Just watched the money show, which was about ready meals.
They said that something like only 18% of people make a meal from scratch at least one day a week!! One family (with 3 young kids) said it meant they could all have what they wanted and it was all ready in about 11 minutes, well if you've got 2 or 3 microwaves maybe. Another preferred buying pre-made mash (not smash - proper mashed spuds + loads of other cack to stop it going off) because peeling spuds and boiling them was too much hassle! (well you don't actually HAVE to peel nicely washed shop bought spuds..)
I admit to having a ready meal perhaps once a month (probably less) if I'm in a hurry to go out etc.. (excluding the odd pot-noddle after the pub).
What do you think about ready meals, how often do you eat ready meals?
Not very. The kids keep buying pizzas and rubbish like that when they have money; occasionally we indulge. Namissa found a halal pizza place, which is a disgraceful encouragement.
We really never do ready meals. Nearest we get is buying "stuffed" pasta. Oh I lie! An occasional pizza for 4 year old granddaughter.
very rarely. pizza and pies are probably our most ready made but with that will go fresh veg or salad.
people have been conditioned to live the rat race and buy accordingly.
oh and beer, i don't make my own beer.
;D
I don't buy ready meals, other than fresh filled pasta or pizza. I love cooking!
My microwave only really gets used to defrost things or to make bread and butter pudding ... it's the best, and if you haven't tried it you really should!
got a recipe wellingtons ? i actually saw a ready made B&B the other day and reminded me that i've not had one since the old king died.
spotted dick and all. mmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnn got the tastebuds going now.
;D
Is that the pudding or the old king? ;)
...i'll get me coat... :o
Yep ... I'll go find me book and type it up ... will be along shortly! :)
OK here we go
50g butter
6 large slices of bread, crusts removed
75g dried fruit (I love using those soft apricots!)
grated rind of a lemon
3 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp light soft brown sugar
425ml milk
few drops of vanilla essence
1 tbsp demerara sugar
Butter a 1.5 litre (2.5 pint) pie dish
Butter the bread, and cut into quarters
Arrange in the dish, layering with fruit and lemon rind
Beat eggs with soft brown sugar
Warm the milk and beat the egg mixture and vanilla essence into the warmed milk
Pour over the bread and cook on a medium heat for 10 - 15 minutes (basically til it's just set).
Sprinkle with demerara sugar and whack under the grill to brown.
Bliss on a desert spoon!!
Thanks wellingstons, i shall try it out on Sunday.
I have an important trip to Carlisle tomorrow.
;D
Don't want to sound puritanical here, but all my ready meals are from the freezer, and ones I made earlier ;D. Often I [intentionally] make too much of what I'm having now, if it's something suitable, then freeze the leftovers in portions. Other times I'll cook up a load of [say] steak and kidney for the freezer for an almost instant pie. To appease the veggies among you, I have also made vegeburgers, which freeze quite well. That said, I do love mucking about with food, which of course is a prerequisite. And I'm a textures bloke, something you just don't get with ready meals.
Out of interest, I did some research a few years ago, and found that in most cases it's as quick or quicker to start from scratch if it's a simple meal, but this was to assume that speed, not convenience was the top priority.
To answer your ? keef, not much. I want to have some control over what goes in my mouth.
Geoff.
It is a rareity in this house, i just love cooking and cook fresh every day. I only have to mention stew and i get a house full my children & grandson come for a tuck in. Ready meals are for peeps who do not care what they eat.
I had better get me hat & coat. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Pizza is about the only thing I buy ready made, and that is for the kids as a treat once a week. Otherwise, it is all made from scratch. Like the rest of you, I love to cook, and I have the figure to prove it ;). I do the same as you Euronerd and have spag bol sauces, pies and pasties, crumbles, sauces and soups, all in the freezer, all made by my fair hand, and all microwaveable, if you wanted to cook them that way, in probably 11 minutes!! Don't really like the micro, don't really like my rubbish oven at the moment....rambling...
I saw some of the show - it is a worry that people don't know how to bake a spuds or knock up a simple pasta based meal. When you think of the quality and taste of home cooked food compared to the rubbish that comes in those shrink wrapped plastic packs, I am amazed that people will eat, and pay for readymeals. I appreciate people who work full time might not want to come home and cook a meal from scratch, but it is amazing what you can knock up in just 10 minutes!
Quote from: rosebud on October 06, 2006, 22:10:33
I only have to mention stew and i get a house full my children & grandson come for a tuck in.
Did I hear Stew? ? ? This weekend you say? I'll be there straight from work!!
:-X
Two points.
1. It's not ready, you have to nuke/cook it.
2. In my experience it is not often a meal either...maybe I just eat too much!
;)
We haven't had a ready meal for months, and only occasionally had them before that. I do buy filled pasta sometimes, and find that home-made pizza (made by OH :)) tastes much better than the supermarket ones. (even the posh £5 per pizza M&S ones) Sometimes weaken and buy ready-made desserts though ::)
Our favourite 'easy' meals from scratch are baked potato with cheese, and pasta with tomato sauce (from onion and a tin of toms).
We do eat out a bit too, or have takeaway, but for the most part that would be freshly prepared.
Almost never. But, recently, I got hooked on M&S Chinese & Thai Takeaways.
Buy 3 get one of them free! And better than any High Street ones. They freeze well, so long as you take the Prawn Toasts out.
i used to have them when i was really poor and use to live with my bf away from home. it's all we could afford. i'm sure in the long run home cooked food is cheaper and better for you. but ready meals work great for people who're on monthly or weekly pay and have no savings at all. a bag or oven chips and chicken nuggets cost very little and take very little time. cheap and cheerful.
i know it's not good for you at all.....but it saves you from going to bed hungry.
i still have them every few days. even though i wish i didn't have to.
:o :o Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodles ;D ;D
Quote from: silly billy on October 08, 2006, 01:27:42
:o :o Chicken and Mushroom Pot Noodles ;D ;D
You b*s***d i've just got in from the pub and had to make do with a stale ham and mustard sandwich!
Should have got some pork scratchings!
(http://bestsmileys.com/eating1/16.gif)
i had a piece and egg for breakfast yesterday, copious amounts of fosters through the day, and a mattesons smoked sausage when i got in.
eatin's cheating.
;D
???
"a piece and egg" ????? is it some northern delicacy?
;)
egg sarnie.
i'm guess it comes from "a piece of bread" ........... perhaps the weegies can enlighten us.
;D
Piece is Midland speak for sandwich! ;)
midlands and beyond then ! ;D
Seeing how these ready meals are prepared really put us off eating anything ready made. In the last few months since weve had our allotment we have eaten more veg than ever. I think lots of people just haven't got the time to be inventive.Take courgettes for instance, I know more ways of cooking them now than I ever did, due to planting too many.lol. but it takes time and effort. People live such fast lives now that they don't have much time for the basic things. Maybe it's my age but I like good wholesome grub.
going back to keef's original posting....everyone can have what they want?....where's the family evening meal gone? anyone else remember having to eat what mum had cooked - like it or not :o - and never, ever in front of the television?
for me (note no caps, btw? it's sunday, don't do caps on sunday, caps day off) only ready prepared stuff i can think of ... filled pasta, but that's served either in a soup (like last night) or with a sauce (the night before last) so both aren't ready meals?.....pizza, basic cheese'n'tom base with added stuff when I'm watching golf, so quite recently then with the Ryder Cup(important enough to break the no-caps-cos-it's sunday rule), and world cup footies, again not a 'ready'...but my all-time weakness and third on my list is......cheap, but cheap fish fingers - no fish in them i'd think but i'm hooked on them. and they've gotta be served with tinned marrowfat peas AND potatoes from the garden ;D still involve some cooking then..
Fish finger butties! with tartare sauce!! mmmmmm!!! :P
mmmmmmmmm fish fingers, they were probably the first convenience food we all had ! ;D
Not me, KP...my first convenience food was...........Vesta curries :o See that they're making a retro come-back, tho why they didn't make an immediate come-back after eating remains one of the mysteries of life - were just the job after a saturday lunchtime session at the pub ;D
all that dried and then reconstituted bits of unidentifyable thingies ! ah, we knew how to live dangerously in those days ;D
The only ready meals we have are chinese & indian take aways or pizza. Oh, and the japanese noodle soups I get from the wholesaler and I check the label ofn those. We have a "left- over" freezer for when we want instant supper.
I won't buy supermarket/other ready meals and haven't done for the past 3 years (we were cookerless for 6 weeks). Having just finished "Not on the label" by Felicity Lawrence, I never will again. Ever.
Actual ready meals, no, I don't bother because they're usually (a) very mean portions and (b) not very nice.
I am very occasionally tempted by something on the "eat today or die" reduced shelf. Most spectacular failure: Sainsbury's Cantonese Banquet which was so (http://bestsmileys.com/sick/7.gif) that even the dog wouldn't eat it. Best surprise: Tesco's lamb shanks in some sort of sauce. Really good. (http://bestsmileys.com/licking/3.gif) Mind you, we had fresh veg with it, it wasn't a complete ready meal.
Quote from: MrsKP on October 08, 2006, 08:07:03
i had a piece and egg for breakfast yesterday,
;D
one of us....one of us.......one of us. ;)
i cook from scratch most of the time, and freeze things like mince, strew, soups casseroles etc..... but frozen ready meals are a godsend when you've got to get the weans from school, fed, homework done and at a tae kwon do class within an hour. espcialy when you get to the school gate and you've suddenly got another one or two coming home with you. i work a couple of night shifts a week, so sometimes get very little sleep. chicken nuggets, burgers etc come in handy. oh and then theres the last few days before pay day...... when a lot of wierd and wornderful food gets rustled up .'that will do you good' 'there's children starving in the world' my personal favourite. ;D
Vesta curries were the only thing I ever learnt to 'cook' when I was a kid. Then I went to college and had to learn by trial and (mostly) error.
Always cook fresh..............tis the best way
Oh and by the way these fritters are to die for ;)
http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-courgette-fritters-with-yoghurt
I cant seem to cook ready meals. I just dont think that I am a techno cook!
Hi there jaggy thistle. Another courgette recipe under my belt for next year. Thats a great website. have added it to my favourites so that I won't forget where it is. Thanks for sharing with us
Try finding ones without Lactose..... you soon know if you haven't... about two hours usually.... and most cook in sauces are packed with it....
:-[
Let Tony make em Shirl ;D ;D ;D ;)