What's your best supermarket emergency microwave dinner

[CadburyCrunchy]

If you only had 35 minutes to spare between work and kids hobbies every Tuesday evening what would you cook for dinner in that time? I'm not a fan of ready meals but Tesco do an nice carbonara and one evening a week is ok! What would you suggest?

Not a meal as such but as an odd quick meal prepared ahead I like to do a soup with a toasted cheese (&ham) sandwich. I like my soup in a large mug when I do this. Easy, heat the soup, toast a sandwich.

Some of the Tesco finest ones are nice. Expensive though. Never found a nice tomato sauce based pasta ready meal though, always leave a weird metallic taste in my mouth.

Anything by Bol. They do pots with noodles, curry and soup. All good.

Failing that I would go with a curry. I like the side dishes like bombay potatoes or saag aloo with a pitta.

Pasta ready meals in my experience are bad.

Having leftovers to warm up in the microwave would do the same job.

Well the mumsnet chicken would feed you all for a week. Sorted 🤣

What's your best emergency microwave dinner

Omelette
Jacket potatoes
Slow cooker meal

Such lack of comprehension and forcing your views into others!

OP the M&S chilli prawn pasta.

Waitrose macaroni cheese with bacon bits or nice as if m&s tuscan sausage pasta. Both ready meals.

Sainsburys duck in plum sauce with egg fried rice - cooks really nice in microwave in less than 4 mins

M&S ready meals 3 for £8! Chicken tagliatelle is a winner in our house and the Lasagne

Love the chilli con carne although not part of that deal.

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

M&S cannelloni or spag Bol. It’s quite tasty and handy to have on tap.

Nachos.

The OP has asked for ready meal recommendations. So if you don't like ready meals and can't recommend one then just don't comment!

I like bolognese pasta bake and add some extra cheese on top for the last minute of microwaving. Or failing that lasagne from one of the luxury ranges, and done in the oven with extra cheese again, is nice

Charlie Bigham if only I could afford him!

The macaroni cheeses ready meals are generally acceptable, the fresh pasta/filled tortellini is great. Microwave the pot of sauce and the pasta takes 3 minutes. The bags if birdseye steam fresh rice that you microwave in the bag are really tasty can add some sort of quick protein or ready cooked protein the rice has veg in so that's covered.

Sainsbury's chickpea chana masala with cauliflower and rice is AMAZING. Always have a couple in the freezer.

Oh and chilli nachos with a tin of chilli and bag of tortilla chips and grated cheese

I actually quite like the Admiral's fish pie ready meals.....remind me of my childhood!

For cooking for more than one person though I think the microwave can take a fair bit of time as you have to cook each person's one at a time so some other things we do for super quick (5 to 10 minute of prep) meals are:

Tin of vegetable chilli with microwave rice.

Beans/egg/mushrooms on toast in any combination.

Ready made soup with bread and butter.

Fresh pasta and a jar of sauce.

M and s carbonara the fancier one thou not the normal one it's in a circle container 4 mins in the microwave with some Parmesan and it doesn't taste different to what you get in an Italian restaurant.

Tesco Prawn Curry and Rice.

Tesco chilli and King prawn linguine isn't bad, nor is their paella (I mean it's nothing like actual paella but it's not bad), pasta ready meals tend to be mostly edible too. Chilli con carne is OK if you add some sour cream/guacamole/cheese for some flavour.... None are brilliant but I wouldn't go as far to label them all completley horrible.

Then again I do occasionally get an odd craving for Youngs fisherman's pie 😳so😳so perhaps I'm not the best person to ask 😂. I grew up on very cheap ready meals though so I've had my fair share. I do tend to avoid them now.

@hesttreat that M&S chilli prawn pasta is delicious- I could live on it!!

I like the Chinese chicken curry from Iceland with some spring rolls or chips
I usually go for a baguette or wrap pizza or a baked potato with beans and cheese, though

Booths cottage pie by a mile, it’s gorgeous

M&S 3 for £8 ready meals are actually really nice. I buy them for dinner when it's not an emergency 🤷‍♀️

M&S ravioli or Waitrose Thai curry. I’m not generally a fan of them either but they fill a need and on a busy night create little washing up.

the other option is something you’ve made ahead of time (like chilli) and have it with microwave rice.

people commenting they don’t like them is ridiculous.