No way, never, not on your nelly would I take this deal. Its a ready meal! I have never been so tired that I couldn’t muster the energy to pour some pesto on pasta. What next? A Rustlers Microwavable Burger?
Not everyone likes eating pasta with pesto 7 days a week, Claire. I have about 5 minutes to make diner on some days with 2 hungry kids who won’t eat anything salad-y screaming in the background. I start my day at 6 and finish it around 10.30pm if I include the house chores. So some days I really don’t have the time to prepare ahead dishes that will be frozen for our weekdays diners. I love cooking and make everything from scratch when I have the time, but when time is short and the kids are sick of beans on toast, it’s good to have a ready meal at hand. However, these seem quite processed indeed, and I’d rather buy the Superquinn deal that has a main, side and lovely desserts for 8 euros
no, that’s a way of speaking. What you meant was that eating ready meals was ludicrous because it only takes a few minutes and very little energy to rustle up a quick meal, and pasta and pesto were your example.
There are only a certain amount of quick meals you can whip up in no time with everything at the ready in your larder and fridge, and unless you can live on pasta and salad and cheese toasties for a week, it’s hard to add some variety when you litteraly only have a few minutes. And it’s when these deals come in handy: I sometimes even buy the ready cooked rice pouches because you just need to add a tin of sweetcorn and some cherry tomatoes and some mayo and hey presto! a nice salad that the kids will – or might – eat. A ready meal is not a staple, should certainly not be consumed every day, but it’s handy and some like Superquinn’s or M&S taste good and don’t have any nasties in the ingredients list, so if you don’t eat them good for you but there is no need to look down on the people who rely on a bit of convenience every now and then
Having said that, if the main dish of the deal is a burger with herb butter or haddock mornay (a haddock fillet with some grated cheese on top), there is little value in them: you still need to cook them and in this case it will be cheaper to buy your meat or fish fresh and cook it the same way. But ready made mash that is not instant muck, pre-roasted vegs, or pre-cooked potato gratin are all time savers
I usually don’t buy ready meals but have 3 month old twins who take up a lot of time so decided to try this out for a Friday evening meal. It looked tasty enough and I chose the Chicken in cheese and ham sauce. It says there are two irish chicken breast and I was happy with this as both of us have healthy appetites. To my dismay when I took it out of the package at home it had only one chicken breast cleverly cut to make it look like two. I found this very annoying and frankly one chicken breast is not enough for both of us. I bulked it out with some vegetables but I will not be buying anything from Centra again after this.
Monday 11 June, 2012 at 9:40 am
No way, never, not on your nelly would I take this deal. Its a ready meal! I have never been so tired that I couldn’t muster the energy to pour some pesto on pasta. What next? A Rustlers Microwavable Burger?
Monday 11 June, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Not everyone likes eating pasta with pesto 7 days a week, Claire. I have about 5 minutes to make diner on some days with 2 hungry kids who won’t eat anything salad-y screaming in the background. I start my day at 6 and finish it around 10.30pm if I include the house chores. So some days I really don’t have the time to prepare ahead dishes that will be frozen for our weekdays diners. I love cooking and make everything from scratch when I have the time, but when time is short and the kids are sick of beans on toast, it’s good to have a ready meal at hand. However, these seem quite processed indeed, and I’d rather buy the Superquinn deal that has a main, side and lovely desserts for 8 euros
Monday 11 June, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Did I suggest people should eat pasta and pesto 7 days a week?
Monday 11 June, 2012 at 4:09 pm
no, that’s a way of speaking. What you meant was that eating ready meals was ludicrous because it only takes a few minutes and very little energy to rustle up a quick meal, and pasta and pesto were your example.
There are only a certain amount of quick meals you can whip up in no time with everything at the ready in your larder and fridge, and unless you can live on pasta and salad and cheese toasties for a week, it’s hard to add some variety when you litteraly only have a few minutes. And it’s when these deals come in handy: I sometimes even buy the ready cooked rice pouches because you just need to add a tin of sweetcorn and some cherry tomatoes and some mayo and hey presto! a nice salad that the kids will – or might – eat. A ready meal is not a staple, should certainly not be consumed every day, but it’s handy and some like Superquinn’s or M&S taste good and don’t have any nasties in the ingredients list, so if you don’t eat them good for you but there is no need to look down on the people who rely on a bit of convenience every now and then
Monday 11 June, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Having said that, if the main dish of the deal is a burger with herb butter or haddock mornay (a haddock fillet with some grated cheese on top), there is little value in them: you still need to cook them and in this case it will be cheaper to buy your meat or fish fresh and cook it the same way. But ready made mash that is not instant muck, pre-roasted vegs, or pre-cooked potato gratin are all time savers
Friday 14 February, 2014 at 6:45 pm
I usually don’t buy ready meals but have 3 month old twins who take up a lot of time so decided to try this out for a Friday evening meal. It looked tasty enough and I chose the Chicken in cheese and ham sauce. It says there are two irish chicken breast and I was happy with this as both of us have healthy appetites. To my dismay when I took it out of the package at home it had only one chicken breast cleverly cut to make it look like two. I found this very annoying and frankly one chicken breast is not enough for both of us. I bulked it out with some vegetables but I will not be buying anything from Centra again after this.