Ready Meals that are genuinely “Ok”

[iamcoop]

My partner has been away this week at a conference in Sweden, so it's just been me and my 16 month old daughter.

I love cooking, and consider myself to be a pretty decent hand in the kitchen, but due to a heavy work load during the week, my attempts to cook something properly (once I've got my child to bed) slowly petered out after a couple of days and I resorted to buying some shit I can throw in the microwave/oven whilst taking to my quarters with smelling salts and not have to think about anything.

So far:

- M&S microwave curry. I remember these being quite good a few years ago. I actually have a memory of saying to someone "they're as close to a genuine takeaway as a ready meal can get." Anyway the one I got the other night was fucking rubbish. Just insane levels of heat with no flavour. Only good element was the little dip pot things.

- Reduced Tesco posh chicken and potato gratin thing. Just eaten this now and it's ok but I had to season the shit out of it and it's one of those ready meal dishes that no one would ever actually cook at home of their own volition.

When I was skint and lived in that there London I used to buy £1 Sainsbury's basic frozen chicken hotpot and eat them with about 4 slices of bread and butter to get me through the night.

What's a good ready meal these days then? Do they even exist?

[pigamus]

There's a Tesco chicken hotpot thing with dumplings

I'm not sophisticated

[gabrielconroy]

Charlie Bigham, especially the fish pie
COOK brand, can get them in London Bridge station and probably elsewhere
Fancy delis often have good quality shit - there's one in Kavanagh's Budgens in Belsize Park

Had the Sainsbury's meal deal combo the other night, a tasty pie with potato dauphinoise side and some frozen veg I stuck in there with it

[Gurke and Hare]

The M&S penne with spicy tomato sauce and sicillian sausage is probably the best ready meal out there. Worth doing the 3 for offer with a couple of other ones - they're all fine, I usually go for a bolognese and the spinach & ricotta ravioli - but the sausage one is lovely.

[idunnosomename]

generally the quality of ready meals is pretty high these days if you're stuck on self-catering and don't have the utensils/little things like oil, or like me you're a yellow sticker vulture. they're not like Fray Bentos or Hungry Man deso like decades past. even mid-range microwave curries etc are pretty edible.

Does this count the deluxe oven ones like Charlie Bighams? got a fish pie for two reduced the other week for like three quid, that was a good score. cook some of your own veg with it of course. but whenever I've scored those in the reduced aisle they're always good and tbh I'd pay full price for them when self-catering on holiday because at 8 quid for two it's still a lot cheaper than a restaurant or takeaway.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Morrisons used to do genuinely hot microwave curries called the Volcanic Vindaloo and Fiery Phall that were pretty close to the hottest takeaway curries, whilst also being tasty. I could only finish them by taking about 20 minutes and drinking a glass of milk to stop my mouth burning. Sadly discontinued.

[iamcoop]

The Bingham ones are decent but I don't know who pays for them full price. They must be a loss leader for the supermarkets as they always seem to be reduced, and that's the only time I've ever got them.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Mr Brains Pork Faggots.

Look hear me out, they should be fucking disgusting, but try them. They defeat logic.

They might've been the 'fuck it, your mum's out tonight' meal my dad served (he did all the other cooking fwiw), but still.

[iamcoop]

Mr Brains Pork Faggots.

Look hear me out, they should be fucking disgusting, but try them. They defeat logic.

They might've been the 'fuck it, your mum's out tonight' meal my dad served (he did all the other cooking fwiw), but still.

Not a huge offal fan but I'll give them a go.

I've always been a sucker for anything that comes in a bag covered in delicious, fake gravy.

[Gambrinus]

When I was without a cooker for a couple of weeks a couple of years ago I lived off cheese toasties and the Thai green chicken curry ready meal from Tesco. They were ok.

[idunnosomename]

there's a Finest thai green at Tesco that's very nice.

there was a regular chicken chow mein at Tesco for 88p the other day. slid off the cardboard cover and it was just white bits of cooked chicken on top of the noodles. gave it a swerve, im not that desperate (yet)

[Sebastian Cobb]

Not a huge offal fan but I'll give them a go.

I've always been a sucker for anything that comes in a bag covered in delicious, fake gravy.

It's been a while since I've had them for a nostalgic treat, but still well into the 2010s they were still being sold in a foil dish but giving prominent microwave instructions,demanding you decant.

[Consignia]

Can't go wrong with a Rustler's Quarter Pounder.

[touchingcloth]

Take a pack of ready salted and crumble them up over some Ready Brek.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Do Birdseye still do Beef Stew and Dumplings? It was a pretty old school one that they'd been doing since at least the 80's that was boil in the bag, and it tasted really good. Steam some veg to go along with it and you've got a half decent meal there, like.

[beanheadmcginty]

Iceland do frozen doner meat. Fry up a big plate of that.

[Proactive]

Can't lie, if I was single I'd eat Charlie Bigham dinners every night of the week.

[touchingcloth]

Go Goblin mode.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Can't lie, if I was single I'd eat Charlie Bigham dinners every night of the week.

Can't tell if their stuff is actually better or if it's just bamboo and extra step artifice to keep you invested.

[Brass Moustache]

i like the chicken tikka masalas in Tesco's finest range.

[H-O-W-L]

Legitimately think most ready meals are alright now. You have to delve in to the real budget lines of Lidl and the like to get the worse ones.

[Brass Moustache]

Legitimately think most ready meals are alright now. You have to delve in to the real budget lines of Lidl and the like to get the worse ones.

i think Lidl gets an unfair rep.Especially their butchery and fish section.
You can get some nice stuff thats equally on par with M&S and at least better than Tesco.
I also love Lidl's middle aisle. Its the only place you go in for a pastie and a multipack of crisps but you end up coming out with a fucking chainsaw or a black and decker workmate.

[Cuellar]

Yeah all that Bingham bollocks

[stonkers]

Can't tell if their stuff is actually better or if it's just bamboo and extra step artifice to keep you invested.

The Charlie Bighams are genuinely good but so expensive you're almost getting to the point where you might as well just get a proper takeaway.

Most ready meal curries are dreadful but the M&S ones are surprisingly decent.

[stonkers]

i think Lidl gets an unfair rep.Especially their butchery and fish section.
You can get some nice stuff thats equally on par with M&S and at least better than Tesco.

Yeah for the essentials like meat fruit and veg Lidl and Aldi are as good if not better than the other supermarkets.

[beanheadmcginty]

Charlie Bigpotatoes is what I always call them

[H-O-W-L]

i think Lidl gets an unfair rep.Especially their butchery and fish section.
You can get some nice stuff thats equally on par with M&S and at least better than Tesco.
I also love Lidl's middle aisle. Its the only place you go in for a pastie and a multipack of crisps but you end up coming out with a fucking chainsaw or a black and decker workmate.

I love Lidl a lot, don't get me wrong. Just their budget-range ready meals are honestly pretty cack. Couple times I've had rice in RMs from there that stank of rancidity and had to bin the lot just in case.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Paid 2 quid for a reduced Charlie Bingham's tikka masala and it was shite, would have been raging at 8 quid or whatever.  As mentioned above, a baw hair off of a proper curry actually cooked for you. It just tasted like a hospital canteen curry, the meat wasn't as rubbery as it is out of non-insane priced ready meals but the sauce was Uncle Ben's level.

[idunnosomename]

the best bigham's I've had is is the chicken satay curry. the vegetable lasagne made with lentils was nice too, not the sort of thing we'd ever make which is often the best thing about ready meals, trying something different and getting ideas for future cooking.

never paid full price for them but have bought them when they're only a few quid knocked off

[Brass Moustache]

Iceland do frozen doner meat. Fry up a big plate of that.

off topic but theres a company called baharat doing authentic turkish kebab spices.
if you sprinkle it into a processed mix of beef and lamb mince with onion and garlic then roast it for an hour or two its better than the nasty mystery meat from the kebab shop and you can be confident its not full of arseholes, eyelids and cocks

made some for the gf and i for two days we were eating the best kebabs ive had, even she enjoyed it and shes not usually a kebab person.