Are ready meals easier when you live on your own?

[pussinboots61]

I know ready meals are supposed to be unhealthy, even the 'healthy' ones. I live on my own, I work full time and have very little motivation to cook when I get home. I'll be the same when I retire as I will be out all the time.

I try to do quick healthy meals with short cuts, like breaded chicken in the air fryer and veg in the microwave and meals like that. I also batch cook and freeze but then I get fed up of all the pots once I've done the batch cooking and don't always fancy what I've made once its been frozen.

I see plenty of people stocking up on ready meals when I go to M&S and I am so tempted to just give in and have them most of the time, just ping in the microwave and one plate to wash up.

Anyone live alone and feel the same?

I tried living this way but found they were unsubstantial meals and not feasible financially as they needed a lot of sides. do you have much freezer space if so:

1. Make a short list of 7 ready meals you fancy
2. buy multipacks of freezer tubs on amazon
3. shop for the ingredients
4. on Monday or whenever, make one of the “ready meals” for four people, eat one, freeze the rest
5. on Tuesday make “ready meal” 2 for four people, eat one, freeze the rest, and so on
6. do this until you have made weeks worth of ready meals
7. You then have a weeks worth of ready meals

Personally I don't like them, but yeah cooking for yourself does take effort doesn't it! 😂

Marks and sparks do this mix and match deal with noodles, meat, veg and sauce where you choose something from each category and cook when you get home, and actually I used to love that! The meat is already chopped up etc

Bol is a healthy ready brand. Amazon fresh ready meals are lovely. Chilled soups and nice bread. Shop bought salad bowl with, a tub of prawn cocktail, small tin of tuna or ready cooked salmon mixed through.

I live alone and buy ready meals, but they are a bit different, in that they have been cooked in a kitchen, either by a caterer, or by the supermarket/shop themselves , and are not in a cardboard container. The actual mass produced ones I don't buy so much, as they aren't nearly as nice. However, I agree they are good for people living alone - and yes, life is too short to be constantly washing pots!

No, I don’t think they’re very good for you OP, even the healthy ones. Ok now and then but not for relying on.

I had sepsis a couple of years ago, couldn’t be bothered to cook (lived alone) and ate M&S ready meals and Cook ready meals when I actually fancied food for about six weeks. I added pouches of microwaveable veg or things like chilled soups etc., but that was all I ate.

At the time I was having regular blood tests. My HbA1c went up from a very normal reading to 48 which is virtually diabetic from memory. I stopped eating ready meals and it returned to normal levels within a couple of months.

I live alone and I like the cook ready meals. They have healthy options and come frozen because they have limited preservatives.

I find most supermarket ready meals to be too salty.

I do batch cook but sometimes you just want to shove something easy in the microwave.

What I cook for one that’s really quick.

Omelette and dressed salad.

M&S do bags of salmon, chicken and smoked haddock fillets that are individually wrapped so you can just freeze the bag and take one out, easy to put one in the fridge to defrost in the morning, with a pouch of veg and a few new potatoes or something like MG precooked lentils.

Baked potato, cottage cheese and salad.

I buy them quite often, otherwise I tend to get takeaways on evenings when I really cba.

Sainsbury’s taste the difference lasagnes are actually the best I've ever tasted!

I live alone now kids are at Uni and it really does make a difference to the motivation to eat. Ready meals are really expensive and there’s nothing to snack on afterwards. If I make something myself there’s usually enough to leave in case I want something quick after work/ mid morning.

Freezers are your friend. I’ve got into the habit of putting anything over in there. Most of the veg in the freezer. I like cabbage and edame beans becayse they go with anything. I used buy fresh cabbage to make coleslaw or cook but on my own even that went off and cabbage takes weeks.
Salads have gone to bags rather than whole lettuce and just baby tomatoes. I couldn’t get through all off the peppers/ cucumbers/ beetroot etc as the more bits you add the less of it you need to use.
Microwave bags of rice or grains are so useful. I know it’s easy to cook rice but it’s still 15 minutes, there’s too much and you have to faff around.

I always have bacon and eggs as I’ve found them the most useful fresh ingredients With pasta to make a carbonara, eggs to make a microwave mug cake, bacon to jazz up anything etc.

When I was cooking for just myself I'd make a large-ish portion of curry, pasta sauce, risotto, paella or whatever and then just eat that every day until it was finished then do the same again. Tbh I would do the same for my family now. I know lots of people would hate that though (my DH included hence why I don't do it)! I don't like ready meals. Not so much a health conscious thing but they often have that "commercial kitchen" taste which I'm not a fan of.

You could buy some things to make cooking more convenient like a rice cooker. Or a slow cooker so you can put stuff in in the morning and then have a nice meal when you get home.

Yeah. When I lived by myself I couldn't be arsed to cook often even though I love cooking. So I get you.
Some if the ready meals nowadays are not bad really. I eat combo of homemade ready meals from freezer, some bought and like once or twice a week I cooked dinner like steak and veg, stirfry or pasta (paata is just never nice ready meal imho). One pan things mainly.
Batch cooking worked well for me though. I made like 5-6 different meals at once and it lasted me a month.

For single person fruit and veg shopping, I can highly recommend checking out foreign supermarkets like Asian, EE, ME. They usually have things per weight not per pack so you can easily buy only what you fancy and need.

they are fine ocassionally.
but I would maybe look at 'cook from fresh' recipe boxes as well. sometimes supermarkets have things like that in the fruit/veg section. cook 2 portions and keep one for the next dayor freeze for later.

I live by myself and don't have much time or inclination for cooking. I have the occasional ready meal.

But my go-to is stir fry of chicken, bag pre-chopped veg, some kind of sauce, and rice. If really lazy I get the pre-cooked rice you just chuck in the pan with the stir-fry for a couple of minutes. It only takes about 20 minutes for the whole thing and is pretty healthy.

Of course they're easier. Add some veg, done. Give yourself a break.

Cooking for one person is shit and it can be hard not to waste food because portions of stuff are aimed at more people. You also end up with the same amount of washing up which is rubbish too.

I don't eat ready meals very often (my default meal is a sandwich!) but when I do they're something I'd never make at home like a curry. Go for it op!

When I've lived alone I've added them in. A couple of nice m&s ones a week, I cooked once and froze extras so I built up my own stock of homemade in the freezer so some qweks later, I wouldn't need to cook. Other meals were really simple like beans on jp, egg and mushroom on toast etc. I hate cooking so this suited me. I always added a steam bag of veg or a bag of salad to a ready meal as I like different textures in a meal

OP I'd say go for it, and ready meals are tasty and very convenient when you don't want to cook. And it's not just supermarkets now, there are plenty of companies that deliver meals to you to freeze. I buy ready meals and I'd say all the supermarkets have upped their game in recent years, and you might also want to look at the following:

Cook (haven't tried myself but always hear good things)
Allplants: tasty vegan dishes
Pasta Evangelists: fresh pasta and sauces
Modern Persian Kitchen: middle-eastern food

Also, if you do want to do some cooking but want all the guesswork taken out of it, I did enjoy Gousto when I used it. Hope that helps!

I have the odd one, my health is variable so sometimes I cannot cook. I find any of them with gravy, the gravy is often weird tasting.

You don't have to eat just a ready meal, eg you could get a lasagna and add a side salad.

I really like the quorn ready meals. I usually add a large side salad or a large portion of frozen veg (it cooks quicker & is ready prepped). Sometimes I'll put 2-3 tomatoes/mushrooms seasoned under the grill as a side as well.
A piece of fruit or a yoghurt afterwards if still a bit peckish.

I’m a sucker for convenience and buy them for if people are home alone.

The last time I was in Aldi I picked up a variety of cupboard-safe Chinese ready meals. Sweet and sour, chow mein and curry style. About €3 each IIRC.
DD thought they were a great treat for when she came home late after just a sandwich lunch and had to rush out again.
So a sort of “kids’ tea” but not a full meal.

Did I ever tell you about the plated-up Christmas dinner leftovers I found in the freezer in April? Complete with stuffing and gravy?? Delicious!

Started eating ready meals when I wanted to diet at a BMI of 35.

Been eating them for 7 years. Reached a BMI of 21 years ago.

Just had bloods done recently. No deficiencies whatsoever. Loads of energy.

I add fruit and veg and of course have breakfast and lunch, using the ready meals for evenings.

I buy healthier ones - not the ones covered in the red traffic lights!

I used to love cooking but have completely lost interest and would just pick at crap if I didn't have my ready meals handy.

@readymealeater

Wow go you! What a great change!!

I'm a cook from scratch person, bake own bread, pizzas including sauce but when I was without a kitchen I used m &s ready meals. Got totally hooked on one that was haddock, mash, green beans and cheese sauce. Tasted very healthy and smaller portion than I usually have, if I lived on my own I would definitely use them and probably lose weight!

I only cook for myself and don't like ready meals - I think because I had to eat them all the time as a kid. So I cook very easy meals like roast salmon and vegetables, grilled chicken in the airfryer also with vegetables or else with salad or a rice and bean bowl, or simple mackerel or sardine pasta recipes. Some nights when I really can't be bothered I'll have a baked potato, cheese toasties, or pasta with butter and cheese. Or a mini pie from our local bakery. If I'm having something without much veg I'll eat some raw vegetables as I'm cooking (carrots, chopped raw cabbage, that kind of thing). If I'm feeling more ambitious I'll batch cook a curry or a lasagna or something and then have it 3 nights in a row (though by night 3 I'm usually happy to see the back of it).