Ready Meals - More Energy Efficient/Economical?

Mstty

I suspect as your neighbours are elderly they have a great deal of knowledge in how to make things last, cooking batch large meals and generally being efficient with food and know how to cook things from scratch.

I cannot see how any decent tasting microwave meals could be beaten by all those years of experience even with the current energy costs.

Xbigman

But its not just about money. Supermarket ready meals are generally High Salt, High Fat or High Sugar. Sometimes all three. Just for the quality difference I'd spend the few pence it costs to home cook a meal.


Darren

Keep_pedalling

Eat lots of salads. 

maisie_cat

Ready meals are made from lower quality ingredients than you'd use from scratch. In the lasagna example above the bechamel and meat sauce would be even cheaper from scratch

Benny2020

Cheaper to buy in bulk, freeze what you Don't use straight away and cook from scratch.

BooJewels

I've thought about this lately myself and this was my thinking.  What I've always done with meals like lasagne - and even similar ready meals - is to split the difference - part cook in the microwave, then finish either under the grill, or in the oven. 

This is largely a time-saving and end result decision, not to save energy money - but I think that might be a small side benefit overall.  But I'm doing that anyway.

Dishes like lasagne can be cooked through to soft pasta in the microwave, then cheese added and popped in the oven, to have the oven baked finish that you don't get with microwave cooking.  I do this with baked potatoes, pasta dishes and the like too.  I regularly microwave something until it's hot, then oven cook - largely to save time.

Having said that, if I use my summer gas bills, when the heating is not on and therefore the gas is only used for the cooker and hot water - I average 16 m3 per month - even at the new prices (inc SC), that's 70p per day (was 44p) for all my hot water and cooking.  So even if I saved a bit on energy use in the oven - it's probably only pennies - and there's the corresponding increase in electricity use.  I wouldn't choose to eat ready meals in preference, just to save a few pennies. 

I'm not convinced that cooking is an area where much saving would be worth it - aside from obvious sensible tips, like putting lids on pans, using the right size pan on the right sized ring, not having flames up the side of the pan, better quality pans etc., so that you're not wasting energy - and another tip I've seen lately that I've started doing is if something just needs a couple more minutes, put the food back in and turn the oven off - there's enough heat still in the oven to carry on cooking a bit.

GunJack

Keep_pedalling said:

Eat lots of salads. 

don't you come on here swearing like that!!!!

Benny2020

Salad is not food.

ZolaBuddy

Thanks for the great and useful feedback, especially the BBC article regarding not always using the oven for cooking.
I will pass the information to my neighbours and let them digest the news. 
They only cook for themselves although they do have family round once or twice a month. They also have a slow cooker, so perhaps they might start cooking in bulk and freeze portions.

jimjames

Also bear in mind that most ready meals don't include veg so they would need to cook that separately anyway if having a balanced meal.