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?

One of our go-to quick suppers is a proper carbonara (really easy and very few ingredients). Or a Welsh rarebit, or an omelette/frittata using anything in the fridge.

Asda freshly made pizza, you can choose your own toppings and can serve it with a side salad of some kind if you want.

M & S pasta bakes.

My mum always did us a veggie burger in a bun with fried onions on top for a v quick dinner after school before my club.

m&s lasagne at our house

The city kitchen honey sriracha chicken

Shredded left over chicken from freezer, frozen stir fry veg, noodles, chunky peanut butter and sweet chilli sauce to make a v quick satay noodles.

Again shredded left over chicken/pork whatever, frozen chopped onions, chopped pepper, tinned tomatoes, garlic (frozen chunks good) and spices thrown together in a frying pan then in a wrap with salad/cheese etc..

Late husbands family recipe for corn beef hash- like a quick shepherd's pie. Layer corned beef, baked beans, mash (frozen fine for quickness) then grated cheese and bake for about 30-40 mins. I hate corned beef but this is actually quite nice. DC loves it.

Another of late MIL's recipes (an amazing cook- from south east Asia but could turn her hand to anything on a budget). Cook macaroni, fry up onions, bacon bits (or lardons) some mushrooms, add chopped tomatoes and some mixed herbs. Mix in with macaroni in an oven proof dish and top with grated cheese and bake. Takes minutes and kids love it.

Keep frozen chopped onions/garlic/veg and herbs in your freezer and this really cits down cooking time when in a hurry. Same with tinned tomatoes/passata. We have frozen mash in the freezer just to add to a very quick cottage pie etc. Also when I make curry pastes/ pasta sauce bases I freeze loads. I am not a batch cooking person but it makes sense to make these in quantities.

Aldi tinned chicken curry (mild for us) and a microwave rice pouch ( either the egg fried or long grain ones) definitely a winner here for a quick meal xx

Also love macaroni cheese in this house. Happy to use a pot of supermarket cheese sauce and also add pre-prepared broccoli/cauliflower when cooking macaroni. Goes down just as well as cooked from scratch.

What's your best supermarket emergency microwave dinner?

Cue mountains of posts talking about things that can't be microwaved. 😂

I like the M&S Chicken & Parmesan Fettuccine. But I like to add stir fry broccoli and mushrooms to it, and extra grated cheese, and possibly a slug of white wine.........

I’d just go to McDonalds tbh.
I’m fully prepared to admit that. Whilst I’m at it I’ll add that some days I’m quite content to not eat a single piece of fruit or veg. I realise this makes me ineligible for Mumsnet….

But I do like Tesco Prawn Tikka Masala and M&S Mushroom Pappardelle for the microwave.

I like Tesco Thai Red / Green curry with rice but the last couple were tasteless, the sauce almost like water and very little chicken. The chicken was tough too.
Aldi also had good red and green Thai curries in their ready meals section but haven’t seen it for a while now.

The joy! The first 3 posts miss the point. Judge away, meanwhile we work and pay tax to.support.you 🤣
What?

Cringe at the folk recommending thjngs other than microwave meal
It was a slightly confusing post actually as the OP said they didn't like ready meals. So people are trying to find alternatives.

Also if you keep fresh pasta in the freezer it cools almost as quickly as fresh. So you can use that with a stir in sauce and some leftover chicken, or garlic mushrooms etc.

Prince's tinned vegetable curry is delicious. I have it with a packet rice.

"Ready meals"
Soup (in the microwave) and a sandwich (not microwaved)
Chicago Town deep dish pizzas (not as nice as done in the oven, but pizza!)

I normally bulk cook, though, so there are always extra portions of things in my fridge and freezer. Reheat:

• Lasagne
• Curry
• Pasta with whatever
• Veg

Freshly made:
Omelette (yes, in the microwave - throw everything in a bowl and cook until rubber, then add more butter)

If you don't bulk cook, you can just make extra on the Monday to reheat on Tuesday.

Depends how many are eating.

Family sized lasagna (it's been a while but the Sainsbury one was ok) plus a bagged salad

Or individually, whatever the DC prefer - curry and rice, pasta bolognese/meatballs/lasagne.

Or just me, a microwave fresh veg/noodles pot.

Actually don't have a microwave any more, so would do chilli in the slow cooker, with crusty bread.

Hello everyone, we're getting quite a few reports about this thread being derailed by a spat between users. We politely ask you to please not do this as it is derailing the thread.
Best wishes
MNHQ

Oh where from? I loved Tesco but was about 12 years ago!

What about filled pasta and sauce rather than a micro meal? Even quicker.

Aldi also had good red and green Thai curries in their ready meals section but haven’t seen it for a while now.

They changed them to a "pot" microwave meal and relocated them beside the salad meals near the door.

@redbigbananafeet you can get it from all supermarkets. The main ones usually do a multi buy deal where you can buy the sauce and the pasta slightly cheaper