The summer holidays are lovely, but there is one thing that never seems to stop – feeding everyone!
With seven children at home, I don’t want to spend a huge part of the summer holidays standing in the kitchen preparing meals. I’d much rather get some of the work done in advance so that we can enjoy days out, trips to the park and time together without me constantly wondering what I’m going to make for dinner.
That’s where a little summer meal prep can make such a difference.
I’m not someone who necessarily cooks an entire week’s worth of meals in one day. Instead, I like to prepare a mixture of breakfast foods, snacks, ingredients, marinated meats and complete freezer meals.
Even doing a few small jobs in advance can make feeding a large family much easier.
For this particular summer meal prep session, I made:
- Homemade granola
- Pre-sliced freezer onions
- Tandoori chicken drumsticks
- Keema and vegetable spring rolls
- Chicken lasagne
Here is everything I prepared.
Homemade Pecan, Chia & Raisin Granola
Homemade granola is one of those things I’d been meaning to make for ages, and when I finally did, I couldn’t believe how easy it was.
It’s perfect for breakfast with yoghurt or as a quick snack, and you can change the ingredients depending on what your family enjoys.
I even sprinkled some over ice cream and loved the extra crunch!
Ingredients
- 500g porridge oats
- 200g pecan nuts
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- ¼ cup honey
- 250g raisins
Method
Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan.
Add the porridge oats, pecans and chia seeds to a large bowl.
Pour in the sunflower oil and honey and mix everything together thoroughly.
Spread the granola mixture over baking trays in an even layer.
Bake for approximately 45 minutes, tossing the mixture once halfway through so that it cooks evenly.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Once cooled, stir through the raisins. It’s important to add the raisins after baking rather than before.
Transfer the granola to airtight jars or containers.
You can also freeze some if you’ve made too much – although in our house it doesn’t tend to last long enough for that!
Other granola ideas
One of the best things about homemade granola is that you can experiment with different combinations. Next time I’d love to try adding things such as walnuts, sunflower seeds or chocolate chips.
My Freezer Onion Meal Prep Hack
This isn’t really a recipe, but it’s probably one of the simplest meal-prep jobs I do.
I use onions in so many of our family dinners, particularly curries, and peeling and slicing them every evening is one more job I can do without.
Instead, I peel and slice a large batch at once.
I divide the sliced onions between small freezer bags and then place all of those bags inside one larger freezer bag.
When I’m making dinner, I simply take out one portion and cook the onions from frozen as I normally would.
I’ve also frozen onions in muffin trays. Once they’re frozen solid, you can pop the individual portions out and transfer them to a freezer bag.
It’s such a small thing, but on a busy summer evening, having your onions already prepared means dinner is one step closer to being made.
And you only have to cry over the onions once! 😂
Freezer Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks
Marinated chicken is one of my favourite things to prepare ahead.
Rather than cooking the drumsticks during my meal-prep session, I freeze them in their marinade. On the day we’re having them, I can defrost them safely and then cook them in the oven or on the grill.
They’d also be lovely for a summer barbecue.
Ingredients
- 2kg chicken drumsticks, with skin
- 1 cup low-fat Greek yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons tandoori masala
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon garlic & ginger paste
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
Method
Add the Greek yoghurt, salt, tandoori masala, garam masala, chilli powder, garlic & ginger paste, sunflower oil and lemon juice to a large bowl.
Mix until well combined.
Add the chicken drumsticks and thoroughly coat them in the marinade.
Transfer the chicken and marinade to a suitable freezer bag or container and freeze until required.
Defrost safely before cooking, then bake or grill until the chicken is completely cooked through.
This is exactly the sort of meal prep I find useful. The meal isn’t actually cooked in advance, but all the messy preparation has already been done.
Keema & Vegetable Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are brilliant to have prepared in the freezer.
They’re useful for an easy lunch during the school holidays and can also be packed for picnics or served alongside other dishes.
I added frozen mixed vegetables to the keema filling to bulk it out and add some vegetables too.
Ingredients
- 1kg lamb mince
- 350g frozen mixed vegetables
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 1 tablespoon garlic & ginger paste
- ½ tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon mixed herbs
- Spring roll pastry sheets
- Plain flour and water, for sealing
Method
Add the lamb mince and frozen mixed vegetables to a pan and cook.
Add the sliced red onion, garlic & ginger paste, salt, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper and mixed herbs.
Continue cooking until the filling is cooked through.
Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool before assembling the spring rolls.
Place some filling onto each spring roll pastry sheet and roll into a spring roll.
Mix a little plain flour with water to make a paste and use this to seal the pastry.
Prepare the entire batch and freeze for later.
Easy Chicken Lasagne for the Freezer
Finally, I wanted at least one complete family dinner in the freezer.
On those summer days when we’ve been out with the children and I really don’t feel like starting dinner from scratch, having something like a homemade lasagne ready to go is incredibly useful.
If I’d had more freezer space, I would probably have made several!
For the Chicken Filling
- 1kg boneless chicken thigh pieces
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 2 onions, sliced
- 1 tablespoon garlic & ginger paste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 500g Passata
- Lasagne sheets
For the White Sauce
- 50g butter
- 50g plain flour
- 500ml milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup grated cheddar
Method
Cook the chicken thigh pieces in a little sunflower oil.
Add the sliced onions, garlic & ginger paste, salt, oregano, black pepper and smoked paprika.
Once the chicken is cooked, add the passata and mix everything together. Allow it to cook for another minute or two before removing from the heat.
Make the white sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat.
Add the flour and mix until you have a smooth paste.
Gradually pour in the milk and bring to the boil, whisking regularly to prevent lumps.
Once the sauce has thickened, stir in the salt.
Turn off the heat and stir through the grated cheddar.
Assemble the lasagne
Layer the chicken mixture, lasagne sheets and cheese sauce in a large oven dish until the dish is full.
Once assembled, cover the lasagne and freeze it ready for another day.
You Don’t Have to Meal Prep Everything
I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about meal prep.
You don’t have to spend an entire day cooking seven complete dinners to make the rest of your week easier.
For me, meal prep can simply mean asking:
What can I do today that will save me time later?
That might be:
- Slicing and freezing onions
- Marinating chicken
- Preparing freezer snacks
- Making breakfast foods in bulk
- Preparing one or two complete freezer dinners
Even having one homemade lasagne in the freezer can save you on a day when you’ve been out with the kids and don’t have the energy to cook.
Making Summer Meals a Little Easier
The summer holidays can be wonderful, but feeding a family all day, every day is no small task!
My aim isn’t to spend the whole summer being perfectly organised. It’s simply to do enough preparation that cooking doesn’t take over our days.
A jar of homemade granola gives us an easy breakfast. The spring rolls give us a quick lunch option. The chicken is already marinated. The onions are already sliced. And there’s a lasagne waiting for one of those “I really cannot be bothered cooking tonight” days.
For me, that’s what useful meal prep looks like.
I hope these ideas give you a little inspiration for preparing ahead and spending less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying the summer with your family. ❤️
