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?

I think if you’re a competent home cook, they will seem a rip off. Also most ready meals in the UK aren’t full of preservatives, so that shouldn’t be a selling point.

Sainsbury’s bog standard fish pie ingredients:
INGREDIENTS: Mashed Potato (Potato, Butter (Cows' Milk), Single Cream (Cows' Milk), Salt, White Pepper), Semi Skimmed Cows' Milk, Smoked Hake (10%) (Merluccius capensis, Merluccius paradoxus) (Fish), Salt, Colour: Curcumin), Alaska Pollock (10%) (Theragra chalcogramma) (Fish), Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese (7%) (Cows' Milk), Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Cornflour, Lemon Juice, Palm Oil, Parsley, White Pepper, Mustard Powder, Salt, Yeast, Colour: Turmeric Extract.n

Charlie’s fish pie:
Potatoes, milk, hake (11%) (fish), salmon (11%) (fish), cream (milk), butter (milk), smoked haddock (3%) (smoked haddock (fish), salt), wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), Cheddar cheese (milk), spinach, breadcrumbs (wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), salt, yeast, caramelised sugar, colours: paprika extract, turmeric extract), double cream (milk), salt, parsley, free-range egg yolk, fish stock (water, salt, fish powder, rapeseed oil, dried cod (fish), anchovies (fish), lemon juice concentrate, dried onion, dried potato), lemon juice, white pepper.

I have only tried them recently after being unwell and having no energy to cook. I was underwhelmed, thought they lacked flavour. I think the Cook meals are probably better imo.

I quite like the little wooden baskets though, less plastic waste and the compost bin loves them!

I see this a lot on the upf pages though. Stuffing down home made cake constantly but it's ok because it's real butter and cream.

Average. Portion sizes too small for the price.

Haha 😆

More in the sense of, whenever we've had the 2-person ones, we've been left hungry.

They taste nice but the portions are smallish, plus I can't really afford them! If I happen to find one with a yellow discount sticker I'll happily grab it.

Agreed! Cook brand ready meals are delicious. Also pricey but I'm happy to buy them to treat the family to a nice dinner.

Hugely expensive. Quite tasty. Nothing special.

Delicious, but so tiny and so expensive.

Real butter and cream aren't bad for you though.

"...they are full of fat (butter, cream) and salt."

All decent food is.

As ready meals go, they are good (the fish pie especially), but never replace freshly made at home.

I used to really like their various curries but the last two times the chicken has been scraggy and chewy so I won't bother any more.

Didn't much like the chilli one but love the curries especially the Thai red curry. The salmon en-croute is delicious and the fish pie also. I like that they have a lot of meat in them. Curries make a whole meal but some of them we add peas or similar. It is plenty of food for 2 people (and I'm greedy!). We tend to have one on Fridays as that's shopping day so we eat late and it is very handy and way cheaper than a takeaway.

I like COOK ones because there are lots of options of sauce/stew (curry/stroganoff etc) where you can add your own carb, so you aren’t paying the brand markup on some basmati!

I tried a curry once and it was excessively sweet, as if tablespoons of sugar had been added. I have a sweet tooth as far as foods that should be sweet are concerned, so this wasn't some hyper-sensitivity of mine. It put me off so I haven't tried anything else. Not worth the risk for the price they are.

Dreadful. Flavourless and way too salty. Very overpriced too. Desserts are far too sweet.

Completely agree with this.

Well they are if you're eating cake and brownies all day kidding yourself it's healthy just because it's non-upf. You see people trotting out how healthy diets were in the 1950s forgetting that eggs were rationed for half of it so no one was making 10 cakes a week.

No, obviously eating cake all day everyday is not healthy. The point they're making is that a cake or brownie made with real ingredients, instead of artificial, is likely to be healthier.

Well they are if you're eating cake and brownies all day kidding yourself it's healthy just because it's non-upf.

Why is that relevant to the point you replied to about butter and cream not being bad for you?

The only one I like is the fish pie. Handy to cook in the air fryer for a quick meal if I am on my own.

Too salty.

The Macoroni Cheese with pancetta on top is delicious.

Very average. I’ve only had the Thai curry and we buy a spice pack to make them from a speciality shop and it’s a million times better/more tasty.