General Chat

Yesterday I made chicken 'burgers' - thigh meat chopped very finely or minced, big bunch of spinach wilted and squeezed out, some streaky bacon chopped, grated parmesan, an egg, some herbs and seasoning to taste - so simple and cost a fraction of something bought ready-made.

I hear people moan a lot about the cost of food, and feeding a family. But I maintain that if you buy fresh, raw ingredients, and cook them yourself, food isn't dear in this country. A friend of mine, with 3 children, spends nearly £300 a week on food! She even buys ready chopped cabbage lol. They waste the most enormous, disgusting amount of food and it makes me feel ill! When I asked her why she didnt cook, she said 'Oh, my family wouldn't like that sort of stuff'. OC

We rarely have ready meals, find them too salty. Maybe have the occasional bought pasty for lunch and sometimes as an addition to a home made curry may buy extra bits such as onion bahjis to go with it. have to admit that the two of us don't sit at the table though (although we did when we had the children young) and we do watch TV while eating. Ann Glos

I also make soups/stews from leftover meats,there so tasty and as someone else said economical,I dont know how people can waste their hard earned money on ready meals. I know alot of people do it to save time but if you work you can spend one day cooking and freezing,you then have meals for everyday of the week. thats what I did when I worked full time, and still do,sometimes if I know I have a busy week.

On the very few occasions when we've had a ready meal I've found them very disappointing. I much prefer to buy my own ingredients and start from scratch. I normally cook enough at one go for several meals so I can freeze portions. Then if we need an 'instant' dinner it is one I've made myself. Very little gets wasted here either.........we have stews and soups from left overs and a joint of meat feeds us for days. So cooking yourself is very much cheaper. How on earth did making a lasagne take 2 hours? Even if the cooking of the sauce was done very slowly it needn't be that long and you can go off and do other things while meals are cooking. I get a lot of satisfaction from feeding my family well on meals I've made myself. Sue

I was brought up on good home made meals, I've really tried to follow this with my own kids, I think the TV makes them want all the rubbish, the salt content of stuff is so worrying, Caz xxx Hi Rosalyn and everyone else!

Thats the main problem with ready meals,the salt/suger content, I just think there pure muck,I wouldent feed them to an animal let alone a human:-))

A lot of these meals were high in salt, Ros

Tonight we are having farmers caserole with dumplings. all fresh produce and no salt, I never use salt(or very rare) You can get the taste with fresh herbs and spices, if I eat food with salt in now I can really taste the difference.

I cook from scratch every night, and we eat around the table with the TV off. I have never served up a microwaved ready meal either. Liz x

This morning have cooked mince for making into mince pies later and pizza mix for pizzas , Ros

I always cook, I have never bought a ready meal in my life,the only thing my microwave is used for is defrosting and the cats fish!lol

It was on last Thursday. The families on it bought all ready meals and their meals were ready in 9 minutes --ping , ping. The lady tried making homemade lasagne and it took 2 hours! Who cooks now on here ?I still do, Ros