How often do you eat ready meals?

[Dr Lobster*]

due to me having a late meeting and not been able to get around to going to the supermarket this weekend i had a microwave co-op curry, 99% of the time we tend to eat freshly prepared evening meals and not having a ready meal for a while i've suddenly come to realise how awful they taste... and to think a few years ago i used to eat them a couple of times a week... they are useful to have in the bottom of the freezer in an 'emergency' but i couldn't eat them too often.

if there is one thing i have noticed is how the salt and fat content has significantly been reduced, you can actually eat a whole packet as a normal meal (that is to say the salt/fat content isn't equivalent to more than your daily guideline amounts)

but how often do you indulge in microwave treats?

[marksi]

Very very rarely. I make up my own "ready meals" and freeze them. On the very rare occasion I have a shop bought ready meal (because I've run out of my own, or forgotten to take something in to work) I feel guilty.

[Gavin Scott]

Almost never.

[rts]

When I was at University I did probably have a ready-meal a couple of times a week. I had a microwave Rustlers burger once, and hand-on-heart this was the only time in the last five years I have been sick not due to alcohol!

My current trick is cook a big batch of chicken breasts with peppers fajita style, or a big bolognese, and seperate them into some plastic tubs I got from Roberty Dyas. This way I can either be good and have a relatively cheap, healthy lunch avoiding the cost of Pret A Manger, or alternatively rustle a quick evening meal coutesy of my microwave if I'm back from work late.

The lesser of two evils, and kinder on my wallet.

[cdd]

Oh I love ready meals. I think they taste delicious. But that is probably more a description of my cooking (in)abilities than how nice ready meals are.

[Nick Harvey]

some plastic tubs I got from Roberty Dyas

Oh no, please don't mention Robert Dyas.

I wonder if they still employ the incredibly pointless Mr Ryan Pannell?

[Alexia]

Only chicken korma, bangers & mash, and microwave pizzas. Am very into my spaghetti on toast as a quicky meal at the moment.

[Nini]

If I did not eat the ready meals I'd starve, curse my parents not teaching me how to cook nutritiously on the cheap.

[rts]

some plastic tubs I got from Roberty Dyas

Oh no, please don't mention Robert Dyas.

I wonder if they still employ the incredibly pointless Mr Ryan Pannell?

I don't care - they gave me a free energy saving lightbulb for spending over a fiver!

And bloody hell, that name really is a blast from the past. Depressingly it immediately brought his mugshot to my mind from the TV Forum Members Gallery.

[cdd]

YAY! I have something in common with Nini.

[rts]

Nini, cdd, get your mitts on Jane Todd's "Might Mince Cookbook" - The bible of affordable and easy to make meals.