellow Squash

My friend Leigh mentioned last week she made Shay's recipe for Beefy Mac and said her family LOVED it! I am making it for my family tonight (fingers crossed my picky little eaters like it too!!) and we will have steamed zucchini and yellow squash as our "side/vegetable." 

source

Tuesday: Kids Night at Dairy Queen!

Aaron has a late meeting on Tuesday night and won't be home for dinner. Our local Dairy Queen has "Kids' Night" every Tuesday and their kids' meals are $1.79!! Dairy Queen's kids' meals are AWESOME- one of their entree options is a made to order grilled cheese- which is my girl's favorite, you can get a small french fry, yogurt or apple slices, milk AND a small ice cream cone is included in the meal.  It is a fun little treat to take the kids out everyone and while- AND since James and I share a kids' meal- I can feed my crew for $8!! Major Score!!

Wednesday: Chicken Quesadillas and Applesauce

I have some shredded chicken I froze from a previous meal I made- so I am going to use that and make chicken quesadillas.  The way I make our quesadillas is VERY simple: some mexican blend shredded cheese from Aldi and some shredded chicken go on our quesadillas. Aaron likes his served with sour cream and salsa. EASY and yummy :) Quesadillas are so fun because you can really add whatever you want! I think black beans and corn is always a delicious addition or you could do something totally non-traditional like some leftover sliced steak, blue cheese crumbles and arugula! 

The possibilities are endless :) 

source

Thursday: Crunchy Beef Tacos

We are having another "Mexican" themed dinner and I am making good ol' fashioned tacos.

Aaron and my girls really like "crunchy" taco shells AND I like how easy it is to sauté the ground beef and assemble the tacos :) It is a win-win :)  James (obviously-HA!) can't handle a taco shell yet- so I will make him a little quesadilla with the ground beef and cheese.  He will most likely throw it all on the ground and ask for a smoothie or some fruit- but I will give it the ol' college try! HA!

source

Friday: Pizza Night! 

No real explanation needed here....we have pizza every Friday night and this Friday is no exception! :) 

Saturday: Hot Dogs on the Grill, French Fries and Steamed Green Beans

We have a full day planned this upcoming Saturday, so I wanted a meal that could be thrown together easily, with minimal mess made in the kitchen and one that my kids would eat without a bit of complaining.  At our house, you can never go wrong with hot dogs on the grill and french fries.  Done and Done :)

Sunday: Leftover Smorgasbord!

I am taking the super lazy easy approach and making Sunday a leftover buffet :)  I figure from our various dinners we are having throughout the week, we will definitely have some leftovers and I want to clear out our fridge before it gets filled up with turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes!

So- I have shared multiple times my love for Aldi :) I know many of you also love shopping at Aldi and some of you have never been!  I do 90% of my grocery shopping there and I thought I would show how the ingredients I get there to make my meals for the week!

For Shay's Beefy Mac recipe I got everything I needed, minus the ground beef, at Aldi.  And I am not opposed to buying my ground beef at Aldi- I just happened to be at Meijer the day before and to get a super deal on our Thanksgiving turkey, I had to spend $20- so I stocked up on some ground beef.  Anyway...everything I need to make the beefy mac recipe- I was able to pick up at Aldi!

For our crunchy taco night, I got our lettuce (I shred up romaine), our shredded cheese, our salsa (Aldi has several AWESOME types of salsa- we just typically go with their traditional kind), a taco seasoning packet and taco shells.  Like I mentioned above- I got our ground beef at Meijer- but most of the time, I get lean 93/7 ground turkey from Aldi to make our tacos! 

 I am always switching up our pizza night- sometimes I make homemade pizza, sometimes I get the Take N Bake pizzas from Aldi and lately we have been "semi" making our own pizzas.  I get a one pound bag of mozzarella cheese for $3.29 and a pizza "kit" for $2.99 (you can find the pizza kit over by the spaghetti sauce and pasta) and we are able to make 2 pizzas and feed our family for $6.29! It works out perfectly because I make one pizza pepperoni (for my husband)- I get the pepperoni at Aldi- I just forgot to include it in the picture and I make a cheese pizza for the kids. The pizzas are SO easy to assemble and bake very quickly!  And everyone at my house loves them!  Like the quesadillas, the possibilities are really endless with the fun you could have topping these pizzas! 

So...that's just a few examples of the way I use Aldi products in all our meals!

And if you are interested my friend April did a post a little while back where she featured her favorite Aldi products- you can find it here!  I also love this post by Ali, at Gimme Some Oven- she did a little "series" on what she recommends buying at Aldi!

Aldi is awesome. You really should give it a try if you have never been there! Be ready to be really impressed with their products and really happy when the cashier tells you what you owe for all of your groceries! :)

Hope you have the BEST day and it is a GREAT week!!

I am linking up with Laura today!