I’m a Caterer – Here’s My Foolproof Meal Prep Routine for Busy Weeks

I’m a caterer – which means I spend my days creating delicious grazing spreads and beautiful meals for my customers. But after 8+ hours in the kitchen, the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook for myself!

As my catering business gets busier, I’ve adopted a new approach to dinner time. It’s not only a huge time-saver but helps me hit my nutritional goals and slashes my food bills – all while avoiding processed food or a cheeky takeaway when I don’t have the energy to cook. It’s genius (if I do say so myself).

I’d absolutely recommend this approach to anyone entering a particularly busy period in their life. Perhaps you’re expecting a baby, going through a long term illness, or, like me, have a particularly busy time ahead at work.

In this blog, I’ll show you exactly how I do it – from planning to freezing – with some practical tools that make meal prep genuinely doable and enjoyable.

 

My Method in a Nutshell…

Here’s my approach: plan a month of meals, do one big shop, batch cook full meals (and accompaniments) over one or two dedicated days, freeze the portions, and rotate meals through the month while keeping track with a simple system.

 

 

Step 1: Planning Meals for the Month

At the start of every month, I do one massive food shop. Before shopping, I’ll plan around 6–8 different dishes, each designed to give me 8 portions. That’s roughly 40–50 individual meals – enough to cover lunches and dinners for two people for four weeks. If I have time, I might also plan in a few breakfast and snack options. 

It sounds extreme, but by doing one huge plan & prep session each month – rather than weekly – I save so much mental load.

The secret is to think about dishes that share ingredients – that’s where you’ll benefit from economies of scale. But make sure they’re still different enough to avoid menu fatigue (I once went a bit overboard on lentil-based meals and my boyfriend still hasn’t forgiven me…). 

I also keep an eye on seasonal ingredients, which are often cheaper and fresher. Planning meals around what’s in season can save a surprising amount on your monthly shop, while also keeping your dishes vibrant and varied.

Make sure your meals freeze well – as that’s where most of it will be going. I base most of my plan on meals like soups, stews, curries, or slow cooker dump bags.

 

Here’s a range of meals and components I regularly prep and freeze – these form the bulk of my monthly rotation.

Breakfasts

• Egg muffins
• Breakfast burritos
• Egg & bacon English muffins
• Pancakes & waffles
• Granola

Lunches & Lighter Meals

• Soup
• Pasta sauce
• Bolognaise
• Gyozas
• Quesadillas
• Quiche

Dinners

• Roasted red pepper & BBQ bean stew
• Classic chilli con carne
• Any sort of curry – this month’s was chickpea & spinach korma
• Sausage, chorizo & bean casserole
• Lasagna
• Shepherd’s pie
• Mac & cheese
• Homemade pizza (I always make extra when the pizza oven’s out!)
• Beef stroganoff
• Fish pie

Top Tip: Prepping freezer “dump bags” for your slow cooker are also a fabulous option to prep ahead of time – just add the raw ingredients to a ziplock bag, label, and freeze. When you’re ready to cook, empty it into your slow cooker in the morning, and leave to do its thing.

Meal Components

These are your time-savers – accompaniments that can go with frozen meat, or one of the meals mentioned above.

• Mashed potatoes (pair with frozen sausages)
• Cooked rice (cheaper than buying microwave pouches)
• Pasta sauces 
• Pesto
• Yorkshire puddings
• Caramelised onions
• Roasted or par-boiled vegetables (including potatoes)
• Homemade gravy

Sweet Treats

• Cookie dough (bake straight from frozen!)
• Scones
• Banana bread
• Brownies or blondies
• Energy balls
• Apple crumble

Top Tip: If something can be cooked in less than ten minutes and stored dry in the pantry, I don’t bother wasting the freezer space on it. 

 

Step 2: The Big Food Shop

Once I’ve planned the month, I’ll do one huge online shop – it’s worth paying for home delivery to avoid hauling loads of bags from the car to the house!

I’ll stock up on:

• Core recipe ingredients for my planned freezer meals – this usually consists of meat, pulses, tinned tomatoes, spices
• Items that don’t need to be prepped but are the ‘main’ part of a meal and can be frozen – like sausages, fish fingers, breaded chicken, salmon filets, etc
• Frozen vegetables – to accompany planned meals
• Breads – sliced bread, crumpets, wraps, and pitta bread
• Pantry staples – noodles, rice, and couscous
• Storage essentials – freezer bags, foil trays, and Soupercubes for storing meals

Once the big shop is done, the only other shopping I do is a small weekly top-up for essentials like milk, eggs, and yoghurt – this keeps costs down and prevents food waste.

 

Step 3: Batch Cooking Day(s)

I’ll time my food delivery to arrive in the morning of my one or two dedicated prep days – which I like to schedule in at the start of the month. I clear my schedule, queue up podcasts, and treat it like a cooking marathon! You could even invite a girlfriend over to keep you company whilst you cook.

All my kitchen zones are working at once for efficiency – the oven, slow cooker, and hobs are all busy. I usually end up with six different dishes cooking simultaneously, each producing multiple portions.

By the end, my kitchen looks like absolute chaos, but I’ve got enough food to completely stock the freezer and keep us going for weeks to come!

 

 

 

Step 4: Freezing 

Once all your meals are prepped and cooled, the next step is freezing. A little planning at this stage saves you so much time and stress later when it comes to reheating meals.

My top freezing tips:

• Use Soupercubes – Honestly these are an absolute gamechanger. They’re essentially large, flexible ice cube trays that are perfect for portioning soups, stews, and sauces. To save even more space, once frozen, I’ll pop the cubes out and store them in airtight labelled freezer bags. My most used Soupercubes are the 1-cup trays for things like rice, curries, and stews and 2-cup trays for soups. 
• Cool completely first. Putting hot food in the freezer causes condensation and freezer burn. I like to cool my meals in the fridge before freezing them to maintain quantity.
• Label clearly with the dish name and date. You will forget what’s what after a few weeks! You could even write reheating instructions on the container/freezer bag to make life super easy for yourself.
• Stack smartly – group meals by type to make defrosting easy. I have a freezer drawer dedicated to frozen meal accompaniments (like veg, mashed potato, etc), a drawer for breakfast & lunch items, and then a couple of drawers for my main meals.

 

Step 5: Keeping Stock & Reheating

I use my trusty little whiteboard planner (or a note on my phone) to keep track of what’s left in my freezer and to plan what I’ll eat in the week ahead. It’s a simple system but allows me to use up everything I have – and helps me remember to move meals from the freezer to the fridge in time to defrost. 

If you forget to take something out the night before (don’t worry, it happens to the best of us!), you can:

• Gently reheat it on the hob,
• Use the microwave’s defrost setting, or
• For some dishes, cook straight from frozen – like mac & cheese, shepherd’s pie, or even cookie dough. Just adjust your cooking time accordingly.

Taking a few minutes to organise your freezer properly saves so much time later on – and it means nothing gets buried and forgotten about.

 

Foodie Tips & Tricks From Savery Grazing

Meal prepping like this has completely transformed how I eat – and how much I spend on food. I waste less, save literally hundreds on my food shop, and still eat balanced, home-cooked meals every day.

Whether you’re heading into a busy season in your life, looking for ways to spend less time in the kitchen, or hoping to save a bit of money, give this approach a go. It’s an absolute game changer.

For more recipes, tips, and tricks, be sure to check out more posts on my food blog. Or, keep up to date with me on social media!

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