Please talk me out of going back to ready meals

Fusspot

Thanks for all your replies, all helpful. I've decided that I need to balance it more than anything else. I don't want to have ready meals every single day but realise I don't have to discount them altogether.

I realise now that chicken for me in the slow cooker isn't going to work so for chicken I will have Birds Eye chargrills or ready cooked chicken pieces. For soup I definatly prefer my home made butternut squash soup. I bought some fresh soup in a carton from M&S yesterday for quickness but it didn't taste as nice as the homemade so that I will do in the SC. Mince I also don't mind done in the SC, I will split it and freeze it and use it for spag bol or shepherds pie. Veg I will have the Birds Eye steamed bags that I always have or ready made mash. In between this I will have fresh fish (as I prefer this to frozen) and jacket spuds or beans on toast. Sorted - I hope

arbrighton

was thinking about the thickness of your soup- can always add a bit more water/ stock/ milk to get it to go further.

It sounds like you've come up with a good compromise

suki1964

Fusspot wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies, all helpful. I've decided that I need to balance it more than anything else. I don't want to have ready meals every single day but realise I don't have to discount them altogether.

I realise now that chicken for me in the slow cooker isn't going to work so for chicken I will have Birds Eye chargrills or ready cooked chicken pieces. For soup I definatly prefer my home made butternut squash soup. I bought some fresh soup in a carton from M&S yesterday for quickness but it didn't taste as nice as the homemade so that I will do in the SC. Mince I also don't mind done in the SC, I will split it and freeze it and use it for spag bol or shepherds pie. Veg I will have the Birds Eye steamed bags that I always have or ready made mash. In between this I will have fresh fish (as I prefer this to frozen) and jacket spuds or beans on toast. Sorted - I hope

Just in tescos and spotted they had bags of sauces frozen for £1.50. Cheese sauce, carbarnara, tikka etc. Little cubes so you can pour out just enough. Might come in handy for you

MallyGirl

if you felt like having another go at chicken here's one we do that works.

chop an onion and pop in SC. Sit one chicken leg (quarter) on top of the inions, sprinkle with salt & pepper and smoked paprika (optional but we like it). Don't add any liquid as there will be enough in the legs. SC for the day on low. If we have any chorizo we pop some slices of that in, or peppers/mushrooms. Once cooked we throw away the skin as it has served its purpose and then serve the chicken with rice and steamed veg.

Meatballs work really well too - no need to pre brown. Just lay them out in SC, on a bed of onion if you fancy. If I am home I let the meatballs cook for a couple of hours before adding sauce but otherwise just add sauce at the start. We make homemade tomato sauce in bulk to use or cheat with a tub of Waitrose chilli and tomato pasta sauce.

PasturesNew

Fusspot wrote: »

Veg I will have the Birds Eye steamed bags that I always have or ready made mash.

Re the steamed bags. They're a con. If you compare the 1Kg bags of the frozen veg to the steamed bags you're paying through the nose for them to take the same vegetables and just sub-divide them and give you a bag.

You can use any bag as a steam bag, or even a vented microwave noodle bowl, or any microwave bowl with a lid on it and a dab of water.

Steamed bags is taking "convenience" a bit too far really, except when it's for a particular purpose and you're buying them regardless of the fact they're robbing you.

Making a random comparison, today, at Sainsbobs:

Birds Eye 1Kg bags of veg £2 for 690 grams;
BE steam bags of veg £2 for 540 grams.
They're robbing you of 150 grams of product each time.

Also, try other brands.... a pea's a pea most of the time.

carriebradshaw

I often use a mix of fresh & convenience foods to get a quick & easy meal on the table, for instance: chop up fresh chicken, spring onions & mushrooms, stir fry with tinned or frozen sweetcorn and instead of beansprouts as I can't get them here I will bulk out with half a pack of those instant noodles,very quick and tasty

purpleybat

i too dont like frozen pasta, I find it goes really mushy and not pleasant to eat at all.


one question tho.... have you had your slow cooker long?
I took a while getting my head around stocks in stews being strong enough cos theres no evaporation. there are lots of good slowcooker cookbooks now, maybe treat yourself to one from bookpeople or other budget site.
if you've been using it for years I apologise

Tiddlywinks

My aunt and uncle are fit and healthy '70 somethings' - still fully mobile, love to travel, always on the go etc.

They've been getting frozen meals from Wiltshire Farm Foods and absolutely love them.

It means they can go out and about and still have a great well balanced meal to come home to. No big shop to carry or to take up their time, lots of choice, starters, mains (even extra large ones for healthy appetites) and hot and cold desserts.... they can't recommend them enough.

In fact, they keep telling me to get some too and I've been tempted when I've seen their puds.

If the ready meals are well balanced and you can afford to buy that way then why not?

sixtiesgal_2

I live on my own and tend to eat ready meals most nights, is it really so bad for you? Its just much quicker and easier than cooking from scratch every night when I get home, I work full time. Surely if these meals were so bad for you people wouldn't buy them and sales would go down.

MandM90

As well as being much more expensive, they tend to be higher in salt, fats and sugars than their homemade equivalents. I also find the cheaper ones contain lots of synthetic ingredients. Whether you're happy eating them or not is down to you, but should you want to make a change there are plenty of tips around here for you

I work long hours, and one of my pleasures is to come home and find dinner bubbling away in my slow cooker. I chuck it all in, in the morning, and come home to a hot meal.

If you have freezer space you might also want to think about cooking every three/four nights, and freeze remaining portions (just remember to label them, freezer roulette is not everyone's favourite game) until you've built up a stock of homemade, cheap "ready meals". Others like to "bulk cook" once every fortnight/month and do it all at once, perhaps with a movie/album playing in the kitchen and a cheeky glass of wine to reward yourself for your hard work

Ultimately, it's your choice. When cooking for one, the savings between homemade and bought in might be more marginal, but can we really put a price on our health?