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Original poster

Do you ever eat ready meals?

241 replies

Stevieknicks80 · 22/10/2021 12:36

Inspired by my lunch, just tucking into a weight watchers chicken lasagne that is delicious..
I rarely eat ready meals but the weight watchers range is quite tasty.
Do you eat ready meals and how often?

OP posts:
Sxxyfing · 22/10/2021 22:44

That's so gross I'm sorry!!!!! Really honestly disgusting. I wouldn't and I certainly wouldn't feed anything in a packet to my children either

Sxxyfing · 22/10/2021 22:46

Genuinely shocked by how many people on here do!!+

Hodgehog · 22/10/2021 22:50

I’m just curious Sxxyfing but what exactly do you eat ?

Can you honestly say you’ve never had a take out - an Indian/fish and chips ? A chocolate bar ? A cupasoup?

You’ve only ever eaten entirely fresh unproved food ?

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Biscoffee · 22/10/2021 22:53

@Sxxyfing

That's so gross I'm sorry!!!!! Really honestly disgusting. I wouldn't and I certainly wouldn't feed anything in a packet to my children either
Good for you. But it may just help to remember that tomorrow is another day and no one knows what it will bring.
Judystilldreamsofhorses · 22/10/2021 22:54

Laughing at pp saying a ready meal is “gross” and “disgusting”. Maybe having them for lunch and dinner seven days a week would be problematic, but most people on the thread are saying they have the odd night as a treat/when they’re in a rush.

Just to be even more shocking and gross, we often have things like stuffed pasta, shop bought quiche, and have even (often) been known to use a sauce from a jar.

ducksalive · 22/10/2021 23:25

I certainly wouldn't feed anything in a packet to my children either

My dm had this kind of sanctimonious attitude.

I stole change from home to buy sweets as a kid.

As a teen I spent money meant for school uniform on Burger Kings.

Junk food has the same allure for me that crack has for some others. An illicit and highly appealing thing to feel guilty about.

Despite my dm's messed up attitude to food I actually am quite balanced about it but it took some work to get to that place.

MouseholeCat · 22/10/2021 23:31

Now I live in the US, no- they are all absolutely vile here.

Back home, occasionally we would. We were really partial to a bog standard Sainsbury's indian when we were tired on a Friday evening or a Waitrose pizza.

Leahsadoudi · 22/10/2021 23:37

Really recommend Aldi shepherds pie 😀

LawnFever · 22/10/2021 23:38

Can’t remember the last time I had a frozen/refrigerated in a tray ready meal, I just don’t really like them and have always found any I’ve tried pretty tasteless.

If I can’t be bothered to cook a big meal I’ll have toast or pasta & sauce, still as quick I reckon.

Sxxyfing · 22/10/2021 23:56

Would occasionally eat crisps and chocolate as a treat but anything i can make myself I do. I don't buy anything that has ingredients I don't know what they are, maybe that's considered an eating disorder but anything made in a factory is junk in my eyes, why would I buy ready made pasta sauce/bread/soup when i could make it myself in less than an hour?
Yes I occasionally have a takeaway but very rarely and don't often enjoy it and prefer cooking at home to eating out as I like to know what goes into my food. I've travelled the world for 8 years and enjoy cooking. If this offends people I'm sorry but I think it's due to your own poor choices! My child is 14 months and has never had to eat a pouch or pre prepared snack, she just eats home made food and I'll teach her to bake and cook and I don't think it's a bad thing!

Sxxyfing · 22/10/2021 23:59

@Hodgehog literally homemade food?
Porridge or toast or eggs for breakfast, sandwich or salad for lunch, meat/pasta/stew/curry for dinner....
I bake / cook everything and enjoy doing it. I don't find it sanctimonious @ducksalive lol just to want to eat home cooked meals that aren't processed and @Biscoffee I can't see a financial change where I'd ever be better off eating ready meals as its so much cheaper to cook myself and using mostly organic ingredients too.

Sxxyfing · 23/10/2021 00:02

I didn't realise cooking was a lost art and people don't find meat or food treated in preservatives and stored in plastic vile .........

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 23/10/2021 00:05

@Sxxyfing I think most posters on this thread do cook - more that sometimes they are tired from work, kids, life, and choose not to. By your standards we actually eat loads of “vile” food in this house, like shop-bought bread. No-one’s dead though.

Sxxyfing · 23/10/2021 00:11

@Judystilldreamsofhorses I feel the same, tired and exhausted by life but find the time to make good quality food as its a priority for me and my family. Others have different priorities and that's fine. Shop brought bread isn't going to kill you but many other ingredients over time will

julieca · 23/10/2021 00:14

Sounds like a form of eating disorder to me.

Shadedog · 23/10/2021 00:17

Not had a microwave ready meal since before I was married, so over 20 years. They aren’t a great way of feeding a family and if I’m eating alone and there isn’t leftovers of whatever other people have had then there is other convenience food I prefer (toast, chiefly) . I probably would if I was single of if just DH and l but you could make a cottage pie in the time it takes to microwave 6 individual cottage pies.

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 23/10/2021 00:36

@Sxxyfing well, you are a GOOD PERSON. If I thought about every ingredient in my food and whether it might eventually kill me, I probably wouldn’t have head space to do my job, so we wouldn’t have much food at all.

SmellyOldOwls · 23/10/2021 04:07

@Pebbledashery

I was of the understanding a ready meal was a an affair of mush in a plastic tray...
Yes. Horse mush in a plastic tray.
SmellyOldOwls · 23/10/2021 04:23

@Sxxyfing

Would occasionally eat crisps and chocolate as a treat but anything i can make myself I do. I don't buy anything that has ingredients I don't know what they are, maybe that's considered an eating disorder but anything made in a factory is junk in my eyes, why would I buy ready made pasta sauce/bread/soup when i could make it myself in less than an hour? Yes I occasionally have a takeaway but very rarely and don't often enjoy it and prefer cooking at home to eating out as I like to know what goes into my food. I've travelled the world for 8 years and enjoy cooking. If this offends people I'm sorry but I think it's due to your own poor choices! My child is 14 months and has never had to eat a pouch or pre prepared snack, she just eats home made food and I'll teach her to bake and cook and I don't think it's a bad thing!

Please do update us in a few years and let us know how your baby is enjoying your home made pasta sauce Grin

Industrialwash · 23/10/2021 07:36

@Stevieknicks80

Inspired by my lunch, just tucking into a weight watchers chicken lasagne that is delicious.. I rarely eat ready meals but the weight watchers range is quite tasty. Do you eat ready meals and how often?
I do occasionally, but only 'posh' ones I can't imagine what synthetic crap WW meals have in them
antsinyourpanta · 23/10/2021 07:58

Its interesting because I never buy jars of pasta sauce because I think making my own is fairly quick, easy and tastes nicer. I bought one a while ago to save time and it smelled delicious but was disappointing to eat. The kids didn't like it and said it wasn't as nice as normal.
However I always buy jars of Thai curry sauce and for Indian curries because I'm not confident about making my own. I'm sure someone who was proficient at making either of those would think the jars weren't as good.
I like home made bread but it takes a long time to make and is stale after day 2. I'm sure I wouldn't have time to make it regularly.
I made pasta once and it was very time consuming and didn't work well so I'm happy to buy that too.

MarmiteyCrumpets · 23/10/2021 08:25

Twice a week on my busiest days, when by 5pm I'm such a zombie that I can barely remember my own name.

There are healthy(ish) ready meals around if you get the ones based on legumes and veg and chuck some extra veg on top before nuking, so I don't feel at all bad about it, especially as the alternative would probably be a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Chesneyhawkes1 · 23/10/2021 09:31

Yes. When I'm on lates and having my dinner at work I take one every day.

One of those nutritionally balanced ones. Some of them are quite nice.

I hate cooking anyway!

Capaz · 23/10/2021 10:01

Yes, I love to cook but sometimes I'm tired and cba. Love a good freezer ready meal, pizza and Mac and cheese being the ones most in rotation.

BigButtons · 23/10/2021 10:03

The occasional pizza other than that never. They all taste horrible, even posh ones. If I can’t be bothered to cook because it’s just me to feed then I make a big salad.

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