The 5 Best Meals for Large Families

Feeding a large family healthy meals on a budget that are also quick to prepare can be challenging to say the least.

For many families, dinner time becomes a source of stress and anxiety. This instills an urge to get DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Grubhub delivery. But that's expensive, and not always the healthiest choice, convenient as it may be.

On the flip side, pulling out heirloom recipe cards and preparing home-cooked meals from scratch can be nutritious and cheaper for big families. But it's often prohibitively time-consuming. What is a family like yours to do?

Meal Village is here to offer you a middle-ground with these five ideas for affordable, quick, and easy meals for large families like yours.

1. Slow Cooker and Pressure Cooker Meals

One of the simplest ways to cook a quick meal for a large family is to use a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. These types of devices are now made with timers and auto-shutoff functionality with a keep warm setting, making it easy to throw ingredients in at the beginning of the day before you rush off to work. By the time you get home and the kids are back from classes, your meal has been fully cooked!

Slow-cooked meals are ideal for families who enjoy long-cooked cuts of meats like pot roast, pulled chicken, and pork tenderloin. Soups and stews are also easy to cook in a slow cooker!

If you are serving meat, rice or baked potatoes make an ideal complement. Quinoa, riced cauliflower or broccoli and shredded cabbage are healthy, flavorful substitutions for families who need gluten-free side options.

2. Soups & Stews

Soups and stews are popular slow-cooked meals, especially for vegetarian or vegan families who don't eat meat. Soups and stews are family-friendly and easy to incorporate vegetables into.

There are plenty of quick-cooking soups for families who prefer stovetop soup prepared in a cinch. Whether you prefer a chunky soup, a stew with less broth, or a more broth-forward option like Ramen, there are so many options when it comes to cooking your large family soups or stews.

3. Pasta Dishes

Pasta dishes are popular, family-friendly crowd-pleasers. They can be prepared and served quickly, especially for someone who uses meal kits for large families like Meal Village.

Additionally, they are perfect for parents who want to sneak vegetables into their children's favorite dishes. Tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and peppers are perfect for pasta dishes, with garlic as a healthy and welcome addition for many. Plus, pasta goes perfectly served alongside a simple salad or sauteed spinach.

4. Casseroles

Casseroles conjure up all sorts of images, from overbaked, dry dishes served in retro ceramicware to delicious, cheesy, mouth-watering options served at special events and holidays. But casseroles don't have to be relegated to either extreme. In fact, they're a practical, affordable, and easy solution for large families.

What is a casserole? MasterClass defines a casserole as any dish prepared in a casserole dish essentially a deep, wide baking dish and baked in the oven. A casserole can have layers, as in the case of an Italian lasagna or a deep-dish pizza, or composed of some evenly distributed combination of veggies, a protein, and a starchy binder.

Cooking casseroles is ideal for large families because all you generally have to do is combine everything into one dish and then bake!.

5. Roasts

The classic roast chicken is certainly a healthy and affordable option that's great for large families. But there are plenty of other roast options too: think pot roast, pork butt, and even pork tenderloin. Many roasts do take a couple of hours, but putting them into a slow cooker on low is a great option for busy families looking for a more indulgent meal option.

Why Consider a Meal Kit Delivery Service for Your Large Family?

The kind of meals suggested above are time-saving and fit for frugal families, sure. But to really save more time and resources, you should consider a meal kit delivery service.

Prepared meal services like ours differ from other meal kits that still involve cooking because they provide easy, quick meals for people who need to budget both their time and money. The baseline monthly cost is fixed, meaning you can factor it into your budget more easily than meal preparing and grocery shopping a but you can always offer add-ons as you see fit. Plus, meal kit meals are often just as healthy as they are tasty a especially here at Meal Village.

The bottom line is this: Using a meal kit can save your family countless hours spent shopping, meal prepping, and cooking while getting delicious and nutritious food on the table. Ready to see what it's all about? Order your fresh meals today!