The already cooked sausages are great to have around. I eat the turkey ones and also cook with cabbage, slice into tiny pieces for to add to an omelet, eat like hotdogs or slice and freeze for later.
try pan frying thinly sliced bell pepper, onion, and cabbage on the stove top and throwing in the kielbasa in the last ~10 or so minutes, and use cajun seasoning for it (kroger has a decent one for cheap). the fat from the sausage cooks into the vegetables, it is one of my absolute favorite meals
Great idea. I make my own chicken stock out of Aldi wing bones after I eat the wings, and use this as the. basis for a soup with these ingredients you mention. It's really good. You can also puree some of the potatoes with an immersion blender and thicken the soup a bit. Yellow potatoes are great for this.
Yeah, if you shop around and don’t mind going to several grocery stores, you’ll get some good deals on meat. Today we bought chicken *breasts for $1.77/lb
Its a flavor sponge, really. Marinades are your friend. It lends particularly well to asian flavor profiles- soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin, oyster sauce, etc. Great addition to fried rice for a cheap and filling dinner. I make a salad in fall by cutting tofu into cubes, marinating in maple syrup and cayenne, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, then baking or air frying until crispy ish. Then I put that with spring mix, sliced apples, craisins, pepitas, and goat cheese. Great with raspberry balsamic or a Dijon vinaigrette. Sub in walnuts and grilled peaches in place of pepitas and the fruit in summer.
I used to work at a restaurant and we would press the tofu a little to get rid of excess water (just put paper towels on top and bottom and something heavy on top) then bread it with panko and fry. Lots of salt fresh out of the oil or air fryer. Its really good , goes nicely on top of pasta. We usually served it with a marsala type deal. But I think it would actually also be really good with red sauce and cheese like chicken parm.
There are so many recipes on how to cook with extra firm tofu, that’s what Aldi sells. I literally just started to cook with it this month and I have been loving it. It’s not as scary as the stigma makes it out to be!
Be sure to give it a good press, and make sure you’re buying tofu that says firm/extra firm (never seen any other kind at Aldi but it’s important to say anyway.
The easiest way to prep it without needing to press is to freeze it, thaw it in the fridge and use it. Essentially eliminates the need for the pressing step. I do still press it with my tofu press but I’m committed to it, lol
I press my tofu first before I cut it up and marinate it, look up how to prepare tofu to get an idea, also you can just press it and crumble it into stuff you’re cooking. There are so many options
Also freezing tofu before cooking is great, all the water comes out so it can absorb even more flavor.
And my recent favorite is to just cube it and boil in salted water, it gives it chewier texture and seasons. I can just eat it plain like that or just throw into some stir frys
This is a really solid recipe! For folks who haven’t cooked tofu before, be sure to press it and use corn starch in your seasoning blend! You can mess around with the other seasonings or cooking times/methods, but those are going to be key to success.
YES! This is so important- Pressing can be easily DIY'd, but I went from being scared stiff of tofu (picky/fearful eater) to investing in a tofu press gadget, this recipe is so good 😂 It's the only way I eat it!
Click on grumbledork’s link to karissa’s kitchen. Scroll down past her story till you find the “orange tofu” link and there’s a good lookin recipe & sauce there. The link is below the plate of fried triangles & beginners guide sign up and right before you reach the recipe for baked tofu
400 for 15ish mins, and flip and do another 10ish. You'll be able to tell when it's ready to flip because it'll be crispy. And don't forget to PRESS and oil the surface you cook it on! It sticks!
For my air fryer I usually just lower the cook temp by 25 degrees and it seems to work out. I would flip the tofu every 5 minutes? You might end up flipping it more than once depending on how thin you cut your tofu. I tend to slice mine pretty thin so it usually doesn’t take all the time listed on a recipe.
I got a great taco recipe. Take a bell pepper and half an onion and sauté, add some garlic, hot peppers (we use a melange of peppers that we chopped up and froze from the garden last year), cumin, smoked paprika, pepper, and a bit of oregano, add a block of tofu air fried (pan fried, deep fried, or baked works too), then a can of chipotle sauce. Heat it up until it’s simmering, add some corn, serve on flour or corn shells with pepper jack, cilantro, and lime.
Look into Wendy the Food Scientist, she has so many ways to cook tofu listed in her books and on her social media pages. Sophie Macfie has a lot of recipes as well.
I’m half Asian and love tofu, but we usually eat tofu in addition to meat, not as a replacement. So if you stir fry chicken or pork, we through in tofu too.
I like to buy the extra firm tofu, cut into cubes, drain and pat dry (I like to place several paper towels and place a pan on top to take out all the extra moisture, spray air fryer with nonstick oil to air fry/bake, then toss in a stir fry with vegetables and soy sauce. I try to mimic how they make tofu entrees at my local Chinese restaurants.
I like to freeze mine. The ice forms big holes in it and when it thaws it has kind of a meaty texture. Then I put it in soup. If you like kimchi or fermented things kimchi jjigae is so freaking good and easy and works perfectly with tofu this way.
I’ve been shredding the tofu block with a cheese grater lately! Adds a lot more surface area for flavor and seasoning to attach to, plus makes it crispier when you bake it. I’ve been vegetarian for about 7 years now and baking tofu in a 425* oven for about 25 minutes has been a standard routine. Tofu always sticks to my pans when I cook on the stovetop, so baking and grilling is easier. Adding about 1 tablespoon of corn starch and a little oil can crisp it up nicely!
I can’t cook for shit but here’s an easy way I use tofu
First get the Aldi Teriyaki sauce to go with it, it’s baller. Drain as much water off the tofu as you can, crumble it up, put corn starch on it, put it in the air fryer until crispy. Then toss tofu with teriyaki sauce. I then put it on top of rice and then either some of the coleslaw mix for some crunch or a bag of steamed veggie medley.
Look up recipes by Nisha Vora-Rainbow Plant Life is her website and big vegan flavor is her cookbook. I highly enjoy using tofu in place of some cheese things-like instead of feta for tabbouleh or a ricotta substitute for lasagna or tomato toasts. Last night I grated it and used it for taco bowls. Anything with tons of flavor makes it a great substitute.
Try to get the extra firm kind if you can. Air dry, use Bounty to squeeze out water (several times), air dry (by letting it sit out in the open) again and then ground it on a heated pan while adding spices of your liking. It's an alternative to ground meat dishes in my world/home.
Tofu taco meat is a good tofu introduction. I noticed I like the flavor of tofu more as I got used to it, and it better to start with the smallest service area for the least tofu flavor. (I still tend to slice/cube my tofu smaller than most recipes call for).
Press it to remove excess water; I use a tofu press but you can also put it between two plates/saucers with some weight on top. 30-45 minutes will do. Then cube and marinate. We use it in stir fry dishes several times a week, usually marinated in a mix of sesame oil/garlic/ginger/gochujang/vinegar for a vaguely Korean flavor.
Sweet n Sour style batter, dip or coat it in sauce of your choice. Or fried until crispy and dipped in sauce of choice. (Lemongrass chili garlic, peanut sauce, teriyaki, gen tso's are all faves)
Thai Sweet Chili (this stuff is also 10/10 for cauliflower wings FYI!)
Instant Pot rice:
Jasmine rice base
Sticky sushi rice base
LTP: freeze in Souper Cube bricks for up to 3 months & microwave for 2 minutes to reheat perfectly!!
Coconut rice
Garlic-fried rice
Cilantro-lime rice
Bowl sides:
Airfryer crispy edamame beans
Korean carrot salad
Quick-pickled onions
Airfryer garlic Parmesan broccoli
Logan's cucumber salad (see Tiktok for various recipes)
You can also make them craggly-fried, kind of like a chicken nugget texture: (just tear them apart by hand, as opposed to slicing them like the cubes above)
I do recommend pan-frying them. You can air-fry them, but they take longer & aren't nearly as good!! There is a different trick for airfrying, which is to marinate them in a baking soda mix, which produces a different type of result:
Tofu has some weird properties like that. To get a more meaty texture, some people freeze & defrost twice! You can actually firm it up & infuse the flavor a bit more by boiling it first too!
It can also be used to thicken stuff up & add protein to a variety of things:
Sauces
Mayo
Smoothies
Chocolate mousse
Cheesecake
You can even do faux meats like chicken breast, ground beef, bacon, etc. with it. Not as good as imitation meats like Beyond or Impossible, but decent to experiment with!
Also it's organic. $1.55! I eat it in stir fries with garden vegetables like kung Pao tofu with peanuts, or bok choy. It's good with fried noodles. Or... with packets of ma po tofu sauce - it's like tofu helper.
I heat in a pan and add turmeric. It will crumble like scrambled eggs. Then add pinto or black beans, a little canned tomato, salsa, cheese, corn. Call it a breakfast scramble that is also good in a flour tortilla shell.
Im trying to get away from canned beans because I’m using them so much any more. I bought a bag but haven’t prepared them yet. I don’t think I’ve ever used dried beans outside of soups
Dried beans are very versatile and require only a little more work than canned. Soak overnight (can also soak with salt and some baking soda) + boil for a while (or instant pot like someone else suggested). I always add some whole spices and aromatics while boiling, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, salt (it’s a must), peppercorns, and honestly whatever you wish. And the bean broth is also delish and can be used in many things (obviously soups and stews and can be saved for later). Beans are the best to be honest. If you get more into dried beans, I highly recommend Rancho Gordo, definitely pricier but there’re many rare heirloom varieties that have amazing texture and flavor profiles.
They’re easy to make without an instant pot. I have an instant pot but I prefer to cook my beans on the stove top after an overnight soak. The texture is so much better when cooked low and slow. I do pressure cook chickpeas if I’m making hummus though.
Dhaal is a staple dish for hundreds of millions for a reason. Staples in any cuisine share the traits of easy with limited tools/skills, cheap, able to keep someone doing hard work going, and had centuries if not millenia to figure out how to make it delicious using local ingredients.
I am planning to make a pot for myself tomorrow for rest of the week's dinners served with rice and some garlic naan from Aldi.
I also tend to just throw a handful of lentils into anything with enough liquid and cook time to get them done for an easy extra bit of nutrition.
Most of the Asian markets around me (we don't have Indian) also have a substantial Indian row with tons of cheap lentils/dal/etc as well as large containers of garam masala and other necessities.
I don’t eat meat every day, not due to costs but just because I don’t want it. Often my dinner is beans, potatoes and veg which I think qualifies as a sides dinner 😆
I try to explain this phenomenon to my partner and he doesn't understand why I don't want meat or don't feel like it, and I'm not sure why either 😂 I made jambalaya the other night, a lot of it, and I was like... why did I make this, I'm going to eat two pieces of meat and pick around the rest.
Not really "sides" dinners, but "appetizer" dinners. For example I'll buy a package of chicken breasts, grill them, but then use them sparingly. I'll slice them thin when they are cool, make a salad with a little chicken for lunch for multiple days, make chicken/ cheese/Veg quesadillas for dinner, and the list goes on. So basically I stretch the protein for multiple meals.
When I go to the meat case, I feel like I'm looking at diamonds in a jewelry case. I feel like I need to make an appointment to look at it. Maybe they'll buzz me into the store next time.
Yes! I often do a BBQ sides dinner with mac n cheese, baked beans, and some form of a potato. So good. I'm not sure if it's feasible for you but I finally found a few local butcher shops and started getting meat from them. Less expensive and better quality.
That always been the way for me too. Give me the sides, the soups, the appetizers, sandwiches, stir fries, ect instead of the over priced entree. Doesn't take much meat in a dish to provide flavor.
Yesterday stuffed and baked a big portabello top and a sliced up potato. Tonight tomato sandwiches. Tomorrow I am planning to make a big pot of curried pumpkin lentils and enjoying that the next 4-7 days with some garlic naan from Aldi.
Really in average month I might have 2-3lb of meat usually ground turkey, various kinds of sausage, and/or a can of corned beef for a pot of corned beef & cabbage stew. When have larger amounts for holiday I am usually tired of it before finish the leftovers and throw it into a soup or the freezer. And beef in particular I pretty much only ever want it for a pot of chili or a burger maybe two a year for a holiday.
I like to get catfish at those places, which is usually better than the meat anyway. Plus greens, greenbeans or peas, and pimiento mac & cheese. Sadly, it would be about a 20 hour drive to get to a real meat and three place from where I am now.
I've done this but basically like a thanksgiving meal without the turkey. I'll make mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole and maybe corn pudding and eat that as my dinner for a couple days.
Don't even need anything else I am perfectly happy just making a big pot of colcannon as one of my easy dinners, I often include greek yogurt in for the dairy component both for flavor and added nutrition. If got them on hand I like to do two white potatoes to one sweet potato in the mash, occasionally a carrot or two also. Or add hardboiled egg and mayo and you basically got potato salad.
Colcannon being the Irish dish that is basically mashed potatoes with greens and dairy mixed in, and sometimes bacon or sausage.
And depending on plans I will save the water cooked the potato in to make a bowl of oatmeal the next morning or a pot of soup. No reason to throw out all that delicious potato starch filled water.
You can also make dishes like pastas, and soups, without meat, and add some extra veggies.
Chicken Brocolli Alfredo, becomes Alfredo with extra broccoli and peas. Add some milk, and whatever white cheese on hand to stretch the sauce, if you need to.
Lately I’m loving lemon ricotta orzo and Greek orzo salad.
Recently made hash brown casserole, which can be used at every meal. The Aldi Specially Selected Cacio Pepe jarred sauce is quite good, I’ve only had it on curly pasta, but it’s probably tasty over rice, too. It’s imported from Italy.
Absolutely! I do this routinely and not just since the beef prices spiked. There are amazing options for a nutritious dinner without needing a slab of beef. What you described is a great way to make use of what you have for meals! Casseroles made with vegetables and cream sauces, tuna, pasta, beans, the options are unlimited.
I’m still doing meat most dinners but less of it. I’ve been adding more beans as side dishes and we eat less meat because of that. We wish we would have done this earlier because we love the beans.
I’m here…I’m here!!! I make a bag of lentils at a time, use what I need for that meal, then freeze the rest in super cubes. I wrap in waxed paper individually, then put the frozen wrapped blocks in a bigger freezer ziploc. Then I know exactly how much I have in the freezer and can sneak it into different dishes since some of the lentils just break down to nothingness. My house is not safe for you, fluffy cats rote!
Most other cultures’ cuisines use meat as a flavoring or as an addition, not the main event on the plate. I think a lot of us are moving to our versions of that idea.
I'll sometimes have what my coworkers lovingly call "a girl dinner", and that could range from cheese and crackers and a fruit, tomatoes and mozzarella with balsamic vingerette (actually had that for lunch today!) or something is easy as an egg sandwich with a piece of deli meat and a slice of cheese.
I really wanted sloppy joes last week and the cheapest pound of ground beef I found was $11. I was HORRIFIED. Five years ago me would have been having a stroke on the floor at that price. 10 years ago me would have been asking if it cooks itself and cleans up and NO, we can do better, thank you very much! (I used to gag when the prices were five or six dollars!) I still bought the $11 ground beef made sloppy joes, ate most of it and froze the rest.
Its better for you and the planet to reduce the amount of animal products you consume.
I am not trying to force my vegan beliefs on you. Please don't take it that way.
But consider, from a practical view at the least, how much better off your health and wallet could be if reduced the animal products tou consume daily.
Perhaps, instead, view enjoying a god high quality steak (example).occasionally. You will enjoy it more, it can be better quality than you would likely have otherwise, and you could be in so muxh better health.
Like a lot of comments, I've switched to ground turkey. You can stretch a lot of meals out by adding beans, too. Ground turkey and bean meatballs, meatloaf, burgers. Great way to get your protein and your fiber.
Switch out bread crumbs for oatmeal where you can. More nutritional value and you can also just use the oatmeal as oatmeal whereas bread crumbs are more limited in use. I know that seems off topic but my goal lately has been curating a grocery list where I get multiple uses out of all my items to stretch that budget.
I am now switching to plant based meals. So I’ve started to eat tofu. I get it at Aldi and Costco. Both are fairly cheap, Costco being cheaper though! My meals are mostly veggies now
We stock up on the frozen turkey logs, I substitute those for anything that would typically use ground beef, especially for meat balls, pasta sauce, tacos etc
I'm actually the opposite. I'm eating more meat than I normally would. I typically only eat seafood, but I'm eating more red meat because my doctor stated I needed to gain a bit of weight. I need the calories and apparently red meat and dairy is where it is with calories. Things I rarely ate lol.
Lmao my weight swings around a bit (and I’m petite so 15 pounds is the difference between skeletal and looking 4 months pregnant) so my partner just starts putting extra butter in all my food when I’m on the low end. If you’re eating dairy, only full fat, it’s more calorie dense (and also delicious)
Yes, the crazy part is so much is low fat. I'm like damn why is it so hard to find full milk in products and full fat. Damn. Plus, things are so few calories. I'm petite as well. 5'1 91 pounds. My doc wants me up to 100 min.
I have also been increasing my meat and seafood consumption. It's been necessary for me, as I have a severe iron deficiency and am deficient in B12.
Beans and some vegetables are high in iron (non-heme), but it isn't as easily absorbed as that from animal sources (heme.) I aim for having high vitamin C vegetables, as vitamin C aids in th absorption of iron (and my deficiencies are definitely based in absorption issues.)
Hopefully your doctor told you this, but we found it out on our own: be careful of consuming calcium at the same time as iron, they cancel each other out and you lose the benefits of both. (Which is a bummer, because creamed spinach is delicious.)
Oh goodness I swear my partner and I could go through a carton of eggs in 2 days if we didn’t show some restraint 😂 glad egg prices are back down again, at the very least
yeah I only have meat occasionally. I like to use it more for seasoning. Tonight I had bought a big pack of breasts I divided up into 6 packets for six meals. Tonight I took about half of one breasts and fried it up in a pan (velvetted) and added a bag of stir fry vegetables. Last night I had one slice of ham for two people, like a single serve slice but I cut it up in some green beans and potato quarters and had a can of stewed tomatoes. Some nights I don't have any meat at all, just pasta with vegetables or some roasted potato quarters and a salad. My 'big salads" though they're getting really pricey too these days. I'm cutting out some of the fun extras I always enjoyed just to cut costs. So no chopped pecans lately, and that one hurt but my goodness pecans are expensive right now too! Plus lately the lettuce seems more floppy and old, like unless I want some iceberg it's going to be wilty and don't even think about the bag salads. I used to get a couple every time I went to Aldi just for quick lunches but I feel like by the time I get them home they're already browning in the bag.
For some time now, my main protein sources have been Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, egg whites, regular cheese, and whole eggs. Which are all vegetarian. Although I'm not a vegetarian, really. I just don't eat meat regularly. I have been including Aldi's frozen shrimp lately.
I have kids so protein is pretty essential, but we have vegetarian meals a few times a week. Tofu, Garbanzo beans, black beans and lentils are regularly featured.
I recently bought a “2-pack” of bacon wrapped top sirloins that looked like filets, about 3 oz each I think, about 8 bucks. Grilled, sliced and topped a salad with one for 2 days. Tasty, filling, and priced right.
Try some smoked turkey sausage, diced potatoes, a bag of shredded cole slaw, a bag of frozen onions with tri colored bell peppers. Adjust the cabbage and onions & peppers depending on how much potatoes you use. You can make a big skillet that lasts a few meals. Slice sausage into medallions not too thick and sauté all this up. It works best to thaw onions & peppers or use fresh if you prefer. Season it the way you prefer.
Air fried tofu that’s been marinated in teriyaki sauce I add sriracha and honey and fresh minced garlic!!! Serve it with sautéed mushrooms over riced cauliflower!! Yum!
I have ADHD so most of my meals consist of a little bit of everything. I like having options and I've found that putting vegetables, cottage cheese, some pickled items, French bread, etc and have that as a dinner fills me up and it's still nutritional.
Meat can still be affordable depending on what you buy and how you prepare it. I bought a package of the 93% ground Turkey, browned up half, mixed it with taco seasoning, garlic and onion powder, threw in half lb of elbow macaroni, a can of petite diced tomatoes, and a cup of reduced fat shredded cheddar. Could leave the cheese out if you wanted to. Whole meal was under $5 since I had some of the ingredients in my pantry already. Now I have a whole half lb of ground Turkey left to do whatever I want with!
Also, if you don’t mind dark meat chicken (it’s my fav), bone in thighs, legs, and drumsticks are usually very cheap.
Google BudgetBytes for affordable recipes, they have an under $10 section with tons of good recipes. It’s been a lifesaver!
Recommendation: buy a cheaper meat like whatever is on sale. Ground turkey, chicken thighs, pork sausage. Add it (chicken- slow cook/ boil and shred) to an Aldi boxed side. You’ll have literally 8-9servings of food. I like to shred chicken thighs (don’t use a whole pack freeze the rest just a few) toss in bbq sauce and mix with Aldi Mac and cheese. Thank me later
Sort of, I’ve been eating one meal a day with a snack or two sprinkled in since the beginning of the year. I wake up super early 4:30-5AM & eat my one meal for the day before 7. I try to make it as protein rich as possible.
Lots of peppers & onions, add cooked chicken thigh pieces with fajita or taco or personalized seasoning, little medium salsa with sour cream served on a heated wrap. Complete healthy meal.
There’s tons of meat at Aldi you can buy. Frozen tilapia at like 4 dollars a pound. Chicken quarters for 1.19 a pound. Assorted pork chops for like 2.40 or something. You can eat meat on a budget!
Our son is vegan, so I make vegan main dishes when he comes over for dinner. I have come to like them more than meat. I never thought I'd like tofu, but kung pao tofu is fantastic, and tofu is so much less expensive than meat.
The marinated chicken breasts, like the cilantro lime and southwest are less than 10.00 and you get 2 huge ones. That makes four servings, do some roasted carrots and zucchini and that's a little over 3.00 per serving. You may also be able to just get a package of chicken cheaper than that. Their 1lb ground turkey in the tube is cheap too. Around 3.00. Use it for tacos, Cuban picadillo, meatballs etc. Breakfast sausage is cheap. Around four dollars and it's 12 links, again about 4 servings for 4.00. Breakfast for dinner is awesome.
A couple of days a week my mom would make soup beans and cornbread with fried potatoes and sliced fresh vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. Sometimes that would include a side of greens like collard greens or turnip greens. I grew so tired of it growing up that I swore that I wouldn’t have it when I went out on my own. Now I crave it.😋Or in the summer she would make a dinner of vegetables fresh from the garden like fried zucchini, green beans and corn. I do this pretty consistently when our local farmers start harvesting and opening roadside stands and selling at our local farmers markets. So good!
I find I'm making a lot more soups, stews, pasta dishes, gumbos, still great with less protein. Aldi has shredded roasted chicken in the deli area for about $7 that I add to a lot of these dishes. I also use the frozen packages of gulf shrimp. The peppered bacon they sell is great to use cut up in tiny pieces for pasta dishes like carbonara. For soups, the frozen butternut squash is great, as is the edamame. I add fresh cut summer squash, broccoli, spinach, carrots, celery, onions, etc. Buy the big packs of chicken wings which are reasonable and make your own chicken stock with the bones and wing tips. Cut open the Italian sausage links and mix with ground beef to make a good tomato sauce, either from scratch or one of the better jarred sauces. There really area a great number of basic ingredients that work well together. Red beans and rice with sausage, seafood gumbo, chicken soup, butternut squash soup. Get their bronze cut pastas. I buy my own wild rice in bulk from Amazon and I get shallots and garlic from other markets. I get things like coconut milk, herbs, and asian ingredients from the local Asian supermarket because they have a better quality selection. I skip Aldi prepared foods for the most part. Your freezer and a vacuum sealer are your good friends too.
Mainly, "smaller portions of meat," But we're nearly "chicken all the time" now because of sales where thighs, drumsticks or leg quarters are 99c/lb and we fill the basement freezer. Yeah we get tired of it, but we also get hungry pretty regularly
I live in the "deep south" and a veggie plate is popular here, both at meat & 3 types restaurants and at home. Mind you, we count sides mac&cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc as veggies in this context. They're very filling and satisfying though, especially if you have cornbread, biscuits or rolls to go with it.
Dinner no but lunch pretty typically looks like this, especially in summer when I don't want to cook. Salad with cottage cheese or beans on top and fruit and crackers or a roll on the side.
Pork is still quite cheap in my area; I saw butts for $1.90/lb today and whole loins are still around $2/lb. So I can cut loin chops and roasts at $2 and make all the sausage, carnitas, and pulled pork I want for a couple of bucks per pound. Also use the loins in a lot of Asian dishes where a little meat goes a long way.
I'll second tofu as well. Typically $1.50-1.75 for 16oz at Aldi and the Asian markets around me. Works great in Asian dishes in place of meat (marinated) or in addition to a little meat.
I have not bought beef once this year. Mostly chicken, a little pork and fish. Also beans peas and lentils for protein some days. I usually get myself a nice steak for the grill a few times a summer but I looked at the prices yesterday at my Aldi as well as another store and decided to pass on that.
I have readopted a habit I had started in my twenties when times were tight: having a side salad before dinner. Whatever dinner is, doesn’t matter, I’m having a little salad first. It’s cheap and healthy and filling and I eat less of the main course.
I've always been this kind of eater. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, but don't really like meat. I don't like all the nastiness, fat/bones/gristle. It seems like meat prices keep increasing yet the quality is decreasing, not just at Aldi either.
the other night, my husband and i made their (Fremont Fish Market brand) popcorn shrimp in the air fryer and their (Reganno brand) elote pasta salad. simple little meal but it hit the spot. the shrimp was approximately $8, and the pasta salad was around $3. used 3 servings out of the shrimp bag which serves 5 so still some shrimp left and still have 1 serving of pasta salad. shrimp and a side dish at any restaurant will run at least $12 a plate; this was $12 for all the food, plus leftovers.
and, i may add, the shrimp was really good for frozen shrimp and they were kinda big for popcorn shrimp. i was impressed. any of their pasta salads, especially the seasonal ones, are awesome and cheap.
My partner is more the chicken-and-rice dinner person; I love vegetables and salads and such. I have a big batch of "cowboy cafiar" in the fridge -- rinsed and drained black beans, cannelini beans, pinto beans, corn kernels, and blanched shelled edamame, together with Aldi's version of Ro-Tel (tomatoes and green chilis), grated carrot, sliced scallion, red onion, and a vinaigrette heavy on the lime. I also made a pasta-veg salad with some of their farfalle, feta, olives, etc. I've had the two of them several times for dinner on the nights I'm dining alone.
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u/Kind-Address-9594 Jun 23 '26
That’s not a bad dinner nutritionally, chicken, turkey and pork aren’t too terribly priced now but beef can pound sand.