How would you rate Charlie Bighams meals?

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

Hi all
I tried a Charlie Bigham’s meal for the first time yesterday. I was busy with some clearing and declutter if and didn’t have a lot in to make a meal and was pressed for time so I thought I would give it a try. I was please when reading the ingredients list no additives. Are they on the healthier side of the ready meals? I chose the vegetable lasagne and it was very tasty. I’m it it with skme
chips and veg to bulk it out a bit.

how do you rate them if you have tried them?

Over priced and underwhelming IME. I’d rather spend a few quid more and make it myself - and have enough to feed 4 rather than the rather poultry supposed 2 person portions. They seem overly rich/stodgy.

They are the 3 I like too, put some veg with them and they are good in a ‘can’t be arsed to cook from scratch way’ and cheaper than takeaways - same goes for Cook, M&S etc - they have their place

Never tried one. The price puts me right off.

We love them

I like them, but way too pricey unless I spot on in the reduced section

I like the wooden trays they come in, they make fantastic firefighters

We love them especially the fish pie

find portions slightly small but I usually just add some green veg

in wouldn’t put in the “healthy” category, but I imagine less additives than in cheaper ready meals

the prices have rocked up though

Think they're ok but overpriced. Generally prefer Cook meals.

I love the fish pie and chicken curry ones. We regularly get them as a family when we need a quick meal one night for convenience. I think they are pricey but better quality than other supermarket ready meals and tastier so worth the money. I'm not saying it's the healthiest but it's certainly better than getting a frozen pizza or a takeaway curry.

Charlie Bigham has a recipe book (Supper with Charlie Bigham) which may have this recipe in so you could make double sauce!

Tasty. Very small portions. Overpriced. I only ever buy them from the yellow sticker shelf.

That’s how I feel too - I like the Spanish chicken one as well - reality is if you put veg with them they are actually quite good if dieting , as cal counted and most are 400 cals for half ( plus low cal veg) - I think it’s very easy when making from scratch to hugely underestimate calories and portion size- we get used to big portions - most of my weight gain was from eating same sized portions as my H of good homemade grub

I just thought I'd have a look at his website and view the nutritional information on the fish pie. To see what the salt content is. Works out at over 2g per portion so acceptable for a main meal. I then looked further down the ingredients list and found this:

Secret ingredient: Obsession

Wanker.

I like them but they aren't really enough for 2, so by the time I've added something else to them the price jumps up

We both like the Thai red curry and OH likes the meatball one. There are no takeaways where we live so we get these sometimes as a treat. Our nearest supermarket doesn't stock them though so we can only get them when we make an occasional trip to the next town and even then they're often out of stock.

🤣 A friend calls them Charlie Bigprice meals. I really like them but they’re not v healthy so I don’t have them often. Beef bourguignon is the nicest. I once got the Spanish chicken in a Too Good To Go box!

Am not a fan of them, much prefer Cook for ready meals - lots more choice of dishes and I find they taste much nicer.

I really like the meatballs. But only have it very rarely as it’s high calorie, expensive and tiny portions.

I've tried one of the curries. They are pretty bland and very expensive. They are better than most ready meals and premade sauces. I don't think I am the target customer.

I had a couple over the 5 weeks we had our kitchen being redone so only had an air fryer to cook in. The portions were small for 2 and they weren't bad but weren't great. I could make something much nicer for half the price that would produce double the quantity.

They seem to have discontinued the only one I loved (chicken in white wine sauce with mash)

Can't say I ever bothered to check calories or salt etc but we only had it as a treat occasionally.

Underwhelming and not worth the money.

I have only ever bought them when they are yellow stickered as the prices are astonishing.

It took me a while to work out what you meant. 😂😂 Great typo/autocorrect and a great idea using them as firelighters.

The salmon en croute is lovely!

We actually had it for Christmas day last year, as we were "doing Christmas" on Boxing Day due to visiting family constraints.

We've also enjoyed the fish pie, tikka masala and cottage pie.

Really disappointing, but can't remember which ones I tried. Absolutely not worth the cost or calories.

Delicious! We buy them whenever they are on offer. All lovely but the moussaka is my favourite.