Pre-Packed and Home Made Meals

Lis’s Soapbox (from the November 2006 Parish News Letter)

A recent television programme inspired me to undertake an experiment.  It showed a family who ate nothing but “ready meals” (microwaveable lasagnes, curries, etc). The two teenage boys were allowed to choose their own preferred dish each night which resulted in them living on lasagne.  They had dispensed with their dining room table to make room for gadgetry and games as they rarely sat down together to eat. How much salt and fat are this family ingesting? Don’t get me wrong.  I am not completely anti ready meals. Busy lifestyles sometimes mean that there is only time to throw such a dish in the microwave. I keep a couple in the freezer for emergencies.  But eating them daily cannot be doing people any good and the expense does not bear thinking about.  So today I tried an experiment.

I recently bought a ready-made two-person-serving Cottage Pie and calculated the ingredients used to enable me to cook a comparable one from fresh (local) ingredients. The result was more surprising than I thought it would be.  For the cost of the two person ready-made Cottage Pie I was able to make one that served six. The taste of the bought pie was acceptable, but nothing to cross the road for. The home made version was, according to my Official Taster, significantly more tasty (the red wine in the gravy in particular). What is more I knew exactly what was in it and didn’t have to add the warning that the dish was “not suitable for shellfish or fish allergy sufferers due to manufacturing methods”.

Bringing the family together and learning food skills

In the television programme the family were sent out to buy the ingredients for a lasagne. They then spent time together preparing the dish.  They admitted it had not taken them as long as they had expected and that they had really enjoyed cooking together and the resulting lasagne was much more tasty and cheaper. The teenagers learnt a valuable life lesson on how to cook and the family were considering buying a table so they could eat together. Dishes such as these can be made in bulk and frozen if you want to save time and they are healthier and cheaper.