Tell Birds Eye about your midweek meal tips - £300 voucher to be won!NOW CLOSED

[AmeliaMumsnet]

How do you get tasty, nutritious food on the table when you’ve been busy all day? After all, when it gets to summer, the last thing most of us fancy is spending more time than we need to tied to the oven. So do you have some clever shortcuts or cheats? Whatever your tips for midweek family meals, Birds Eye want to know.

Here’s what Birds Eye have to say: ‘Tea time can be a stressful time of day and coming up with nutritious and tasty meals the kids will enjoy isn’t easy. But Birds Eye frozen chicken is quick and easy to prepare, and made with 100% chicken breast, barn-reared chicken, and no artificial colours, flavours, or preservatives.’

Are you a whizz at preparing ahead or batch cooking? Do you have a fast, nutritious recipe that’s too good to keep to yourself? Maybe you’re just great at making sure the whole family pulls their weight when preparing dinner? Whatever the secret to your midweek meal success, particularly if you’ve something summery in your repertoire, share it on the thread below!

Every MNer who posts on the thread with their midweek meal tips will be entered into a prize draw, where one lucky winner will be randomly selected to receive a £300 Amazon voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Chicken satay kebabs, marinate the diced chicken breasts in hoisin and spring onion sauce mixed with peanut butter the night before then you just have to skewer and grill with a selection of veg while some veg savoury rice is cooking in the microwave.

jacket potatoes with salad, steamed fish with quinoa and feta cheese salad, stir fries, home made chips with chicken nuggets, beef burgers and potoato wedges are a few staples we have midweek, I always keep loads of frozen veg in the freezer and some of the frozen rice and veg packs along with frozen mash for quick shepherds pie topping and a big roast at the weekend with loads of veg and yorkies.

Chicken broth & omelettes!! Both of which I can cram huge quantities of veg into & everyone loves it! Winner!

The slow cooker helps no end, shove the ingredients in and switch it on. Dinner is ready when we get in and can even be served to each person separately if needs be.

We unfortunately have a small freezer, much of which is taken up with frozen veg etc so can't batch cook much. I have to be picky about what I freeze - pesto is a great one, I just wrap big spoonfuls in foil parcels. I do a big hidden veg tomato sauce which can be used in many things.

Also marinaded chicken - soy sauce, garlic, lime juice, ginger and honey - for a quick stir fry. I have also made a stir fry 'flavour pack' which was chopped garlic, ginger, spring onion and chilli, just to dump in the pan from frozen as a base for meals.

I do rely on ready meals and convenience stuff more than I want to. I have a disability that means hand/arm pain and dizziness, neither of which are great to have while cooking! I make sure I add salad veg and have sometimes mixed extra stuff in, like when I had a macaroni cheese micro meal and stirred in tinned tuna and tinned sweetcorn. No cooking required but made it better.

I'm hoping to move in the next year or so and then we will be getting a bigger fridge freezer, and then I will be batch cooking more!

DD is 9 and on my really bad days when I can't manage anything she will make scrambled/boiled eggs for herself and cheese on toast for her little brother.

My midweek favourite is home made veggie curry. It's a great way to use up any opened veg which is starting to look a bit sad and a great way to reduce waste.
I never shop for veg for a curry so use whatever we have so it gets switched up most weeks. Easy and convenient and always have various rice / bread in stock.

I particularly like a warm flat bread spread with a little red pepper pesto on the side of mine to plop a big dollop of rice and curry into and scoff.

Nommmmm

Oooo and is a good way to get lots of veg into the toddlers, a nice creamy masala sauce!

We tend to eat quite plainly in the week as its so much quicker and mainly using leftovers, so on Sunday will have a roast chicken for instance, then have it stir fried, cold with salad & a baked potato or in a curry in the week. Otherwise we will make a large lasagne or fish pie that will do us two nights running. Saves on prep time.

I love a fajita bowl for a quick and tasty midweek dinner. I quarter charlotte potatoes length ways to make wedges, spray with oil, season and put in the oven for 35 mins or so.

While they are cooking, I brown off mince with onion, sliced peppers, mushrooms, a tin of chopped tomatoes and fajita spices.

Throw the mince and the wedges into a bowl and top with a bit of cheese, guacamole and sour cream/plain fromage frais. Delicious!

A quick simple meal myself and the kids love is bbq chicken and savoury rice.
I simply boil some rice and whilst that's cooking, pan fry some onions,garlic,and peppers in a little oil,then add some diced chicken and cook thoroughly.
Once cooked stir in some BBQ sauce, peas and sweet corn and add the cooked rice. It's quick and easy and tastes great! .

my girls love fajitas and the good things about them is that they like to pick all the bits and pieces from a selection to build their own fajitas - so, cooked chicken, salad stuff like sliced peppers, lettuce and cucumber, sweetcorn, cheese, humus, feta, halloumi etc - anything where they are taking part in choosing what they have seems to work well

We love stir-fries and we all muck in to make one! The children help peeling the mushrooms and deciding what flavours we are going to add to the WOK - I have a huge array of herbs and spices and they love picking some from my garden too....I have to confess we have had some rather strange combinations but fun and nutritious

My freezer always has a selection of meals as I tend to cook large amounts and have plenty left over to eat another day. By midweek the family can choose what they like individually because there's plenty of choice.

We do stir fry most weeks! Frozen quorn pieces (or could be chicken ), a packet of stir fry veg, noodles, bit of five spice (with a Michael McIntyre impression every time) and soy sauce and job done in less than fifteen minutes.

And prawn crackers. Obvs.

My go to mid-week meal is lentil dahl. It's nutritious, filling and tasty - and it's so easy to make. Even if you only have half an hour on a Sunday night, all you have to do is boil some lentils with some basic store cupboard ingredients like turmeric, garam masala and a chopped onion, and you have a meal you can eat all week long.

I try and double up days so I'll make mince in a tomato sauce on one day as bolognaise and the next day as a kind of shepherds pie.

Then cheese and ham croquettes on one day and cheese and ham mash with fish fingers the next. I just alternate vegetables- which are always rejected in horror.

Weekends I'm a bit more creative.

Go lighter and fresher in the summer and try something like a wrap with lots of salad. Not every meal has to be hot!
These are great with teenagers too who can start to be more independent and throw in whatever they fancy from what's available 😊

Sardine and kale pasta. Saute the kale in the sardine tin oil with some sliced garlic , add sardines and chilli flakes and serve with pasta.

My aim is healthy nutrious yet scrumptious. It never takes long I get my child involved in the process giving us tha extra bonding time also setting up with valuable skills for later life. I always have dried goods such a noodles pasta rice. I head to the butchers and get fresh and lean cuts of meat I know it is healthier and tastier. Then I head to the local veg shop for produce. Once home decide what to throw together onions mushrooms and peppers fried are a fabulous base for chicken fajitas. Stirfry with our favourite chicken or turkey all through together with noodles made under 15 mins. Or sausage pasta bake with tin of tomatoes mix pepper or herbs. all one pot wonders and delicious and healthy.

I couldn't live without my slow cooker, I love to cook up a huge batch of Jerk chicken and vegetables.

I plan my meals a week ahead and do my shopping for all week too. I cook larger quantities so we can have meals over two day. Sometimes I cook in batch and freeze the meals on a Sunday. I cook meat and fish dishes mixing lots of vegetables.

I batch cook and freeze things like spaghetti bolognese (which my daughter would happily eat every day of the week) and beef stew and the slow cooker is great for casseroles and curry. For a super quick mid week tea sausages, potato waffles and corn on the cob is a favourite.

I try to do some batch cooking at the weekend, so we usually have something like bolognese sauce or soup in the freezer that can be heated up quickly.

ANd as well we usually have q few quick freezer meals like pizza, fish fingers and chips in the freezer, plus a variety of frozen veg that can be cooked quickly.

I find that Birds Eye frozen vegetables are fantastic for making meals in a rush. A particularly popular example in my house is my recipe for cheesy vegetable pasta bake.

300g penne
300g Birds Eye frozen broccoli florets
Handful Birds Eye frozen peas
Handful Birds Eye frozen sweetcorn
25g flour
25g butter
300ml semi-skimmed milk
150g cheddar

1. Cook the pasta. Add the broccoli, peas and sweetcorn for the final 4-5 mins and cooking until tender. Drain well.
2. Heat the grill. Heat the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook for 1 min, then add the milk, stirring well. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 2 mins, before stirring in half the cheese.
3. Mix the pasta and broccoli into the sauce and spoon into an ovenproof dish. Scatter over the remaining cheese and place under a hot grill for 3-4 mins until golden and bubbling.