Large Family Meal Ideas of the week is back with another episode of large family dinner ideas on a budget. We’re juggling movement, birthdays, a large donation event, and still needing to feed this hungry crew of 10! You’ll see how freezer meals, simple staples, and a flexible planning system makes this all happen.
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Freezer Meals are the Key to Busy Weeknights
If I’m not running around town getting people where they need to be, I’m running around my kitchen to make sure they have all they need to eat. You’ll also catch me running up and down my driveway to get all the steps in we can throughout the week as we battle this cold weather. We make time for rest too though. We’re putting in a lot of effort into ourselves and the community around us as we put together our boxes for the Honor Project that I shopped for in this video. Once that’s done we’re getting back into creating space in our busy week by tackling some big batch freezer meals and budgeting for some nights out for special occasions.
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I’m cooking and serving meals from the freezer, and keeping food moving through out the week. We bake 2 dozen homemade salmon cakes from the freezer, meal prep about 8 pounds of broccoli, baking a 10×15 pan of baked spaghetti from the freezer, prepping quinoa in the slow cooker, and making three 9×13 pans of cinnamon rolls, because the fourth burnt. Whoops!
A Whole Lot of Fun, Feeding a Whole Lot of People
We did a whole fun Walmart grocery order just for the New Year’s Eve party for my folks. Complete with decorations, fun drinks like iced tea, sparkling cider and plastic Champagne cups. We know how to be fancy here! Plus we needed a bunch more coffee cups and yogurt. Yes, we know how to have a good time.
Recipes mentioned in this video
Day One: Slow Cooker & Salmon Cakes
We pulled a whole bunch of things out of the freezer before our walk with the weighted vest. Now it’s time to make those things work for us.
I love doing rice in the slow cooker. For a little extra bonus, I decided to give quinoa a go. I did 4 cups of rinsed quinoa and 8 cups of liquid (we have beef and chicken stock, as well as a bit of water) and this will make about 12 cups total. A little bit of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and turmeric add the flavor and we let the slow cooker do all the work for us. I served the quinoa alongside 8 pounds of broccoli, we will use it throughout the week, and salmon cakes. I love that these salmon cakes were prepped ahead in the freezer, so all I had to do was pop them on a sheet pan and into the oven. This made for an easy dinner for my people as I went live with my Large Family Table Community membership people.
What I’m LOVING This week
The Honor Project
We have done so much shopping and ordering to bring things together for this massive donation project. It feels so good to be helping mommas and my friend with her heart for women of the community. This week we’re focusing on tieing up the loose ends and making sure everyone gets what they need.
Day Two: Yogurt Cups & Baked Spaghetti
Yes, we’ve got our container of the So Delicious Dairy Free Coconut Yogurt Alternative mixed up with some oatmeal, monk fruit, chia seeds, flax meal, almond butter, banana, and some Lily’s dark chocolate chips as we’re getting ready to go for our morning walk. Plus we have some chicken broth happening as our warm beverage of choice for gut healing and overall health.
I shared in my Instagram stories too as I was looking at data from 2025, I did over 1,000 miles which was pretty exciting! For more on my walking, running, and health journey be sure to subscribe to my second YouTube channel for all the info.
Then this afternoon we’re going to get to putting together boxes for the Honor Project as well as pulling out some Baked Spaghetti Casseroles for the folks that look like me.
Day Three: Rolling in the New Year in Style
We started out the end of the New Year by doing a Fun Run. This is quickly becoming a family tradition. While we were gone I had some cinnamon rolls proofing to cook when we got back. Some of them fulfilled their destiny, while one batch went rouge and didn’t. We then ended the day together with family and friends, welcoming 2026 and all the goodness it has to offer complete with a super fun LED light.
Day Four: Big Birthday Extravaganza
We spent this day spending some Christmas bucks and getting all the fun food things together for someone’s birthday. It’s so important that I make sure the kids are feeling loved and focused on, even when we have back-to-back birthdays and holidays. So today was all about on of our special people.
Day Five: Egg Roll in a Bowl
Thank you past Jamerrill thinking of future Jamerrill. I was craving some Egg Roll in a Bowl, and was quickly able to pull some that we made back in September. I added an additional pound or so of beef to my large skillet and two gallons of egg roll in a bowl later we were ready to rock. This was also the day we finished packing and delivering our items for the Honor Project. If you want more information on them and how to support upcoming projects click the link provided.
Hey, if you want to catch all my videos, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel. You’ll be notified each time I share a new video! Be sure to check back here for a round-up of all the recipes made this week as they are published to the blog.
