Best value ready meals?

Edwardia

I put myself through college by doing temp work which included working in a food processing factory. The photos on the cardboard sleeve may look inviting, but what goes into the ready meals bears no resemblance whatsoever. If it's cottage pie, it's basically everything but the tail. And let's not forget Horsegate. Few people would contemplate making a meal using mechanically recovered meat and connective tissue, themselves.

The only ready meals I would consider buying again are Pegoty Hedge - hand-made, organic, made on the farm - and even then stir frying is quicker than waiting for a ready meal anyway.

But more importantly than speed, ready meals have too much salt and a worrying amount of additives which only have to be tested as being non-toxic ie won't kill you immediately. They often contain sugar, lots of carbohydrates which become sugar and the nastier fats. The fact that the combination of salt, fat, and flavourings can make connective tissue and mechanically recovered meat tasty, has nothing to do with cooking and everything to do with food technology.

In some places (in USA especially), this so-called food is cheaper than real food, is a scandal. The big food manufacturers foisting this stuff on people are making billions as an industry and no-one really knows what decades of eating that stuff will do to our bodies.

Malcolm Walker, boss of Iceland, eats organic food and the HQ canteen doesn't serve Iceland products. In a food documentary, I noticed a food buyer at ASDA declining to taste the product he was considering putting in ASDA's shelves.

Ready meals aren't healthy and people who want to be healthy, don't eat them. Aldi, Lidl, Iceland, Morrisons - they all do real unprocessed food.

Saving money is good, we should all do that. But treating our bodies like a dustbin won't keep us healthy long-term. Fact.

Georgia Davis has been hospitalised again, they had to dismantle parts of the house again to get her out. Her mother's idea of healthy eating is making her own chips, not buying them from the takeaway.

Flibertigibit

As an older person I remember when people relied on canned meat more than I think they do now - we didn't have fridges and freezers when I was growing up. Sainsbury's do a really good canned (almost ready) meals range which only need the addition of rice or potatoes. There is no crap in them, plenty of meat and could be stretched for 2 people, ample for one. There's a chicken balti, a chicken korma, chicken jalfrezi, chicken tikka masala, chicken and mushroom casserole, chicken in white sauce, beef bolognese, beef curry mild, beef curry madras, chip shop chicken curry, and loads more including vegetarian options which I can't be bothered to write down but you can see them here http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/food-cupboard/canned-tinned-packaged-hot-meat-meals#langId=44&storeId=10151&catalogId=10108&categoryId=13260&parent_category_rn=12422&top_category=12422&pageSize=30&orderBy=FAVOURITES_FIRST&searchTerm=&beginIndex=0&facet=887

All the ones I've tried have been good and there are some other good reviews on the webpage. They are mostly all £1.50 for a 400g tin except for the vegetarian ones which are £1.20.

brizesaver

It is so easy to make your own ready meals and freeze them. Portions of mash, cooked rice, gbolognese sauce, chilli, fish pie mix. I fry or grill good quality sausages in batches and freeze them per two., the list is huge, so very little need to buy anything in.
I sometimes ave a tub of Instant porridge for tea, at 49p each, good value, with some fruit to follow..
Saying that, I do eat ready meals now and again, and love Lidl's Chicken Jalfrezi, or Balti, and rice, at £1.49, just don't look too closely at the ingredients

tomtontom

Flibertigibit wrote: »

As an older person I remember when people relied on canned meat more than I think they do now - we didn't have fridges and freezers when I was growing up. Sainsbury's do a really good canned (almost ready) meals range which only need the addition of rice or potatoes. There is no crap in them, plenty of meat and could be stretched for 2 people, ample for one. There's a chicken balti, a chicken korma, chicken jalfrezi, chicken tikka masala, chicken and mushroom casserole, chicken in white sauce, beef bolognese, beef curry mild, beef curry madras, chip shop chicken curry, and loads more including vegetarian options which I can't be bothered to write down but you can see them here http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/food-cupboard/canned-tinned-packaged-hot-meat-meals#langId=44&storeId=10151&catalogId=10108&categoryId=13260&parent_category_rn=12422&top_category=12422&pageSize=30&orderBy=FAVOURITES_FIRST&searchTerm=&beginIndex=0&facet=887

All the ones I've tried have been good and there are some other good reviews on the webpage. They are mostly all £1.50 for a 400g tin except for the vegetarian ones which are £1.20.

The level of salt in some of those is very high - fine for an occasional meal but not healthy on a regular basis.

antrobus

Mojisola wrote: »

That's only if you believe that eating good quality fat is bad for you.

It's the sugars I check - and the lower fat meals usually have higher sugar levels.

Luxury ranges of food in supermarkets are often less healthy than the budget versions, the consumer group, Which? reports today. Researchers found that one in four shoppers buy these premium lines, such as Tesco Finest or Sainsbury's Taste the Difference, because they think the products are better for their health.

However, they are often the highest in saturated fat - one of the most unhealthy forms of fat commonly associated with strokes, heart disease and obesity. They also often contain more salt and sugar than the standard versions.

And

All of the supermarkets point out that their premium ranges tend to include richer sauces with higher fat, sugar or salt content.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573177/Premium-supermarket-food-often-unhealthier.html

kerri_gt

I try to cook from scratch but sometimes I don't have time, or the inclination.

Personally I like the asda range in the bags (chilled) which you microwave for a couple of mins (although I use the microwave less than I used to)

For 'home cooked' type food, I do recommend Cook! https://www.cookfood.net really tasty, I always get my xmas dinners there and they used to do yummy 'britpots' for one, British inspired dishes, their haggis neeps and tatties was lovely, sadly discontinued.

[Deleted User]

aloiseb wrote: »

I have a sort of cheat ready-meal fish pie, which consists of Fish in Butter Sauce (often on special offer, 4 for about £3) with squashed jacket potato on top, and frozen peas. Nicer than Admirals Pie but I can' really claim it's home made, sorry healthy people out there!

Actually I think that's reasonably healthy for a quick meal. Much better for you than most takeaways.

mikenolan

Batch cook lasagna, chili, spag bol, curry, stew, pretty much anything then box it up in plastic or foil trays for the freezer. Reheat in the microwave in not much longer than it takes to "cook" a ready meal and costs a fraction of the price.

Mr_Singleton

I'd find it sooooo depressing coming home after a hard days work to a plastic prison tray of mass produced industrial food when I can take out a pre-made home cooked meal from the freezer to defrost in time for me to eat it after work. There are also lots of quick, easy and healthy recipes that can be made in next to no time with a bit of thought.

Mr_Singleton

Edwardia wrote: »

Saving money is good, we should all do that. But treating our bodies like a dustbin won't keep us healthy long-term. Fact.

Absolutely, well said!!!!