What are the best quality ready meals?

[MamaLlama123]

I'm looking to feed my children good quality ready meals due to working full time

Ideally home made style/ less processed

what are people's experiences of cook?

any other brands?

what are the best value for money

Cook or Charlie bighams. Expensive though. Better off batch cooking or is there no time?

Is this so they can heat the food themselves or for you to heat after work ?

Sorry I don’t know about ready meals but if you’re going to heat up from frozen, you’d be as quick to buy ready packed stir fry veg , chopped chicken, noodles and a sauce to stir fry. Ready in 5 minutes.

Slow cooker for stews etc ?

Cook meals are good and very close to home cooking. They aren’t all delicious but some are and which ones you prefer are down to personal taste. Our house favourite is the veggie lasagne, despite all being meat eaters.

Cook are really good, I would say like home-cooked but I am not a great cook so they are much better than my home cooking!

Cook and Charlie Bingham are less full of rubbish

@MoodEnhancer the veggie lasagne is SO good, we're not veggies either.
Disappointed with the fish pie, it was used to be great, but there was too much mash and not enough fish last time, esp for the price.

Iceland has recently started selling Jamie Oliver ones.

Booths have some nice ones. Can't remember the brand name.

Wiltshire Farm Foods are said to be good - my DF loved them !
They deliver, & are reasonably priced compared to other brands.

Just to add to this, there's nothing wrong with things like:

• microwave rice + cooked chopped chicken breast + microwave bag of veg
• spaghetti hoops
• crosta and mollica wraps, homous, chopped cucumber and tomatoes
• beans on wholemeal toast
• small jacket potato done in microwave, tinned tuna on top, cucumber and tomatoes
• pasta and a stir through tomato sauce (ideally one with less sugar salt and preservatives)

I don't know if that's helpful at all, but thought I'd share some other instant or very quick meals my daughter likes that are moderately balanced/healthy - obviously not perfect

I like Sainsbury's lentil dahl soup, it is really delicious.

M&S mushroom papardelle for one - this is my go-to if I'm home alone and don't want to cook.

Charlie Bigham's fish pie for an absolute treat!