#MixUpYourMenu Family Meal Ideas

Earlier in the week I was involved in a #MixUpYourMenu Twitter party hosted by Britmums, and sponsored by Birds Eye. During the party we shared recipes and meal ideas for quick and easy family meals using some of the favourite Birds Eye products, including wholegrain fishfingers, chicken chargrills, burgers and frozen peas.

Here are the meal ideas that we came up with, which the family loved.

PESTO PEA PASTA

The pesto pea pasta was a dish that I made for my myself after a bootcamp session, by quickly throwing together some freshly cooked pasta, spoonful of green pesto and a handful of frozen peas which had been soaking in boiling water for a minute or two to defrost them.

FISHFINGER WAFFLE BUTTY

I made these one lunchtime during half term when the eldest had his girlfriend over (I was showing off my cooking skills!). They are simply two wholegrain fishfingers sandwiched between two potato waffles. The kids like them dripping in tomato ketchup, but I would prefer tartare sauce.

CHICKEN CHARGRILL NAAN BREAD PIZZAS

These pizzas were possibly one of the favourite meals I cooked during our week of mixing up our menu. I picked up some plain naan breads on special offer and topped them with a little tomato puree, grated cheese and a sliced up chicken chargrill, and then popped them in the oven until the cheese was melted and bubbling up.

MONSTER BURGER

I think these have to be the favourite meal of the week. I barbecued some Birds Eye beefburgers whilst the waffles and Reggae Reggae chicken chargrills were baking in the oven, and then I stacked one of each in a soft white roll. I'm in love with the Reggae Reggae chargrills at the moment, especially as I picked up a few boxes for half price.

FISHFINGER WRAPS WITH MINTED PEA MAYO

Fishfinger wraps are a very very posh version of a fishfinger sandwich, and is the usual way we eat our fishfingers here. I mixed things up a bit from the usual way of serving with ketchup & mayo, and whizzed up a few [defrosted] frozen peas, some fresh mint and mayonnaise to make this tasty minted pea mayo, which was met with different reactions by various members of the family - a bit like marmite.

CHICKEN PESTO PASTA 

Another pesto pasta, but this time I added baby plum tomatoes and a sliced up chicken chargrill.

PERI PERI CHICKEN WITH MEDITERRANEAN RICE

I love the Birds Eye Rice Fusions, as they're conveniently portioned packets of flavoured rice which is ready from the microwave in just a few minutes. I added a sliced peri peri chicken chargrill to a portion of mediterranean vegetable rice for a fuss free dinner, which I served with salad.

BEEF[BURGER] FAJITAS

These are a twist on regular beef fajitas as they're made with strips of beefburgers instead of strips of beef. For these I sliced the frozen burgers into strips (with a very sharp knife) and fried them. I drained the fat, removed the burgers and then fried the peppers and onions with fajita seasoning before adding the burger strips back in, and served in a flour tortilla with grated cheese and sour cream. It's also a great way to use any leftover bbq burgers.

How would you mix up your menu?

Birds Eye #MixUpYourMenu Twitter Party

Come and join us on Tuesday 2nd June from 1pm - 2pm for a Birds Eye #MixUpYourMenu twitter party, hosted by Britmums, where you can share tips, tricks and tasty family meals.

You can be in with a chance of winning 1 of 10 £25 shopping vouchers and Birds Eye vouchers when you tweet along using the #MixUpYourMenu hashtag. 

If you have any recipes or meal ideas that include these Birds Eye favourites we would particularly like to see them:

Fish fingers

Wholegrain fish fingers

Chicken Chargrills

Beef burgers

Peas

Over the past couple of weeks we've been going Birds Eye mad in The Crazy Kitchen, and have so far been feasting on Chicken Chargrill naan bread pizza, beef[burger] fajitas and fishfinger waffle butties, to name a few.

#MixUpYourMenu

Don't forget to join us for inspiration and to share your own ideas. In the meantime check out how Katie from Feeding Boys & a Firefighter has been mixing up her menu, as well as these Birds Eye Vine videos.

Here is one of my own Vine videos (my very first), to show how simple it is to make a fishfinger pie, using just fishfingers, peas, mashed potato and cheese.

FISHFINGER PIE

I'm working with Britmums and Birds Eye on this #MixUpYourMenu campaign