Has anyone else been disappointed with Tesco’s “Finest” ready meals lately?

Hello Ethan
I like the chef Akila meals too. And a fair price.

Has some very nice (but expensive) items from Côte At Home as a trial run for a lazy Christmas.
coteathome.co.uk/

And some indifferent pasta (a gift) from La tua Pasta
www.latuapasta.com/

Yes, and for a good while too. Choice now very limited and that is even reduced as so many items missing anyway. Reduced portion size as well. Sometimes the wine is even missing! They reuse to put anything else in the deal so why buy it with no wine?

I've never been one for buying "ready meals" - so it is only a very occasional thing to me. But I gather manufacturers are changing a noticeable number of ingredients in them for cheaper substitutes and that will explain why this is happening. I don't want the non-food ingredients and seed oils put in many ready meals anyway - as they've been proven to be unhealthy.

I often cba at the moment to do a "proper meal" for myself - so I'm experimenting with doing things like using my slowcooker to cook up portions of (brown) rice and then putting them in suitable storage in my freezer - so that I can haul one out to defrost as the base of a meal at any point and must work my way through trying other things too.

Another thought is a Facebook group I've found where the woman doesn't want to cook up meals particularly, but does want to eat (relatively) healthily and (in her case) lose a bit of weight whilst she's on the subject and I occasionally try some of what she puts up. It's "Hungry Healthy Happy - Easy Recipes" Facebook group and they are indeed very easy and she's putting together "a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of something else" and making up a full meal worth from it that takes very little time and effort to do and she covers all three meals a day. Quick, easy, looks attractive. Might be worth checking out.

These supermarket ready meals are no doubt ALL manufactured in the same factory…….just got different packaging .

They are easily avoided by batch cooking and freezing for those days when we don’t feel like cooking from scratch…….that way, we know what’s in our food. Sorted!

I have tried M&S and Sainsbury’s ready meals and have been deeply disappointed with the quality of both. The only ready meal I treat myself to is Aldi’s single portion fish pie which is very nice. Three different recognisable types of fish, and prawns (which I remove as I don’t like them in a fish pie) and very tasty - both M&S and Sainsburys were blocks of grey unrecognisable fish - no idea what - and tasted of nothing! I haven’t tried any of Aldi’s other ready meals - RMs are not something I want to make a habit of eating - but should imagine they are okay.

You can’t go wrong with Charlie Bigham meals. We have them once a week.

Charlie Bigham could make more effort in the gf dept - but that's just me.

kittylester

Charlie Bigham could make more effort in the gf dept - but that's just me.

No, not just you!
It was difficult to find any decent GF meal for DD when she needed one; usually she and we cook GF from scratch but this was a one-off occasion and I spent so long looking at labels she or I could have cooked her a three course meal in that time.

I've tried them and I'm not a fan .
I'm not a fan of Sainsburys ready meals either .
I prefer M and S ,Waitrose and Iceland .

Well, given the reception Ethan got from many of you, I doubt he will stay! Surely we want to attract people to Gransnet, not drive them away!
Why were people on here so unpleasant today?

I'm working my way through my freezer as I've accumulated a lot of food which I've gone off .
I've been buying food on which I have a craze and shoving them on top .
If you like fish on a Friday then I recommend Iceland Teriyaki salmon and Slimming World make a fabulous version .
I used to batch cook .
My idea of food hell is Shepherds pie and I'm not keen on Lasagne either . I think that I'm not a fan of mince .
As we get older we get fussier with food .
I can recall being really frustrated trying to cook for my parents.
I have freaky taste buds and I prefer spicy foods -Indian or Thai and I have to ring the changes .

Crossstitchfan

Well, given the reception Ethan got from many of you, I doubt he will stay! Surely we want to attract people to Gransnet, not drive them away!
Why were people on here so unpleasant today?

I think EthanCarter could be a she, not a he.
They said they were a grandmother on another thread.

My weekly treat is a frozen Chicken Jalfreizi and rice from Aldi. Don't all rush out and buy one though, as I would be most upset if they had all gone on my next trip there.

Allira

Crossstitchfan

Well, given the reception Ethan got from many of you, I doubt he will stay! Surely we want to attract people to Gransnet, not drive them away!
Why were people on here so unpleasant today?

I think EthanCarter could be a she, not a he.
They said they were a grandmother on another thread.

Sorry, Allira! I hve this hangup where, if the poster uses a male name, in this case Ethan, I always think of them as he! Stupid, I know!
Thanks for pointing it out, as I suspect I have done it for ever, and would have carried on!

Crossstitchfan

Allira

Crossstitchfan

Well, given the reception Ethan got from many of you, I doubt he will stay! Surely we want to attract people to Gransnet, not drive them away!
Why were people on here so unpleasant today?

I think EthanCarter could be a she, not a he.
They said they were a grandmother on another thread.

Sorry, Allira! I hve this hangup where, if the poster uses a male name, in this case Ethan, I always think of them as he! Stupid, I know!
Thanks for pointing it out, as I suspect I have done it for ever, and would have carried on!

I could be wrong, Crossstitchfan!

It's not unusual. 😀

Oh dear, poor Ethan made the fatal mistake of mentioning 'old' on GN Crossstitch you know how none of us are old on here
Kitty didn't seem upset by it so let's give Ethan a welcome to GN