To eat ready meals each night?

[Buckinbronco]

DH has taken over food shopping as I'm too busy. We have 2 DCs who eat at nursery and we get home at gone 7.30. DH answer is to buy 5 scratch meals a week. They taste ok and take 5 mins to Bung in a pan and hardly any washing up.
Their nutritional content looks fine- low fat sugar and salt. They're normal meals like curry and pad Thai.

I am probably over thinking this but I am Just not sure about eating packaged food every week night night.
But, I have a tendency to take the hard way out of everything and worry and this is easy. Peasy. And I can't find anything wrong with the food...aibu?

It's these: m.tesco.com/h5/groceries/r/www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=286931301

But why would these meals give you health issues? That's what I'm asking!

What health issues will befall from eating ready cut chicken and vegetables?
And thank you to all the people who have come on and actually given valid reasons now!

I wouldn't use something like this (even IF I could afford it)

The menu is limited and samey this is a problem because boredom makes you more likely to snack and choose unhealthy snacks as you're desperate for flavour. This also means the nutrition will be limited, that will affect health long term and short term makes you more vulnerable to all the lovely bugs your dc will bring home from nursery this could have a financial cost in time off work.

Portion size - if too small for op and her dh - again would lead to more snacking.

Pre-prepared is not the same as fresh, cutting chopping and travelling time can all affect nutritional content.

Gets you out the habit of cooking regularly. I suspect you still do fairly easy meals at weekend too or even have takeaways. Plus as dc get older you will have to feed them at home and either they get this method as an example or you'd feed them this way too? Not ideal.

Pp's have suggested loads of other ways to prep/cook a greater variety of fresh food quickly and easily. I doubt you're much busier than many other mners. I'm currently not working but have been a full time working single parent in the recent past, as I said at start I wouldn't have chosen this - and at that point I could have afforded it and it would have been seemingly easier.

So someone has rebranded readymeals as 'meals from scratch', which is the opposite?

I don't know if that's genius or terrifyingly Orwellian.

See I don't think your post contains any truth at all really bacon.

I know a fair amount about nutrition. I know how to cook. These do seem too good to be true, so I was wondering if anyone could dispel that. But no one has been able to, they also just seem irritated by its ease.

I am LOLing at the batch-cooking of bolognaise suggestion below that goes 'fry onions and mince, add sauce'. ...

Or the "it's just as easy to make your own hoisin sauce as open a pouch" wtf?

Just5, surely ready meals are cooked and just need re heating? These are uncooked.
I agree they are not 'from scratch' though.
However, cooking 'from scratch' on MN frequently seems to involve jars of sauce (which is fine by me - using the sauce, I mean, rather than including that in a 'from scratch' definition), and for my Mum mince 'from scratch' meant assembling a mlncer, clamping it to the table, cutting beef into mincer sized cubes, stripping out fat and sinew, really hard work turning the mincer, dismantling it, washing up all its components plus chopping board and knife.... Is 'mince' a pre-prepared / pre-cut up product?

They sound great. I thought you were talking about microwave lasagnes every night, but these seem to be fresh and healthy. If you're happy with them then go for it. If not, then you need to have a chat with your husband.

We used to have a mincer.

And also a metal thing that attached to the table that could churn milk into cream? Or was it butter?

... May be just me OP but I wouldn't go that way. Any ready meal will be stuffed full of synthetic additives and preservatives. Realistically, the chopped food (with a higher surface area) should decompose within a few hours, and the dry, cold conditions of storage will also leech vitamins and minerals from it in the time period it is kept there. Just saying you 'know nutrition and know to cook' doesn't equate to you knowing how this food is prepared. Often curry sauce etc. will just be a cocktail of salts, additives, preservatives and flavourings. Not to mention where the meat comes from. Pre-plan your ingredients/meals for the week then if you buy them on The weekend you just toss the ingredients together. It means you have greater variety and more choice as to where your food comes from.

I think margaretcavendish also makes a very good point- I asked DH to and it on to help out so what's the point in worrying and interfering? He's doing it, I don't have to.

Just5, surely ready meals are cooked and just need re heating? These are uncooked.
I agree they are not 'from scratch' though.

True. These sound like meal kits.

Angels you can see the ingredients on the pack/ link. There isn't anything else in there. They're not lying are they?

Also if you read the ingredients on most M&S ready meals and and kids meals like anabel Karmel/ little dish there isn't anything else in those either.

I think that's probably quite an outdated view. I thought the same until I started looking at them

I do think there's an interesting line about preparation. Does anyone buy chicken breasts? Or do they have to have a freshly slaughtered chicken to personally pluck and chop up?

You've got very small children and work long hours, do whatever works for you and don't worry about it

I do think there's an interesting line about preparation. Does anyone buy chicken breasts? Or do they have to have a freshly slaughtered chicken to personally pluck and chop up?

But that's not a health concern. There's no moral superiority in extra work for work's sake. The shape your meat comes in doesn't really affect nutrition, so it's unimportant. The issue with pre-made sauces and mixes is that they are jam packed with additives and hidden salt and sugar.

A butter maker. My PIL have one, it makes grim butter from cream

Yes true. But on this thread people have been advocating cheese on toast (presumably from a block rather than pre sliced and from an intact loaf ) rather than chicken veg and sauce (which tbh I know nothing about so take your point on the sauce )

www.marksandspencer.com/chilli-con-carne/p/p60045660?prevPage=srp

This expensive M and S ready meal contains firming agents and acidity regulators- synthetic additives. I'd also be pretty disturbed at the idea of eating the heavily factory farmed meat in these meals.

On another thread I'm on people are downplaying heavy drug taking, violence and rape allegations as "everyone has a past". On this one people are very worried about the health implications of eating pre cut pepper. I feel like I'm in a mad house.

Sorry the ingredients for the ie Thai curry are here:

Basmati Rice (31%) (Basmati Rice, Water), Raw Diced Chicken Breast (21%), Coconut Milk (Water, Coconut Extract), Thai Green Curry Paste (11%) (Sugar, Fish Sauce (Water, Anchovy (Fish), Salt, Sugar), Lemongrass, Diced Green Chilli, Lime Juice, Rapeseed Oil, Diced Onion, Chopped Basil, Ginger Puree, Garlic Puree, Lime Leaf, Ground Turmeric), Sliced Green Peppers (8%), Sliced Bamboo Shoots (6%), Lime Wedge (3%), Lime Leaf

Obviously the preservatives in the sauce are sugar and salt but nothing else

How do you cook the rice? Does it come in a separate sachet for boiling?

Angel you can find a M&S ready meal with preservatives if you want. It doesn't prove anything, I didn't say they don't exist. I said these scratch meals don't have them and you can easily find actual ready meals which don't.

Or is it cooked and you fry it