Easy meal planning and menu ideas for a large family

Before having a family, I never would have thought that ‘deciding what to eat for dinner’ would be on a list of things that would stress me out! 

As a mum, preparing healthy, nutritious, and budget friendly meals everyday can be a challenging and daunting task.

Add in homeschooling, several kids, part time work, and picky eaters and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. 

So here are some tips for easy meal planning and menu ideas for a large family. 

Create a meal planning process 

If you’re not a super organised person, or if you’re comfortable cooking ad hoc meals, then a meal planning process may seem unnecessary. 

But, in my experience, having some idea of what we’re going to eat isn’t just about feeling prepared and planned. It also helps to reduce food waste and it’s one way to help stick to that elusive grocery budget!

My meal planning process is quite straight forward. I always plan evening meals and I usually work out any special breakfasts the night before. Our lunch schedule is more of a ‘loop’ of regular, simple meals – more on that in another post!

​What I do each week:

1. Check the diary! This is always Step 1. When I know what days are going to be busy I can make sure that we have leftovers on those nights, or a super easy meal I can literally prep and forget. 
2. Menu Plan – this involves noting any significant events or end of the day plans on my Meal Planner (you can subscribe and get it for FREE!) and then using my meal master list to choose what we’ll eat when.
3. Shop once a week – I shop online with home delivery for my grocery items. I normally use a master grocery list to streamline this, too. We visit a large fruit and veg market for our fresh food, bake our own sourdough and most of our meat is raised on our farm.

When I follow this simple process, I am less likely to panic near dinner time and even the busy weeknights feel less pressured. 

Once you have a weekly meal plan that works for you, here are a few other hacks so you are spending less time cooking and more time doing the things you love! 

Think a day ahead 

As a mum, it took a long time to establish a daily rhythm and flow for cooking. One of the things that really helped was to think a day ahead with meals. 

I generally know what meal we’re eating tonight, but I’ve found that when I also have tomorrow night’s meal in mind, I feel even more organised. 

There have been so many times when I KNOW we’re eating spaghetti bolognaise this week but I just haven’t got the beef mince out of the freezer in time! Sometimes it’s those tiny jobs that can muck up your routine and cause you to have to think on the spot. A successful meal plan is one where I also write in if I have to defrost meat or stock, or if I’m using a sourdough recipe that has to prove overnight. 

Thinking a day ahead is a great idea to help our food budget as well because I’m less likely to have to rush out to buy things for a replacement meal!

​Eat fresh meals first

Our family eats a LOT of fruit and vegetables. There’s the old adage ‘meat and 3 veg’ but in our house it’s more like meat with potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, baby peas, and a sauce! 

A large proportion of our food budget is spent on fresh produce and so I hate literally throwing money down the drain by forgetting to use spinach leaves or the bok choy that was on special! 

If you aim to shop once a week, one easy solution is to plan meals that use up your fresh produce first. In our family we start with meals like big salad, or lunches with fresh vegetables and end the week with slow cooked meals or options that use frozen veg as a side. When the fruit and veg is homegrown, that’s even better!

This works so well for our busy family and it’s an easy way to focus on mainly fresh meals every week. 

Involve your children to help

In our large family, we’ve always included the children in food preparation. They learn so much from a young age by helping to shop for food, chop ingredients, and participate in producing nutritious meals. 

We have always prioritised home-cooked meals and as our family has grown, we’ve expected our children to all pitch in. I often ask the children what they would like to eat as part of our meal planning and our family loves to make food together once or twice a week. This could be a big meal like pizzas, or something as simple as peeling vegetables for soup or a roast. 

A couple of times a week I also expect our children to prepare a meal with minimal effort from me. I ensure that we have all the ingredients and then I’ll be close by to help if they need me. I know that their confidence has grown as they’ve moved from working alongside me, to following a recipe or instructions all by themselves. 

Plan for a range of meal types 

When I’m putting my menu plan together, I often refer to my master menu list. This is grouped into easy categories so I can choose a variety of meals at a glance. This helps to make sure we aren’t eating the same thing every week (although some of our children would be fine with that!) 

Some of the categories I use are:

• Rice based meals (chillies, curries, baked rice etc)
• Pasta based meals (pesto, creamy, meat based)
• Freezer friendly (or cook once, eat twice – I’ll chat about this more later!)
• One Pot (tray bakes, soups etc)
• Leftovers
• Quick & easy (pizza toast on sourdough for example)
• Fresh meals (stir fries or veg-based) – sometimes more chopping is required for these!

If I pick at least one of these from each category, I’m set for the week and I can use my diary to work out the best time for each option. 

Get used to using a slow cooker and an Instant Pot! 

Even with the best intentions and systems, I often find that I’m feeling frustrated or uninspired by cooking. 

Now this doesn’t mean that I’m not grateful for the incredible blessing of fresh food and the privilege of providing for my family. It’s just that there are days when I’d rather keep working on the farm, or blogging (!) instead of stopping at 4 o’clock to prepare our family’s meal. 

One way to help this has been to lean into easy meals that cook themselves. 

On days when I don’t have much time to cook I love knowing that 10 minutes of food prep will result in a delicious meal! 

Being able to make an easy large family meal in the slow cooker or Instant Pot also helps to make use of secondary or cheaper cuts of meat with great results. This again saves money and is good for big families because you can often make stews and casseroles stretch further than other meals.

For many years our family didn’t eat food cooked long and slow. It took a while for some children to adjust, but I know it saves a lot of time and it’s opened up lots of new meal ideas too. 

Try new recipes regularly

Another tip is try new recipes regularly. 

Not only does it keep meal planning interesting, but it also helps our children try new things. In a large household, there are many varying food tastes and preferences. We also have a half and half family of tolerance to gluten, so we already adjust a lot of meals to accomodate those needs. 

So, even though lasagna, taco night and homemade pizza nights would be popular requests every week, we try to throw in new options pretty regularly. 

The reality is that the entire family is unlikely to all love every new meal, so one hint I have is to make sure I have some back up food at the ready. This could be leftover bolognaise, fried eggs, or banana and yoghurt. We still expect our children to give the new meal a proper go, but if they really object, I’d rather have an alternative prepared in advance! 

Cook once, eat twice

If you’re a mum who struggles to enjoy cooking, this is such a good idea: cook once, eat twice. 

This basically means that if you can make a meal (or part of a meal) in bulk to freeze or to turn into a new recipe, DO IT! 

A few ideas that we have on rotation are:

• Bolognaise for spaghetti and as a topping for baked potatoes or as pasta bake
• Cheese sauce for cauliflower and broccoli and also for pasta
• Chilli con carne with rice or for nachos
• Roast chicken and then pulled chicken for pasta
• Roast veggies and then leftover added to eggs for frittata or quiche

Even with the best intentions and most inspiring meal planning templates, the reality is that producing healthy, budget-friendly meals up to 21 times a week (plus snacks!) is a massive task!

If you needed someone to say this, let me be the one! It’s ok to serve chopped up salad and fruit and a piece of cheese and call it a meal. Similarly, boiled eggs with banana and yoghurt also count as a substantial dinner in our home.

It’s OK to keep it simple! In fact, ‘breakfast for dinner’ (aka ‘brinner’) should really be a category all on its own around here… Remember, food is fuel for our bodies. Elaborate meals have their place, but so do plates of cobbled together goodness. In truth, our children have often declared these ‘platter-style’ meals to be ‘the best ever!’

What are some of your favourite meal ideas in your family?