Which "Ready Meals" do you recommend? (Food Police cover your eyes)

[DaphneHarvey]

Like most of you, I'm sure, I cook most meals from scratch. We don't eat "fast" food and very very rarely have takeaways (can't afford em!) but ...

every now and then I want a night off from cooking.

I have been known to buy and enjoy

Waitrose or M & S chicken kievs (the whole breast ones)

Sainsbury's lamb kofta kleftiko

Fish fingers

Good quality vegetarian pizzas

Loyd Grossman pasta sauces

But I want to add to my repetoire for my nights off cooking.

What have you bought and shamelessly enjoyed and not felt guilty about?

Message withdrawn

pieminister pies free range meat and eggs, all butter pastry etc. only in boxes of 12 but freeze a treat. make mushy (frozen) peas to go with. mmmmm.

Pies feature a lot on this thread! Don't blame you, they take an age to do from scratch. And now the cold winter nights are drawing in ...

And, yes, more good curries? Sainsbury's lamb rogan josh is good, and their dahl too. I get those, cook my own basmati, serve with some tzatziki and a few of those poppadums that come in a pack like a hat - and get a decent Indian for half the price of local takeaway.

Anyone found a really nice quiche? Or lasagne? Or moussaka?

I find them all a bit salty tbh

But one thing I am partial to and think is VERY good is the Sainsburys "Indian Snack Selection". Little samosas, bhajis etc in the fresh section. I quite often have a few of these on salad with blob of greek yoghurt on the side for lunch, or as bits to eat before dinner.

they are de-lish

can't bear ready meals

would rather do cheese on toast

have got a fabbo local indian takeaway though that does marvellous fresh food and we get that on a friday night

On a monday morning they have about 20 SACKS of onions delivered - tis v. reassuring

So if you can't bear ready meals, MP, why would you post on a thread about recommended ready meals?

Have already said I can't afford a weekly takeaway, much as I would love to, so?

Yes, thank you, have already thought about cheese on toast.

she has a point MP
several, actually
now go and take a picture of what you are wearing and bugger off this thread

Waitrose curries are the only ready meals I'll even consider ever eating.

I can't stand Tories but I'd still post on a thread about David Cameron

Sainsbury's curry in a box if I was forced to choose, the one made by an indian restarant, I forget the name

or M&S veggie stuff

most are crap though I have to say

(talking of Cameron, did anyone see PMQ's? fabulous, GB was Rubbish with a capital R)

I tend to have a choose your own toppings pizza from asda. two 10 inch ones for £4.00.

I alos like sainsburys paella

I can't stand Tories either. So if I saw a thread titled "OK, I know a lot of you can't stand Tories but I'm thinking of voting for David Cameron, only people with something positive to say about David Cameron please come and share your views"

I really don't think I'd post on the thread saying

"I would never vote for David Cameron" and then adding the reasons why.

Surely there are enough threads on Mumsnet for you to be able to avoid deliberately sticking your oar in and having a little self-righteous rant?

"calm down dear, it's only a fat riddled pot of chemicals and e numbers"

I know that most are indeed crap, Olive. Which is why I religiously cook most meals from scratch with top of the range produce, mostly organic, mostly not bought from supermarkets.

But am not perfect. So just trying to sort the wheat from the chaff re. processed food.

Bighams ready meals - available in Waitrose. These give you the raw ingredients all ready to cook rather than ready cooked food to heat up. Great for a Friday night meal for two when I have been at work all day and then have to go to supermarket to stock up. Portions are rather too generous for us so usually share with DS2 as well.

OK, my favourite lunch, which I have as a treat once a week, is Covent Garden risotto in a pot - it's like a very posh pot noodle!

5 minutes in the microwave and they're utterly delicious.

Another vote for Binghams. Very nice

Sounds lovely Dotty - but am a bit suspicious of re-heated rice. Make sure you get it really hot, won't you?

M&S duck and pancakes. Its about the only 'ready meal' we ever get now. But its as an alternative to going the whole hog with a chinese takeaway.

DH picked one up from Moto M&S on his way home from a trip recently and got the best welcome ever from DD!

I wanted a hot meal whilst at work last week. There's a Waitrose across the road so I thought I'd try their veggie lasagne figuring that Waitrose is posh and probably has a discerbing clientele etc.

Minging! Absolutely fucking minging! A horrible slippery, intensely sugary sauce, pasta like glue, vegetables pure mush with no flavour and nasty tastes I don't recongnise.

Never again. Ming city blues. I ate it because I was hungry but I felt dirty and sick all evening.

False economy. Better to go hungry.

I never eat ready meals as I'm allergic to some of the colourings and/or preservatives in them (can't manage to find out which) and wake up the morning after with a ghastly food hangover where I am all red and swollen and grumpy until mid-afternoon.

However, I really like the Blue Elephant and Kitchen Guru curry packs, where all the spices, herbs, special ingredients etc are already measured out for you and you only have to chop up some chicken breasts and follow the packet instructions to make a great fresh curry.

deliberately sticking your oar in and having a little self-righteous rant?

I DID NOT RANT! Which of my words were a self-righteous rant? Calm down fgs

But now I've been accused of ranting I will attempt to do so

I bought some M&S ready meals when DH was away last year. So I got them out of the packets and they said MICROWAVE, but we don't have one of those so I thought I would follow the oven instructions. So I cooked them and they stank to high heaven, and then I removed them and they had melted into little pots of plastic goo. Then I checked the box AGAIN and it said that the cartons were not oven-proof, so you should decant the food into an oven-proof dish! How is that fecking CONVENIENT?

So I tossed it all out.

Having said that, I do buy an M&S Lasagne occasionally - because making lasagne makes me lose the will to live after I have soiled the 1000th saucepan. But it's not that nice.

The problem with "ready meals" is that I always feel dreadful and sluggish afterwards and then wake up the next day with a feeling like a hangover and the desire to have a colonic irrigation. Do people who eat ready meals really sit down and think "Yummy! I am drooling with anticipation!" and then feel okay afterwards? (A SERIOUS QUESTION)

p.s. David Cameron is a dick

p.p.s. his wife seems nice though

M & S moussaka
Costco's lamb shanks
Costco's woodland chicken