Meal plan for 5 dinners

[ivytable]

This has probably been done a 100 times but please could I ask for advice regarding family dinners.
I would like to prepare 5 dinners for 2 adults and 2 children aged 3 and 5 on a Sunday. I imagine some of the meals will have to be frozen.
Leaning towards more veggie meals but will eat some meat and fish.
Any ideas on how to plan this out? Or am I being too optimistic that 5 meals can be prepared on a Sunday afternoon? Thanks!!

[Heismyopendoor]

Monday tacos, roasted cauliflower and sweet potatoes for fillings
Tuesday baked potatoes with bean chili
Wednesday Mac and cheese with leeks and broccoli mixed through
Thursday enchiladas (I make mine veggie by swapping meat for beans and make easy enchilada sauce).
Friday cottage pie

Freeze the last two I’d say?

[MangoSalsa]

Some meal ideas first;
Lasagne- beef, salmon or veggie
Fish pie- add sweetcorn, peas, red peppers
Wedges or sweet potato wedges with tuna in (chilli) tomato sauce
Mushroom risotto/pumpkin or squash risotto, with roast squash and peas (add chicken if you like)
Aubergine, spinach, red pepper, mushroom and potato curry (add some lentils if you like)
Three bean chilli
Root veggie soup- equal quantities sweet potato, potato, celeriac, mushrooms and pumpkin
These are all ones that I do that freeze well.

It’s doable in an afternoon, especially if you have help peeling/chopping (whether a person or a food processor).

[SingingLily]

Love these suggestions.

Mac and cheese with leeks and broccoli mixed through would freeze too. I make my mac and cheese with bacon bits and cherry tomatoes and that freezes as well.

[Graphista]

Are you meaning all made on the Sunday in advance of being eaten through the week?

I'm veggie but it's not hard to switch between veggie and omni generally

If so considering what freezes well I'd say:

A casserole of some description, my favourite is sausage and bean

A curry

Chilli

Pasta bake

Potato topped pie (I'd do a veggie version, but shepherds pie, cottage pie, fish pie...)

Additional ideas:

Risotto, a hearty soup to be served with good bread/rolls, lasagne, hotpot, ratatouille, moussaka, ghoulash, stovies

They any good to you?

[Graphista]

Sorry meant to add:

Casserole can be cooked in slow cooker, curry and chilli on stove top and pie and pasta in oven so could all be cooking at once. If you use similar ingredients across the meals then should help prep be less onerous

Eg baked beans in casserole and chilli, mince in chilli and potato pie, peppers and sweetcorn in chilli, pasta and curry, chicken pieces in curry and pasta bake. Sure you get the idea. So then not completely new set of ingredients for each dish.

Could a certain amount of prep be done on the Saturday?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Could you make a big pan of tomato and lentil sauce and then turn half of it into chilli and half into bolognaise?

Make a load of mash and turn half of it into shepherds pie topping and half of it in to cheese and leek potato bake.

And then have a really easy thing for the 5th dinner - jacket potatoes / mushrooms on toast / soup

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Or even easier -

big pan of chilli - have it with rice on day one and with jacket potatoes or rolled up into enchiladas on day two

big pan of curry - with rice on day one and with bought naan and hajis on day two

big pan of soup - have it for dinner on one night (I like a fruit crumble afterwards, if having soup) and for lunches on other days

[QueenMabby]

Check out the Batch Lady on YouTube. She does loads of batch cooking/freezer meal videos. Mostly meat based, admittedly but some veggie.

[ivytable]

These are great thank you never prepped meals like this before but great suggestions and does seem pretty doable, especially if the same meal can be eaten for two nights or every second night.
Will check YouTube too thank you!!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Just realised I lost the 'b' in my bahjis!

[GinTonic123]

Another vote for The Batch Lady.

I tried some of her recipes today, we are a family of five, and have ended up with:
15 potions of pumpkin soup (lunches over the weekend),
2x5 portions of vegetarian burritos.
2 x five portions of Spaghetti Bolognese.
2x 5 portions of hasselback chicken.

I am going to make 5 portions of Mary Berry's Butternut Squash and Blackbean Chilli.

Then I have a cabbage and mince dish to make - 2x5 portions.

Basically - it's one of each meal in the fridge of the Hasselback chicken and the Spaghetti Bolognese. Everything else is going in the freezer to be pulled out later in the week.

Our meal plan for the week is thus:

Sat: Hasselback Chicken
Sun: Spag Bol
Mon: Burritos
Tue: Butternut Squash Chilli
Wed: Cabbage and Mince
Thurs: Scrambled egg on Toast
Fri: Ploughmans or Bread/Cheese and Charcuterie

Sorry for the long post

[Gingerkittykat]

Veggie mousakka made with lentils, can be chucked in oven to reheat.

Some kind of tagine, they always taste better after they have had time for flavours to mature.