to consider living on ready meals from now on

[crochetmonkey74]

I HATE cooking and hate food shopping as well- last night as I popped into M and S for a food hall browse I pondered the idea of living on their ready meals from now on- does anyone do this? Do you get sick of it? Is it really expensive?

I live alone so no one else to consider meal plan wise- are there other shortcuts that are as easy but maybe a little more healthy/ frugal?

My granny lived until she was 98 on a diet of M&S ready meals for the last 20 years of her life!

@MareofBeasttown I’ve repeatedly had to stop myself from approaching random Indian neighbours and asking them how much they’d charge for an extra portion of whatever their family is eating that day. I pass the most amazing cooking smells on the way back from nursery with DD. It’s just too weird a conversation to start!

I exist largely on M & S ready meals. There are special low cal ones, veggie ones, healthy options. I live alone and found I was wasting so much in the way of potatoes etc unless I was eating them every day, and also having to buy veg and salad in packs rather than loose.

I’ve cooked from fresh ingredients most days for decades. Now I’ve started buying M&S ready meals for days when I’m very busy or tired, and just adding fresh veg. A 3-course meal for 2 is £7 and easily makes two days’ main meals for DH and me with the added veg.

The Co-op also does some good meals. Adding fresh or frozen veg doesn’t make a lot more work and adds a lot nutritionally.

This is what old people do now instead of having meals on wheels. Google Wiltshire Farm Foods, they deliver to the door and their leaflets are distributed in hospitals.

I used to do it all the time when I lived on my own.

Slimming World or Weight Watchers meals with the individually portioned veg packets.

Chippy tea now and again.

I was a lot slimmer as well as I knew exactly how many calories I was eating.

No food waste, and negligibly more expensive if at all

@warmfluffytowels

It’s not just the salt though is it, it’s all the other weird stuff they put in, from emulsifiers to preservatives, to colours, flavour enhancers and things you really don’t know why they are there and what they are because you can’t buy them as ingredients unless you are running a food factory! I would rather know what all the things I am putting in my body are and have a rough idea of what they are doing to me. For a one off fine, but for long term maybe not

But this isn't the eighties anymore - many ready meals are perfectly healthy and have nothing abnormal in them at all.

One from The City Kitchen - Hoisin Duck Noodles.

Cooked Noodles [Water, Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Salt, Turmeric, Paprika], Duck (23%), Red Pepper, Water, Carrot, Spring Onion, Honey, Sugar, Ginger, Garlic Purée, Salt, Sesame Oil, Soya Bean, Cornflour, Caramelised Sugar Syrup, Rapeseed Oil, Molasses, Malt Vinegar (Barley), Wheat, Szechuan Pepper, Ground Star Anise, Concentrated Lemon Juice, Tomato Paste, Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin], Cinnamon Powder, Black Beans, Garlic, Clove Powder, Concentrated Plum Juice, Spirit Vinegar, Onion Powder, Malted Barley Extract, Cayenne Pepper, Rice Flour, Fennel, Lemon Peel.

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/265990262

What's so bad about that?

It contains 495 calories and 12g of fat, as well as 3.2g of salt.

Apart from four different sugars and over half your daily salt allowance?

[quote EssentialHummus]@MareofBeasttown I’ve repeatedly had to stop myself from approaching random Indian neighbours and asking them how much they’d charge for an extra portion of whatever their family is eating that day. I pass the most amazing cooking smells on the way back from nursery with DD. It’s just too weird a conversation to start![/quote]
A lot of people don't like that smell:) The problem with Indian food is that it spoils you for anything else and then beans on toast seems very unsatisfying ( or I think it does but I am probably just v picky).

I think I am going to try buying the M and S meals and adding some garnish or chillies to it. It's too hot to cook today.

My husband is unable to cook, so until he moved in with me he lived exclusively on ready made food and takeaway (where we are most restaurants offer takeaway). He’s fit and healthy, he runs, indoor cycles and plays football.

Below are the ingredients from his favourite ready meals

Chickpeas (20%), Water, Coconut Milk, Onion, Red Lentils (6%), Black Lentils (6%), Celery, Spinach (4%), Kale (4%), Garlic (4%), Tomato Paste (4%), Red Chilli, Maple Syrup, Ginger, Sunflower Oil, Cumin Seeds, Garam Masala, Sea Salt, Turmeric, Ground Cumin, Ground Coriander, Fenugreek Leaves.

Creamy Risotto (Water, Arborio Rice (15%), Onion, White Wine, Sunflower Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Lemon Juice, Yeast Flakes, Garlic Puree, Sage, Mint, Parlsey, Sea Salt, Pepper), Seasonal Greens (Asparagus (15%), Peas (12%), Green Beans (6%)), Roasted Hazelnuts (3%).

Water, Split Peas (20%), Aubergine (13%), Coconut Milk, Butternut Squash, Spinach, Carrots, Onions, Tenderstem Broccoli (3.9%), Leeks, Garlic, Celery, Coconut Flakes (2.6%), Sunflower Oil, Applesauce, Garlic, Tamari [Soya Beans, Water, Salt, Alcohol], Smoked Paprika, Harissa (0.5%) , Molasses, Lemon Juice, Sea Salt, Paprika, Liquid Smoke, Bay Leaves, Pepper, Thyme, Sage.

SimonJT

Strange ingredient list- they only add up to 30% of the total ingredients- where is the missing food?

Apart from four different sugars and over half your daily salt allowance?

Okay, so how would you make that at home to get rid of the salt and sugar?

Lots of these meals cooked "from scratch" are probably no healthier than the microwave versions - and at least with those, you know exactly what's in them in terms of weight, fat, calories, salt and sugar. Most home cooks won't know that.

@speakout

SimonJT

Strange ingredient list- they only add up to 30% of the total ingredients- where is the missing food?

You do realise in prepared food not every ingredient has a percentage quantity listed, just key ones (usually those in the description).

Do you think the ingredients without a percentage have 0% of that ingredient?

SimonJT

I am totally aware of that, but ingredients are listed in decending amount order.
What is the meal exactly?

@speakout

SimonJT

I am totally aware of that, but ingredients are listed in decending amount order.
What is the meal exactly?

Yes, so if you make basic approximations you can easily see approximate amounts for each component. A risotto, a dhal and a split pea mash thing.

@CandyLeBonBon

Not everything is made up of chemicals 😐

Literally EVERYTHING is made up of chemicals! 😂

you beat me to it🤣

I do it when I am trying to lose weight as the M&S Count on Us range is low cal and I just add veg or salad.

Recently we've been having the Aldi one-pot meals for lunch. They're £1.69 each, low calorie and seem to contain a decent amount of veg. I could cook similar myself, but I'm not sure I could do it for that price per serving to be honest.

I think if I lived alone I'd do a combination of batch cooking, stuff on toast, ready meals with extra veg, and a picky tea!

@SimonJT The split pea mash sounds good. Going to give it a go in the school hols anyway

Mindful Chef do really great frozen "ready meals" that are nutritionally balanced. I think you can do it healthily or unhealthily tbh.

We 'Hello Fresh' at the weekends. It's revitalized cooking and shopping here

I did this when I was single. It's not particularly expensive and I tried to go for healthier options and always had either a bagged salad or steamed fresh veg with my ready meal.

I'm now completely the opposite and cook everything from scratch and now I don't like the taste of ready meals. If I went back to being single and was working full time I might go back to ready meals again but I'd be concerned about the new research about "highly processed foods".

The alternative might be to batch cook and use your freezer so you don't have to eat the same thing 4 days in a row. Combined with some meals that genuinely are as easy as ready meals like seabass or salmon and veg.

We eat nothing but tesco finest ready meals (with one veg for something like cottage pie) for the whole of January, for tea. We always lose about half a stone each.....

ready meals arent unhealthy. Theres some really good ones out there now. Or how about those kits that have all the ingredients and you just put it in a pan.

@speakout

SimonJT

I am totally aware of that, but ingredients are listed in decending amount order.
What is the meal exactly?

Isn't it by dry weight? The majority will be water.