Do you eat ready meals regularly?

[RedRosette2023]

Following from another thread - I heard a statistic the other day that said up to 90% of people regularly consume ready meals. As in, in a plastic container and from the microwave or oven.

I sense that MN is quite middle class so likely not representative of the whole of the country. But I was surprised by that statistic.

I genuinely can’t remember the last time I ate a ready meal. I occasionally gave eldest DC an Ella tray when they were weaning, a meal I could keep in my changing bag and have handy in case we were out over tea time. My youngest refused any pouches etc so he has never had one. He’s always just eaten what we’ve eaten and taught me baby food is totally unnecessary, albeit convenient at times.

I am coeliac so it’s possible my habits have been formed due to necessity - I would struggle to pick up a ready meal I can eat with ease. M&S do some and I think GF ones slightly more available now but I just don’t buy them.

I’m also not a SAHM Mum, I work a pressured job four days, my DH works away mostly during the week, I use hello fresh etc 3-4 days. But I always find time for a meal. My ready meal is something batch cooked out the freezer.

No judgment - just genuinely interested.

Regularly. The fresh soups from m&s in plastic containers that you heat in the microwave. Quiches taken out of a box and heated in the oven. Have no inclination to make fresh soup or quiche myself during the week.

Do cook from scratch at weekends.

Also, a lot of people get very antsy about ‘chemicals’ in their food. Natural food is made up of chemicals! The same ones that get added as E numbers. Look at what makes up the natural foods here. Sounds scary, right? They are all the natural chemicals which make up these foods.

Of course everyone will say "never!!!" because these kind of polls are self selecting and noone is going to say yes after you've just said how awful they are 😆

I dont eat them regularly but I do eat them sometimes if I am too tired to cook. I also steam veggies to go with them and I run regularly and eat lots of oily fish and nuts and seeds/fruit etc. I also dont drink alcohol as that is a known carcinogenic.

I am under no illusion that they are healthy but I also recognise that a sedentary lifestyle and alcohol are equally as terrible for you (and have been proven to be so) so for me, its a case of choose your poison.

We do occasionally but I really don’t like them (they smell like hospital food to me) but I’ll make an exception if I’m tired with some M&S things. I do like their lasagne and some of their Asian food.

No from me. I can’t bear the taste of processed food.
Have an elderly friend who has become less and less mobile, she’s eaten vegetarian ready meals for the last 6 years I’d say. She cannot stand to prepare or cook fresh food. She’s out on weight and her health has deteriorated but sadly I live too far away to do anything to help.

Can’t remember the last time I had a ready meal? Maybe 10-15 years ago?

Oh and Dr Oetker frozen pizzas, I bloody love them.

90% seems huge!
We never eat ready meals, nor did my parents.
I will batch cook and freeze and then if I need a quick meal we have that.

When I moved house I was buying them and thought I’d found one of the answer’s to life. But after a few days I was sick of them and it felt like eating junk food.

Typo, soz ^

I don't eat the microwave ones, but suspect that like a lot of the people on here being horrified, I have more processed food than I'd think, with occasional frozen pizzas, or a covent garden soup at work, or a premade pesto or sauce - which would all count as ultra processed food, even if they're not in a plastic package.

It's the amount of processed snacks that continually surprise me in this country, I've lost the battle to give my kids fruit / eggs / home made flapjacks / breadsticks and hummus etc when the rest of the class brings in crisps and since Covid even chocolate bars and more. Most places this would be totally unheard of in primary school.

The kids have an oven pizza once a week.
Dh and I have a Charlie Bingham once a week.
Otherwise, I try very hard to cook from scratch but the reality is that with 3 young kids and working parents, that may not be possible 100% of the time. I am fortunate in that I am reasonably affluent, have some (but limited) time to cook and can cook as was taught.

Guys, it Charlie bighams btw

Ready meals as in microwave meals almost never because they’ve increased in price so much in price I won’t even buy them for the convenience now.

Rarely. Might get the occasional one if we are rushed for time (and regardless of what MN says they’re still quicker/easier than making pasta and stirring pesto through).

I do my own ready meals by batch cooking and putting in to individual tubs.
Also they’re pretty expensive now.

We eat one a month, if that.

They’re not all bad though , i eat kirstys vegan ready meals a couple of times a week for myself. They don’t seem unhealthy to me I’ve been told to eat more salt though for my blood pressure. I hate cooking after work aswell.

I've had my first Gousto box . Delicious .
Ready meals only Charlie Bingham not the £1 lasagne type ready meals .

Certainly with things like curry and Chinese food. The Aldi selection of both are delicious! Also I can’t be arsed to make my own when there’s only 3 of us in the house and DH likes hot curries and DS and I can only eat korma.

Otherwise not really. I’d say we might buy a pre made pasta meal once a month but we always serve it with fresh veg. I always make my own pizza and try and stay away from overly processed stuff.

Very rarely. Most recently we got some in a too good to go bag and had them for lunch, but it isn't something I would go out and buy deliberately.
We cook from complete scratch most days, and sometimes there may be some processed foods in there. For example, a super quick tea last was a homemade slaw, oven fries, hotdogs made with proper sausages ( it the jar ones) and corn on the cob. Or I'll make a katsu curry, but the chicken or fish is Birds Eye. I try to limit foods like these to once a week.

Love an M&S thai green curry so have that occasionally.
Also love Bighams - his fish pie is fab, and he's recentely introduced a chicken madras which has a punch, and bombay potatoes/tarka dahl.

I find it very monotonous to keep planning and cooking bloody meals.

Once in a blue moon. I do like Asda curries. Most other ready meals taste of nothing.

Lot of virtue signalling going on here, OP. Is this the latest stealth boast, that you haven't heard of Charlie Bigham? Charlie Bigham ready-made meals are the premium end. Getting close to a tenner for sufficient for two — although the portions aren't massive. Here's the list of ingredients from their fish pie:

Potatoes, milk, cod (14%) (fish), cream (milk), salmon (9%) (fish), butter (milk), wheat flour (wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamin), smoked haddock (3%) (fish), water, Cheddar cheese (milk), spinach, free-range egg yolk, salt, parsley, fish stock (fish, salt, dried potato, sunflower oil, dried cod (fish), lemon juice concentrate, anchovy (fish), onion powder), lemon juice, yeast, white pepper, caramelised sugar, colours: paprika extract, turmeric extract.

It's not much different from what I'd put into a fish pie at home and I don't think in terms of calories it would be significantly higher than mine. The caramelised sugar is a surprise, but so low down in the list it hardly merits concern, I think. Tell us what would concern you about occasionally eating those ingredients assembled in a factory rather than in your own home?

If you've ever been through the PIP claims process, you'll know they often tell disabled people to get a microwave and eat ready meals if they have trouble preparing a meal.

Sometimes. I quite like the marks and Spencer family sized pasta bolognaise and also some individual lunch size pasta.

Wheat flour concerns me, it’s in the fish pie you’ve posted. I have coeliac disease.