To think cooking from scratch is not always cheaper?

[IonaNE]

A few posts on another thread (not primarily about this) have got me thinking.

In my local ASDA Weight Watchers ready meals are £2 each. If I buy one for each night of the week (to make life easier for when I get home from work), that's £10 for a hot meal on every evening of the week. For this I get a balanced meal that, over the whole week, contains chicken, beef, prawns, pasta, rice and potatoes, vegetables and a variety of sauces. On top of that it's exactly as much as I need to eat, there are no leftovers, I am not using energy by cooling unnecessary stuff in the fridge. I don't need to keep a host of jars of sauces, oils and spices which would otherwise be needed to cook all this from scratch either. And finally, I am not using energy to cook all that from scratch, and then to wash up all that was used in the process. (I do use energy to microwave the meals, 5 mins each; and the microwave is very cheap to run.)

I can cook from scratch all that is in those meals. I don't enjoy cooking but I can do it if necessary. But I don't think that I would get that variety of hot food for just £10 a week. Furthermore, if I bought all the ingredients, they would be in portions much bigger than what I need for one supper. Then I would either need to freeze them; but also: does everyone who cooks from scratch only eat a WW meal-portion of everything before they freeze the rest? I find I eat larger portions if I cook. And while I'm not overweight, I really don't need to put on weight.

So I think eating ready meals is actually cheaper than cooking from scratch. It is also less time consuming (=more time for other things) and provided you choose the right ones and read the labels, not necessarily less healthy either.

I agree redstrawberry The pp who was saying that her £5 grilled chicken wrap and chips was cheaper than a homemade version, not only has no idea of the quality of the chicken, but also should be worried about how the chips are cooked. My suspicions are that that fat they're cooked in is reused several times. This means she's consuming lots of trans fats which are seriously bad for the heart.

taste is of course a big issue. but yes, "chicken" isn't just one thing.

I also imagine there might be a veggie/non-veggie distinction. We pretty buy and eat anything we want I am amazed at how low our food bills are. but we do cook from scratch, and eat a lot of pulses and things which are pennies.

it's surely a case of each to their own... I hated ready meals after using them when our kitchen was out of action, but OTOH can definitely see their advantage in portion control (I am a terrible greedy guts). Maybe I was picking the wrong ones, but after a few days I felt overdosed on salt and quite sick.

For me, I love cooking. I find it therapeutic, I like getting creative with it, I love how the family enjoy what I make... but totally see that it's not for everyone, especially if you're not cooking for others. Though even on my own I cook something lovely just for me I think I explained about the greedy guttishness....

I would only say, from student days I could certainly eat very very cheaply by hardly ever eating meat and being Queen of the Lentils. So I wouldn't recommend ready meals solely as a money saver, but as a time saver and a portion controller, OP is right I think.

The puddings things is an issue for me. Love making them but they are fearsomely expensive and usually too much for me and the boy to get through.
He wanted lemon meringue pie yesterday. 4 lemons, tons of sugar and five eggs. Cost a fortune and took ages to make and bake. Luckily it was edible but it's always a risk. Had to freeze most of it as it was too much.
Sure the one for £1 in ASDA might have been a bit rubbish but would have done the trick.

make cheaper puddings then - just make tray cakes (plan, choc chip, fruity etc) and have it with custard

00100001 Custard! Eggs, cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, saucepan, heat - very possibly something that is cheaper buying prepared - I know I do, but that is laziness for something that tastes good prepared. It's not something I ever eat as a cheap food though.

I guess if you do make it yourself, at least you end up with meringues or coconut macaroons too.

Well most people don't eat a lemon pie every day for desert. A 'homemade desert' for most is a bit of Greek yogurt and banana

I never make custard myself

Rice pudding is very cheap if you have the oven on for something else.

Haven't RTFT but we stretch a pound of mince/stewing beef or a chicken between 6 big eaters for health and budget reasons, mainly by adding lots of veg/salad/pulses. If I tried to give everyone ready meals it would cost a fortune, say £2x6! Even something like kievs or fish cakes add up to more than my food budget which would be about £2 per person per day. I can see if you are on your own a good quality ready meal would be attractive, but I think I'd still make my own ready meals and freeze them as I'm a die hard tight wad.

Homemade rice pudding is also unbelievably gorgeous; it bears absolutely no resemblance to the stuff from a tin or school dinner offerings.

The pp who was saying that her £5 grilled chicken wrap and chips was cheaper than a homemade version

She also spent a pound to buy the wraps, but tortillas are only flour, water and a bit of oil. Very easy and cheap to make your own.

Tinkly - sorry for a derail - but can you tell me how to make delicious rice pudding? I tried once, and ended up with all the milk evaporating, and rice that was as hard as when I started. I have wondered about simmering the rice in the milk and sugar in a saucepan, and then putting it in the oven to get that nice skin on top - would that work?

I agree bumble! I make myown totrillas now as I found out how easy they are, they're SO much nicer, never buying shop ones again!

STD, I use the HFW from the River Cottage Family cookbook. It is basically pudding rice, butter, milk and sugar, bunged in a dish and left in the oven on low for a couple of hours.

However, in the last year or so, half my family have realised that their dodgy IBS seems to be aggravated by lactose so we haven't had it for a while. I am tempted to try with lactofree substitutes now.

Here you go

Rice Pudding (from River Cottage Family Cookbook)

Serves 2

50g pudding rice
25g unsalted butter
500ml whole milk
25g caster sugar (I use my vanilla sugar)
pinch of salt
vanilla pod, slit down the middle

1. Preheat to 150oc. Lightly butter ovenproof dish. Wash rice then mix all ingredients in the dish.
2. Bake for 45 min, remove from oven and stir. Bake for a further 30 min, by this point a skin will have begun to form. Stir again to stop the rice sticking to the bottom of the bowl.
3. Return the dish to the oven yet again and bake for a further 1 ?? 1.5 hours. If you don??t want a skin cover dish with lid/foil. If it begins to dry out stir in more milk.

Ohhh lovely - thank you so much! Dh will be really pleased too.

How long does it take to make tortillas? I can buy a pack of 10 for 89p. That's a good deal for me as I work FT and don't want to spend lots of spare time cooking.

And I don't see why it's relevant that you wouldn't eat a lemon pie every day. If you want one, you've got to buy or make a whole one, so you're still comparing the £1 supermarket one with the cost in money and time of making one.

Agree though that homemade rice pudding is both delicious and economical.

There is no comparison to be made between a £1 lemon meringue pie and a homemade one, none whatsoever.

If that doesn't bother you, fine, I get that; I'm the same with clothes and handbags; Primark or designer, it's all the same to me.

Food though, is a different matter, for me.

I use this recipe for tortillas

Will make 8 large or 16 smallish
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
?? cup vegetable oil
1 cup warm water

Basically mix them all together to form a dough and work for about a minute until smooth.
Divide in to 8/16 - roll into balls and flatten slightly cover and leave to rest for about 7 minutes or so.
Then heat a frying pan you roll out each bit of dough, then 'fry' for a couple of minutes on each side

realllllllly good!

I will give that a go, 00100001 - thanks!

Bumbledumb I know it's easy enough to make your own tortillas, but I work FT, get home at 6.30pm, sort out my kids, get them to bed and start thinking about dinner at 8pm. Making the tortillas just does not come into it.

I could also easily make naan bread or chapatti with a curry but the amount of mess, time and clearing up really doesn't make it worth my while. Not to mention the fact the MIL would expect it more often!

I do think there is a balance to be struck. When you are busy, time-poor, it makes sense to use some things that make life easier. So in your position, Angelika, I'd use ready made tortillas and guacamole, but I'd knock up the chargrilled chicken and peppers to go in them, or I'd make the curry but use ready made chappattis - I am sure that's what you do.

But then on special occasions you can make the chappattis or tortillas.

Damn - pressed enter too soon. I was going to say it's like me making my own pie filling but using ready made pastry - it's a sensible compromise, but on balance, still pretty close to cooking from scratch - without the extra mess and stress.

I have a sneaky suspicion that VERY cheap ready meals use flavour enhancers like MSG to satisfy their customers' munchy cravings. Like eating a bowl of stock cube water with pieces of cardboard floating in it.

However I was astounded by the prices of ready roasts in the freezer cabinet (the ones with their own foil trays and basting pouches). I needed to contribute to a funeral buffet recently and didn't want to go rooting in a distant relative's cupboards for trays and stuff. Twenty people plus leftovers from £ 15 of ready-to-roast British turkey breasts. Convenience food when you need it? Yes please.