Wean me from my ready meals please!

Lucie_2

lynzpower wrote: »

best thing to do is to think about what sort of things you buy, and what sort of thing youd like to make at home?

Exactly what I was going to say!
Give us a list of those ready meals you buy, and we can help you make your own version of it.
Another good start is to list everything you like meals-wise and go from there.

alyth

Apologies for not replying back sooner, I only come onto to MSE for a little while each night!

The frozen meat problem is that, for example, I wouldn't buy chicken or beef raw and then put it in the freezer to defrost and cook at a later date - I just don't like the taste of it, I prefer to buy and eat it fresh as it were. I only ever really keep frozen veg and berries in the freezer. What we tend to eat is things like lasagna, chicken in sauces, cumberland pie, etc from M&S, and then at the weekends I'll cook leg of lamb, sirloin, etc. if there's meat left from the roast we have it cold the following day. The slow cooker is a great idea for chicken, and I actually have an electric wok which I was given, so I'll dig that out and try and use it a bit more. Thanks for the cookery book idea thriftlady, I'll look for in the library.

In a nutshell I really don't enjoy cooking and the ready-meals are a total cop-out, but I am aware that home cooking is so much better for you, and hopefully if I can learn to cook something more than roasts then perhaps it won't seem so much like a chore! We re-did our kitchen and used to have a fantastic big freezer and I did batch cook, but unfortunately we have a stupid little freezer now and I don't have the space for another freezer. I'm off on holiday this week so will think about it whilst I'm away and hopefully come back inspired!

odds-n-sods

But frozen meat doesn't taste any different...... texture might have changed slightly. And if you really want to cut down your grocery bill, reduced meat etc. is great for that - but you'd need to freeze it, unless you want to go grocery shopping every few days. But then odds are you'd spend more on impulse things.

krispyg76

You need to stop shopping at M&S for starters!

Chicken breast fillets
garden peas (tinned, small)
sweetcorn (froze/tinned)
boiled white rice
Groundnut oil
5 spice powder
Soy sauce

Bang all of that in a deep wok, brown the chicken first, add the boiled rice then the sweetcorn and peas, splash in some soy and 5 spice

Rice Mudge

Seriously, it is so tasty and filling.

If your broke, swap chicken for turkey

moanymoany

Alyth, do I sniff a leg-pull here? Loadsamoney, M & S ready meals, roast sirloin or leg of lamb, freezer full of berries! :rolleyes:

alyth

not at all! I was merely looking for advice on how to cook meals similar to the ready meals I buy! I admit I'm not on a budget and money is not an issue, the issue was to get advice from people on this website who can cook, unlike me who can neither cook nor enjoys it. I appreciate the advice given, especially the slow cooker option, and will look into one when I come back from holiday.

ceridwen

Hi alyth

One can still spend plenty of money on food - even if not using readymeals. I'm an avid experimenter myself - food is definitely one of the pleasures of life - the only reliable one I would say (answers on a postcard please in the "guess ceridwens weight" competition) - seriously though, I am not the size of a house (though I do have to diet intermittently to ensure that).

I recommend reading student cookbooks - in that they start from the premise that one doesnt have much money for food (okay, not a problem in this case - but still), want interesting food, its got to be quickly-prepared and it needs to be in reasonable-size portions. Most of these recipes will be for one person - but one can multiply quantities more readily than one can divide (personally I tend to get a bit "lost" with the type of cookbook that specifies quantities for 4 people and requires 1 egg for instance or, even worse, 2 eggwhites - I'm then wondering what I am supposed to be doing with the rest of the egg).

Try:

"Grub on a Grant" - Cas Clarke
"Beyond Baked Beans Budget" - Fiona Beckett

Theres usually about half a dozen student cookbooks in any reasonable bookshop - the ones I've quoted are reasonable-level ones (rather than umpteen variations on a can of baked beans type recipes).

I endorse the "Real Fast Food" book suggestion made earlier - Nigel Slater. He has also done "Real Fast Puddings". Both NICE!!

I nearly forgot - THE! single best student cookbook ever "The Really Useful Vegetarian Student Cookbook" - by Silvana Franco (a very scrawled-over, stained book in my collection). Another good general cookbook "Invitation to mediterranean cooking" by Claudia Roden.

alyth

Thanks ceridwen for the helpful book information, I'll look out for them. food is a means of fuel to me unfortunately, I'm not interested in it, but I feel it's something I need to take more of an interest in - I eat extremely healthily and only eat fruit & veg during the day and when I come home from work the last thing I want to do is stand cooking, but I'd like to eat as you say something more interesting than chicken in sauce!

buxtonrabbitgreen

I can see your point alyth. When I lived on my own I simply didn't bother cooking, I saw food as fuel, still do to a certain extent. I think sometimes it is having to cater for a family that gets you onto cooking as ready meals etc then become too expensive. If I didn't have to cook for 4 all the time it would be scrambled egg, jacket potato, or cheese on toast.
I know what you mean about the texture of frozen meat but mince is ok if it has been frozen and there are lots of meals you can make from that. Also if you like stew, make a really big pot and it is even better the next day kept in the fridge, but strangly disgusting if it is frozen then de frosted. good luck.

krispyg76

Invest in some good cook books,thats better than paying out on ready meals

Food is not cheap and people have had it good for years, budegt this, value that but the majority of it is crap let's be honest.

Cooking, getting off your backside and getting ingrediants and making something is so worthwhile

Todays dinner was

Bratwurst Sausage (6 for £1.59)
Tinned tomatoes (already had them)
Half an onion (I had 1 left so used that)
Clove of garlic (used Really Lazy Garlic from a jar, 1 teaspoon)
Dried sage (from my herb/spice cupboard)
Salt/pepper
Crusty bread (32p for a half baguette)
Mustard (60p for a jar of Dijon)

So for just over £2.50 I had 6 sausages cooked and grilled with a gorgeous tomato relish and big fat wedges of bread to mop up the sauce

This is why ready meals do not work!

If you cook I will be honest, the initial outlay on herbs and spices is awful, we spent £120 last year just on herbs and spices to do dinners, curries etc But buy growing herbs, plant them in a grow bag or a window box, we are growing coriander and it smells beautiful and I have fresh coriander whenever i want it.

A homemade meal is the best thing ever and without going mad over budget this last week we have done :

Bratwurst sausage with tomato and sage
Thai Green Curry
Chicken Curry
chicken tagine (Morroccan)
Sausage and mash

And get people involved, get them doing a bit to help out, it involves doing a bit but the end product, the meal is worth it and you and the work you have done has made what is in front of you.

This is a subject I feel so passionatly about, I detest ready meals, they are there for when you really can not have time to cook but they are not a meal replacement.

Get cooking!!!!!! Serioulsy, if I can do it anyone can. I was crap in the kitchen, i'd start off doing something and abandon it halfway through but once you get the buzz about making what you eat you won't ever look back

Any recipes I make, plus what it cost I will put up on here