Meal prepping is one of those things that can feel like a huge amount of work while you’re doing it, but I am always so grateful afterwards!
In this mega meal prep, I prepared a huge selection of meals, snacks and freezer food for my family of eight. I originally did this during the winter holidays, when everyone was at home and the children seemed to be constantly hungry. 😄
The idea was simple: put in the work over a couple of days and save myself from having to cook from scratch every single day.
And it worked! I had curries ready, meat prepared for the freezer and plenty of homemade snacks that could be pulled out whenever we needed them.
Starting With a Big Batch of Onions
I started my meal prep the night before by chopping a huge batch of onions.
Chopping onions is probably one of my least favourite kitchen jobs, so if I’m going to do it, I might as well do plenty at once!
I used my little food chopper to make the job much quicker and then sautéed all the onions together in a large pan until they were nicely browned. I stored these ready to use in several different dishes the following day.
This is one of my favourite meal-prep shortcuts because onions form the base of so many of the meals I cook.
Homemade Samosas
I was craving samosas, so naturally they had to make an appearance!
I prepared a minced meat and potato filling using:
- Minced meat
- Potatoes
- Sautéed onions
- Garlic and ginger paste
- Tomato purée
- Cumin seeds
- Salt and spices
- Tamarind sauce
I cooked the potatoes first, browned the mince and then combined everything to make the filling.
The following day I made homemade samosa pastry, part-cooked the little rounds of dough and filled them while they were still warm.
This is the method I’ve used for years. Part-cooking the pastry makes it much easier to handle and helps prevent it from ripping when you’re filling the samosas.
Two Curries at Once
If you’re already making one curry, you might as well make two!
I prepared the bases together using my pre-cooked onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger and spices.
I made:
Chicken & Spinach Curry – made with chicken, spinach purée and a little Greek yoghurt.
Lamb Rib Curry – lamb ribs cooked in the same basic curry base with Greek yoghurt for some extra creaminess.
Once everything came to the boil, I covered the pans and left the curries to simmer for around 30 minutes.
Homemade Kebabs
Next came a big batch of homemade kebabs.
I mixed minced meat with chopped tomato and onion, garlic and ginger paste, spices, salt, lemon juice, egg and gram flour.
I used a large cookie cutter to shape the kebabs before stacking and freezing them.
Once frozen, they can easily be separated so you can take out however many you need rather than defrosting the whole batch.
Freezer Roast Chicken
This was probably one of the easiest things I prepared.
I stuffed a whole chicken with a pierced lemon, coriander and mint before seasoning it with salt, black pepper and olive oil.
Then it went straight into a freezer bag ready for another day.
Having meat already seasoned and prepared in the freezer makes dinner so much easier.
Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks & Meatballs
With everyone at home, I also wanted plenty of food that the children could have as snacks or easy meals.
I marinated chicken drumsticks and prepared homemade meatballs, then cooked them together in the oven.
These sorts of foods are so handy because you can serve them as part of a meal or simply grab a few when someone inevitably announces:
“I’m hungry!”
Again. 😂
Chicken & Mushroom Pie
I also made a lovely creamy chicken and mushroom pie.
I cooked chicken thigh pieces with sautéed onions, garlic and ginger, mushrooms, tomato purée and seasoning.
I then added vegetable stock and double cream before transferring everything to an oven dish and topping it with puff pastry.
Another dinner ready to go!
Homemade Spring Rolls
Finally, I prepared chicken, spring onion and sweetcorn filling for homemade spring rolls.
I cooked chicken mince with sautéed onions, garlic and ginger, tomato purée and spices before stirring through chopped spring onions and sweetcorn.
By the end I had a massive pile of samosas and spring rolls — although with hungry children around, they never last quite as long as you’d imagine!
Was All That Meal Prep Worth It?
Absolutely.
It was an intense couple of days in the kitchen, but having so much food already cooked, prepared or sitting in the freezer made the days afterwards considerably easier.
And that’s really what meal prep is about for me.
It doesn’t necessarily mean putting seven identical meals into seven containers.
It can simply mean doing some of the work before you need to do it.
Chop your onions. Marinate your chicken. Make some freezer snacks. Prepare a curry or two. Make a pie and pop it away.
Even doing two or three of these things can make feeding a busy family during the week much easier.
