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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Very Quick and easy fakeaway
Sweet and sour Chicken hongkong style

Birds eye chicken dippers cooked in oven
Warm the sweet and sour sauce in a pan then put cooked hot dippers in so they soak in sauce while you microwave some rice 😊
Yum yum

Make sure everyone lends a hand - peeling vegetables and opening tins can be done even by small hands, as well as tidying up. We make a great veg and lentil soup together, which is cheap and lasts for ages.

Soups are my mainstay. Batch cooked in the soup maker from any leftovers and whatever veg is to hand, then frozen. DH has an allotment, so soups are a great way to avoid being overwhelmed by the usual gilts of one veg. And they're great for getting nutrition into the grandchildren!

Whenever we cook a meal, we always make extra and freeze the rest in portions. Then, when we can't be bothered don't have enough time, we whip something out of the freezer. Less washing up and less cooking.

I try to freeze a portion of at least one of our weekend meals so we can have it towards the end of the next week. This works well with chicken korma, chicken & bacon stew, courgette risotto.

And occasionally 'beige' food like chicken dippers/nuggets/fishfingers with chips and veg works too!

Slow cooker for making big meals like dhal then freezing it. Also use frozen veg to bulk out quick meals like jars of curry/pasta bake.

As a busy working full time mum I batch cook on the weekend and freeze individual portions so my 16 year old daughter can have a nutrious home cooked meal mid week when she finishes school otherwise she would eat junk

I batch cook a wicked chilli

We couldn't live without the slow cooker. With 3 older kids dropping in and out at random times they can all eat when they need to and there is plenty to go round.

We tend to plan our meals for the week. On days where my eldest daughter is at nursery I cook the more tricky meals that need time, casserole, steak, chicken stir fry etc. I cook enough for two days worth and either freeze the second portion or keep it in the fridge for the next day. If we have the same thing twice in the week because of batch cooking I will do it differently the second time, so if we have beef casserole with rice and green beans on Monday we will have the casserole with jacket potatoes on Wednesday.

Spanish omelette with salad here. I cook the potatoes the night before and store in the fridge so that they are ready to go on the day.

I have two fussy eaters and usually very busy weeks with after school activities so i like to prepare a nice hidden veg tomato base that i blend smooth and freeze and so i can use it in lots of different recipes throughout the week :) all it needs is defrosting that way i know they are getting a lot of veg without the fuss!

I cook in bulk at the weekend and then freeze in portions for weeknights where I only need to cook some veg to go with it. I cook caseroles, bolognaise and chilli like this.

I always a few meals in the freezer. Dh and I will make at least one thing each on the weekend that we can keep a few portions for mid week and freeze. We have Moussaka, shepherds pie and chicken curry frozen now.

The only problem is remembering to label them. In a rush, I defrosted a 'bolognese' to find out it was tomato and red pepper soup! Not so good with pasta, but we still ate it!

We write a menu together, I do an online shop and dp cooks mid week as I work

We love chicken wraps as a quick tea: either stir fry chicken or left over roast chicken or on occasion we have used chicken dippers with grated carrot, cheese, lettuce, peppers, cucumber. ..whatever you have and let the kids make their own wraps.

I make big pots of curry and bulk them out with butternut squash and sweet potatoes so that I have some to freeze in batches for the baby. I always like to make sure I have some pasta sauces I the freezer which I can reheat and serve with fresh pasta, or lying takes 5 mins. Of course there are days when we all have a 'freezer tea', fish finger sandwiches or chicken burgers in buns with beans.

During the Summer I tend to rely on salad to bulk out meals and I get my children to help prepare it. They love chopping cucumber and grating carrot and I add sweetcorn to. We make quite a big salad every 2 - 3 days. We then eating everything with salad - grilled chicken, spaghetti bolognaise- the kids love it.

My quick midweek dinner I sent Birdseye fishfingers with potato waffles and frozen peas and sweetcorn. So easy after getting home late from kids swimming lessons and children think it's a real treat.

^is not I sent

I always make sure I have a pack of steam fresh veg and rice in my freezer so that when I'm in a rush I can just whack it in the microwave as a healthy side to whatever we're having for dinner.

We batch cook and have a freezer full of Bolognese and curries etc but my dc love pasta so we always have ingredients in for quick and easy cheesy pasta or a home made flat bread pizza that will take 5 mins or so to make. We are very disorganised and rarely meal plan but make sure we always have stuff in for the favourites!

I cook bigger meals so there is some left overs for the next day. But lots of the time I'm looking for quick easy meals the kids will eat. Reading these comments makes me think about batch cooking on a sunday ready for the following week.

I do a pasta salad when the sun comes out. I can make it ahead and it sits in the fridge till we need it. Full of sweetcorn, cheese, apple, sausage chunks and more so i always feel quite haply that they all eat it - even my fussy one.

I do quick meals in the week like pasta or frozen fish & chips.
If I get chance I cook 2 meals at once and freeze one - though a bigger freezer would help!!