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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:
Titsywoo · 23/10/2021 11:21

What is considered a ready meal though? For example we really like Asian food and there is a Korean dish called Galbi Jim which buy ready made (ribs pre-marinaded etc i just add the sauce and oven bake) but I cook rice and fresh veg myself. I often do that sort of thing where part of the meal is 'ready to cook'. Actually microwave meals like lasagne I never eat as most are awful.

minimecantrollerskate · 23/10/2021 11:31

They aren't all "vile mush". One of our favourites is a fresh roast beef or chicken dinner, from Tesco, costs nearly £4 and is carrots, peas, meat and roast potatoes. Nothing vile or mushy about it, and a nice treat after a long day.

I also love to do a proper roast dinner with fresh ingredients, but don't have the time to do that every night.

Threads like this really bring out the judgemental people don't they. Why can't people accept that we all like different things and all have different lifestyles and different budgets.

On a busy day I can chuck a ready meal in the oven for half an hour and get another half an hours work in. It is necessary on the odd occasion when deadlines are looming.

We rarely have takeaways but I don't criticise people who do.

I made all my DD's baby food when she was little and she loved pureed fruit and veg. Now I can't get her near anything green!

I make my own soup every week, but also love tomato out of a tin, it just depends on my mood and the time available.

Each to their own.

AlfonsoTheDinosaur · 23/10/2021 11:35

@minimecantrollerskate

They aren't all "vile mush". One of our favourites is a fresh roast beef or chicken dinner, from Tesco, costs nearly £4 and is carrots, peas, meat and roast potatoes. Nothing vile or mushy about it, and a nice treat after a long day.

I also love to do a proper roast dinner with fresh ingredients, but don't have the time to do that every night.

Threads like this really bring out the judgemental people don't they. Why can't people accept that we all like different things and all have different lifestyles and different budgets.

On a busy day I can chuck a ready meal in the oven for half an hour and get another half an hours work in. It is necessary on the odd occasion when deadlines are looming.

We rarely have takeaways but I don't criticise people who do.

I made all my DD's baby food when she was little and she loved pureed fruit and veg. Now I can't get her near anything green!

I make my own soup every week, but also love tomato out of a tin, it just depends on my mood and the time available.

Each to their own.

Interesting points.

I don't eat ready meals because I associate them with being microwaved and I don't like using microwaves.

I will happily eat frozen pizza and boxed macaroni and cheese.

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General food Weight management
julieca · 23/10/2021 13:44

@BigButtons

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.
A big salad takes more time to prepare than just cooking a simple meal.
merryhouse · 23/10/2021 15:15

julieca - takes me ten minutes to prepare my lunchtime salad.

julieca · 23/10/2021 15:23

@merryhouse takes me less time to chuck chicken breasts in the oven and put some broccoli in a pan.
I never see a nice salad as a quick option.

PaperMonster · 23/10/2021 15:40

A couple of times a month. OH bought me a curry for this evening, hurrah! Usually they come with rice, which I don’t eat so am happy!

GenderApostatemk2 · 23/10/2021 16:48

Iceland slow cooked cottage pie is bloody lovely, nicer than homemade, nicer then any I’ve ever tasted. I wish they did a family sized one.
I was also impressed by Tesco’s fresh large fish pie, I did add some salmon and prawns to it though.
I detest cooking and only ever really do a roast dinner, I have a fairly restricted diet so finding things I actually enjoy and don’t upset me is brilliant.

Biscoffee · 23/10/2021 17:53

@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!
I think you’ve not understood that it’s not what you’ve said it’s how you’ve said it.

Also, I’m really sorry to tell you that cooking and baking from scratch is the norm for many people, so normal in fact that they don’t make a song and dance about it the way you do. It’s just what they do.

And as for your baby never having anything out of a pouch - again she’s not alone in that.

Your baby is young. She’s young enough for you to get over yourself before she goes to school and you make a numpty of yourselves in the playground with your unfortunate manner.

Biscoffee · 23/10/2021 17:56

One of our favourites is a fresh roast beef or chicken dinner, from Tesco, costs nearly £4 and is carrots, peas, meat and roast potatoes. Nothing vile or mushy about it, and a nice treat after a long day

I like a cooked chicken from Tesco when I’m in the Uk and I don’t consider it a ready meal because it doesn’t come in a plastic treat with a cellophane wrap. We have it if we’ve been out fir the day with salad and garlic bread. Yum yum.

bicyclesaredeathtraps · 23/10/2021 17:57

@Sxxyfing I don't think it's "poor choices" that have lead me to eat what you call "junk", it's disability and illness and pain. And even if it wasn't, why be so judgemental? Making your own food from scratch every time doesn't make you a better person, any more than it makes me a better person when I do have the energy to cook.

Agadorsparticus · 23/10/2021 17:59

Very rarely. I'm partial to a fish pie because no one else likes them so I'll get one now and again just for me.
I buy ready made pies and lasagne, they could be classed as ready meals.

maddy68 · 23/10/2021 18:00

Used to when I lived in the UK. They just don't exist in my adopted country.

LolaSmiles · 23/10/2021 18:03

I occasionally have them but find the quality very mixed. M&S do some nice ones and they were a life saver when I went back to work after maternity leave.

I don't like to eat them regularly due to salt and fat content though.

shinynewapple21 · 23/10/2021 18:14

Yes.
We have frozen pizza and I buy some meat products ready made for DH as he doesn't cook and I don't eat them - so things like steak and ale pie or chilli . I'm happy to make a casserole as it does itself in the slow cooker .
The other thing I buy is birds eye fish portions with a flavoured butter on them - they come in a little sachet you microwave (not the boil in bag ones !) I think they are really nice . I do them with fresh veg .

We also have things like burgers/veggie burgers .

ducksalive · 23/10/2021 18:25

I agree with @Biscoffee my dc had a very baby led weaning approach with everything home cooked to keep salt low.
One dc is currently allergic to anything with chlorophyll in it but is excellent at drinking water, the other is actually working hard on having a balanced approach to treats, snacks and meals but has to prodded to drink water.

One person's poor choice is another person's balanced approach to life.
It very sanctimonious to call other people's approaches to food poor choices.

You can always tell the kids with very anti sugar, anti fizzy drinks at parties because they are the ones going nuts for it all.

shinynewapple21 · 23/10/2021 18:40

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 you sound very naive to be honest. All this looking down on people and professing what you will or won't do regarding feeding your DC who is just 14 months old GrinGrin
You have absolutely no clue what direction your life may take in the next 15 years .

OhWhyNot · 23/10/2021 18:48

I home cooked ds food usually he had what i was having

He is now a teenager and he absolutely loves fast food the cheaper the better he and his friends often go to KFC or Morley’s after school and I’m quite certain they are not having salad as the side

I don’t make a fuss he eats enough good food but he likes not so good food too it’s really not an issue

Poorlymum0 · 23/10/2021 19:49

God, threads like this do irritate me when posters are like "ohhhhhh I'd never dream of serving my family a ready meal, we only dine on boar tartar with charred asparagus with seacress and shavings of truffle every evening" turning their noses up with their sanctimonious bs. How do you even know what is going on in a family's house that leads them to having a ready meal once in a while.
It could be an exhausted mother who doesn't have the energy to make a full on meal from scratch, a widow who has nobody else to cook for and finds it easier to bung a tray in the microwave, or a couple who work 13 hour days and get home at god forsaken o'clock and it's just easier to throw it in the microwave and wait for ping..
There's no judgement if you eat a microwave ready meal every once in a while.

Bouledeneige · 23/10/2021 19:49

Yes 2 or 3 times a month. Usually Charlie Bighams.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 23/10/2021 20:25

There's no judgement if you eat a microwave ready meal every once in a while

Theres selective snobbery at play here too

M&S, Charlie Bingham, Cook - I'm just desperate for a treat at the end of the working week

All other stores - inedible swill I wouldn't feed to the family pig.

Tumbleweed101 · 24/10/2021 10:22

Occasionally, if all my children are out on the same evening. It's a treat not to have to cook and clear up after a day at work but usually easier just to cook if they are all home.

godmum56 · 24/10/2021 12:05

@expatmigrant

M&S lasagne maybe every couple of weeks. DH likes the occasional PUKKA pie. Apart from that we cook from scratch, take-away at weekend and eat out.
and when you eat out, do you KNOW that the food you eat out is cooked from scratch?
MilduraS · 24/10/2021 12:16

I don't eat microwave ready meals but used to as a teen and remember them being very mushy and tasteless (I was a vegetarian so we're talking mushy "vegetable" lasagne that was 50% tasteless white sauce and 10% overcooked veg). I do eat pre-prepared things like a shop bought tortilla, couscous or pasta salad pots, shop bought pies etc. I also secretly love those packets of cheese and broccoli pasta with powder that you add milk to.

icedcoffees · 24/10/2021 12:44

These threads always bring out the judgy posters who think they're somehow better than everyone else because they make their pasta from scratch Hmm

Cooking from scratch requires knowledge, equipment, money and time, and many people don't have those things.

A ready meal requires a microwave and five minutes of your time - that's it. You don't knowledge of how to cook the food, the time to buy the fresh food and prepare it, the equipment to cook it with etc.

If you have the time, the money, the equipment and the knowledge to cook from scratch every single meal, you're very fortunate imo.

I have ready meals a couple of times a week as I regularly work 6-7 hour days with no time to stop for lunch, so I get home, put a ready meal in the microwave and it's ready to eat by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed again.