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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Chicken bacon pasta with a quick sauce made from opening a tin of chicken soup and popping it in. Easy! It's midweek!

We plan the week's meals at the weekend and I try to make sure the ingredients are prepped in the fridge the night or morning before the meal is made. It doesn't always happen, but it does make things a lot easier when we remember to do it!

My favourite mid week meal to do for the kids is steamed salmon with pasta, peas and pesto.

I steam the salmon from frozen in the microwave fish steamer - just put a bit of butter, salt and pepper on. Meanwhile cook the pasta, add peas for the last couple of minutes. Stir in pesto. Done. Whole thing takes 10 minutes

I meal plan at the beginning of every week, making sure to keep easy meals for the days when I know we'll be short on time. On the days w I am cooking from scratch I usually make enough to last for two meals. Half is put in the freezer so we're not eating the same thing twice in a week. On the days we're short of time and I don't have anything in the freezer that I've cooked I have a stash of freezer emergency meals such as chicken pies and breaded fish.

Fry bacon, onions and mushrooms add some peas and pour two tins of chopped tomatoes on. If I'm feeling really flash I add some herbs. It's yummy.

My laziest one which I only use when am feeding myself is put dry Couscous in a bowl with frozen peas, butter and a chicken stock cube. Pour boiling water on, leave for a bit then come back and eat it. I love it - dh & the kids refuse to even entertain the idea of eating it.

It's hard finding quick to cook mid-week meals - those things that you need to rustle up when you've been running round with kids hobbies and after school activities. I tend to stick to pasta or rice dishes on these night - throwing in some peas or grated carrot etc to get some veggies in there too. It really doesn't take that long to cook a piece of fish or say a chicken breast. Also in the summer - lots of salads. I just make sure that these nights are evened out by really good healthy balanced meals on the nights when I do have a bit more time.

My go to midweek meal fav with our family is homemade pizza. To make the dough use natural low fat yogurt and self raising flour as the base,it couldn't be easier! Tomato puree as the sauce then top with anything you like,kids love making there own!

A really quick & easy one is my Ciabatta Pizzas with sundried tomato & chilli pesto, mozzarella, green peppers, mushrooms & green chillies. Just pop them in a hot oven for 10-12 minutes & they're ready & absolutely delicious, saves a fortune on a takeaway pizza

Midweek meals tend to be quick and easy. FIsh and chips, curry, fajitas, sausage and Mash, you get the idea. In the winter months though I cook walloping great portions of things like pulled pork, chilli or curry, use halfway and freeze the rest. Every other week you et some easy reheated teas!

Downgrade expectations - nothing wrong with omelette & salad, scrambled eggs and salmon on toast, quick-cook microwave rice and a cold chicken breast, fresh filled pasta and sauce etc etc.

The weekends are for fancy cooking, and weekdays are for tasty but quick stuff.

I do a lot of batch cooking on my days off and put it in the freezer. I work shifts and long days so it is easy for my husband to just get something out of the freezer on days that I'm at work. It makes me feel better knowing that my family are eating home cooked, healthy meal. The kids love making their own pizza but we use tortilla wrap and passata and any toppings they like, normally ham and sweetcorn.

I batch cook so we can quickly make dinners easily especially on night when the kids have various clubs on after school.

Mid-week is when I'm at my most tired of work and in need of dinner which is quick to prepare, delicious (perks you up!) and of course nutritious.

My tip is to meal plan as far as possible, with batch cooked meals prepared the weekend in advance and defrosted each day (e.g. Bolognese, curries, pie fillings etc), topped up where necessary with fresh or frozen vegetables (such as Birds Eye peas!) quickly prepared in the microwave to top things up.

We also love a little treat midweek and having good quality frozen products like Birds Eye coated chicken breasts or rice dishes mean that we can choose our meal and have it cooked at short notice - perfect when you're too knackered to think about serious cooking!

Quick weekday evening meals in this house include:
Macaroni cheese with green veg
Pasta & pesto
Bolognese
Egg or beans on toast
Bruschetta
Sausage and mash
Stir fry
Fajitas
Burgers & salad
Hot dogs & salad

In the summer, the kids often want a garden picnic.

We tried "taco boats" - stand and stuff tortillas with chicken dippers and salad - last night for the first time, and were quite impressed.

I use my rice cooker to do big batches of brown rice, chill it fast (as recommended for food safety), then freeze in family portion bags. Those heat up in a very few minutes.

We also often have quorn curry as its so fast as the pieces go straight in from frozen. I'll add frozen veg as well, and using jarred sauce and frozen rice (and naan!) its all ready in under 15 min

I batch cook curry or extra dinner so can freeze and defrost when i am short of time as its not easy finding time with 3 little ones

It's a chore sometimes but meal planning is key in our house. Removes a lot of the stress of thinking about what's for dinner and saves money and cuts down on waste too. I find it also helps make sure we're getting balance across the week in terms of nutrients. I.e. Making sure we have fish a couple of times, a meat free dinner at least once and things like that.

I always batch cook so on those days where you know you won't have time to spend hours in the kitchen I can just get something out the freezer. Its quicker than having a take away and healthier if I cook up something Ive made earlier dinner can be on the table in the time it takes to cook some pasta

we batch cook lots and in the summer make salads. The DCs are more inclined to eat the salads if they are involved in choosing the ingredients and help to prepare.

Mines nothing overly special that I cook, It's only Chicken/turkey shapes or nuggets etc with chips, but it is the chicken that's the silencer and pleaser of all, As soon as they know they behave just incase I add any veg.

I tend too do a lot of cooking a head off time.This way all I have too do is reheat it.Saves so much time.

As a working Mum, and a foodie, I cannot imagine not having my Slow Cooker! Mine was a gift to my parents when they got married in the early seventies. It has two settings 'high' and 'low' and it's one of my very favourite things that I own. Midweek food doesn't have to be boring. Either chop the vegetables the night before or early in the morning (time permitting) and throw them in the slow cooker before going to work. Given the number of hours I just leave mine on the low setting all day. It's so lovely to come home to a rich bolognese or a jambalaya, a chilli or a stew.

I batch cook and freeze so I know the meals are healthy but they are still easy to heat and enjoy. Quickly throwing together a fresh side salad 'summers' things up :-)

My fave is the mumsnet cook book virtuous chilli cooked in my slow cooker...all of my five a day and more and nothing unhealthy in it at all!

I love the slowcooker, but don;t always use it to it's best advantage during the week... so I am a big fan of cooking more than we need and having it served as leftovers slightly differently the next day- for example, we might have spag bol one night, then add some spices and beans to use the remaining sauce as a chilli over jacket potatoes.
And of course, if you're organised you can freeze portions for really simple dinners with the minimum of prep!