Alternatives to takeaway?

[losenotloose]

We get a takeaway about once a week. They are expensive, unhealthy and often disappointing. What can we do instead? I'd like something that feels like a treat with minimum effort as I cook from scratch every other night of the week! Any ideas most welcome

I'm enjoying gousto. You're still cooking but there isn't the mental load aspect.

Gousto or similar style of recipe boxes
Or get posh ready meals like Charlie Binghams so you can shove in the oven and leave
Cook do some nice meals although I find them pricey

Not sure these entirely fit the bill but either

• steak and salad: a bit treaty but minimal on the cooking, still probably cheaper than takeaway

• beans on toast: this is a popular weekly thing in our house and takes the cooking pressure off!

Charlie Bingham meal are delicious, not cheap and not that healthy. No worse than takeaways though!

Does it have to be hot? If not cheese board with pickles, olives, crackers or nice bread.
If you want more of a hot meal how about fresh linguine with crab, chilli, cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley. Delicious and takes 4 minutes!

A sharing platter/cheese board type thing.

Cheese salami deli stuff, crackers etc and bread. Dump it on a tray and help yourselves throughout the evening

Would be a treat for me anyway!

Or a baked Camembert and bread

Or if you are into meat most butchers do really good readymade kebabs/ hunters chicken etc that are oven ready

Salt and pepper chicken from pinch of nom. Take a few mins to prepare but are delicious (nicer than takeaway imo) and can be frozen so you could make double and freeze for an easy night in the future

Home made pizza with pre made dough, roll out, add toppings and done

Or M&S dine in - good range indian, thai etc

Asda make your own pizzas are a fave here. 2 pizzas and a bottle of fizzy for £5. Easy and the kids prefer them to dominoes. But not exactly healthy.

Muscles with either a garlic and white wine sauce or a tomato based one with hot crusty bread

Melted Camembert with hot crusty bread

Those ‘take away for 2’ kits from super markets

A baked Camembert oven cooked with garlic, rosemary and honey, with bread, veg sticks etc to dip. Bit of charcuterie and olives on the side.

Always much more enjoyable than a take away and almost 0 prep, cooking or clearing.

Also baked Camembert, but only in the winter. It seems weird to me to have it in the summer. 🤷‍♀️

I like co-op ready meals e.g. sweet and sour chicken and rice. The trick is to go around 6pm when they are marking them down - they taste nicer when they are half-price in my opinion! I assume other supermarkets are similar, its just I'm closest to a this one.

We like Spice Tailor curry kits. We do a couple (one curry and one daal) with rice and a naan bread. It feels like a takeaway but is much cheaper and only takes 20mins. Feels like a proper treat on a Friday night.

Our local (amazing) curry place does frozen curries. We keep them in the freezer as our treat night meal. We spend about 1/4 of the money this way and also don't overeat.

Google fakeaway recipes

Can anyone else cook for 1 night a week (or more) in your house?

We buy the Crosta & Mollica sourdough pizza bases from Sainsbury's, they already have the tomato sauce on them, and then top them ourselves with whatever we fancy. Last night's for me was prosciutto, olives, chestnut mushrooms and mozzarella. Takes minutes and so much better than a takeaway pizza and everyone can have what they like.

What takeaway do you get?

Some supermarket pizzas are really good, find the right one and it's easy treaty food at a fraction of the price. Same for curries. Chinese is harder, I don't think it's as easy to replicate and prepare in advance.

Or something like prawns and/scallops cooked in garlic oil with nice bread. Takes 2 minutes, no effort, completely delicious.

YY to Crosta Mollica pizzas, by far the best supermarket ones.

Maybe a supermarket / M&S meal deal.

Fresh bread with cheese, charcuterie, or pâté ?

A rôtisserie chicken ?

Batch cook the majority of your meals. ‘Takeaways’ then become pot luck from the freezer via a he microwave.

Great thread. Watching with interest

What about a local chef? I have an old friend that organises a supper club as well as a weekly meal with options for vegetarian/vegans etc and her food is divine. She delivers the meals.

Leigh on Sea based.

Second Gousto! Gave us some inspiration for new meals after making the same week after week