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

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Frozen veg is my midweek time saver secret!

We cook jacket potatoes in the microwave with the topping mixed together a day before (tuma sweetcorn). Nice and quick.

Make a huge batch of shepherd's pie or lasagne on Sunday afternoon then put it in the freezer so we are ready to go by midweek

I tend to always meal plan at the weekend and spend my Sunday making and batch freezing meals. It does mean my Sunday is taken up but it makes life so much easier during the week and it means my family can have nutritious homemade food without the hours of preparation.

cant beat egg n soldiers, otherwise I like pasta with green beans, tofu and red peppers in a quick tomato sauce.

I made a huge batch of marinara sauce and freeze into smaller portions for the month. Can use it for pasta when I've added some quorn mince for protein or use as a pizza base. It's a god way to pack in 5/6 veggie soup in one meal.

I roughly meal plan an include some quick meal ideas like roast potatoes with tuna mayo/beans/cheese/salad.

Also I make soups regularly and freeze small portions so I have something available for the days I can't cook.

I give them simple and quick teas during the week. I tend to do something like boiled eggs / cheese on toast / pasta and sauce, because it can be prepared in less than 10 minutes (fantastic for tired, hungry children) and they're meals the kids will eat without fuss. Plus they always get large lunches at school so don't need as much. It also makes getting some of their 5 a day in a lot easier, because they will eat raw vegetables with a lot less fuss than cooked vegetables.

I batch cook on a Sunday (things like bolognaise or soup which can be frozen or heated easily). Nice to do that with the radio on and a glass of red!

I also get DS1 to prep things for me before I get home from work (i.e. chopping potatoes for wedges or making burgers) so I can cook when I get in.

If I have time, I like to prep the next nights' dinner - i.e. marinade chicken in lemon, olive oil and garlic or, my personal favourite, cubed pork in red wine with crushed coriander seeds (had that last night and it was delicious)!

Try to make a meal planner spend 15 minutes at the weekend to map out your weekday meals and that will also help to organize your grocery shopping, another tip for busy days is to start preheating the oven as soon as you walk in the door.

Definitely the slow cooker is the hero of the day with chillis, stews and joints of meat.

I stick some strips of beef into the slow cooker before work, chop onions, peppers mushrooms and open a ton of sweet corn with some fajita seasoning and sev with wraps. Takes around 15 minutes to make and it's healthy.

buy a bigger than normal size piece of meat for sunday then we use the left overs on monday and tuesday for currys cottage pie filling moussaka lasagne etc

Any roasties and swede/carrot I mash up and use as a topping for Cottage Pie - tastes lovely and is time saving leaving more time for family times.

I batch cook big pots of stew, bolognese, casseroles etc, then freeze them in the little plastic pots we get from our local takeaway. They are perfect individual portions, so everyone can choose what they want and it's quick and easy.

Wraps! Quick and easy and can be stuffed with piles of salad too- Birds Eye chicken fillets are a quick and easy filling for these with salad and dressings. They are also, satisfyingly, like the foods from the American type diners that they are so fond of!!!

Bulk cooking to reheat in the week or go to easy one pan recipes when i'm in a rush

Our mid week 'go to' meal is spaghetti with salmon.

Put some olive oil, chopped onion and any veg you have in the fridge e.g leeks, peppers, courgette in an oven tray and roast for 40 mins adding the salmon fillets and a punnet of cherry tomatoes half way through. Cook the spaghetti and add to the salmon and veg with some extra olive oil and parmesan. Simple!

My best tip is for a midweek roast - instead of roasting a whole meat joint I go to my local supermarket and buy some fresh roast beef, pork or Turkey slices, then I can control portion sizes and minimise wastage, and don't have to worry about over or undercooking a meat joint! Then I just pop a few veg in to boil, and few Yorkshire puddings and a nice midweek roast ready for the family.

I like to do a simple midweek roast sometimes, or something like home made fishcakes with veg.

Midweek meals for our family are always planned ahead. With a big load of minced beef I make beefburgers, spicy meatballs, Bolognese, cottage pies and freeze them down. I always have lots of frozen veg and pasta in so at least a couple of meals come from these each week. Fortunately we all love fish so we have this twice a week, fishfingers for the youngsters, breaded or fish in a sauce for adults.If we have a pizza night we put all our own choice of toppings onto frozen pizza bases.My freezer is my best friend.

I make sure I have a meal plan wrote out at the beginning of the week before I do my shopping, which I tend to stick to. For days when I won't have much time to prepare I plan quick and easy meals that don't take much effort.

I always cook more than we will eat. Leftovers are either frozen or saved for 7mo dd's lunch the next day.
Cook from frozen meat, fish and veg is a lifesaver as we aren't rubbish at remembering to take tea out the night before. Frozen fruit and veg is brilliant for blw too.

My mid week meal tends to be roast chicken as then I can pop it on early so that it is cold for salads or if I have more time then I will do a mid week roast dinner. I do always have a batch od home made meals in the freezer though if I am going to be really busy I just grab a couple our to cook that night

we usually have a fish shop meal once a week as sometimes its difficult to find certain meals to cook have pasta bake once a week with garlic bread gammon and egg and chips is also a treat in the week usually chicken steaks with we actually like potato rostis with this one as its a change from chips also steak or mince pie and chips in the week as we like variety most of what we usually have is done in the oven as its quick as i work part time also the trusted sunday dinner which we enjoy which can vary to pork beef and chicken

Anything I can batch cook and freeze I do. Sheperd's pie is a favourite but rice and pasta dishes too for the children. Planning weekly meals and shopping makes life less stressful,