Ready meals/prepared food

Slinky

My MIL went down the M&S ready meals route as she was fed up cooking for 1. She's been doing this for a couple of years and recently ended up at the doctors having blood tests and found to have vitamin B12 deficiency and vitamin D deficiency. She now sees that she has to go back to preparing some of her own food again as they are not a full time substitute for proper eating.

scottish_lassy

I batch cook about once a month, on a Sunday, when Im around the house anyway. I make a number of dishes - mince, chillie, bolognaise (all which can go with pasta or baked potatoe). I also freeze portions of stir fries, curries etc.

Fish is always in my freezer as it is my 'go to' if I've forgotton to take something out of the freezer in the morning as it is really easy to cook from frozen.

I put 2 portions in each container and if I have to cook potatoes, I'll cook enough for 2 nights and just reheat in microwave the second. I find I get the food I like, can be imaginative with what I eat it with and I'm also not keen on salt, so pre-prepared is not the tastiest for me.

Just start by freezing leftovers from meals you do cook and find the balance that suits your life (and purse!)

purpleybat

Citygirl1 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I live alone and work full time and find myself eating a lot of ready meals and Birds Eye type frozen foods because its more convenient, especially the ready meals.

Someone at work says she batch cooks but that must take more time and not to mention washing up afterwards. Is this method really healthier and cheaper? Plenty of ready meals get sold so they must be some good.

I think it's a case of finding your own happy medium. i personally don't know anyone who relishes cooking most days.


I like to batch cook but I won't make a specific meal, what i'll do is if I want eg Bolognese i'll make a vat of it, eat what I want, keep some for the next day, and then portion and freeze the rest. then I have the options of what I want to do with it... lasagne, spag bol, potato type moussaka, chilli etc. no extra washing up as was making it anyway.
i find it handy that if i see something like peppers, onions etc on a special offer, to prep and freeze them in an old bread bag. then if i want jambalaya or something all the prep is done and it can simmer as i have a shower. washing up.... one knife and a board.
as a lot of recipes come in 'serves 4' i do often have curry duplicates in the freezer until I've tweeked the recipe, but often i like them and end up keeping cooking the 4 portions.


i see it as no bad thing to have some convenience type food knocking about, breaded things, a ready meal or two, frozen chips etc. but as i said its down to how you want to live.
i find most really salty so prefer to buy a pack of chicken breasts and crumb them and freeze separately, spud wedges take 2 mins to chop and bung in oven etc etc.
also when buying bigger packs of fresh sausages, chops etc portion them before you freeze them, pop into the fridge in the morning and they'll be ready to cook when home.


the advice i would give tho before you consider batch cooking is to save lots of old margarine tubs to freeze your homemade goodies in. and while i don't mind ufos and find them amusing lots get frustrated, so you might want to label them

determined_new_ms

I mostly cook - as I enjoy it, think I'm good at it, and like to keep my gc costs as low as possible. However I love the skinny kitchen ready meals but they are quite expensive so I only get them if I see them ys and freeze

Prinzessilein

I think the main thing is to find what works for you.

It is easy to say that home cooked is better than ready meals...but it really depends on WHAT you are home cooking...if the extent of your home cooking was deep-frying chicken and chips (or similar) 7 nights a week, 52 weeks a year, you could claim you cooked from scratch every evening, but it wouldn't be the healthiest of diets!

Equally home cooking only works if you will actually eat what you have cooked!...I have seen cookery classes where students are taught to cook 'healthy' meals...a nice veggie pasta bake for example...which 90% of the class tipped into the bin on the way home - because neither they nor their family would eat that sort of meal!

Personally, I enjoy cooking - and time is not an issue (good thing as disability means it takes me more than twice as long to prepare food!)...but that doesn't mean that you won't find some breaded chicken pieces...and some good quality (venison) sausages in my freezer...and if I cook them with some steamed greens then I will tell you it is home-cooked!

Soup is quick and easy to make - slow cooker or soupmaker...cheaper and tastier than any tinned or packet variety.

I defy any curry take-away place to beat my curries! (And my Mum's)...for price and flavour mine win hands down....and a slowcooker means I can prep in the morning and eat in the evening (cook four portions...eat one, freeze 3 - my own 'ready meals')......but I DO buy naans if I want one with the curry.

Since buying my Halo oven I have never bought frozen chips...I can have low/no fat chips in 20 minutes with my Halo!

jackyann

I do batch cooking on a Saturday afternoon - put the afternoon drama on the radio, or tune the kitchen TV to rugby or horse racing - which I like to follow but not solemnly sit and watch.

Tink_04

I love batch cooking as I have health issues and it means I can give my family a home cooked meal every night and know what's in in.

I cook
Bolognaise and just cook the pasta on the day
Chilli and cook the rice on the day
Curry cook the rice on the day
Shepherds pie and top with left over mash from the day befores meal
Sausage casserole and soup in the slow cooker make a huge batch and they freeze well!

It all depends on if you eat this type of foods - look at the meals your eating and try to replace one and see how you feel having a home made version?

Oh and get some good tubs too!

maman

queengoth wrote: »

Round 3 is to cut and parboil the remaining spuds into chips so I have my own ready oven chips.

Hope this gives you some ideas

Hope you don't mind me asking but do you have a 'recipe'? I make my own oven chips but always start from scratch on the day. Do you freeze yours? At what stage? Parboil first? Oil? Seasoning?

queengoth

Nope no recipe, just spuds skins left on cut into chips. Par boil until they just start to go soft then out of the water, drained, then straight into freezer. I have tried the slimming world version where they are boiled in a stock cube but to be honest I can't taste the difference. I do cook them on a tray with holes in (don't know the correct name) so they get the heat from underneath. No oil, makes chips that are soft in the middle and crispy outside. I don't see why you couldn't flavour them? I would add the spices while they were hot before they go in freezer.
I also leave the skins on for mash, life's too short to peel spuds.

maman

queengoth wrote: »

Nope no recipe, just spuds skins left on cut into chips. Par boil until they just start to go soft then out of the water, drained, then straight into freezer. I have tried the slimming world version where they are boiled in a stock cube but to be honest I can't taste the difference. I do cook them on a tray with holes in (don't know the correct name) so they get the heat from underneath. No oil, makes chips that are soft in the middle and crispy outside. I don't see why you couldn't flavour them? I would add the spices while they were hot before they go in freezer.
I also leave the skins on for mash, life's too short to peel spuds.

Thanks so much for that. I'll give it a go. Would that be about 30 minutes at 200 degrees?