Cheap Aldi Dinners for Thanksgiving Week

By Tyler, a home cook in Spring Hill, Florida · Updated October 2026

Thanksgiving gets all the attention, but it is only one meal. The rest of the week still needs dinner: the busy nights before the holiday when the oven and the budget are both spoken for, the days after when the fridge is full of leftover turkey, and the weekend when family is still in town. These are thirteen dinners from this site that make that week easier, each written for four people with Aldi brand ingredients and the cost per serving worked out for you.

If you are planning the big meal itself, our Thanksgiving cost breakdown guide prices a full turkey dinner for eight, item by item, at typical Aldi prices. This page covers everything around it.

Easy dinners before the holiday

The days before Thanksgiving are for shopping, thawing and prep, not for complicated weeknight cooking. These four come together fast, mostly from pantry and freezer staples, and leave the oven free for pies and the stove free for the turkey stock you might be making ahead.

Veggie fried rice and lemon pasta with peas are both ready in about fifteen minutes. One-pot taco pasta keeps the dishes down to a single pot, and breakfast for dinner is the easiest crowd-pleaser there is the night before the big cook.

One-Pot Taco Pasta

Ground beef, taco seasoning, pasta, and cheddar melted together — weeknight comfort in one pot.

25 min$2.12/serving · $8.47 total

Veggie Fried Rice

Day-old rice with frozen mixed veg, scrambled egg, soy sauce, and a drizzle of sesame oil.

15 min$1.21/serving · $4.83 total

Lemon Pasta with Peas

Pasta, frozen peas, lemon zest, parmesan, and butter. Five ingredients, done fast.

15 min$1.33/serving · $5.34 total

Aldi Breakfast for Dinner

Scrambled eggs, hash browns, and turkey bacon. Breakfast hits different at 7pm.

15 min$1.60/serving · $6.42 total

What to do with leftover turkey

Every one of these recipes is written with chicken, and cooked turkey drops right in. Use about the same amount of shredded or diced turkey as the recipe calls for chicken, skip the step where the raw chicken gets cooked, and stir the turkey in near the end just long enough to heat through. The card prices below are for the recipes as written with chicken, so using turkey you already have takes the meat off your shopping list.

Chicken pot pie, chicken noodle soup and white chicken chili are the classic leftover dinners for a reason: they turn a container of dry turkey into something comforting. Enchiladas and quesadillas use smaller amounts, so they are perfect for the last cup or two, and the Caesar wraps need no cooking at all.

Feeding weekend guests

When the house is still full on Friday and Saturday, you want dinners that scale up and mostly cook themselves. Baked ziti can be assembled in the morning and baked when everyone is hungry. Hearty beef stew simmers on the stove while you do something else, and slow cooker pulled pork is the easiest way to feed a crowd, because you can just add more buns and coleslaw.

If you are feeding eight instead of four, make two batches of the ziti or the pulled pork rather than one huge one. They cook more evenly, and the second pan can go straight into the freezer if you do not need it.

Leftover safety

Get leftover turkey into the fridge within two hours of dinner, and pull the meat off the bone first so it cools quickly. Use it within three to four days, or freeze it in recipe-size portions for later. When you reheat leftovers or add cooked turkey to soups and casseroles, heat them to 165°F.

Prices vary by store and change week to week, so treat the costs on these cards as close estimates and check the shelf price before you check out.

Keep reading

• Aldi Thanksgiving Dinner: The Full Cost Breakdown
• One Chicken, Three Dinners
• Freezer Meals 101: 10 Dinners from One Aldi Trip
• Cheap Aldi Slow Cooker and One-Pot Dinners
• All Cheap Aldi Recipes