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.

There’s a difference between 90% eating them regularly and 24%

Theres still a market there, clearly, just less of a market than I understood at the outset of this thread.

It’s all relative isn’t it. I’m sure some ready meals take longer than that in the oven, but I I accept they’re less labour intensive.

Ready meals are a growing market so plenty of families are buying them.

How big is the ready meal market UK?

GBP 3.89 billion
The United Kingdom (UK) ready meals (prepared meals) market size was valued at GBP 3.89 billion in 2021 and is expected to achieve a CAGR of more than 3% during 2021-2026. The fastest-growing segment of the ready meals market between 2016 and 2021 was ambient ready meals.

Never. Dh might eat one once a week when he's got very limited time between work and football but I never do. We batch cook weekly so when we need something quick and easy to microwave it's coming out of our freezer and we made it ourselves so we know it's decent ingredients and tastes way better than the ready meals. I used to eat them more when I was vegetarian but now I eat meat again I'm much much fussier about that meat. I also hate the unnecessary plastic

If we don't feel like cooking we'd get a takeaway.

Same here. Great for a Friday night when you're exhausted from the working week but don't want the cost or calories of a takeaway. Generally though I batch cook and freeze. Just yesterday I made a lasagne and froze it into six portions.

@Parker231 yes. Someone else found the study I was quoting. Poss page 9.

Do you find lasagne sheets get a funny texture when defrosted? I don’t like them. I tend to just freeze the sauce and assemble when defrosted.

I've recently tried recipe boxes.

I'm not too sure about them.

1. It's incredibly convenient.

1. The amounts are large but don't really contain enough vegetables (imo). And most recipes either contain simple carbs or a lot of dairy.

(I wish there was one that suited our needs...)

I am however a massive fan of tray bakes. Super simple, quick (15-30 minutes), don't need a lot of pots or pans... love them.

@PumpkinsAndCoconuts i agree with you re veg. I bulk them up with frozen veg like mushroom, pepper or whatever I have in the fridge. Which somewhat defeats the object.

On the topic of what diet causes cancer, this is a really helpful website. The main culprits are meat, especially red and processed meats like sausages, burgers, also chicken nuggets (fish fingers not on there). Obesity in general is more of a risk than any individual food. I found this helpful to sort it out in my mind:

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/diet-and-cancer

Also eating green leafy vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli or spinach protects against bowel cancer- all the food boxes (Gousto, Hello Fresh) tend to include these in most meals which I appreciate.

I take ready meals to work with me. I am a nurse and work 12.5 hour shifts. I work 2-3 shifts per week. I havent got time in the morning or the night before, to prepare a meal ready for work. I eat my dinner in work because other wise by the time I get home its to late and I will only snack, which in my opinion is worse. Whilst at home then I will cook from scratch. I do occassionally buy a ready made Lasagne.

Not all ready meals are the same. Some are just salt and fat but others have good nutrition in mind and are packed with different vegetables and goodness.
I have noticed that supermarkets are offering salad bowls in their meal deal section. It seems to me that the demand for healthy convenience food is growing. If you lived alone or in a couple I can see why you'd consider a salad bowl with 3 of your 5 a day over buying the veg and chopping it yourself. You'd save money but people are often time poor.

"I notice a lot of posters have said that they find ready meal portions too small, so maybe that's the reason they worked."

Those people are probably eating too much for their usual meals then.
Having said that I'm a short woman. If I were a tall man I'd probably need to add something to the ready meal.

" I’ve never really got the draw of microwave meals or oven ready meals, they often take as long to cook as a quick simple meal (pasta with homemade sauce)"

What? A microwave meal takes 3-5 minutes, if frozen then 10, but doesn't have to be watched like pasta. No way can you cook pasta and a sauce in less time than that.

" In the UK many ready meals are not cheap and they are not particularly processed either."

Ready meals in the UK are MUCH cheaper than in many other countries. I know there's been inflation in the last few years, but when I was last there you could get some at Tesco for £1.25.
Also bear in mind the time saving for people and the difficulty of buying and keeping fresh food if you live alone.

"No. Would rather batch cook. I know what's going in my food, no salt, unhealthy fats or preservatives."

We need some salt.

But it doesn’t take much longer than that.

A homemade cheese sauce can take 5 minutes by just pouring single cream into a pan, heating it up, adding seasoning, shredded cheese and stirring until combined. The pasta takes the longest and to shorten the time, you can make batches beforehand and simply stir in pasta or purchase fresh pasta which takes 3-5 minutes to cook and add that in. Dry pasta depending on the type takes 7-9 minutes to cook. While the pasta is cooking, you make the sauce. I can have a creamy pasta with a side salad in 15 minutes with leftovers for later in the day or the next day depending on when I have it.

Even restaurants (the ones that cook the food in front of you) make pasta and sauce dishes quite quickly and it rarely takes 15 minutes.

I'M genuinely interested in all the mumsnetters who manage to get up, go to the gym, work a full day plus at their 100k job, ferry their 4 kids to every after school club going, THEN go home and cook their family a healthy nutritious meal from scratch every day and still have time to have a spotless house, hobbies, social life and a fantastic marriage. Come on share your secrets with the rest of us slovenly, time wasting peasants :-)

I've been trying the hello fresh boxes.

The recipe I cooked yesterday contained one medium courgetted for 2 people (2 courgettes for 4). It's just not enough imo. (I I luckily had an extra courgettes, but as @RedRosette2023 that's not really the point...)

@RedRosette2023 pasta doesn't generally defrost as nice as fresh, ideally I'd eat fresh! I live alone so not sure I could do it the way you suggested, unless I just used a tiny baking dish to make enough for one maybe?

Most people on here that batch cook from scratch their so called healthy meals seem to use mince beef, hardly a healthy choice.

I've always wondered who spunks 10 quid on a Charlie Bighams ready meal and now I know!

We're mad at mince now too?