Dinner Meal Plans

Making Meals for the Family

Are you so rushed off your feet every night that you end up heating up a ready meal or just cooking the same trusty go-to meal? If the answer is yes, Birds Eye are here to inspire your weeknight dinners, and show you how a number of dishes can be made using the same ingredients. The benefits of planning meals are numerous: a pre-made eating plan can turn a hectic day into a smooth one, make shopping easier and save you time and money, whether you’re cooking for kids or just yourself.

Meal planning has been praised even more in recent years, and thanks to fitness coaches and online influencers, we can see the advantages to ‘prepping like a boss’ when it comes to lunches and dinners. At Birds Eye, our products are versatile and portionable, making them the perfect base ingredients for your meal plans. We’re here to give you a week’s example of how several products can be used for several different dinners – and how compromising on spending doesn’t have to mean compromising on taste.
 

Shopping list


Monday

Sunday evening

Any food prepper knows that Sundays are your window of opportunity to get some food planned for the week ahead. Your food prepping need only take up an hour or so of the laziest day of the week, and all you need to store your ingredients in is a few airtight plastic containers: this could be, for example, chopping the carrots and pre-making the sauce for your katsu curry or, if you’re super organised, you could even make the mashed potatoes for the fish finger pie.

Vegetable Korma Curry

The online initiative Meat Free Mondays has gained a huge following recently, and there’s no better way to kick off the week than to feel you’re doing something positive. This mild and creamy veggie korma curry has very few ingredients, meaning it’s easy to make as well as super tasty. Our Field Fresh Country Mix vegetables, made up of broccoli, cauliflower, carrot and peas, are picked and frozen within hours to create the perfect taste, as well as making cooking easier.
Tip: be sure to keep the remaining half a tin of coconut milk to use in your katsu curry recipe later in the week.

 

Tuesday

 Chicken Katsu Curry Recipe

This is a crowd pleaser of a dish, perfect for cooking for family and friends or for when you fancy a dinner for yourself that’s a little more indulgent. The sweet, creamy, coconutty sauce makes this dish, while the crunch of the spring onions, red pepper and mange tout add a fresh touch as well as giving you vitamins and minerals. Plus, the sauce you make for this meal can be used later on in the week to spice up other dishes (see Thursday). We suggest keeping it traditional with the chicken for this one and sticking with our Crispy Chicken, but feel free to choose any of our Breaded & Battered or Chargrilled Chicken range if you fancy adding some seasoned chicken. If you’re after a spicier dish, try dicing a red chilli and sprinkling it on top.
Tip: if you’re really pushed for time, you could simply use Birds Eye Field Fresh Country Mix instead of fresh vegetables. You may also want to make extra sauce for our Chicken and Rice dish later in the week.
 

Wednesday

Crispy Fish Finger Pie

Birds Eye Fish Fingers, mash and peas is a classic family-friendly meal, but transforming it into an inviting looking pie is a great idea that makes cooking even easier. With the Omega 3 from our fish fingers, the nutrients from the peas and the filling warmth of mashed potatoes topped with melted cheese, this incredibly simple dish is a great one for the family on a busy night. Plus, you can add whichever sauces or seasoning you wish, be it tartare sauce, ketchup for the kids or just salt and pepper, meaning everyone’s pleased.

 

Thursday

Hot and Spicy Chicken Grills with Lemon and Coriander Rice

Our Hot & Spicy Chicken Grills with Fresh Lemon & Coriander Rice is the perfect weeknight dinner: quick, tasty and hot. The lemon and peas add an aromatic fresh taste to this warm and filling dish, as well as being rich in vitamin C, and our chicken grills are deliciously tasty. 
The beauty of this dish is the versatility of it – you can serve it just with the fresh lemon and coriander for a more subtle, aromatic dish, or you can serve with a curry sauce, such as your katsu curry sauce from earlier in the week.

Friday

Fish Finger Baked Potatoes

Baked potatoes are a great winter comfort food: hot, filling and delicious. If you’re bored of the usual baked potato fillings, fish fingers can be a tasty and nutritious alternative. The crispy hotness of the baked potatoes, the tang of the capers and lemon juice combined with the creamy tartare sauce make a perfect marriage with our golden Omega 3 fish Fingers, made with 100% fish fillet. Plus, you’ve already got potatoes and fish fingers from earlier in the week – so no last minute shopping.

 

There you have it – a week long dinner meal plan showing how easy it is to repurpose and portion food. Although most of these recipes do require preparation, when repurposing food to use later in the week, the easiest way to keep your ingredients fresh and easily within reach is to keep each one sealed in an airtight plastic container in the fridge. Reap the nutritious, financial and taste rewards and love your diet with Birds Eye.