Groceries, Meal Prep and More for Big Families
I have been doing homestay on and off for 20 years and in that time I have learnt a thing or two about shopping and catering for my international guests.
I wanted to share a few tips that might help other families because. I know that catering for others can be a source of anxiety for some, however with a bit of planning and preparation you will find that it isn’t that daunting and totally doable!
Organisation is key!
As the saying goes, fail to plan, plan to fail. Well I guess that is being a bit dramatic, however I do think that it can cost you money if you don’t have a plan in place when it comes to shopping and meal preparation.
Firstly, I make sure I shop the specials and utilise the rewards incentives of the big grocery store chains. Half price special are great and I definitely shop in multiple stores each week and chase the specials.
Yes it takes time, but just as we use our time to work and MAKE money, doesn’t it make sense to use your time to SAVE money also?
I base my meal plan around what is on special at the store.
I buy my meat in bulk and have 2 freezers as well as the freezer attached to my fridge, so essentially 3 freezers available to me to stock up on meat that is on special. I portion the meat out into the correct serves needed (depending on how many people I have in my house at the time) and cut it up before it hits my freezer.
an example of my bulk meal cook ups I have done in the past. This was before I started using the glass containers from Kmart
I follow certain rules to help me save and stay within budget, here are my 10 rules for budgeting and feeding a big family.
This is an example of my meal prep, done on a weekend, usually Sunday for the week ahead. I usually take a few hours after church to get it ready. In this photo I have my salad options, my taco night salad prepared (with corn), and my Thursday night bake. I also have my stir fry veg cut up and prepared for Monday and some veggies cut up for snacking for my kids lunchboxes and my students.
Find out what the students like and go for that to reduce wastage. prepare your food so it is easily accessible for students to use.
I do my grocery shopping on or around the weekend, because this is when I have the most help available to me. Brad will often play with the kids while I meal prep.
I always prepare a variety of salads and put them in sealed containers so they remain fresh and available to our students throughout the week for lunches and dinners.
Variety is the spice of life
you might be thinking, oh gosh I don’t have time to experiment with all sorts of different cuisines. The good news is, you don’t have too,
Because I have been hosting for so long, I have quite the number of meals in the memory bank that I rotate, this keeps it interesting, not just for my students but my family also.
some of the meal bases I use. I sometimes cook from scratch, sometimes I am a firm believer in you don't need to re-write the bible.
However in the early days I had a bit of a theme going, for each day of the week, that helped me meal plan and keep things interesting. By having a theme, it opens up a variety of options, without having to think too much. when I was tired (new born phase) or just uninspired this helped me so much… it still does, now we are in the van full time!.
Suggested Meal Schedules for Rotations
Here is our theme/schedule to help keep me on track with mealtimes while hosting:
Sunday - Roast - call it the brit in me, but I love a good roast! especially one on a Sunday. I just rotated whatever meat is on special. This was good, because left over roast meat could be added to sandwiches and salads for lunches during the week, or a casserole meal.
Roasts on a Sunday are great because I could often cook the meat in the slow cooker while we got on with our day. Then just cut up the veggies for roasting during my weekly meal preparation time in the afternoon.
Monday - Stir Fry - I usually always do a stir fry on Monday, this is because my grocery order was usually always on a weekend so the veggies were fresh crispy, plus stir fry are easy as its just meat veg and noodles or rice, exactly what I need on a Monday. I just rotated the sauces I used, and sometimes the veggies (choosing seasonal options)
Tuesday- Tacos - again another easy meal that was 90% prepared on the weekend so I had minimal mid week prep work to do. Tacos are great because the salad is prepared and again being at the beginning of the week, the salad is at its freshest. Tacos can be changed up too, in a month we can have 4 or more “different” taco meals with the same or similar prep - beef mince, kangaroo chicken breast, soft taco, hard tacos (or both), pork mince (Hawaiian theme with pinapple),
taco night with our students is always fun, especially when we drop the news that the "meat" is our very own Aussie icon - kangaroo mince! Their faces speak a 1000 words.
I also include lamb yiros into my taco night rotation and I will often use the left over lamb meat from Sunday night’s roast dinner in this instance. Don’t forget the garlic sauce!
Wednesday - pasta - this can be anything from spaghetti bolognese (pre made bolognese sauce in the freezer), lasagna, fettuccini, macaroni, pasta bake, ravioli, tortellini, there are so many pasta varieties and it is ALWAYS a favourite with our students (and my own kids), no matter what country they are from.
Thursday - bakes & casserole, are on Thursdays and make: things like curries (butter chicken, rogan josh, Thai chicken curries), but also your more “hearty” favourites like Irish stew, beef stroganoff, chicken cacciatore, I would also make things like Sheppards pie or meat pies with veggies on the side,
I also do baked chicken drumsticks (with a variety of sauces) and chicken wings as well as baked risottos. I also interchange lasgana as a meal option on Thursdays, because technically it is a “bake” as well and it is nice reheated and an easy help yourself meal (for our students).
The added bonus to making these reheatable meals close enough to the weekend, means our students can eat it as left overs for lunch, when they often get up at lunch time on Saturdays and Sundays (oh to be able to do this again!!).
**BONUS TIP **When I make these types of meals, I use the cook once, eat twice method (more on this here ####). Plus I will also freeze some extras in individual portions, so my students (and husband) have a stash of meals available to them during the week for lunches. I have insulated flasks so they can re-heat the meals in the morning and they are still hot at lunch (you will most likely need to show them how to do this). I have found that most schools, however, have a microwave available for international students to use, because hot meals at lunch are popular in many cultures.
I love to experiment with new flavours and often have my current host student inspire me. This was a special lunch I prepared for my new student who arrived from Vietnam. We had a quiet lunch together while we chatted and got to know each other.
Friday - Fake Away - is this is another one that is a favourite with my students, as a family we have movie night on a Friday and a treat food, adds to the excitement. Sometimes our students joined us for movie night, sometimes not, but the offer is always there.
meals we have on Fridays includes: burgers - chicken, beef, lamb, turkey. We also have pizza, sometimes homemade with DIY pizza toppings, we also sometimes have curries and noodle soups e.g. Laksa. but mostly it is pizza and burgers & chips.
Saturday - meat and 3 veg - this is usually schnitzel, parmagana, lamb or pork chops, sausages, steak and BBQ’s. We also eat left overs on Saturdays for lunch and dinner as well, we just add the left overs to whatever we are eating for lunch and dinner that night as another option. this is great also, because if our students have friends over, there is always enough food for everyone and it eliminate food waste.
enjoying some homemade pizza with our 2 international students, one from Vietnam and one from Korea. home made pizza, not the prettiest looking meal, but it is SO delicious.
Snack Foods
our family fruit bowl available for everyone (students included) I make sure it is well stocked - with FRESH Fruit - throughout the week. I also have museli bars and some baked goods in the freezer such as muffins cakes, biscuits that our students can take to school.
I found that (most of) my students didn’t really snack on the same foods as my family. They tend to buy their own snacks from the asian grocery store (or similar), and that is totally fine! Or some just don’t snack at all, they just eat at meal times - also totally fine!
Contingency Plans when things don’t go to plan…
I find it always pays to have a contingency plan when it comes to meals. I always have a stash of meals in the freezer ready to go incase illness strikes or unexpected evening appointments occur.
My other contingency is always having salads available in the fridge that I prepare on the weekends, because if all else fails, you can always heat up a meat pie, sausage roll, freezer stash meal, chicken breast or even at the very least a toasty and have it with a salad.
The most important meal of the day…
Breakfast time - in my experience the easier the better. In our house a continental breakfast is on offer, which includes cereal, toast, yogurt accompany with tea, and instant coffee
Eggs, bacon and pancakes etc are reserved for weekends (unless I have pre-made them and they can just be reheated in the microwave ).
Our students are responsible for getting their own breakfast. Having 4 kids, I don’t have time to make their breakfast, nor should I have to, they are teenagers/young adults after all.
Making sure they know what they can have on a busy weekday morning, is key, you don’t want someone standing in the kitchen cooking up eggs while you are trying to get lunches ready for your own kids.
Student Baking and Cooking in the family kitchen
This brings me to another important point.
I have had a couple of student that enjoyed baking and cooking/preparing their own food from time to time. Now I was okay with this, after all, we all miss home cooking when we are away. Not every family would be, that’s okay.
My guidelines, however, was that if any baking/cooking took place, I needed to be home (You need to, however, check with the agency, as I have found they all have varying policies on students being allowed to cook).
My students baking in the kitchen became problematic when they chose to do their baking straight after school (right when I was preparing dinner for the family) a congested kitchen during family “happy hour” time is not ideal for my nervous system. So I simply had a conversation with my students and all was resolved.
Remember it is your home and you need to speak up if things are not suiting the flow of your family.
I hope this has provided some insight into how, with a bit of planning and organisation, it is very possible to cater to a big family, and have international students in the mix also.
What are your top tips for budgeting with a big family? have I missed one?
