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.

Ok I confess tonight was Charlie big hams Spanish chicken and potatoes- I added broccoli spears , last night DH had an M&S chicken chow mein with mini spring rolls - I had an M&S king prawn curry to which I added a small portion of whole grain rice and some broccoli

All was very nice indeed - and nope I don't feel remotely guilty I didn't make it myself-

The odd time but haven't had one for ages.

Hello fresh is a waste of money and find the portions too small.

I'm going to get slated now as I literally only eat ready meals 🤦‍♀️🤣

I loathe cooking, all that prep and effort to munch it down in 10 minutes and still have to wash up afterwards?

No thanks 🤣

I agree. I eat some ready meals, but I find cooking very boring and can't be bothered wasting my time on it, also I live alone. Cooking from scratch doesn't make you some superior being.

“Gave eldest DC an Ella tray while weaning”

literally the most Mumsnet sentence I’ve quite possibly ever read

🤣🤣🤣

I didn't think of oven chips as coming in a "plastic container"
If plastic bag'd = ready meal, then 98% of my diet is ready meals.

I’m possibly in the minority on here it would seem but I do!

I sometimes work 13hr shifts, I’ve done a lot of of these of late, ready meals provide me with my tea on these long shifts and provide my teenage son with something quick and easy to prepare and prevents me from coming home to a tonne of cooking mess in the kitchen so its convenient. I also frequently work long stints with only a single day off in between so don’t get much time to decompress. I can cook and am reasonably good at it, I even quite enjoy it when I’ve got got the time and am not exhausted and I do try to cook decent meals from scratch as often as I can but I can’t lie, a mix of long stints and long days and recently the odd night shift too I’m frequently too exhausted when I get home to spend much time cooking, therefore at least once a week we will have something that can literally just be bunged in the oven for ease, depending on the meal I might do some veg or a salad to go with.

I ate them for every meal and now I have painful gout and high blood pressure so I'm cooking proper food everyday now.

I’m coeliac- but whilst I don’t really have ready meals partly as it’s just simply easier to make something gluten free - I have found them useful when staying over at someone’s- particularly my mum’s as her kitchen is gluten loaded on every surface, but the meal is fairly safe in a microwave - I care for her and leave them in freezer for last minute emergency stopovers. I’m lazy enough to use them but glad I’m coeliac and deliberately don’t have a microwave to help that 🤦🏻‍♀️

Who has time to cook from scratch? By the time we’re home from work, we want a meal quickly. We’re not going to spend time in the kitchen creating a pasta sauce when we can open a jar - tastes perfectly good- add some extra veggies if we have anything suitable, and pour it over some pasta and something with some protein in (tonight it was salmon). Good meal in 10 minutes.
im also not spending the weekend batch cooking.

Funny you say no judgement, yet the fact that you have even posted this is in itself very judgemental. Talk about blowing smoke up your own a**e! Aren’t you all absolutely amazing for never feeding little Tarquin a ready meal in his life! 🙄 Seriously get a life people!

No. It doesn’t. But I thought it was alot to suggest that only 10% of people eat similarly. Which turns out to be true when you look at the study in more detail.

We have loads of convenience food in stock for just in cases.

I cook virtually every night from scratch. But teen DS will bolt in and out with zero notice as he's just arranged to meet his friends, and needs something there and then to gobble down, so we have a stash of frozen pizzas etc.

Sometimes if I've had a long day, I can't be arsed to cook, and I don't know that at the start of the day so can't plan for it. The takeaways around here are pants, so we keep frozen paellas as a stand by too.

So we never plan our week to have them, but they are very handy when we need them.

My mum is a single lady, she always cooked from scratch when I was growing up but now she eats a lot of ready meals because she lives alone and therefore has little desire to cook just for one. She also finds packs of things never come small enough to just do one person so a lot would go to waste, her kitchen is very small and her freezer isn’t very big either so batch cooking often isn’t practical. She has family over for tea she will cook and make enough to put a tub or two aside.

I wish I could lead a life aa fulfilling as yours.

@MrsR87 I know you probably mean well, but I read your inspirational menu and thought wow, is that much meat really good for ANYONE? I suppose none of us are perfect though...

Do you think men try and out do each other about whether they make fish pies or not?

I can't cook so do sometimes have ready meals. DH does the cooking mostly but tbh it's not really fair to expect him to do it all so I chip in now and then and we have something basic like a ready meal.

We have “ready meals” one night a week …. In as much as it’s frozen pizza. I sometimes have a paella in a bag (frozen) that has to be pan fried.
anything truly ready in a box I find it too salty and it makes me feel ill. Like I’ve got a horrendous hangover even if I drink plenty of liquid.

sometimes we have frozen fish and chips

my daughter had a cottage pie 6 months ago instead of pizza and was really disappointed! She’s not asked for another microwave meal since.

I have a little repertoire of stuff that’s quick and easy to cook - honestly I’d rather have beans/egg on toast than a microwave meal. And I freeze leftovers, so really quick to have jacket potato and casserole or chilli.

Looking back at the meals from the past couple of weeks you’re absolutely right! We’ve been decorating four rooms so it’s been all hands on deck so I have planned things that we know like the back of our hands, which clearly seems to be m’est dishes. We usually have fish twice a week and a veggie meal once a week but it’s clearly all gone to pot.

Never - for me. Don’t think I have ever bought one.

I do sometimes buy oven chips and turkey schnitzel / fish finger for the DC.

Do they care enough to join a MN discussion?

@peachespeachespeaches ha, ha- so true for vast majority of men- my H would be quite happy to live off 5 ready meals ( quality ones I admit) plus some veg - a week --mixed in with a couple of made from scratch ones -

never, all meals are freshly made, my children have never eaten a microwave meal, it’s utter poison

Yeah, I order about 4-5 meals from Cook weekly. They do good low calorie options, it’s not UP and they taste good.

by the time I’ve wrestled my shit sleepers down, I can’t be arsed to cook a meal from scratch tbh.