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 love things like noodles with lots of stir fried veg and ready marinated tofu midweek, ready in minutes and full of flavour, also curries, big bowls of soup, they only take a few minutes to put together and if the children have activities everyone can eat at different times if they need to.

We have quick and easy, like beans on toast, toasted sandwiches or tinned spaghetti, followed by fruit.

I don't care what it is as long as it's food.

We make meal plans every Saturday as to what we're going to eat during the week coming, we then make sure we have all ingredients and are not running around looking for something to eat on the day. It's easy and stress free.

I always have a plan so Mondays meal will be made for Wednesday and Tuesdays would cover Thursday. For example if I make spaghetti bolognese for Monday, I would do a lasagna, jacket potato filler, chillier con carne, (by adding chilli and kidney beans, served with rice or even tortilla wraps with the leftover bolognese. I love being creative with food. I even tried it as a pizza topping with mozzarella, and it went down a treat.

Courgetti spaghetti and bolognese works well, anything that doesn't take too long. Tends to be pasta, or rice in the week. Making your own special fried rice is good and quick to make too!

I cook frozen peas and add spinach at the end. Throw them into a blender with cream cheese and some pasta cooking water and hey pesto 😉 quick and easy pea pesto served with pasta and Parmesan 😊

The only way that I can cope is by batch cooking otherwise there are a lot of nights where I just wouldn't be bothered to make something nutritious from scratch. I usually plan an afternoon once a week when I know that I have a spare couple of hours and cook up a storm in the kitchen then portion out the meals and freeze them. Absolute God send for me.

Vegetable lasagne cooked in bulk & served with a big salad

My kids love chicken wraps, I buy frozen breadcrumbed chicken, oven bake, slice up with peppers, cucumber, tomatoes. spinach, cheese and mayo etc.... and throw it all into a wrap! It is a great way of getting the kids to eat extra salad whilst still giving them the 'chicken nugget' feel that kids seem to love so much!
It is also a really quick and easy meal.

I often cook extra of certain meals and freeze them so I have things ready to go on my days at work. Jacket potatoes or omelettes with different fillings and veg/salad are quick, filling and great for using up leftovers. We also meal plan and tend to cook more time intensive meals at the weekends.

I'm not great at planning, but I always ensure we have a freezer full of quick meal ideas and loads of tinned food which I can throw together for a quick meal. Luckily we only have to do it once or twice a week as I tend to cook stuck on the weekend we can reheat :)

I batch cook on a weekend

I make dump bags as well. So after I've been shopping I chop a load of veg and meat etc and portion it all up into large freezer bags ready to just tip into the slow cooker with some sort of stock/sauce on a morning

I love batch cooking and tomato based pasta dishes are my go to meal. Spaghetti bolognaise with soya mince is so quick, easy and cheap to make and I cook extra to eat for a meal later in the week, or for lunch the next day. With tinned tomatoes, onions, peppers and mushrooms in the fridge its easy to make healthy nutritious meals like chilli, spag bol or shepherds pie.

i make most freezable dinners like bolognese and shepherds pie in large quantities and have for tea that night then freeze for another night it really saves time and generally tastes nicer reheated

I do a mix of preparing meals or food items that do more than one meal and mixing fresh and convenience food eg fresh free range chicken thigh with decent jarred pasta sauce.

I choose veg that's easy to prepare eg tenderstem broccoli that only needs a little trimming - better still if it's actually in season because there's fewer airmiles and it does taste a lot better.

And if all else fails in the time and energy stakes I resort to a prick with a fork.

Meal plan so that you have a plan for nights where you are pushed for time. Tonight was me working late and DS at swimming so when we got in we had fresh pasta with a homemade lentil and tomato sauce from the freezer. Super quick, tasty and healthy.

Pasta is my quick midweek meal we put anything in normally something spicy.its really cheap and really quick also.

My go-to quick and nutritious meal is smoked salmon and scrambled egg. Takes minutes to prepare and my local Sainsbury's does packs of smoked salmon trimmings for about three quid. It's also delicious!

quick mid week meal is chicken pockets..
basically a quick marinade of chicken strips in a tandoori powder and natural yog. grill it off... and serve in pitta pockets and salad. veryyy quick and easy to do

Jacket potatoes are a favourite here, also pasta with cheese and broccolk

I like to batch cook bolognese sauce and keep it in the fridge. Otherwise it's not too quick to whip up a quick tuna pasta or fish fingers, jacket potato and baked beans.

Midweek here is always batch cooking or the slow cooker. Then all you have to do is cook some carbs and veg or salad. Easy.

I batch cook on a Sunday en made.. make macaroni, lasagne and chilli or things like that, then on an evening my husband can cook it and cook veg, then get gets it all ready and I get back from work and we feed the kids.
For super quick meals if we don't have something prepared, I go to salad: beetroot (smoked over hickory by my folks) shredded, lettuce, olives, tomatoes, carrot cut with a peeler, green beans.
Then I put tuna, or feta, or chopped bacon, or salmon, or egg on top! Then we all sit around a massive bowl and dig in!

When I'm being organised I meal plan which makes a massive difference to the quality of midweek meals that I make. If I don't do it it's always a struggle to find something nutritious, plus I end up shopping more, and spending more!