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

Get things ready in advance! There is nothing worse than trying to cook to a time limit when everyone is hungry and tired.

I tend to cook in the afternoon before school pick up so things just need reheated at dinner time. Also I cook enough to make leftovers for the next day.

I like to use curry pastes as they taste better than the ready made jars of sauce and involve a bit more fresh ingredients, but do t take that long. I also like to use chick peas instead of chicken as you don't need to cook it for as long, served with salad and a little rice.

For kids I love frozen mixed vegetables thrown in with pasta, I drain it reserving a little of the water and add grated cheese. Always gets hoovered up by my 4 year old! For adults I like stir fry, nothing quicker than veg, salmon and noodles all thrown together with ginger chilli lime juice and soy. Yum!

I make a mean bolognese - but instead of having it with carb-loaded spaghetti, I make it with courgetti, which is incredibly simply with a mandoline. It's lighter, fresh and healthier!

Salads, pasta, chicken curry. Sandwiches. Whatever is quick and easy.

I love the gousto boxes for fresh and different meals, but they can be pricey on a regular basis. However, all the recipes are available online for free (gousto.co.uk/cookbook) so you can pick what recipes you want to make in advance and buy the ingredients at the supermarket. Select some that use the same ingredients to save more.

I/we cook in batches so that the following week we can just take it out the freezer and it's quick and easy!

Tag team cooking! I prep and chop veg while the dC are having their tea. DH does the actual cooking bit while I'm putting DS to bed. Psychologically the whole task feels much easier and less of a chore!

I love buying cheese and tomato pizzas and then adding fresh toppings to help towards our five a day. Throw in a salad and hey presto, not a bad meal in just a few minutes!

Use a slow cooker.
Batch cook.
Serve deconstructed salad al fresco!
Barbecues.

We do batch cook at the weekend and the kids like to be involved with planning what they want to eat, and of course ready to heat freezer foods can be just as nutritious as home cooked and with some added veg we have a quick stress free dinner

I love cooking a big batch of bolognaise & chilie con carne and then put into small containers, once cool go into the freezer. I also make up a big pot of cottage pie, this also goes into the freezer. By doing all this it does save me a load of time as work three days a week, so just take my pick from the freezer before going to work. Once home I either cook up some potatoes or pasta to go with it.

fresh pasta and fresh pasta sauce - cooked up in no time - a tasty treat served with sweetcorn (usually frozen)

I do a huge salad at the start of the week and make a dressing from scratch for it which lasts me and my partner the week for our lunches!

i get my children involved. they love growing healthy food in their veggie patch and helping to cook yummy recipes like this stuffed marrow x

I batch cook our favourites and prepare sides in advance in the morning when my Son is at nursery. I've got it down to such a fine art he complains repeatedly in restaurants that it takes too long for his dinner to come.

My favourite quick and easy mid week meal is pasta with spicy tomato sauce. I make a huge batch of the sauce and freeze half for another time.

I batch cook when I'm in the mood and have an afternoon free: veggie lasagne, curry, soup etc. Then all I have to do is choose which healthy, delicious frozen dishes to defrost and heat for the next day and add a side dish or two.

Stir fry, it's cheap, nutritious and an easy mid week meal!

In the summer my son is happy with something cold for dinner as he has hot meal at school, he loves egg wraps, I hide finly cut veggies in it too. Otherwise pasta is quick and easy.

I work part time so some days I can spend a while in the kitchen, cooking up a storm (it's a hobby of mine so never feels like a chore). On these days I will either batch cook stews, pasta sauces, chillis, curries etc or I'll do a roast dinner then use left overs the next night for a pie or risotto. My 2 youngest have school dinners and don't always want a lot in the evening. On the days when I've been working they will often have an omelette and choose their fillings. It's so quick and healthy, they'll have it with wholemeal bread/toast/pitta or simply some raw veggies.

we batch cook at the weekends and freeze a lot of portions to reheat during the work week. We cook stews with lots of vegetables and feijoada and load it with beans

We take in students during the summer so as well as feeding our own kids, we have to feed two others too! One meal which they all love is our Veggie Fajitas - we use quorn chicken pieces with lots of veg and they can then add their own cheese and salad into a wrap. It's very quick and easy and with all the veg, very nutritious!

I work long day shifts and night shifts, so on my days off I cook batches of food likes pies and pasties. As well as shepherds pie so that I can have proper home cooked food in the house and not ready meals. It is also cheaper, and gives me more time with my family.

We have this amazing pasta recipe that we all love and we cook in batches on rainy days with a great playlist on! It is a tomato based sauce with lots of garlic, chilli, olives and spices. We make 16-20 meals and fill the freezer and then when we cook it we add fresh mushrooms, sprouts and asparagus. If we're having an indulgent weekend with wine we'll top it with melted stilton, for a healthier midweek meal we leave it as it is! It is really good working with batches that big, time well spent!