to think that people have no right to be smug about being somehow "above" ready meals?

[frgr]

I hesitated to post this, but I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable to get irked by people who smugly declare that they never buy ready meals. I am, of course, referring to another thread which I didn't want to derail, in which some posters are hinting that anyone who has eaten a ready meal with contaminated egg sort of deserves it for eating shite.

I don't eat a bad diet, due to finances I quite enjoy making soups and meals from scratch to bulk out in the week, but I do think there is a place, nay a NEED, for ready meals.

My nan can't mash potatoes due to weak wrists, I've heard a friend commenting "who'd buy that mashed up shite anyway", it allows her to easily eat mashed potato at a small premium, and she doesn't have to lift bags of spuds.

When I was ill in hospital after DCs, I couldn't drive to a takeaway, we live outside decent deliveries, and ready meals solved a problem of having an exhausted DH and me being too weak to make anything.

There is a space for ready meals as part of a wider, healthy diet. And I don't think i'm being unreasonable to think this. Any blanket statements about people being smug about not "eating shite" is being quite narrow minded. So there! :)

I keep meaning to buy a microwave...I haven't had one for 14 years!

I suppose the only thing that grates on me a little bit is when parents say "I don't cook" or "I can't cook"....I think that's pretty irresponsible if that means they feed their kids a load of shite.

Lots of ready meals can be perfectly healthy - Innocent veg pots for example look like a good healthy hot meal to me, although I guess you lose some nutrients by preparing the veg so long in advance of eating. I used to eat a lot of tinned lentil/chana dall as a student, and I don't see the problem with that either, as long as you keep an eye on the salt and mix in some frozen peas (frozen peas are my answer to all nutritional deficiencies - if I'm pushing the boat out I'll mix in some frozen sweetcorn as well).
I would feed the DCs ready meals more often, but they always turn their noses up at any of the plastic microwave jobs - I threw away several of the M&S / Annabel Karmel kids' ready meals before I accepted this. They do eat frozen pizza, fishfingers and baked beans though .

I find the smugness of these people amusing. How empty would your life have to be to be smug over the fact that you have managed to make the dinner?

YABU. People who make their own food are 100 per cent superior to those who rely on ping food.
98 percent of people who eat ready main meals are short.
67 percent of people who buy ready made mashed potato cannot spell proper.
83 percent of people who buy food in supermarkets want to go on the Jeremy Kyle Show.

FACT

I don't but ready meals, they're too expensive ans shite.

There is a massive range of ready meals! DH actually works for a large manufacturer of convenience foods, and they tend to make the ones at the higher end of the market, and while he would never touch the cheap ones - because they are made with poor quality ingredients, he'll quite happily tuck into the more premium ones as will I!
He gets involved in product develoment (he is in sales) and he has told me quite a bit about it and certainly the ones above £3 each (which his company make) are made from good quality ingredients.
I like quiche but I am shit at making them so I will happily buy them. Generally I do cook from scratch but there are times we'll have a ready meal.
Ready meals are just like any other food - have them in moderation and the cheaper they are the poorer the quality.

My personal favourite is these gorgeous beef and ale pies with rosemary crust from M&S (DH's company doesn't make them), about £6 for 2 individual pies but they are absolutely gorgeous.

Oh bloody hell if you considered pre made pasta sauce chucked into some spagetti a ready meal then we only eat ready meals pretty much! I buy only things that can be chucked in the oven, pan whatever. Anything that takes more than 10 mins prep is out the window for me!

Oh dear....

I cook absolutely everything from scratch because of cost. I dont "do" ready meals, because of cost. With 7 of us, including one 20 year old dustbin, my shopping bill would go through the roof!

Sadly this has created a houseful of food snobs. The kids now dont like anything that doesnt taste homemade which was a bit of a smack in the eye for my dad who made them a meal once with shop bought meatballs! They ate but them but pointed out that homemade ones would have been nicer. And no, I wasnt proud, I was incensed at their rudeness, made them all apologise and wouldnt let them have the sweets he had bought them. Dad thought it was funny but I was mad.as.hell!

Pre made pasta sauce, really?

Cooking is a life skill, if you don;t cook decent food you teach your dcs tastebuds to like crap, salty, high fat food.

About 85% home made here I'd say.
I never use the microwave meals (because they're too bloody small, for one thing) but often use jars of sauce and things like that.
And I love a fish supper.

It's very understandable why people use ready meals though for all the reasons given above.

Yes MGB, there is such a thing as premade pasta sauce. It is ghastly shit that contains (checks label) tomatoes, tomato purée, garlic, basil, sunflower oil, sugar, olive oil, salt, lemon juice and pepper. Oh noes! I have poisoned my children! (I grant you it's not a low salt food, and you should organise your weekly meal balance with that in mind).
It takes roughly 30 minutes less to cook than something from scratch) and it costs 45p more.
Don't criticise my cooking, (which is perfectly good when i feel the need) and I won't have a go at your typing.

There is a place for ready meals occasionally. I was 39 weeks PG, on crutches, just (literally the weekend before) moved house, picked up DS1 from school and had to go to the supermarket to buy some odds and sods like a mop, etc. What did he want for tea I asked. Cheesy pasta says DS1. (he means macaroni cheese, which I normally make from scratch, it's a great leftovers meal as I chuck onion, bacon/ham, mushrooms in it too.) Well I just couldn't be bothered, I was so tired and just wanted to lie down and sleep there and then, so I said oh come on I'll buy you a ready made one. Well, the look I got from one smug yummy mummy over her trolley of organic lentils and tofu! If looks could kill I'd have dropped dead right then and there. I bought him one from the finest range, he ate it but did me proud by saying "mummy your's is much nicer." Good boy. he knows how to keep Mummy happy.

I agree cooking is a life skill and I am encouraging DS1 to help in the kitchen, but he also know's that it's ok to just cheat sometimes.

a place for everything.

most redy eals just don't taste that nice to me anyway...

although really i'm below ready meals. they're too expensive...

freezer food & veg for us lot.

YANBU, DH and I both work full time with 2 kids under 4 that don't sleep. Over the past couple of months we have all been constantly I'll, DS was in hospital with pneumonia and frankly neither of us had the energy to cook from scratch and ready meals were our saviour.

Personally I love the fish pie ready meals, even the really cheap ones. I normally am a very good cook, but I just don't make a good fish pie.

DilysPrice My typing isn't bad for my dcs health, is it?

Chopping an onion, bit of garlic, open a can of tomatoes, throw in a few herbs, olive oil takes about five minutes more than opening a jar. Besides I make a basic pasta sauce, massive load then use it as a base for pizza, bolagnese, general tomato based sauces.

SGB I don't think people are smug about the occasional ready meal, but some people really don't cook at all and it can shape a person's pallet.

I would class a "ready meal" as a complete meal taken out of its packet and cooked (either in oven or microwave) with little or no additional preparation or ingredients.

That makes toast a ready meal, doesn't it?
you only have to add butter.

well, no, it doesn't, because buttered toast isn't a full meal.

I certainly think that once a week, a ready meal is no problem - quite often for us it'll be Friday evening as we rush a dinner before Choir practice.

I don't usually buy ready-made pizzas, because it costs more and you have to spend ages movign the cheese around so that it's not all lumped in the middle. We buy the ready-made pizza bases and add tomato puree, cheese, and a selection of seasonal veg.

same with baked beans - we have those with oven chips, but we always add kale or broccoli or beans or sweetcorn (whatever's to hand really)

as long as you don't have too many salt-and-fat-ridden meals, then ready stuff is not a problem.

IMO a can of tomatoes is just as ready a ready meal as the pasta sauce. Those higher on the horse would be making their own passata from tomatoes.

oh, and MGB, pasta sauce made form scratch always tastes too sweet.

"83 percent of people who buy food in supermarkets want to go on the Jeremy Kyle Show."

I buy all my ingrediants to cook from scratch in a supermarket

frgr, YANBU, I cook from scratch and really enjoy it but there have been times I wished I had some ready meals in the freezer instead of having to give a bowl of cereals to the Dcs for tea because I was too poorly to cook at all.

Also, every now and then, it is really nice to just put a shop bought pizza in the oven and have no other tidying up to do in the kitchen than the dishes.

Ready packaged tomatoes form the supermarket, flying visit? Really how hard is it to grow your own organic ones? Simply put a seed in the ground - it only takes about 6 months longer.

You are SO right.

I didnt want to mention my greenhouse wukter for fear of appearing smug.

ah fuck off with your "pasta sauce bad for your dc's health" Don't be so so smug.

Tinned tomatoes and tomato puree are vile unless cooked for a reasonable amount of time, as I know, because I can cook.
Typing is a vital life skill, with strong links to employability (which has a serious impact on health) whereas you've failed to point out anything in a jarred pasta sauce which is plausibly hazardous to health bar the salt which can be balanced out over a week because it is not hazardous in moderation.

nickelbabyjesus Sat 08-Jan-11 13:21:01
oh, and MGB, pasta sauce made form scratch always tastes too sweet.

Balsamic vinegar?

Inverted smugness, Dilys, is very passe on MN...everyone does it. Typing on an internet forum is unlikely to get me a job, just like that chip on your shoulder is unlikely to help you.