When you’re feeding a large family, it’s not always the main meals that catch you out.
It’s the constant:
“Mum, I’m hungry.”
Especially when the children come home from school and dinner isn’t quite ready yet!
For this weekly meal prep, I decided to prepare not only some of our main family meals but also a few easy homemade snacks that we could grab throughout the week.
At the time I originally filmed this meal prep, there were eight of us in the family — two adults and six children — although our youngest was only just over two months old.
So technically I was meal prepping for seven.
The newborn wasn’t demanding a chicken drumstick just yet.
My meal prep for the week included:
- Peri-peri chicken legs
- Tandoori chicken drumsticks
- Lamb & kidney bean curry
- Chicken & bell pepper curry
- Homemade lasagne
- Baked vegetable pakoras
- Homemade coated fish
- Homemade flapjacks
Quite a lot when you see it all written down!
1. Peri-Peri Chicken Legs
I started with something that required very little actual cooking: marinating some peri-peri chicken legs.
This is one of the easiest ways to get ahead with meals because you can prepare your chicken one day and leave all that lovely flavour to develop in the fridge.
Ingredients I Used
- Chicken legs, skin on
- Peri-peri sauce
- Garlic salt
- Paprika
- Lemon juice
I started by cutting slits into the chicken legs so that the marinade could really soak into the meat.
For the marinade, I used peri-peri sauce, garlic salt, paprika and lemon juice.
At the time, I was buying a really inexpensive peri-peri sauce from Lidl rather than the more expensive branded versions, and it worked perfectly well.
I coated the chicken thoroughly in the marinade, covered it with cling film and put it into the fridge.
I prefer leaving marinated chicken overnight when possible because it gives all those flavours time to get in there.
And that’s one meal already partly dealt with.
2. Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks
Next, I prepared some tandoori-style chicken drumsticks.
These weren’t necessarily going to become a family dinner.
I’d discovered that cooked chicken drumsticks actually worked brilliantly as an after-school snack for my children.
Sometimes they’d come home absolutely starving but dinner wouldn’t be ready yet. Having cooked chicken in the fridge meant they could grab something substantial while they waited.
Ingredients I Used
- 8 chicken drumsticks
- Tandoori masala
- Paprika
- Red chilli flakes
- Salt
- Yoghurt
- Garam masala
- Mint sauce
- Garlic paste
Basically…
A bit of everything, apparently.
I mixed the marinade ingredients together, coated the eight chicken drumsticks and left them for approximately 30 minutes.
Ideally I’d usually marinate chicken for longer, but even after 30 minutes these still tasted lovely.
I then baked the drumsticks and, once cooked and cooled, stored them in the fridge.
You could also remove the cooked chicken from the bone and use it in pasta or another meal.
Ours didn’t make it that far.
Within a few days…
Gone. Long gone.
3. Lamb & Kidney Bean Curry
Then it was time for one of my favourite parts of meal-prep day.
Curry time, guys.
If you’ve watched my meal-prep videos before, you’ll know I like making two curries at the same time.
Both curries start with very similar ingredients, so it doesn’t make sense to chop everything separately.
I prepare a large batch of onions, chilli, garlic and ginger in my mini food chopper, cook it together in one pan and then divide the mixture between two pans.
At this point I was starting to wonder whether I should progress to making three curries at once.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
I definitely needed some bigger pans first.
For the first curry, I made a lamb and kidney bean curry, consisting of
- Lamb
- Kidney beans
- Onion
- Chilli
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Oil
- Spices
- Salt
- Water
Once I’d divided my onion mixture between the two pans, I added the spices, salt and remaining ingredients.
I added some water, brought everything to the boil and then reduced the heat.
The curry was covered and left to cook gently, with the lamb needing a little longer than the chicken curry.
4. Chicken & Bell Pepper Curry
My second curry was a chicken and bell pepper curry.
Again, I used the same basic curry-making method.
Ingredients Used
- Chicken
- Bell peppers
- Onion
- Chilli
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Oil
- Spices
- Salt
- Water
I added everything to my second pan, brought it to the boil and then reduced the heat and covered it.
My curries generally cooked for around 30–45 minutes, although cooking time depended on the meat.
And while both curries were bubbling away…
I could get on with something else.
That’s one of the biggest advantages of bulk cooking. You’re not necessarily spending twice as long just because you’re preparing twice as much food.
Although I did discover that there was a practical limit to my ambitions.
My hob only had two burners with flames big enough for my curry pans.
So three-curry Shamsa would have to wait.
5. Homemade Lasagne
Next up…
Ooh yes. Lasagne.
Lasagne is one of my favourite meals to prepare for the freezer because there’s very little work required on the day you actually want to eat it.
For my lasagne I made a mince filling containing:
- Minced meat
- Sweetcorn
- Tomato sauce
- Passata
I also prepared a homemade white sauce with a generous helping of cheese.
Because cheese makes everything yummier.
One little tip I’d picked up was to add a splash of water to an almost-empty carton of passata, give it a shake and pour that into the pan.
I’d always done this with jars but, for some reason, had never thought to do it with a passata carton.
Nothing wasted!
I assembled the lasagne but didn’t bake it.
Instead, it went into the freezer uncooked.
That means on lasagne day I can simply take it out and bake it rather than starting dinner from scratch.
Lasagne can take a little longer to prepare during meal-prep day, but I think it’s worth it because it’s such an easy freezer meal afterwards.
And naturally, while I was assembling it, the baby woke up from his nap.
Meal prepping with a newborn.
Always relaxing.
6. Baked Vegetable Pakoras
I also wanted to prepare some snacks for the week, so I decided to experiment with baked vegetable pakoras.
Traditional pakoras are fried, but I wanted something I could bake in batches and then reheat during the week.
Ingredients I Used
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Onions
- Fresh coriander
- Gram flour
- Eggs
- Salt
- Red chilli flakes
- Cumin seeds
- Garlic paste
- Baking powder
- A little water, if required
I chopped plenty of vegetables and added them to a large bowl.
Then I added coriander, gram flour, eggs, salt, chilli flakes, cumin seeds and garlic paste.
I also added some baking powder because I wanted the baked pakoras to have a slightly lighter, fluffier texture.
Everything was mixed together.
If the mixture is too thick, you can loosen it with a little water. Milk could also be used.
Rather than shaping individual pakoras, I spooned the mixture into a muffin tray and baked them.
These ended up being really handy.
I had several as quick lunches on days when I didn’t have time to make myself anything more substantial.
And they contained vegetables.
So naturally that makes me feel incredibly virtuous.
7. Easy Homemade Coated Fish
We were having fish for dinner on meal-prep day, so I made a simple homemade coating.
I’d found that some frozen battered and breaded fish left me feeling really full and bloated, so I preferred making a simple coating myself.
Fish Coating Ingredients
I used:
- Plain flour
- Coarse black pepper
- Salt
- Red chilli flakes
- Egg
- A little milk, if required
- Fish of your choice
I combined the coating ingredients, adding milk if the mixture needed thinning.
The fish could then be fried or baked.
Simple, inexpensive and you know exactly what’s gone into the coating.
8. Homemade Flapjacks
You’d think I’d be finished by now.
Apparently not.
After dinner, I had a little time left and decided to finish meal-prep day by making homemade flapjacks.
Flapjacks are brilliant for having around during the week because the children can grab one when they’re hungry, and they’re also handy on busy mornings before school.
I followed a simple flapjack recipe using ingredients including oats and golden syrup.
I divided the mixture and made two variations:
Raisin flapjacks and chocolate-chip flapjacks.
They baked for approximately 20 minutes until lovely and golden.
One important flapjack tip is to cut them while they’re still warm.
Once flapjacks cool completely they become firmer and can be much more difficult to slice neatly.
I cut mine into lovely chunky pieces and they lasted us well throughout the week.
What This Meal Prep Taught Me
Looking back at this meal prep, I think one of the most useful things I did was prepare snacks as well as dinners.
It’s very easy to plan:
Monday — curry.
Tuesday — lasagne.
Wednesday — chicken.
But family food doesn’t work that neatly.
Children come home hungry.
Someone wants something before football.
You realise at lunchtime that you’ve spent the entire morning doing things for everybody else and haven’t actually fed yourself.
That’s where having something like cooked chicken drumsticks, vegetable pakoras or homemade flapjacks ready to go becomes really useful.
Meal Prep Doesn’t Have to Mean Seven Complete Meals
This is also a good example of what I mean when I talk about meal prep.
I wasn’t necessarily cooking every meal completely and putting it into a little box labelled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
I was making the week easier.
The peri-peri chicken was marinated.
The tandoori drumsticks were cooked.
The curries were prepared together.
The lasagne was assembled and frozen uncooked.
The snacks were ready to grab.
That’s the kind of meal prep that works for me.
And when you’re feeding a large family, even having part of tomorrow’s dinner prepared can make a massive difference.
Large Family Weekly Meal Prep Complete!
By the end, I was really pleased with how much I’d managed to get done.
We had several main meals sorted, chicken ready for hungry children and homemade snacks to keep everyone going throughout the week.
And that is exactly what I want from a meal-prep day:
Less cooking and less thinking about food for the rest of the week.
Or at least slightly less.
Because with children in the house, somebody is still going to ask:
“What’s for dinner?”
approximately 14 times before dinner.
