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.

My dad - washes face with anything that foams, wore SPF sometime in the 70s, eats mostly meat and carbs with the occasional pea, looks a decade younger and doesn't take any medication

Me - skincare routine, healthy diet, SPF daily, exercises... riddled with autoimmune conditions and rattle with meds

DH and I take it in turns to cook from scratch 6 days a week. On the 7th day we usually have a takeaway but on occasion, if funds are low we get a microwave curry or a pizza to bung in the oven.
I'm a far better cook nowadays than I used to be though. Before I learned to cook properly I relied on ready meals a lot more.

Good point others have brought up about price. It would actually be pretty expensive for us to buy ready meals. But I do sometimes get them if they're reduced.

I have genuinely never eaten a ready meal of the tray variety. My parents were definitely cook from scratch types - made their own bread, cakes and yoghurt etc..

I have lived a lot of my adult life in London though, so if I can't be arsed to cook there are plenty of places to eat out or pick up food from.

I do eat some ready made foods - tinned soup, pies, breaded fish (we habe breaded haddock goujons for dinner tonight) etc.. but actual ready meals always look fairly unappetising and pretty expensive for what they are to me. I have also never owned a microwave so I am not sure how. The assembled meals on a tray could be beated up.

I’m as middle class as they come. Eat ready meals probably 2 or 3 times a week. . Work full time and there’s only 2 of us. It’s usually a Charlie Bingham or M&S curry, or the Sainsbury’s curry in a bag. Also fish fingers, breaded chicken or silmilar once a week.

husband eats tinned soup most days…he prefers my home made soup but won’t make soup himself.

im a good cook,he’s a reasonable cook….but buying a ready meal, adding salad, you get someth8ng nice and tasty, little thought etc.

Ive got bored of cooking…

Like you I find that cooking from frozen rarely turns out well so I generally defrost it fully before reheating it slowly. Wet dishes like bolognase, curries, chillis and pie fillings reheat the best.

I meal plan for the week since we moved to the arse of nowhere and I'm never home before 7. Before then I lived right beside a lidl and would pop in after work. So I suppose because we have no choice if we didn't fancy it, we just have to get on with it or swap it for something planned for another day.

This week is the week before payday so I was running down the freezer stuff: I am lucky that DH is at home so if I forget to take it out to defrost then I can ring him to do it. If not, then I usually have something that can be quick and easy as a back up like a frozen fish mix for a seafood chowder or pop into the local garage on my way home.

Saturday was fish fingers (freezer), mushy peas (tinned) and mash (fresh)
Sunday I defrosted a half leg of lamb the day before, stuck that in the oven and served with green beans and mash (both fresh) - I was going to do roasties but couldn't be arsed. Tonight I've carbonara lined up- the grated parmasan and pecorino is frozen as is the pancetta but you can still shake out the required amount of cheese and the pancetta defrosts pretty quickly. I'll throw together some garlic bread as well. Slow cooker beef stew on Wednesday, jambalaya (in the freezer from a previous batch on Thursday) and a takeaway on Friday.

I don't freeze leftovers - I used to but then there would be loads of mystery lumps of food so now I use up any leftovers as lunches the next day. So far since I defrosted the freezer in November, I actually know everything that's in my freezer for a change.

Almost never. Probably had 3 in about 10 years.

We do sometimes, its easier to get ones for dietary needs now, m&s do some really nice plant based ready meals.