As a working mom, preparation for the week ahead is important. This is my Aldi meal plan – freezer edition. Enjoy these recipes as inspiration to fill your family’s bellies full and keep your wallet happy.
If you are a long time reader of the blog, you know how important meal prep is to our budget. After having my second little one, we realized how handy the postpartum meal prep was for our family. Not only did we save money by shopping at Aldi, but we bought food when it was on sale and froze it do use for later.
Some of our favorite Aldi freezer meal plan recipes have ingredients found cheapest at Aldi. For postpartum, we prepared over 20 breakfasts, lunches and dinners. This was especially helpful when we felt pinched on time or needed to cut back costs during a certain week in order to stick to our budget.
Recipes we enjoy that can be made and placed into the freezer in advance can often be reheated in minutes. It is also great to pop a meal into the slow cooker and let it go all day long. Not only does freezer meal prep help us with planning, but it comes in handy when we need all hands on deck to help with the kiddos.
Favorite Aldi Meal Plan Freezer Recipes
Every time we are at Aldi, we pick up a few staples. These are our canned goods, dairy, dry foods (for baking), condiments and of course snacks for our toddler (and little one who is BLW). Aldi sometime has the best prices on meat, specifically their whole chickens!
Our favorite freezer meal plan recipes include:
- Korean Beef Bowls
- Chicken or Beef Stir Fry
- Jambalaya
- Homemade Soups, stews and chili
- Chicken Nuggets and french fries
- Burgers and chicken breasts (on the Traeger smoker or Blackstone)
- Sourdough bread (We make two loaves every time so we do not have to make it as often)
- Egg cups
- Sourdough french toast casserole
- Sourdough bagels
- Mac and Cheese Balls (Made with sourdough breadcrumbs – and done in a flash thanks to the air fryer!)
Aldi Freezer Meal Prep Items
Items we specifically buy within Aldi’s Freezer section include:
- Tuna Steaks
- We love that this is sushi grade. We love it seared, blackened and even grilled on the Traeger.
- Potatoes (specifically the Season’s Choice crinkle french fries and Season’s Choice Tater Tots)
- Fruit
- If you read my blog about 30+ items we constantly have our house stocked with for baby led weaning, you would know frozen fruit is a staple. We constantly have fruit on hand because it tastes so fresh when you want it out of season. Additionally, these are great for smoothies, popsicles and even keeping yogurt cold when on the go.
- Broccoli and french green beans
- We love the frozen broccoli from Aldi because there are not many stems!
- Turkey Burgers
- As a stickler when it comes to meat, we love these turkey burgers because they are flavorful, not dry and have no additional ingredients but Rosemary extract (which you can not taste!).
Made from Scratch Items
There are a variety of foods we make from scratch in order to save money. These can be made in advance and placed in the freezer, adding to our Aldi meal plan of freezer meals.
- Bone Broth
We make our own beef bone broth and chicken bone broth at home when possible. When we buy a whole chicken, we save the bones and any leftover vegetable scraps in the freezer to make a big batch of bone broth.
This not only ensures we are using every possible part of the animals we purchase, but we also know the ingredients in our broth. The next time I make bone broth, I am going to save them in 1 ounce cubes instead of ziplock baggies so I can take out as much broth as I need for a recipe.
- Sourdough Bread
While we prefer organic flour which is not provided at Aldi, we do pick up salt from Aldi. This allows us to make our favorite homemade Aldi Sourdough Bread at home (and at a fraction of the cost!). Our family could easily go through a loaf of sourdough bread in one week. We make 2 loaves at a time, eat one throughout the week and save the other in the freezer. We also use leftover dried out bread which did not it into the freezer into homemade sourdough breadcrumbs.
- Soups / Stews / Chili
One of our favorite tips for making extra soups, stews and chili is to make a double batch and freeze half of it right away. Or if you have leftovers, put them into the freezer 1-2 days after enjoying them. This leaves a cup of soup which is perfect to heat up for lunch when nothing sounds good. We often pair a cup of soup with a sourdough grilled cheese sandwich – delicious!
If you are looking for soup inspiration, try this one pot taco soup ready. It is our favorite 30 minute or less dinner idea!
Tips for making Freezer Meals
By now you are likely an expert at how to slash your grocery budget by meal planning. Taking the time to prepare your grocery list, check out the weekly deals shop out of your pantry *first* and then go to the store make it all the easier.
When considering making freezer meals in advance, make sure to plan for some extra space in your freezer. Additionally, purchase some extra meal storage containers or freezer ziplock baggies to store your items.
Stickers to label your meals (and cooking instructions) can also be helpful. And last, keep track of your freezer meal storage by having a note which shows which foods you already have prepared in advance.
Freezer meal prep has been a game changer for our family. It helps us to save time and money so we can put our energy back to what really matters.
What is your favorite freezer meal prep recipe? Share it in the comments below so other readers can enjoy and be inspired!
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