Shop meals you can pass off as your own

I would say there is nothing as good as freshly cooked home food as long as you can cook to a basic standard.

Quick dessert line a flan dish with a crushes biscuit base. Mix a tin of condensed milk with a medium tub of double cream. Add juice of fresh lemons until it thickens and pour on base put in fridge to chill. Decorate if you want but not needed.

A friend made this regularly for pot Luck lunches and we all loved it and were amazed when she told us how she did it.

ah Merlot- sorry this gave you a shock! Hope you recover from that one ...

Most of my neighbours, friends and colleagues in the UK are and were amazing and super friendly and generous - but a few were just - just as here, there or anywhere. Litter and fly-tipping is much more prevalent in some places than others, like Sicily (and a few more ;) )

Alea I bought a pack of 4 from W***rose, dined on it with loads of veg for 2 evenings and froze the remainder- very cheap and delicious. Mine had chicken breasts and legs.

I may well consider the other option when I come out of hospital after my knee replacement.

I have never been to a farm shop although there is one a few miles away. I should make the effort.

I just came back to say that farm shops are very good too and lots of them sell the stuff jings is talking about. At the one my friend and I go to for coffee you can buy lovely little rounds of dauphinois (however I spell that it looks wrong!!) and the garden shop round here that has a Lakeland store, has a butcher's that sells the most delicious belly pork slices in barbecue sauce. (for GandTea's info!!)

Just looked at the link, jingl. Thank you. I'll pass it on to DD2 who is hopefully going home from hospital tomorrow following a hysterectomy and unforseen complications. She's as weak as a kitten and although DSiL is a good cook they have two veggie daughters and an always ravenous son.

Could come in very handy for the veggie options.

Brilliant link jingl thank you.
I have passed it on to DD and SIL. Who are getting zero sleep with their new baby ??

Farm shops are often a good source of 'homemade' meals but tend to be pricey.

Tesco Finest lamb shanks, amazing.

That is an extremely serious and horrific problem. It needs the best brains brought to bear upon it. When I go to a fete I want and expect the very best and most delicious Viccy sponge sandwich to be there, ready and waiting for me to purchase! If you don't mind!

Do not belittle very important matters!

Flippin' 'eck, granjura. I know you don't like our dangerous driving, litter dropping, inconsiderate neighbour and dangerous dog owning UK residents (and probably a few other horrors I've forgotten about) but cake snaffling cheats???

I didn't see that one coming.

these people do food that is very "homemade". There may be a shop near you, or you can sometimes buy their foods in garden centre food halls. Or you can order online. We like them.

I had a neighbour in the UK who would turn up an hour early on the day of the village Fête, and buy up all the best cakes that other villagers are lovingly made for the day- freeze them and pass them as her own! Many of us were furious ... and the 3rd year she was told a firm NO- she would have to buy them when the Fête was officially opened. She did turn up on the dot every year... and never owned up of course. At a party at her house another neighbour made the point of saying loudly 'Oh I'll have a bit of my cake that I made for the Fête last year'!

You are so lucky in the UK with all the great ready made meals available. My sil and bil have a M&S dinner for 2 at least once a week, sometimes twice.

W**trose do packs of chicken thighs/drumsticks with either N African spices or Chorizo or Chilli in their fresh poultry section. Just add a tin of tomatoes and chickpeas (or not) and cook in a casserole in the oven. Feeds 6 for £5.99 - so good value too!
I have got away with this more than once. <ssh>

Why not freeze some meals when you do feel like cooking?

I sometimes buy puddings from a local Italian cafe but I own up! The same cafe sells takeaway meals so I suppose that would be an option if you have one in your area.