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

I always cook more than we need for the Sunday roast. I have plenty of time and help then so plate up several meals and freeze for when I'm short of time mid-week. I also use the day to have the slow cooker on making a casserole for Monday and freezing the rest for time starved days

Omelette with Salmon. You can get a pack of Salmon trimmings for a £1 or so in most supermarkets. Tastes great too.

using slow cooking at least once a week :)

I boil brown rice with water, veg stock pot and turmeric, when there is about a minuite left i had loads of mixed veg in. In the meantime i have cooked chicken breasts . I let everything cool down and cut the chicken into pieces and mix it in. My kids love it and leftovers is perfect for packed lunch!!

I make Tartiflette, but cook the bacon separately so that my vegetarian granddaughters enjoy it too. Even better as leftovers for lunch the next day.

I plan the weekly meals and then We take it in turns to pick which meal the family eats that night. I always cook extra and freeze it so that if there are nights that we have a lot on I can take pre portioned meals out of he freezer on the morning and everyone can pick heir favourite. Xx

We have recently
rediscovered fish finger sandwiches! Also we often have varieties of frozen chicken dippers/ burgers/ chargrills with veg or salad in a wrap! Kids love self serving!

pasta and sauce is a quick to make standby

pizzas can be quick and easy but they are better when you make your own dough. I batch prepare lots of balls of dough so they're easy to defrost and use for a quick delicious meal (great to get veg in the little ones' diets too). Bolognaise is also a regular batch cook for me.

The best family cooking invention has to be the Tupperware box !! Prepare all your ingredients in the morning/ night before and put it in the boxes and put in the fridge/freeze till needed so you can makes a healthy meal without the time consuming part of preparation as it seems to take longer to prepare than cook most of the time.

Our easiest meal is pizza fingers, just take out the ready cut dough you've already made and sliced, ready cut toppings of cheese, ham etc and throw it on and into the oven to cook slowly. The kids love it as they can do it themselves by just using a spoon to scoop up the ingredients from the boxes - less stress for parents, more time for kids homework, less mess at the busy teatime rush after school and a healthy fun way to "decorate" their meals. Preparation and meal plans are the key to a less stressful meal time so you don't end up with a banging headache by bedtime - I'm a mum of 5 kids under 9yrs old so mealtimes can be like feeding a bunch of monkeys so any time saving, mum saving, mess free hacks are a god send

We try to make sure we stick to a meal plan as it helps to choose meals we will all eat and reduce waste. I do sometimes need to make a slight adjustment to my sons so it's not too spicy etc for him but on the whole we all eat the same thing together. We recently had mini taco bowls and as I knew my son wouldn't eat the mince mixture I made his using birds eye chicken dippers which I'd seen shown on facebook and it was a real treat and he wolfed them down.

I really enjoy letting my 4 year old help me in the kitchen as it teaches him about food too so he helps to chop and stir.

I try to have a few back up meals in the freezer to defrost & go. The kids love pasta so I freeze the sauce in portions, add mushrooms, cook the pasta and it's good to go. Crispy chicken in strips on top.is a good addition

Homemade pizzas and meal prep!

Batch cooking when I have time is the answer for me and then serve it up in different ways. Most popular is a basic mince cooked and frozen - defrost during the day but serve it with maybe pasta and cheese or jacket potato and salad or make some mashed potato, vegetables and gravy or add some peppers and chilli and serve with rice - any make a nutritious, easy midweek snack.

At the weekend I will batch cook mince and freeze. This means I have easy meals of Bolognese, Shepherd's Pie and Chilli at my fingertips.

Home made burgers are a great fav in our house.

We eat more food that gets put in the oven in the week or that is frozen. Like we have frozen veg to save time on chopping etc, and eat chicken cooked in the oven etc. Basically things I don't have to stir a lot!

My midweek tip is make your own wraps, use up those odd bits in your freezer fridge and salad tray.

For me organisation is everything. I know what I'm making for tea well in advance and prep early so I can get dinner on the table quickly!

Meatballs are the secret - they come in so many variations and go well with rice, pasta or mash. Easy to make and can be served baked or fried. Most importantly - kids love them and one can hide so many vegetables inside :-)

I make sure I meal plan weekly now , I originally decided to do it for budget purposes but it has also meant that I am a lot more organised and can plan quick meals for days where we have work and the kids have after school activities and I don't have as much time to spend cooking.
After reading something on here about Birdseye chicken being 100 percent chicken breast I will do chicken dippers for a quick tea for the kids , I also like to do make your own pizza's with them on pitta bread or wholemeal wraps and they can all pick their own selection of veg for toppings.

Meals that don't take much time to prepare so we can spend lots more time together.

If I'm in a rush I add frozen veg such as peppers and sweet corn into sauces. It's quick and makes meals a bit more healthier.

I use our slow cooker a lot for curries, pasta sauces and stews. I do most of the cooking, but I only cook about three nights a week - I always cook enough to have left overs the next day or put some into the freezer for another night.

Always make a full weeks menu and stick to plan!