Budget Aldi meal plan: 5 meals for £20

Another week, another 5 meals for £20! This week we went to Aldi again as I really wanted to try their Kebab Wraps . I do have a confession... until this week I had never had a Kebab before! I know... you can judge me, I am judging myself! 

This weeks budget Aldi meal plan didn't quite go to plan. I have noticed a bit of a shortage in all supermarkets lately, especially eggs! So I had to make do without some things I wanted. I was gutted I couldn't get hold of any onions as they would have been a solid stable in most of the meals. So I have left onions on the meal planning list and hopefully you can find them yourself! 

You can read Week One's menu here!

Week 2 here

Week 3 here

Aldi meal plan for the week

I don't usually do two pasta dished in a week! Mainly because we are still ploughing on with the January diet (and actually doing really well!) However, this week was an exception as Adam requested Lasagna so I thought I would reuse the sauce and mince and have spag bol too. 

What do I need from Aldi for my budget meal plan?

As previously mentioned, I couldn't get hold of any onions! I used spring onions for our kebabs though! But if you are planning to follow my plan, definitely make sure you get onions! You can use them in the kebabs, lasagna, spag bol and hotpot! Onions and mushrooms are usually staples in my cooking as I can chop them up really small so nobody notices they are in there! We tend to go through a 1kg bag a week! 

I also want to note, that since I have been doing these meal plans I have found there are things that I use every week that I don't need to buy every week. So these are my 'cupboard essentials', which are things I don't include in the weekly price list as I don't purchase them every week ie garlic, herbs, oil. 

Meal one: Lasagna

This lived up to ever expectation Adam had when he requested lasagna last week! I was a little lazy and decided to buy the white sauce pre-made. Last week, lots of my recipes included homemade white sauce but when I am making lasagna there are so many other steps to think about I couldn't bring myself to be constantly stirring the sauce whilst prepping other sections too!

However, I did home cook the sauce! I tend to do this once a month anyway. I batch cook containers full of tomato sauces and pop them in the freezer. I find it much cheaper to batch cook sauces! Plus, I am not actually keen on the jar tomato sauces as I am so funny with the texture of tomatoes (I am autistic!) Plus, this way I can hide as many veggies in as possible, blitz it up and Albie is secretly getting so much goodness! 

Meal two: Lattices with hassleback potatoes

These Aldi lattices were so good! The only downside is you only get two in a packet, so if you are feeding a whole family they aren't really budget friendly. However, you could always give the kids fish fingers instead or even make your own! By this point in the week, Albie was refusing to eat anything but rich teas... so I just had to cook for Adam and I anyway. 

The hassleback potatoes were great! I have never made them before so I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. They did take over an hour to cook though which was making me cry as I watched the smart metre add up... you could air fry them though (I will be next time!) 

Meal three: spag bol

To be fair, there is so much more I could have done with some extra mince and tomato sauce.... but I really fancied a spag bol! We are on diets still but you have room in the budget to get yourself some garlic bread too! 

Meal four: kebabs

I was super excited to try the kebab wraps.  The whole meal was amazing. I used creme fraiche as the sauce because of our diets... but Adam said mayonnaise would have made it a 10/10.... so I will take note for next time. But I liked the creme fraiche in it to be honest. 

Meal five: lentil hotpot

Lentils are an essential in budget cooking. They are only 54p a can and can really bulk out a meal. I often use lentils mixed in with spag bol / mince too to make the mince go further. You can't really taste the lentils with all the other flavours but it bulks the meal out. This hotpot was just lentils, vegetables, stock and potatoes and it was delicious. It felt like a proper wholesome Sunday night dinner!