Parsley Box meals 7 November 2022 at 8:39PM edited 7 November 2022 at 8:40PM in Old style MoneySaving 22 replies 2.2K views

Blue_Doggy

Does anyone use these? Are they any good?
 

I’m looking for a quick meal option for times like today, when I’ve got home from a lovely meeting with friends but exhausted, needing to eat but too done in to start cooking.
 

I have various ready meals in the freezer, but veg prep is too much. It took three glasses of wine to be able to take a portion of yesterday’s casserole out of the fridge to reheat and to slice up some cabbage to add to it.
 

Although I was finding meeting up with friends very tiring before the lockdowns, it’s much worse now.
I don’t want to end up on the “just a sandwich” part of the spectrum, but am beginning to understand how older people find themselves living on tea and biscuits.
 

I need something hot (microwaveable or Remoskable), nutritious, and very easy. An alcoholic starter is very much *not* the way I want to go. Any ideas? Ideally some sort of ready meal which includes veg. I’ve always cooked from scratch, hardly ever used ready meals or takeaways, so really don’t know what’s around.

bouicca21

When I was stuck with no cooker i bought in frozen meals from Cook.  Nicer than a takeaway, or supermarket ready meal, as good as I can cook itself. They do a few one pot type meals that would seem to fit what OP wants.  And they deliver.  But not cheap.

ZsaZsa

Do you tend to know what meals you’re having in advance? If you’re grabbing a pre batch cooked meal from the freezer/ eating last nights leftovers etc and it’s just the veg prep that’s a slog could you plan a few days worth of veg, prep in one go and leave in a bowl of water in the fridge? 

Farway

I've used them, bought a trial pack for just in case lockdown etc. I was able to pick & mix a bit within the pack, swap "free wine" for a pud for instance

Came with very long shelf life, still in date now & that was back in Feb. The meals are on the small side but OK for me and I found them tasty enough, on par with ready-made anywhere I guess, but I've not tried Cooks yet, there are some YouTube vids showing them to give you an idea of Parsley Box portions

I've found the Mark's RM good, but not cheap of course

For veg prep have you considered frozen, not ideal and not the same as fresh I know but sometimes, like frozen peas or sweetcorn, can be better & far easier unless growing your own

-taff

And what about using a food processor or chopper to prepare the veg? Is there anyone you know you can ask to prepare some for you and put it in the fridge? They do sell ready chopped veg in sm's, and mash etc, they are more expensive but they are useful.

Blue_Doggy

Thank you for suggestions, especially @Farway for the review of Parsley Box.  @bouicca21 thank you for the suggestion of Cook meals, my local Co-op sells them. As you say, on the dear side, and look as though they’d need a veg side dish, but maybe I’ll buy a couple to have in hand, as well as ordering a trial assortment of Parsley Box.

 

I should have plated up a meal before I went out, but when I got back I was so done even switching the kettle on for tea, and organising tea bag and milk was too much. Easiest to unscrew a wine bottle 😟. I have frozen home made ready meals, and frozen chopped veg as well as fresh unprepared, but just the thought of getting them out, defrosting and putting a meal together defeated me. 

 

Thank you all for your suggestions, some useful ideas. @-taff, sadly no-one to prepare veg for me 😢 and the dog isn’t allowed to use knives. I think I’ll just have to get properly organised with plating up before going out.

Martin_the_Unjust

We’ve tried them, got 5 I think when they were on special offer, we thought they would be good to use in the caravan.

We had two, second one was just to confirm how bad they were, and threw the rest in the bin.

-taff

Your frozen ready meals, can some of them be put in a slow cooker ready for when you get home?

bouicca21

A friend gets Cook regularly and yes, he adds veg.  But you can get one pot meals with no need to prep anything. https://www.cookfood.net/menu/main-meals/healthy-ready-meals/pots-for-one

 Didn’t know the co-op did them, we actually have a more or less local shop.  You can also order online.

Blue_Doggy

Sadly no slow cooker, only standard oven/hob, microwave and (recently acquired) Remoska. Not much room in kitchen for more kit, remoska lives on the back of the hob, and travels to the draining board when I want to use the hob. Frozen meals though can be plated and put into (switched off) microwave before I go out so should be at least partly thawed, to be reheated later.

poppy811

Martin_the_Unjust said:

We’ve tried them, got 5 I think when they were on special offer, we thought they would be good to use in the caravan.

We had two, second one was just to confirm how bad they were, and threw the rest in the bin.

You must be well off to bin them.why not eat and not reorder?  After three glasses of wine of course cooking from scratch is daunting
of course I am expecting negative comments but I genuinely could not afford to bin food