Meal prepping is one of the easiest ways I’ve found to make feeding a large family a little less hectic. Rather than starting from scratch every evening, I like to prepare a selection of meals and ingredients ahead of time so there is always something ready to cook.
In this weekly meal prep, I prepared a mixture of family dinners and breakfast ideas for our family of eight. Some meals were cooked in advance, while others were prepared and frozen ready to cook later in the week.
Here’s everything I made.
1. Beef & Mediterranean Vegetable Bake
The first meal was a really simple beef and Mediterranean vegetable bake.
I chopped a mixture of:
- Courgette
- Red onion
- Red and yellow peppers
- Aubergine
I mixed all of the vegetables together and stored them in a large freezer bag.
Separately, I seasoned and marinated some diced beef and placed that into another freezer bag.
Keeping the meat and vegetables separate meant everything could be frozen together as one meal but cooked properly when we needed it.
On cooking day, I spread the vegetables into an oven dish and added the beef. I baked everything until cooked through and served it with rice.
A very simple freezer meal and a good way of getting plenty of vegetables into dinner.
2. Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks
Chicken drumsticks are something I prepare quite often because they’re inexpensive, easy to flavour and great for feeding a family.
I cut a few slits into each drumstick so that the marinade could really soak into the chicken before coating them in my tandoori-style marinade.
Once everything was well coated, I transferred the chicken and marinade to a freezer bag and froze it.
On the morning we wanted to eat them, I took the bag out of the freezer to defrost. In the evening, I baked the drumsticks for around 45 minutes before finishing them under the grill with a little olive oil to give them some colour.
I also made a quick chilli chutney using tomatoes, green chilli, coriander and lemon juice.
We served the chicken with plain boiled rice and the fresh chilli sauce on the side.
3. Keema & Chickpea Curry
Next I made a simple keema and chickpea curry.
I browned the minced meat first and allowed any excess liquid to cook away.
I then added garlic and ginger paste, some of the onions I’d cooked earlier, fresh blended tomatoes, salt and spices.
Preparing a big batch of onions at the beginning of my meal prep saved quite a bit of time because I could simply scoop some into each meal rather than chopping and frying onions repeatedly.
Once the mince mixture had cooked, I added tinned chickpeas.
This made a hearty family curry without requiring lots of preparation.
We served ours with Greek-style natural yoghurt.
4. Creamy Chicken & Mixed Vegetable Curry
This was one of my favourite meals from the week’s meal prep.
I chopped chicken breast into pieces and cooked it in a little oil before adding frozen mixed vegetables.
Once the chicken and vegetables had cooked and the excess liquid had reduced, I added blended tomatoes, salt and spices.
Finally, I added double cream to create a rich, creamy sauce.
Using frozen mixed vegetables made this particularly quick to prepare, making it a handy dinner for busy days.
We served the creamy chicken curry with boiled rice.
5. Mozzarella-Stuffed Kebabs
These mozzarella kebabs were a little different from my usual kebabs and made a lovely treat.
I prepared my usual seasoned minced-meat kebab mixture and then flattened portions of it onto greaseproof paper.
Because I wanted to stuff the kebabs, I made them larger than normal.
I placed mozzarella in the centre of each portion, folded the meat around the cheese and reshaped it into a round kebab.
I managed to make around seven large kebabs, plus one little one from the remaining mixture.
I fried ours, although you could experiment with baking them instead.
Once cooked, you have a lovely seasoned kebab with melted mozzarella hidden inside.
6. Make-Ahead Pancakes
After preparing several dinners, I decided to add a couple of breakfasts to the meal prep.
First, I made a large batch of pancakes/crepes — around 14 altogether.
Because I knew we would eat them within a few days, I stored them in a freezer bag in the fridge.
You could also freeze pancakes if you wanted to keep them for longer.
Having a batch ready to go makes breakfast much easier, particularly on busy mornings.
7. Make-Ahead Egg Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches
For another breakfast option, I made my version of egg muffins.
For the egg filling I used:
- 8 eggs
- Spring onion
- Tomato
- Mushrooms
- Salt
- Coarse black pepper
Instead of cooking individual eggs, I poured the entire mixture into an oven dish and baked it for around 25 minutes.
Once cooked, I cut the egg into eight portions.
I then assembled the breakfast muffins using the baked egg, cheese slices and salami.
We reheated them in the microwave in the morning and the kids really enjoyed them.
These would be particularly useful for school mornings when you want something warm but don’t have time to cook breakfast from scratch.
Bonus Dinner: Easy Baked Fish
I also wanted to include a fish dinner in our week for a little more variety.
I seasoned the fish pieces, placed them into a freezer bag and froze them ready for another day.
On the morning we planned to eat them, I took the fish out to defrost and later spread the pieces onto a foil-lined oven tray.
I baked them for around 30 minutes and served them with spaghetti.
Rather than wasting the flavourful juices left from cooking the fish, I mixed some through the spaghetti and served everything with sweet onion relish.
My Weekly Meal Prep Tip: Prep Ingredients in Bulk
One of the simplest things I did during this meal prep was actually right at the beginning — I cooked a big batch of onions.
I used around eight onions and cooked them together before making the individual meals.
It meant I only had to deal with chopping onions once, and whenever a recipe needed cooked onion I could simply take some from the batch.
Little shortcuts like this can make a big difference when you’re preparing several family meals at once.
Meal Prep Doesn’t Have to Mean Cooking Everything
One thing I like about this style of meal prepping is that you don’t necessarily need to cook seven complete dinners in one day.
Some of these meals were completely prepared, while others were simply chopped, seasoned, marinated and frozen.
That’s often enough.
You’re basically doing the messy and time-consuming part in advance so that when dinner time comes around, much of the work has already been done.
For a large family, that can make busy weekdays much easier.
