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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Keeping a pizza base mix and sauce in the cupboard means that when schoolfriends come round it is an easy and fun meal for tea. They love helping, plus choosing the toppings themselves means they are more likely to eat them!

Wrap pizzas - take a wrap, add passata pizza topping, grated cheese and ham - the kids love it, 5 mins in the oven!

I bulk cook lasagne, bolognese, curry and filling for cottage pie . Most days of the week we all have a nutritious meal . Our midweek treat is homemade burgers with a mushroom , bacon, onion and cheese topping served in a warm bun with homemade coleslaw and wedges and now I'm hungry lol

My eldest daughter cooks most of the one and does the meal planning a she it's something she hasn't always enjoye (and I think she enjoys being able to cook food she likes too!) Her to to put tip though for midweek meals is to keep the cooking simple but the flavour bold. This is best through planning ahead and cooking fast cooking meat (generally chicken) and fresh meals are always best

One of Nigel Slater's books includes "Monday Night Supper". Take the remnants of Sunday's roast, shredded, and a shredded savoy or pointed cabbage. Fry the meat slightly in a wok in some veg oil, add the cabbage and stir once, then add a wine glass full of red, and at least a wineglass full of the left over gravy from Sunday. Simmer for a bit until the cabbage is cooked, then eat in a bowl with bread to soak up the juices. We sometimes add cold roast potatoes and parsnips chopped up and sauteed at the beginning.

we eat a lot of mince with a hubby and 4 hungry boys its quick and goes far I also rely on frozen veg and batch cook a lot.

I bag up individual portions of Veg ready to just take out and heat up when needed

i always like to prepare the weeks meals on a Sunday. Chicken is great for incorporating into meals

I generally cook enough for a few days and stalk up on veg, which I cook/ serve daily. I tend to keep meals very simple, using herbs and spices to flavour. My lazy meal is microwave rice,😳 With various veg, meats ( chopped ham/sausage/chicken), cheese, legumes and nuts, served in small bowls. Everyone adds what they want to their rice, the novelty factor alone keeps all happy.

We batch cook whenever we can, we can then freeze it and heat it up quick and easy when we want to eat it.
I love Birdseye chicken and that's something we get every Sunday when we do our weekly food shop. We make sure we have it in a different meal at least twice a week and anything left over we will make a meal and freeze it.
We also love a slow cooker so that after a day at work we can get home to dinner nearly ready!

A midweek favourite with our family is Chicken and Bacon with leeks.
I use a breast of chicken wrapped in a slice of bacon for each family member, and brown in frying pan using a little oil. Season slightly, leave at one side.
Add sliced leeks to the pan and allow to soften.
Replace the bacon-wrapped chicken to the pan, adding stock, and cook about 20 - 30 minutes until chicken is tender, add fresh basil for extra flavour, also frozen garden peas, beans or similar veg and cook a little longer.
Really easy to make, and very tasty.

Another idea, when I'm making pastry I always make a pound in weight, and freeze all that's not needed.

Bulk cook at weekend and put curry, chilli, burgers, soup in freezer. I also use the slow cooker during the week so that a meal can be ready for coming home from work.

Homemade versions of favourites. So homemade baked chips, breaded fish etc

On a sunday as a family we sit down and decide dinners for the week coming, we each choose a dish to cook, the eldest two put their name down on a day they finish work early with the dish they want to make and then the younger ones put their name down next to a dish they would like to prepare with dad/mum. It works really well especially as life for everyone is always full on. This way the stress is not put on one person and the kids get to cook a meal and learn how to cook. salads with sweet potatoes (cooked different ways fries/jacket et)and chicken/fish are great to make with the younger ones during the warmer months they get to be creative with their salads adding fruit and nuts to the dishes.

A quick and easy one is pasta, with any left over meat, frozen peas and a dollop of cream cheese to bring it all together.

I try to batch cook where I can.....it makes life so much easier! I'm following the slimming world plan and my family are happy to eat the meals that I prepare! xo

Fish Finger or chicken dipper wraps work every time. Add a bit of salad, some cheese, some salsa, sour cream or mayo, some of that frozen rice with veg in a bag cooked up quickly and they are away with the fairies.

Pea soup - Bag of frozen peas, can of coconut milk and some chicken stock plus a heaping spoon of thai curry paste. Cook and blitz in the blender.

Nacho chips - Sweet potato and or normal chips cooked in the oven. Pile them into a serving dish, grate loads of cheese over the top with cooked chicken, Grill until cheese bubbles. Remove from grill and pile Salsa, Sour cream and Guacamole on top. Serve to delighted hungry people.

I tend to cook a double portion of lasagne, shepherd's pie and freeze the extra portion. Sometimes if I want something spicy or not liked by my children I would give them something speedy from the freezer like fish fingers waffles and veg. I usually ask each if us to pick a meal for one night a week and that way everyone is happyish. We like to use pizza bases to add our own toppings to for a fun and speedy tea and like tonise up leftover Sunday roast in an egg fried rice dish.

I give the DC carrot and cucumber sticks and tomatoes to keep them going while the main meal is cooking. If I'm in a rush, pasta with pesto or cheese sauce and extra frozen peas and sweetcorn is easy.

I cook meals from scratch and then freeze them for days I am running late!

i prepare extra meals and freeze them so their quicker and easier to make in the week x

I meal plan and use similar veggie ingredients to make some lovely diverse meals! For example, I use peppers, onions and mushrooms [fried] to make a tomatoey pasta bake, or a nice chicken risotto! I find meal planning saves so much money as well! we always eat well and I am always on the hunt for easy recipes that I can cope with cooking during my busy week! Before I got into this habit I always ran out of key ingredients to make decent meals, and had so much food wastage! :)

Meal planning and batch cooking at the weekend mostly. Couldn't manage without the slow cooker and my freezer! If doing a big meal, I always serve up an extra portion or two and freeze it so there's a whole meal waiting for emergencies.

I batch cook on the weekend and freeze for in the week.

Our midweek meals usually involve rice or pasta, (No potatoes to peel saves a bit of time when we're busy!) Tinned tomatoes with whatever veg added make a great pasta sauce. Another favourite involves tinned curried / spiced pulses. Quick, tasty and nutritious.