This Week’s Meal Plan: April 6 - April 12, 2025
I’m back with another meal plan and grocery list breakdown! I went to Aldi and Walmart this morning, and spent a total of $62.75 for a full week of meals for my family of three!
Rather than listing out what we’re eating for every single meal (since that turned out to be such a long post last time!), I’m just going to list out the various items I bought today, and those we have on hand, for breakfasts and lunches. Then I’ll list each day’s dinner menu separately. Hope that makes things more brief and easier to read!
Here’s what we’re eating this week.
Meal Plan for April 6 - April 12, 2025
Breakfast Items & Morning Snacks for the Week
Grapes
Bananas
Eggs
Cheese Sticks
Applesauce Pancakes
Leftover Homemade Applesauce
Zucchini Muffins
Oatmeal
*Sunday Brunch will be homemade waffles, eggs, sausage, & breakfast potatoes
Lunch Items & Morning Snacks for the Week
Sausage & Egg Sandwiches for Tucker
Grapes
Bananas
Cheese Sticks
Peanut Butter & Honey Sandwiches
Frozen Vegetables & Chickpea Pasta
Dinner Leftovers
Dinners for the Week (with Recipe Ingredients)
Sunday, April 6 - Cottage Pie
Ingredients Needed: None
Ingredients On Hand: The whole Cottage Pie! :)
We had a game night a few weeks ago and I made three cottage pies for everyone. We ended up eating only two of them, so I froze the third for such a time as this. ;) (I can’t tell you how grateful I am to live in an age where I can freeze entire meals!). We don’t usually have sides or anything with cottage pies - it’s got everything in it (beef, veggies, mashed potatoes) and it’s one of our favorite meals!
Whenever I make another one from scratch (not a frozen leftover), I’ll post my recipe! I used to follow a different recipe from Pinterest, but now I kind of do my own thing and it always turns out delicious.
Monday, April 7 - Loaded Potato, Spinach, & Bacon Hash, Sausage Pinwheels
Ingredients Needed: Spinach, Bacon, Shredded Cheese
Ingredients On Hand: Eggs, Potatoes, Chopped Bell Peppers, Chopped Onions, Spices, Sausage Pinwheels
We’ll have our bi-weekly egg delivery next Wednesday, so I figured we would do an egg-heavy dinner before then to use the old ones up. I found this recipe on Pinterest and I’m excited to try it! I needed to purchase bacon, spinach, and shredded cheese for this recipe.
I had a lot on hand for this recipe, which was a huge part of why it ended up on the menu next week. I try to first “shop” from my freezer and pantry when making a meal plan before jumping straight to recipes that need a lot of new ingredients.
I had chopped bell peppers in the freezer from a recipe weeks ago; I had chopped onions and potatoes from this last week’s freezer restock; and I had a batch of sausage pinwheels already prepped and ready for the oven that have been sitting in my freezer for about a month and a half. These should last for another month and a half, but I figured now was a good time to use them. (Also, when I mentioned them to Tucker, he got excited. Sausage pinwheels are his favorite.)
Tuesday, April 8 - Pot Roast, Dinner Rolls, & Salad
Ingredients Needed: Half Butt Pork Roast, Carrots, Celery, Red Cooking Wine, Beef Broth, Bay Leaves, Parsley, Dinner Rolls, Salad Mix, Lemon
Ingredients On Hand: Onions, Minced Garlic, Spices, Olive Oil
We’re hosting our neighbors for dinner on Tuesday night, so this is where most of our food budget went. There will be tons of leftovers with this type of meal and we get to bless our neighbors (and return the favor for their hospitality at our last dinner party!), so I was eager to find room in the budget for it! Here’s the recipe I’m using, also from Pinterest. I’ve used this recipe before and it turned out delicious!
I’ll also be trying my hand at homemade salad dressing, with lemon and olive oil as the base, using this recipe I found. I also found the salad mix on sale for $1.88, which paired with leftover spinach from Monday’s meal will be perfect! I may also bake some homemade brownies or sugar cookies for this evening as well, but I will only use on-hand ingredients if I do this.
Wednesday, April 9 - Dinner at Church
Ingredients Needed: None, but this will cost $6
Ingredients On Hand: None
Our church sent out the menu for this week, so I figured I’d include it here as well, even though I didn’t buy any of the ingredients. We’re having chicken tetrazzini, steamed broccoli, garlic toast, and buttermilk pie for dessert!
Thursday, April 10 - Leftover Night
Ingredients Needed: None
Ingredients On Hand: Leftovers
Having a consistent leftover night can be a bit of a gamble, but I’m confident that we will have plenty of leftovers. Cottage Pie always yields leftovers. Pot Roast usually does as well, though this week, we are sharing that meal with two others, so there may not be as much as usual. The hash may yield some leftovers, but our worst-case-scenario back up plan is breakfast for dinner, since we’ll be all stocked up on eggs and sausage patties!
My back up plans include: simple eggs and sausage; eggs, waffles, and sausage; eggs, homemade biscuits, and sausage gravy; or a quiche or frittata.
Friday, April 11 - Chick Fil A Night!
Cost: $31.32
It’s time for Chick Fil A on Friday night! Since Friday is also our grocery shopping day for the following week, I usually pick up our order that morning, store it in the fridge, and reheat it in the oven at dinner time.
Saturday, April 12 - Pizza
Ingredients Needed: None :)
Ingredients On Hand: Pizza, Extra Pepperonis
I realized I’ve been one week ahead with our weekly pizza nights, so I didn’t need to buy a frozen pizza this week. I also purchased bulk pepperoni’s from Costco in my April Costco run - we like to load up the frozen pizza with tons of extra pepperoni.
This is the one meal Amelia will not eat with us - we’ll feed her one of her many freezer meals, like homemade chicken nuggets, sweet potato and black bean patties, or chickpea pasta and frozen veggies.
Grocery List for April 4, 2025 - Total $62.75
Okay, now that the meal plan is done, here’s my grocery list breakdown! There were multiple items that showed up as cheaper at Walmart over Aldi when I did my price checks online, so I ended up going to both stores for this trip. Luckily, Aldi and Walmart are in the same area for me, so it’s a relatively easy addition!
Aldi List & Pricing - Total $44.54
Breakfast/Lunch Ingredients
Sausage Patties, $8.99 (Tucker’s Sandwiches; 24-Pack, Will Last 2-3 Weeks)
Pepper Jack Cheese Slices, $1.85 (Tucker’s Sandwiches)
English Muffins, $1.49 (Tucker’s Sandwiches)
Cheese Sticks, $3.55 (Looking back at my receipt, I think I actually forgot to scan these!! They were listed as $3.55 online though.)
Grapes, $5.14
Bananas, $1.17
Dinner Ingredients
Shredded Cheese, $2.79
Spinach, $1.55
Half Pork Butt Roast, $8.50 (I actually got this for $1 cheaper than the listed price! There was something wrong with the bar code and it took a few minutes to figure out, so the worker kindly gave me a discount. So sweet!)
Whole Carrots, $1.49
Parsley, $0.99
Bacon, $3.99
Beef Broth, $1.35
Staples I Needed to Restock
Parmesan Cheese, $2.95
Paprika, $0.99
Walmart List & Pricing - Total $18.21
Dinner Ingredients
Bay Leaves, $2.98
Salad Mix, $1.88
Celery Stalks, $1.88
Sister Schubert Pan Rolls, $4.12
1 Lemon, $0.58
Red Cooking Wine, $3.48
Staple I Needed to Restock
Gallon Milk, $2.76
There’s our meal plan for next week! Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
