5 Family Meals To Make During The School Holidays - Week 1

5 EASY family meals to keep kids fuelled up during the school holidays, without spending a fortune (or all day in the kitchen)

When it comes to keeping the kids well-fed during the school holidays, we know it can be a challenge! If you struggle to find quick, easy and affordable meal ideas, don't worry, we've got you covered!

Every Monday for the next 6 weeks we'll be giving you five simple family meals you can cook at home, quickly, easily and without breaking the bank!

Plus, if the kids are bored and looking for something to fill their time with, this is a great chance to get kids involved in the kitchen, helping out with the cooking.

Our kid-friendly easy meals are sure to put smiles on your little ones' faces, and yours too!

Quick & Easy Family Meals For Kids

The ingredients for this weeks 5 school holiday meals are £24.43 from Aldi

Pitta Pizzas - With Pepperoni And Cheese

For this super easy lunch idea - just spread the pitta bread with the tomato sauce, top with grated cheese and slices of pepperoni. Then cook under a hot grill until the cheese is melted and bubbling and the pepperoni crisping up at the edges.

We priced this at £3.59 at Aldi for total ingredients for six pitta pizzas - 60p a portion.

• Pitta Breads - 50p
• Passata - 55p
• Cheddar Cheese £1.49
• Pepperoni - £1.05

And if you don't fancy pepperoni, swap it for ham or tuna or make a veggie mushroom one.

Tuna And Sweetcorn Air Fryer Pasta Bake - Easy Family Meal

Simply cook the pasta in boiling water as per the packet instructions. Then toss together with passata, tuna and sweetcorn, sprinkle with cheese and air fry for around 8-10 minutes. Get the full tuna and sweetcorn air fryer pasta bake recipe here.

We priced this at £4.95 at Aldi for total ingredients for the pasta bake - 98p a portion.

• Pasta - 75p (you'll have leftovers)
• Passata - 55p
• 2 tins tuna - £1.44
• Tin sweetcorn - 72p
• Cheese - £1.49 (you'll have leftovers)

Fish Finger Tacos - Easy Family Meals Idea

Grab yourself some soft flour wraps or taco shells. Stuff them with salad, sliced fish fingers a dollop of tomato salsa and a dollop or soured cream or mayonnaise. Wrap and eat! Ready in minutes, especially if you cook the fish fingers in the air fryer

We priced this at £5.45 at Aldi for total ingredients for 4 fish finger tacos/wraps - £1.09 a portion.

• Tortilla wraps - 99p (you'll have 4 leftover wraps - you could use for quesadillas)
• Fish fingers - £1.75 (we picked the omega-3 pack of 15)
• Iceberg lettuce - 67p
• Salsa - 85p
• Soured cream topping - £1.19 (you'll have leftovers)

Cheese And Bacon Turnovers - Family Meals Ideas

What's not to love about cheesy bacon pastries? These turnovers are super easy to make, you can add in any extras you fancy, and they're great for lunch-on-the-go too! So if you're heading out to the park, pack a picnic! Get the bacon and cheese turnover recipe here.

We priced this at £6.17 at Aldi for total ingredients for making 6 turnovers - 64p a portion.

• Puff pastry - £1.19
• Cheese - £1.49 (you'll have leftovers)
• Bacon - £1.65 (you'll have two slices leftover)
• Eggs - £1.29 (you'll have 5 eggs leftover)
• Oregano - 55p (you'll have loads leftover)

(hey... if you've got leftover bacon, eggs, cheese and oregano - you could make an omelette)

Easy Bean Burgers - Easy Family Meals

These burgers are quick, easy and healthy! Ideal for a quick lunch for the kids or turn it into a more substantial dinner and add some potato wedges or corn cobs on the side too.

We priced this at £4.27 at Aldi for total ingredients for the homemade bean burgers - 91p a portion.

• Sweet potatoes - £1.09
• Onion - 95p (you'll have 2 onions leftover)
• Peri peri seasoning - 85p
• Tin kidney beans - 33p
• Burger rolls £1.05

Store Cupboard Ingredients - You Need To Have In At Home

In addition to the ingredients listed above, you need to have the following in at home, ready to use.

• Olive oil (sunflower or rapeseed oil will be okay too if you prefer)
• Salt
• Black pepper

Easy Sides To Go With Family Meals

We find that during the school holidays with all the added activities the kids are always HUNGRY!

So it's a good idea to have some easy, affordable and fairly healthy food in that you can put with your easy recipes to bulk them up to feed larger appetites, make them into more substantial meals or to make them stretch to feed more people.

Easy Side Dishes

• Potatoes - for mashing or making jacket potatoes or wedges
• Carrots - carrot sticks, or mashed veg.
• Cucumber and peppers - to make pots of crudités to serve with lunch or dinner.
• Pasta and pesto - great alongside pizzas or chicken
• Time savers - frozen chips, waffles or hash browns
• Baked beans and tinned spaghetti hoops
• I usually give the kids fruit after meals - so apples, pears, bananas are always good to have in.

Need Some Family Meal Ideas?

Check out our meal planning here – it’s filled with recipes, meal planning tips and pre-filled printable meal plans weekly or seasonally. We’ve got hundreds of the BEST family recipes and family meal ideas your whole family will LOVE!

Get more delicious meal ideas and easy recipes here

*** PRICES CORRECT SUMMER 2023**