M&S ready prepared food

[higgle]

I've often thought of getting as much of the christmas food ready prepared from M&S. When I collected our pre ordered Turkey and nut roast I noticed lots of other people who seemed to have ordered the whole lot, including veg.
I know I do get a lot of satisfaction out of making my own pudding, cake, mince pies etc. but I'm also always totally knackered by Christmas day and a bit stressed out. Just tell me someone, should I get Christmas in a box in 2013?

[BiddyPop]

We get things prepped some years, and not others. I got a pre-stuffed turkey breast the weekend before Christmas (10 days before) along with a nut roast (veggie AP), potatoes and some veg for a Christmas meal before our au pair went home for hols (manic day so it had to cook while we were out with the oven on the timer). All perfect.

However, for Christmas itself, we only had 3 and a quiet afternoon to do things, so we did it all ourselves and got a full turkey (but there were no giblets!! I had planned on doing turkey stock the night before - it ended up plain veg stock as I already had the veg done).

We did get an M&S pudding last year which was NOT to our taste, luckily my mum came to the rescue this year with a spare of her own.

[milk]

I loved M&S Potato Gratin and Red Cabbage :)

[newtonupontheheath]

Bloody hell swan that's brilliant.

I'm off to tell DH... He best get composing that letter of complaint before they sell out of goose!

[theoriginalandbestrookie]

I did the m&s bundle this year and it was fab. only slight prob I found was a lot of stuff needed microwaving and it was hard to keep it all hot at the same time oh and the pre made mashed potatoes were a bit grim but the rolast potatoes made up for it as they were in beef dripping.
to my mind it tastes much better than the same meal in a restaurant and much cheaper than that so I can't see why some people are so snobbish about it.

[swanthingafteranother]

LOL, yes I thought that too, when I saw the goose. It was enormous and just about to go off!
However, we roasted it, and ate it, and it was delicious, so I reckon we caught it just in time. And the original price was £84 reduced to £50, reduced to nothing!

[Toomuchturkeyatendofthedinner]

"A large free goose" - a handy way of getting rid of their excess stock, so the manager can put it in budget as "goodwill gesture" rather than "oops we over ordered from the warehouse and have wasted the budget"

Classic supermarket tactic, give you something they don't need now anyway. I'd check the use by date carefully .....

[swanthingafteranother]

Just to update, Morrisons just rang up, and gave me a large free goose to apologise for the mixup on the 23rd! As well as the aforementioned bunch of flowers.

I love them! But never again will I pre-order...

[newtonupontheheath]

I think morrisons had banked on people doing their Christmas shop and picking up food at the same time. Unfortunately for us, we'd done out shop with sainsburys and had it delivered so poor DH had just gone for our order.

I've got a baby and a toddler, and DH was working over Christmas so don't want to have to do my own veg etc but can't justify the huge potions of veg with all other pre-order stores (m&s, sainsburys etc) Will have to have a good think for next year!

[Baffledandbewildered]

My parents did this and said the food was great , my mum is no cook! However my poor 80 year old had to queue for 3 1/2 hours at m and s in eltham se London. Really not acceptable, and there excuse was they hadn't expected so many online orders !!!!! May try another supermarket next year :(

[swanthingafteranother]

Btw, I prepared all my own veg, stuffings, puddings etc...which was lucky

[swanthingafteranother]

Doublemum and newton exactly the same with Morrisons here. They lost the goose , and I waited close on an hour for them to pick up all the bits from different departments, slice the salami, arrange the deli tray They never found the goose, but I forgive them because the staff were so incredibly kind (I was in tears of frustration by this point... literally thought I would be able to waltz in and pick up lovely chilled bags of food in five minutes - was that too much to ask of pre-ordering?), and a neighbour who worked at Morrisons (although I didn't know that until the ordering debacle) actually dropped round a bunch of flowers for me afterwards

But if I had been relying on that goose, or it had been Xmas Eve, I would have been spitting.

So food was fine, just it would have been easier to shop for it myself...

I still love Morrisons though. It is so cheap and so homely [sigh] Just not the world of big business.

[newtonupontheheath]

Someone up thread mentioned morrisons...

We did morrisons this year pre-order. It's the first they have done it. Food was lovely, good value and only for two of us (but we have tonnes leftover!) so we didn't want to spend loads.

When DH went to pick it up it was a complete disaster. None of the staff knew what they were doing and he had to go to each individual section of the store to pick up each part ie butchers, deli etc. with a hungry toddler in tow. We thought it would have been a quick in an out-it took and hour and a half!
I love the concept, but morrisons need to sort out some sort of system before we do it with them again

[Floralnomad]

I agree the honey parsnips were vile ! Turkey breasts were fab as is their Christmas pudding .

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

Personally, I love the planning of the Christmas Meal , even the veg preparation so I wouldn't.

But I'm not averse to NYE or NYD dinner from M&S

[SingingSands]

We got the festive feast this year and it fed 6 adults and 4 kids! We did supplement the turkey with a ham, but we only ate half of it. It was great - I want to enjoy Christmas eve and Christmas day, not be stuck in the kitchen.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a real foodie and love cooking and finding new ingredients/recipes. But Christmas day is just a big roast dinner supplemented with lots of booze and chocolate, so I feel no guilt in getting it all in a box and having a day off!

[ouryve]

Oh - and I LOVE the brown meat, so long as it's off a free range turkey. It's really dark and almost like duck.

[ouryve]

I usually get a bit of the stuff, but I do all my own veg. Braised red cabbage can be made ahead and frozen (it's one of those things that actually gets better for this) as can pigs in blankets and stuffings (though I do buy some as well).

[Arisbottle]

I like making the food so it is not something I would do. However if I didn't enjoy cooking I might give it a go

[Toomuchturkeyatendofthedinner]

springlamb the cava is lush isn't it?! Hee hee. About to tackle the cheeseboard today cos we didn't even touch it the last 2 days with everything else we had.

[Timeforabiscuit]

Been doing an m&s for years, can't fit a whole turkey in my oven and it's too much anyway.

Had a swede and bacon crumble this year instead of swede and carrot mash and it was gorgeous!!

Growing up it was horrible watching my mum get stressed and upset to get one meal right,

[higgle]

I think I will try it as an experiement next year, when it is just the 4 of us, and see how we go. If it frees up some of my time for more creative stuff that would be great. Maybe I resent some of the effort as DS2 and I are vegetarian and have a tin of braised tofu and some veggie sos.

[DoubleMum]

My parents ordered the turkey and parsnips from Morrisons this year, for the first time they were offering a similar service to M&S. Except it wasn't. M&S have it all down to a fine art and while there are queues and mistakes can obviously be made, in general it is very well-organised and you will get what you paid for at the time you booked.
In Morrisons they hadn't got items ready for orders. They weren't telling people the correct place to go. They hadn't made items up - eg. someone was collecting platters of sandwiches and the sandwiches hadn't been made, they started making them there and then. Items which had been ordered just weren't there. It was a nightmare.
Oh and the turkey was fine but the parsnips were a bit bleurgh.

[SantasHairyBollock]

I got a turkey breast thing,pork and chestnut stuffing and most of my veg all from M and S this year. It was fab and definitely worth it.

[springlamb]

I've been doing this for some years. This year we had the festive feast, I'd booked the 7am pick-up slot so was back home with everything by 8am.
Everything is beautifully prepared and presented, there was plenty for 5 adults and 1 child, the roast potatoes were fabulous. We supplement with some peas/corn and some ready-made yorkshires. The dessert was great as none of us like Xmas pud, but I'd also ordered one of the raspberry panna cotta desserts as we loved it last year. This year we got a bottle of vintage Cava free with the dinner, and a £5 off voucher as we stood in the collection line. I decided on a serving time and worked the timings backwards so I had a good crib list. Everything cooked perfectly.
My MIL spent the day at BIL's house and did make her usual pointed remark yesterday about him doing the potatoes himself. I simply replied that I had been able to have an extra bucks fizz or two with DH and spend time with the DC instead.
The M & S cheeseboard is delicious.

[PinkFairyTaleOfNewYork]

Yes my mum gets everything out of m&s for 14 of us and it is always delicious.