Ready Meals

We find the Dine in for£10 excellent value with a bottle of wine thrown in. We often make the dessert into 4 portions.

On occasions when there is a £20 offer which includes a starter, we just add veg to the starter e.g fish cakes plus potatoes and mixed veg and eat as a main meal.

The M and S £6.00 meal for two, chicken, stir fry, noodles and sauce is delicious. I think £3.00 each is reasonable per person.

tiggypiro I completely agree with you. Like you I had a period of time when a lack of cooking facilities meant I ate ready meals and I reached the stage where as I walked along the cabinets in the supermarket trying to decide what i wanted to eat my appetite gradually drained away. The contents are never as nice looking as the illustrated 'service suggestion' and I would end up with a green salad and some ham.

We love casseroles and stews and I always cook a pound of meat at a time with plenty of vegetables so that each dish provides one meal on the day and two for the freezer. I currently have over 20 meals in the freezer, most in portions of two. So if something happens and we are too tired or too busy to cook, I just reach into the freezer for a home-made ready meal. On the very rare occasions when even that is beyond us we go out for a meal or have fish and chips.

jingl - they are quite nice. The trouble is, the Iceland near us keep selling out of them and not re-stocking which is annoying.

That sounds really good Katyk. Will have a look at those.

I am a fan of M&S and Waitrose macaroni cheese. I try to keep one in the freezer in case I cannot be bothered to cook.

Iceland now do a Slimming World range of ready meals which I sometimes buy if I haven't got time to cook. I try to follow the Slmming World eating plan when I am trying to lose a few pounds. They are not bad (and very big compared to other ready meals). They are £3 each and sometimes they have them two for £5. They have the recipe on the back so you can make it yourself if you have enjoyed it.

We are not lucky enough to have a Waitrose near by jings but we have a very handy M&S Food Store and their macaroni cheese and other pasta dishes are delicious and have plenty of sauce which I find lacking in some brands,we always do a M&S dine in meal when they are on offer for Saturday,it's the best buy of the week.

Has anyone tried Waitrose macaroni cheese. Delicious! But v high fat!

I don't think my M&S fish pie tasted much like the M&S chilli con carne

I think it depends on where you buy your ready meals - I only occasionally have them but do like Waitrose, haven't tried the M&S ones. When I was first widowed I couldn't be bothered to cook and lived on sandwiches and snacks then one day I bought a ready meal from Tesco. Took one mouthful, threw it away and started cooking from scratch again!

I feel I am a lone voice in the wilderness here as I don't like ready meals - even the M&S ones. I had them when I was on my own with a broken leg and I suppose they were ok given the circumstances but as for buying them now, no thank you. After a while they all seemed to taste the same. I much prefer to make everything from scratch and it really does not take much time at all. Best of all I know what is in it !!

I wish someone would make some nice veggie ready meals - some that even DH might like!

I do do loads of cooking from scratch and freeze some too, but once or twice in a while it's nice to have a break and a ready meal!

I buy the M&S ones when they are on offer and put them in the freezer.

I'm always thinking I should do more cooking from scratch so I am relieved to hear that so many of you don't do that either. DH is picky, otherwise I would cook veggie meals and freeze them.

Our village has a new fish and chip van that comes round on Fridays so, as a gesture of support, DH went and bought some tonight. I have to say they were delicious but DH asked for 'extra salt' (oh dear) so I have been drinking water all evening - and you know what that means.

I don't buy many ready meals as, like someone above said, there is too much salt and/or sugar in them usually and, of course, many of them (especially M and S) are expensive.

I have Bisto ready meals a couple of times a week for my lunch, I only have chicken or minced beef hop pots, they`re only £1 and really nice.

When I worked full time in a very demanding job I used to shop at M&S at the weekend and fill the fridge with ready meals to feed the family who all wanted to eat before I arrived home from work during the week. I made sure that weekend meals were home cooked and eaten together as a family.
Not much different now that I am retired!

tanith I did my whole weekend shop in M&S today and it didn't seem any more expensive than the usual supermarket shop. I had vouchers too, which brought the price down by £13.
I try to be a canny shopper, though - if it costs too much I put it back and pick an alternative.
Apart from those double cherry yoghurts someone mentioned on another thread - expensive but I just had to try them!!

I was going to make a lovely fish pie tonight as it's Good Friday. But DH wants his usual fish and chips so I am going to have a M&S Count on us fish pie.
Delicious!

Love Tesco Finest lamb shanks - even I can cook them.

Oh dear. I have been eating h c buns all day and now CAB to And we had a ready meal for lunch.

Didn't get 'em in the end. I seem to remember lethargy set in, and then the moment passed. Doubt if they were as nice as M and S and Waitrose though.

I don't buy ready meals as I love cooking and they're expensive. I reckon most my main meals cost about £1 - £2. Also, like all processed food, ready meals are heavy on salt, fat and sugar.
I cook from scratch and always make enough for several meals, the extra being reheated next day or frozen. My freezer is full of home-frozen vegetables, soup and complete meals. I don't make elaborate stuff, it's mostly vegetarian and made quickly because I'm greedy!

Jingl and Galen, how were the 5:2 ready meals, which you ordered from a GN advert, on special offer?

crun this is more like for like comparison

Yes Riverwalk. we do have that as a regular thing. So convenient!