Why do I never learn?

Lindylou57 If I am being organised I take out a home-made frozen meal in the morning and let it defrost.
However, it's not often that I am organised so I take one out and defrost it in the microwave then, if it is something like a beef stew/bourngiungon, chilli or bolognaise sauce, chicken casserole I re-heat and re-boil in a saucepan.

Lasagne - does anyone make their own lasagne? (only if we need a gf one). Now, M&S lasagne's are good!

One of the best things about living alone is that you can cook or not cook. Some evenings I will have a full roast, and then maybe beans on toast the next day. If I do stews or casseroles or shepherds pie I always cook a large amount and freeze some. I do use ready meals sometimes for the days when my back or legs are protesting, and will often do fresh veg to have with them And sometimes it's just sheer laziness.... who can bother to make Lasagne for one when the frozen ones are quite nice actually?
My real favourite is a Chinese take-away, but can't afford that too often so it's a rare treat.

There are 'ready meals' and 'ready meals'! They are absolutely not all the same. You get what you pay for. M&S is expensive but there is no waste and I appreciate the time saved by using their food. To me it's well worth it.

Can I just ask as I have never done the eat one freeze one thing, do you defrost the frozen one before cooking or cook from frozen as you would a ready made meal?

My mother-in-law has Wiltshire Farm Foods delivered to her house. They look very appetising and she loves them.

I'm with Ana, Jane & Devon girl.

The last time I made 2 huge lasagnes from scratch, I surveyed the kitchen and screamed at the empty room "am I mad, it looks like we've been burgled".

I'm with you Sheilasue. Last couple of Weds, DH has picked me up from my vol morning in charity shop and we've nipped into M&S next door for a £10 meal. Feels like a naughty mid week treat. Today it's 2 Chicken and Ham en Croutes, Oven Roasted Veg, Profiteroles and a Bottle of Malbec. I love cooking but it would take me ages to do something similar although probably I'll add bits to the roasted veg and might rustle up a sauce. If you are picky you can usually find something and quite a few supermarkets do the £10 deal towards the weekend.

I like ready meals on a Friday and Saturday I find them rather nice esp MS and Sainsburys. Cooking for one is ok during the week but weekends I always treat myself to ready meals.

when I get fed up finding something different for dinner, I have been buying the dine in for £10 meals from m&s. Get a bottle of wine too. A pretty good bargain and if you want Can add more veg

I admit I hate cooking and I'm only a mediocre cook but we only havecteady meals occasionally - they often seem very salty and garlicky (not too keen on garlick!) so I usually cook for four and we have tge same meal two das running - DH is very tolerant! If I freeze thngs I forget to use them and end up throwing them out as I cant remember how old they are. Except when expecting family when I make lasagne or similar in advance and freeze. We also often have takeaways at the weekend , or go out for a meal. These posts about well stocked freezers of home made produce make me feel very inadequate!!

I meant waitrose ready meals...should preview!
I wish they would change them a bit more often. The vegetarian ones are nice, but think the selection has been the same for years,

Like Lovebeigecardigans, I cook from scratch mostly, I do a recipe for 4 or 6 and freeze accordingly. But I do like Mr. Waitrose's 3-for-£10 range where you have something like chicken breasts in Cajun spices in a neat little tray that you just have to oven-cook for about half an hour; I can then do some appropriate veg and voila, we have something really nice that I haven't spent ages on.

Ready meals? We don't often indulge, usually only when we're on a self-catering holiday and need something quick. However, DH is going off on a boys-only canal trip soon and I'm going to stock myself up with M&S Count on Us or Waitrose equivalent, and loads of salad!

We have small appetites now, and I have lost all interest in cooking. We are also vegetarian, and I rely on ocado for all my shopping. Easy bean curries with microwave rice are good, and some ocado meals. But the one that gets the biggest thumbs up from my husband is spinach and ricotta tortellini...ready in 2 minutes...so why make more effort? Lunch is usually part bake rolls with cheese and salad, and we have lots of fruit.

When I think back to the days when I cooked everything from scratch for a big family, it's a great contrast, but we're happy with our present regime, and I do think ready prepared food is much better than it used to be,

We had a packet ready meal last night and what a disappointment, tasted salty and tomato laden, can't even remember what it was supposed to be. Oh well bake to my own pre made ready meals....... unfortunately I often forget to label them so we often have 'mystery dinner'...

I try to prepare most meals from scratch each day but a ready meal once a week feels like a treat - the packaging is chucked and only the plate, knife and fork need to be washed afterwards.
I was once told that to live entirely on ready meals wasn't really good for you but I found them very tempting after I lost my DH as cooking seemed a chore just for one.

I am a cook 2 & freeze one person too. I cook everything from scratch & I do love cooking - always have.
However last week DH was away overnight & on impulse I bought M&S Prawn dish- forget what it was called. I was looking forward to it as he is allergic to seafood & I LOVE it. What a disappointment! Couldn't taste the prawns at all & it was too runny.
The only 'convenience' food I buy are the marinated chicken breasts & kebabs my local butcher makes himself. Gorgeous sauces & beautiful free range meat.
However once a month on a Saturday night ( usually after rugby on TV in afternoon) we have either a Chinese takeaway or fish & chips from our local very good Chippy just as a treat.
I have 3 Banana & Chocolate cakes in the oven at the moment as DGC coming to stay next week & I've promised a cake for local fete!! Best thing about home cooking is the lovely smell in the house!

Not much choice here. No M&S or Aldi. There is a very nice restaurant in the village but open erratic hours, and a bit expensive for more than a couple of times a year. They have a take away run by one of the waitresses and it is awful - tried it once and had to throw it away. The nearest other takeaway is 15 miles, by the time I had driven there and back I could have made something else! So batch cooking is the only way to go. Also having to home cook for one of our dogs at the moment as he is ill, so I seem to spend a couple of days a week cooking. My OH's idea of a bolognaise sauce is to take one large joint of beef ....

Is it just me or does anyone else find ready meals too salty, especially M&S ones? I have to add that I'm not a fan of ready meals,would rather just have an egg ( hard boiled with salad, omelette,frittata using left overs similarly egg fried rice) or just plain with dippers!

Jane 10.....whatever floats your boat is fine by me. Must say I appreciate what M&S has on offer in terms of inventiveness leading to temptation but their high prices are not how I chose to spend my lucre.

I think I must be doing something wrong when I do anything in the slow cooker because whatever it is I am cooking (except ice pudding!) always tastes much the same and I find that it sets off my reflux etc.

My freezer - a large upright - is full of fresh meat and fish and veg and some cooked frozen fruit from the garden. I also do freeze bread as otherwise a car run to get any. As there are no takeaways in our part of France when I really don't feel like cooking we go out to the local bar for something simple.

As I cannot get enough fruit from the garden in the freezer I do put some of that into Kilner type jars - have an electric water bath thing for doing that which I position outside the back door as it is easier to remove the hot jars from it when it is low and spilt water is not an issue. I bought the device in Lidl some ten or more years ago.
Before we have any visitors come to stay I do make a couple of things for the freezer to have when we have been out for the day.

Ready meals, all seem to profess much but deliver little.

I found instant rice noodles in both Tesco and Waitrose.

Put them in a pyrex jug add boiling water, 1 per person. Microwave 2 /3 mins , strain. In the meantime I have defrosted some frozen prawns, and peas.

Strain noodles, add salt the defrosted mix, some soy sauce, and some sweet'n'sour mix together.

Very tasty, and takes minuites

There you are kitty your siege mentality has paid off! Lots of free time to spend with your family. I'm partly saying this because I'm exactly the same, my children left home about twenty years ago but I'm still cooking for four.

I cook meals for my house- bound old mum , we have tried M&S and Waitrose ready meals but she doesn't like them much apart from the fish pie and toad in the hole . I batch bake about once a week and put them in her freezer., then my brother (virtually a vegan ) cooks the fresh veg to go with them . Now my daughter who is a childminder and about to start an after school club has asked if I can do the same for her . I'm happy to give it a try but do you think I should do the food handling course ?

I think ready meals have their place, for example, when one is pushed for time or unwilling to spend £10 on esoteric ingredients for an exotic recipe.

They are, I agree, extremely variable though M & S and Waitrose claim to have fewer or no additives and 'nasties' and some of their offerings are very nice if one rings the changes and varies them with 'real' food.

I have learned never to buy ready made pasta dishes as they are not as nice as the real thing so, instead, I batch make Bolognese sauce and lasagnes and freeze them to make my own ready meals.

However, the lamb rumps with topping that M & S and Waitrose do are really nice. One just has to be selective, choosy and adapt. One adaptation I do is to buy Tesco's chicken korma or tikka masala for two and add an extra chicken breast which makes it actually adequate for two people.

I am a bit lazy these days, though, and on Saturday evenings I like to have time to drink my fizz and chat to the OH so I either warm something I have made previously with some additional fresh vegetable all done in the same steamer - or do steak n' chips.

Maggi cooking bags are surprisingly tasty! Just add meat and veg.