Knowing how to make budget meals is super important, whether you have kids or not. And I think that being able to focus on a starch, a veg, and a protein for every meal makes everything simpler if you think about it from that perspective.

1) One-Pot Aldi Rotini with Marinara and Ground Beef

You can also do this with ground pork or ground chicken if that is cheaper these days, because I know the price of beef is up quite a bit. Throw in some broccoli, or if you can get some frozen vegetables to add some fiber to it, that would be great, too.

2) Aldi Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli

This looks great. Fettuccine is perfect. You can also do a penny.

Always make sure to salt your pasta water. I think that can make or break a meal. If you are cooking for a family of six, use about half a handful of salt.

I know that sounds like a lot, but trust me, it's a game changer if you're not already doing that for the extra flavor.

The ingredients that you have here look great. You can also add a shake of some Italian seasoning, which will deepen the flavor a little bit, and it's easy to always have on hand. Or maybe dried parsley or dried basil.

Or, if you have any of those things fresh, of course, use that. If they are fresh, don't add them until right before you put it on the table.

3) Budget-Friendly Aldi Taco Rice Skillet

Kidney beans and salsa work really well here. Frozen corn. If you happen to wanna add some interesting texture, you can crumble some tortilla chips on top of all of this, especially if you're giving them to kids.

They like that sort of thing. Green onions are great.

And check your taco seasoning. I think that cumin can really make her break a taco vibe of a meal, and a lot of times the taco seasoning doesn't have a lot of that.

Another thing too that you wanna do is make sure that you start the taco seasoning or whatever spices you're gonna add with the ground beef and onion before you put the tomatoes in the rice and everything, because you want that to bloom a little bit in the fat.

And then, of course, definitely drain the ground beef after you've cooked it. Maybe not all the way, because I think a little bit of that is good, but I wouldn't recommend cooking all that with an entire pound's worth of crown beef fat.

4) Aldi Salisbury Steak with Mashed Potatoes

This looks fantastic. I would eat this immediately right now. I think I'm depending on the brown gravy mix that you have, I would.

They're usually really heavy on salt, but they don't have a lot of other depth.

If you happen to have a little bit of red wine lying around, you could throw that in or just add some black pepper, just a little bit. I know kids don't like a ton of it, but I feel like black pepper really adds a nice depth to any sort of gravy situation that you're doing. You could also do the same thing with meatballs.

5) Slow Cooker Aldi Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Whenever I cook anything in a slow cooker, I take a whole head of garlic and just slice it all the way across lengthwise so that all of the bulbs are exposed, and just throw the whole thing in the crockpot with whatever else you're doing. Then, once it's done, take out that garlic and set it aside to let it cool down a little bit.

And then you can just squeeze all of the garlic paste out with your hand into whatever it is that you just made. Pork shoulder would be great for this, and it adds a really nice sweetness to it, and it takes 30 seconds. Garlic is around forever, and it's pretty cheap, and that's it.

That's a good way to get it in your belly cause it's also has some health benefits.

You could also do all of this with orange juice. Just do a salt and pepper on the pork shoulder and cook it like that with the garlic and some onion and a little bit of orange juice, and then when it's done, you shred it and then add some more orange juice, and it's great.

6) Aldi Tuna Noodle Casserole

I love this, and I probably ate this at least once a week when I was growing up. You can also do this with brown rice, and it's great. You get a little bit more nutrition from that, and it's not too expensive.

And you can add some frozen corn along with it.

7) Cheesy Aldi Bean and Rice Burritos

If you wanna take this up or not, you can just buy a can of enchilada sauce, and then when you make the burritos and bake them, I'm just gonna dump a can of enchilada sauce on top of that and then top with a little bit of cheese, and it'll feel like something a little bit fancier.

8) Aldi Sausage, Peppers, and Onions

You can take all of this stuff and buy a baguette from Aldi, and once you're finished cooking the peppers and the onions and the sausage, put all of that onto the baguette with the olive oil, maybe a little bit of dried oregano, some balsamic vinegar if you're feeling fancy, and then you can press the whole sandwich. You just get a cookie sheet, put it on top of the sandwich, and weigh it down with something like a couple of cans of something.

Let it sit there for a while, and smoosh it down a little, and then you can slice that into sandwiches, and it's just fantastic. I've also done that with onions, peppers, and chicken. That one, for sure, you want to add the balsamic vinegar.

I think sausage, peppers, and onions is a great thing you can do, definitely over rice or pasta.

If you do it over pasta, you could add some toasted Panko on top, which I usually toast in a pan (just Panko, butter, or a little bit of olive oil or something like that). Makes it feel fancy. Or just breadcrumbs, but Panko or breadcrumbs- it's a nice pantry item to have around if you want to make something feel a little bit nicer, but you don't have a ton of money or time.

9) Weeknight Aldi Chicken Fried Rice

A little knob of fresh ginger is a great thing to keep around for stuff like this. If you just take it, you don't need to peel it. I know a lot of people do that with the spoon or whatever.

Just take the fresh ginger and put it straight on like a cheese grater and grate it, and you can throw that in the pan with all this other stuff and it adds a nice flavor to it. Ginger is usually not too expensive, it keeps for a long time.

Garlic powder is great. You can add a couple of drops of toasted sesame oil if you want. Chili flakes are great and another thing you'd wanna maybe just have on hand at all times, that depends again on how much chili your kids can take, but

10) Aldi Loaded Baked Potato Dinner

I love all of this. I would just do it with sweet potatoes. I know some people have feelings about sweet potatoes, but I think they're great, and they're usually available year-round.

You could even add a little bit of crumbled bacon if you want.

11) Budget Aldi Sloppy Joes

If you happen to have some Worcestershire sauce, that would be great for the sloppy Joes. You can also, if you don't wanna buy a whole jar of pickles, you can just make your own quick pickles at home. You just wanna thin-slice some cucumber and thin-slice some onion and just dump a little bit of Salt and pepper and red wine vinegar and a little bit of sugar and let that sit on the counter while you're doing this other stuff cooking.

And then, by the time the rest of the dinner is ready, you also have a little pickled vegetable thing without needing to buy a whole jar of pickles. Because I know in my house if I buy a jar of pickles, they're gonna disappear immediately, and it'll probably be me who eats the entire jar.

12) Aldi Vegetable Beef Soup

If you don't feel like peeling potatoes and chopping them and everything, a really good substitute would be some beans; maybe a navy bean or a kidney bean would be nice here if you're looking for some starch.

And if you happen to have any red cooking wine on hand, that's a really cheap thing to just have around. Just buy the cheapest stuff. I know people say that you don't wanna cook with wine that you wouldn't drink, but I'm here to tell you I've used a lot of wine in cooking that I would never drink, and it's fine.

Also, you can just grab an entire head of garlic and slice it in half widthwise and throw that in there too while the soup is boiling. Once it gets soft, pull it out of the soup, set it aside, let it cool down a little bit, and then you can just squeeze the whole thing into the soup and stir it in, and it will make your soup taste quite elevated. All you need to do is boil a head of garlic with everything else.

13) Easy Aldi Breakfast-for-Dinner Pancakes and Eggs

I'm a big fan of savory pancakes, so take all of those bacon bits that I just told you to set aside from a couple of recipes, go throw them in with your pancake mix, and then when you put the maple syrup on top, it'll just have a nice savory bite. With pancakes, it's great. Or you can even throw the turkey sausage in the pancakes.

You could do that. And the chopped green onions- put those in the pancakes.

14) Aldi Meatball Subs with Mozzarella

If you wanna save yourself some heartbreak when you put these subs in the oven, you can just wrap each one in foil and put them in the oven that way. And that's how you avoid burning them.

15) Cheesy Aldi Chicken and Rice Casserole

You can do this with brown rice. It might take a little longer, but you're gonna get more fiber that way. And I personally like brown rice butter.

I think it holds up and bakes like this.

And add a little bit of greenery, like some Italian seasoning or some dried oregano or something like that. You can also use fresh herbs, but don't add them until you're about to serve.

16) Aldi Black Bean Quesadillas

I love a good pickled jalapeño, which you can usually buy in the Latin food section of the grocery store, and they're quite inexpensive. They keep forever. You just open the can and put them in a different container, and you can just keep them in the refrigerator.

You can also add, if you have any leftover meat, that's always a good thing to add, or some rotisserie chicken or something like that. Cilantro is always great to put on top. And I would recommend having some lime wedges that you can squeeze over everything.

17) Budget Aldi Spaghetti Carbonara

Broccoli would be a good addition to this, and kids usually don't mind broccoli. If you can get a hold of fresh ground black pepper, that's always nice. Also, if you wanna top that with some toasted Panko, just toast it in a dry skillet with some butter.

18) Aldi Chili with Canned Beans and Ground Turkey

I like a good turkey chili with white beans, so I would say kidney beans and white beans are always nice. Brown rice is great. Sweet potatoes are awesome, especially since you can cook the potato in the microwave, which saves you from having to turn on the oven if it's summertime.

You can also make your own chili seasoning, which is quite simple. There are recipes online. It's five seasonings, and they're pretty easy ones to find, and it's usually cheaper to do that than to buy the chili seasoning.

I always like to add extra cumin because I think chili seasoning generally doesn't have enough cumin in it. And brown sugar: finishing this off with a little bit of brown sugar will bring out the flavors.

19) Southwest BBQ Chicken Flatbread Pizza

BBQ chicken flatbread has tangy bbq sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken breast and veggies on a flatbread base with a crispy crust. There’s no yeast or rising time for this easy flatbread pizza.

Recipe by Lindsey Jenkins, A Nourishing Plate

Get the full recipe at A Nourishing Plate.

20) One-Pan Aldi Kielbasa and Cabbage

I think this would be great on top of some mashed potatoes, which you can either make from the flakes that are instant, or just boil some potatoes and smash them up with the wire whisk and some cream and butter and a lot of salt and pepper.

Keep reading

• Ground Beef and Egg Rice Bowls for an Easy Weeknight Dinner
• 25 Ground Beef Dinners That Stretch One Pound
• Dump-and-Go Meals for New Moms