Why do I never learn?

MawBroon Because you are now having main meal at lunchtime, have you considered getting a slow cooker? You could still do the prep at your preferred time, and then leave it cooking on low overnight. Perfect for lunch I find.

Since losing my husband four years ago, I have tried, and failed, to deal with ready-meals. I particularly loathe the ones thickened with cornflour, and that awful uniformity of flavour, and the SMELL! I've always cooked, and will continue to do so. Lucky enough in London to have some amazing take-aways where they DO cook.

Please stop all the M&S talk of ready meals. Our's has just closed ? And the nearest is 5 miles away.

We see Friday as the start of the weekend too, Iam. We have steak and wine, usually. A habit from when the children were small and they were allowed 'choosing tea' in front of the TV while we had something 'special'. 'Choosing tea' was usually nuggets and chips

Saturday night for me is for eating something very easy, on our knees which we don't do any other evening. We have things like chicken fried rice or crispy wings but, just sometimes, I want to have no input at all!

I also do the bulk cooking and freezing, however, I often forget to take it out of the freezer! I currently have batches of soup, chicken casserole and chilli in there

I make large quantities of chilly, spaghetti bog, vegetable bog sauces, soup etc. I did it when the children were young and money very tight and its a habit that's continued. It's much easier now, listening to the radio and taking my time than it was when it was fitted in between full time work and a multitude of other commitments.
We sometimes do an M&S ready meal on Friday night, or a takeaway from the excellent Bangladeshi place down the road. I still see Friday as the start of the weekend, glass of wine, easy dinner watching something nonsense on the telly.

I live on my own so what I would do would be to eg cook spag bol for tonight, have the same tomorrow and freeze the remainder, one or maybe two portions.

I live in London but takeaway curries are poor quality and I do not like pizzas. There is no Chinese takeaway.

I am usually disappointed by M&S ready meals with the exception of macaroni cheese which I love. About 4 times a year I nip out to the local fish and chip shop to order haddock and chips. I like cod but they never have pre-cooked haddock- it is always cooked while I wait.

Know what you mean, kitty, but have discovered the M&S gluten free lasagne is both easy and tasty, it's about the only 'instant' that we have and. Very welcome when cooking is off the menu with salad and gf garlic bread. We've a tiny freezer so our home made 'instants' are usually chilli and the base for cottage pie, keep a couple of each. Like the sound of those chickens in a tin foil container, will investigate.

Just done the survey on ready meals. I think some of you would give more interesting answers then me.

I batch cook one day each week,sometimes its individual steak pies ,sometimes lasagne,chicken ham and leek pies mince in a variety of ways chilli being a favourite ,bolognese and moussaka,I bake scones and make pancakes 4 or 5 dozen at a time ,roast beef and pork and portion and freeze with gravy or sauce.Its very rare for a ready meal or a takeaway here .My son often drops in to do a freezer raid if he's been working late and my MIL takes a variety home with her to last a week or ten days .Soups I freeze in bags ,chickenmushroom and rice ,lentil ,minestrone and scotch broth.Soups dont take long to make so are usually fresh with just the longer cook ones frozen.I'm very mean about spending a lot on ready meals or takeaways when I know my own is always better...no false modesty here.I have two freezers and run them down for cleaning at the beginning of the summer and just before christmas so I can restock them

I was having the M&S Count on Us meals a couple of times a week and enjoyed the fish pie in particular. Calorie counted already but then I went off the potato, too 'gluey' for me so back to cooking from scratch most of the time although I do buy the £10 meals for 2 sometimes.
I freeze home-cooked dishes and have enough stock to make soup for the whole town I think. Plus home-grown fruit.

Now and then, especially after a long drive home from friends, we do stop and pick up a couple of M&S ready meals. Have no complaints - they certainly beat cooking when it's late and you're weary.
As a general rule they're a rare thing in this house, though. Dh will also treat himself to one if I'm staying over at dd's, helping with Gdcs. He's very happy with a fish pie and some peas on the side.

Aldi's crispy roast duck, hoisin sauce and pancakes is lovely and is only £4.99 . Much cheaper than any Chinese takeaway near me and just as good.

We were going to treat ourselves to a ready meal from Tesco (our only supermarket) recently as neither of us wanted to cook. There was quite a selection, but all the chicken dishes had chicken from Thailand!!! I have complained about their wraps before for the same thing, but nothing seems to have changed. Do we not have chicken in this country?

DH does most of the shopping but is not a cook so he buys stuff he likes but never thinks to follow through with appropriate veg. He bought a hog roast from M&S and it was truly disgusting,slimy and slippery fat. He also bought some what I call sandwich steaks "for a stir fry". As the family had just left the veg was non existent so he picked up astir fry pack from small Tesco. Gruesome. Thick cut carrot which tasted old and strips of coarse cabbage ( not Chinese cabbage) and slightly browning bamboo shoots. I checked the sell by date- well within . I hadn't wanted to cook as I was in Chinese laundry mode post family visit and have more visitors coming and only a limited number of duvetovers and sheets.

DH doesn't get it at all and wanted to wash the tin foil dishes they come in because he thought they might come in handy.

DD2 shouted, 'Noooooo. That's not the point! Step away from those tins!

He's a terrible hoarder.

Aldi do those roast in the bag ready stuffed chickens as well. I was catering for the masses last week so bought TWO of them

Never been known!!

It was a good move though because just shoving them in the oven gave me plenty of time to prepare lots of yummy home grown veg.

Mr P is away during the week, and I work Monday, Tuesday & Thursday.

Confess that on those days I do use some ready meals, have found that some of the Morrisions ones (3 for £6) are pretty good.

Tomorrow is a day off, so I will cook something simple (there is some salad and new potatoes in the fridge that need using, so will probably defrost a chicken breast and have that.)

However, Mr P will be home on Friday, so proper cooking all weekend.

Confession time: I grabbed a fresh, ready stuffed, roast in the bag whole chicken in Lidl last week (£3.99) and very good it was too! Did "proper" fresh veg and home made roasties, so not really a ready meal, just saved a bit of time and washing up!

It's strange (or possibly not!) but I enjoy cooking more now than when I was doing mass catering, as queenie calls it!!

But, I will still make a bolognese sauce or shepherds pie base or chili with 5lb of mince and freeze in portions of 1,2 and 3! Or a vast chicken curry and do the same. Sausage casserole anyone? I've got quite a lot of that too.

In my defence - DD2 and her 2 daughters are coming for 10 days (and her DH for 4) and I would much rather be with them while a meal is thawing than cooking something from scratch.

I think when you are on your own it is easier to pick up something that is ready prepared (not talking complete meal as I always do fresh vegetables). These days if I don't have something like that in the fridge I am more than likely to make do with a sandwich.

I'm with Ana and Jane10! When we all left home, my mother said she was looking forward to never having to cook a meal again, she would live on baked potatoes, and I follow her example, plus ready meals

No opprobrium from me, Jane10!

Yes. I used to love cooking in my early years of marriage but was never a mass caterer. Now it's just me it's so much easier to buy an M&S ready meal - no waste or faff!

I love cooking and have an enormous thirty-five year old chest freezer which is almost always full. Every now and then I have to sort through it to remind me what I've got.

Right now I'm mass producing ratatouille to use up overgrown courgettes etc and I am soon going to have to find room for fruit pies and crumbles as the apples and plums are nearly ready and the rhubarb is still going strong.

We hate ready meals though we do tend to have one on the first day away on holiday as it's usually a busy day with travel . It fills a hole and that's it .
I do double doses when I can and freeze half .

Well we only eat ready meals! M&S ones though so all fat/salt/calorie controlled etc. Yummy and no waste ever.
I draw the line at phoning out for curry or pizza. I simply can't bring myself to pay that amount for one meal.
Places tin hat on and braces self for hurled opprobrium!