$10 can go a long way when you’re grocery shopping at Aldi. In this video, Nicole shows you how to feed your entire family on a budget with this easy stuffed zucchini dinner from Aldi!
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00:00I'm going to show you how I feed my family on a budget.
00:05I'm making dinner for $10 from Aldi.
00:10For the record, I'm not going to buy just junky, cheap ingredients just to fit the budget.
00:15So I'm only going to buy real things.
00:17No way you can get that price anywhere else, and it's organic.
00:21Start with my protein, and then I go to my vegetable because we have to have some veggies in there.
00:24Seriously.
00:25Now, while these are on sale, they're only regularly $1.50.
00:29And then I might tie it all together with some sort of convenience product.
00:33I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the bigger pack for the same price.
00:38Okay, I was wrong on the zucchini price. It was actually $1.29 per pound.
00:42So I didn't know that until I got up to the register.
00:44I could have gotten a smaller pack, and I would have done it, but instead it was $10.77.
00:50Don't get mad at me.
00:54We did it. We did it.
00:56Let me review what we got and what we're making.
01:00So we are going to make stuffed zucchini with garlicky herb goat cheese and cooked in a thin tomato sauce,
01:08kind of like the Lebanese stuffed squash, and it will go with angel hair with herbs.
01:14And then as a shortcut, I'm going to flavor it with a flavorful cheese so that we didn't have to buy other ingredients.
01:20This, when it melts in there, is going to get nice and creamy.
01:23So let's go. And you know this meal is going to be easy because this is all I have to work with.
01:27So not only is it budget friendly, but it's also easy.
01:31If your family doesn't like zucchini, because my kids won't eat zucchini, that's fine.
01:37They don't have to. You can make this mixture and stuff it into a bell pepper,
01:43the Philly bell pepper, or just toss it with the pasta and leave the zucchini out.
01:49Another veggie, you know, still $10.
01:53So I'm going to start by cutting the zucchini in half and scooping out the center.
01:57Plus, I think the only thing the kids don't usually love is the inside of a zucchini.
02:02So if you've got most of that scooped out, it just kind of tastes like a potato or something.
02:06This is just going to be plenty, and I have a family of five.
02:09So if you have a family of less than that, then again, totally doable for $10 or less.
02:15So this could even yield leftovers.
02:17All right, then just place our zucchini down in a casserole dish.
02:21I'm going to chop up, like, the fleshy bits of the inside and add them to my filling,
02:26just another way to kind of bulk it up a little bit.
02:28That's it. That's the extent of the prep.
02:30Now we just cook off our meat.
02:32Now, if I was at home, but I don't want y'all judging me,
02:36I would probably, like, add things like onion and garlic at this point
02:39because those are just what I call pantry staples,
02:42but didn't want you to hold anything against me.
02:45Get this nice and hot, and then we'll just add in our ground beef.
02:48Get your oven going.
02:50And we could get our water boiling for our angel here.
02:54Don't mind me.
02:57Two-thirds.
02:59And then this also cooks in milk.
03:01Everyone has milk on hand, right?
03:03If you have half-and-half cream, whatever kind of milk you want.
03:06And some butter.
03:08It's going to be delicious and creamy.
03:10Okay, hot skillet. Back to this.
03:13Season it up with a little salt and pepper.
03:18And I'm going to add in a little bit of onion powder.
03:21Since I'm not using onion.
03:23All right.
03:25Ground beef. Good.
03:27So I'm going to go in with my chopped up zucchini
03:30and just cook that down a little bit.
03:36Once the zucchini is soft, I'm going to stir in our creamy flavor.
03:41Garlic herb goat cheese.
03:43Now you could also sub here any kind of flavorful cheese.
03:46And when you mix it in with this savory beef,
03:51it's going to kind of mellow out the tanginess of the goat cheese.
03:54Then I'll just go ahead and remove it from the heat and finish it over here.
04:03See how good that's looking.
04:06I'm going to go in with a couple tablespoons of breadcrumbs.
04:09Again, this is a pantry staple.
04:10If you don't have breadcrumbs, you could crush up crackers,
04:13a slice of bread, chips.
04:15Anything that just kind of absorbs counts as a breadcrumb.
04:20So it does not count as an ingredient you have to buy.
04:23I'm going to add in an egg because that's a pantry item.
04:26And it's just going to kind of hold things together.
04:28Just get that scrambled up in there.
04:31Then we're just going to stuff the zucchini.
04:33Just pack it all in.
04:35You could do this same meal with just like taco-flavored meat,
04:39any kind of just seasoned ground beef.
04:41You could have really done whatever flavor profile you want
04:44and whatever kind of cheese, like creamy cheese you want.
04:47It's really good.
04:48Can you believe it's a $10 dinner?
04:50Yeah, it's beautiful.
04:52It makes me so happy.
04:54Okay, so that's it.
04:56We messed the gist of the dinner.
04:58However, for just added flavor, this is just a bonus.
05:01You don't even have to do this, okay?
05:02You could save this 50 cents.
05:04But I'm going to, because one of my favorite things.
05:07Why?
05:09One of my least favorite things is when my can opener walks away.
05:13Okay, so one of my favorite things is like Middle Eastern stuffed squash.
05:18And it has this like kind of sweet spice tomato sauce.
05:22And they cook it in this super thin tomato-y liquid.
05:26And that's what I'm doing.
05:27I'm going to add a can of water.
05:33Okay, so just that.
05:34The tomato sauce has some flavor in it.
05:36Just a little pinch of allspice.
05:38Now do not go out and buy this, okay?
05:40It's probably somewhere in the back of your spice cabinet.
05:42Let's go ahead and do some more pepper.
05:46Just want to have something kind of flavorful for that zucchini to cook in.
05:49Okay, that's good.
05:51Now I'm just going to pour this into the bottom, not over the zucchini really,
05:54but just kind of in the bottom for it to cook in.
05:56Just want enough just to like go up about a half inch.
06:01This is the part that you could make ahead.
06:03You know, you could just leave it, and then when you get home from work,
06:04pop it in the oven.
06:06But we're already at work.
06:07So covered, I'm thinking probably 30, 40 minutes.
06:14Essentially, we did our shopping.
06:16We spent $10, $11.
06:19And dinner's like already almost done, and it was like less than an hour.
06:24All right, it's been like 35 minutes.
06:26Just uncovered it.
06:28Going to let it finish.
06:30While we finish our pasta, I say we bring this to a simmer,
06:35and then all we do is stir in our pasta.
06:39The pasta is going to absorb the liquid.
06:41It's going to get really creamy, no extra flavor needed.
06:44Could have made this a $20 dinner and picked up a decent bottle of wine from Aldi.
06:49Okay, look at the pasta, how creamy.
06:53And it says just to let it sit for a couple minutes,
06:55and it's just going to like thicken up even more.
06:58And now we'll get out.
07:05And you can take some of that sauce now and spoon it over.
07:10This is so good, and I'm so glad that I have something for my family for dinner tonight.
07:15Okay, bada boom.
07:17I wish y'all could smell it.
07:19It's so good.
07:21And then just a little spoon of the sauce.
07:24What is this, a restaurant or something?
07:26Optional ingredient, costs $0, so it doesn't count.
07:31I can make five of these plates for $10.
07:36Could you?
07:38Now you can.
07:39Wow, it's doing it again.
07:46Mmm.
07:48That zucchini is just so tender.
07:51It's just the perfect vessel for this flavorful beef mixture
07:54because it does not give you that like goat cheesy feel.
07:57It just makes it like super savory and like lightly creamy,
08:01but like it has a punch of flavor.
08:03I didn't expect it to be that flavorful.
08:06Mmm, look how the pasta's gotten all thick.
08:10That goes together.
08:12And it tastes even better knowing that I could feed this to my family for $10.
08:19Aldi for the win, hashtag not sponsored.
08:23But I could be.