I bought this Garden Vegetable Pie ready meal well before Christmas, when I had the voucher for £20 off an £80 spend at Waitrose and somehow managed to work spending that amount into my self imposed budget for the month. I didn't manage to eat it before the best before date so it was popped into the freezer. I fished it out one night last week when we returned tired and hungry from Mum's.
Now I didn't actually notice that it should have been thawed slowly in the fridge before being cooked after being frozen, so perhaps my review is slightly skewed as the mashed potato topping tasted very watery. Oops!!
The ingredients are pretty good, but there are just such a lot of them, which I guess is the downside to virtually all ready meals. Making this at home would mean using a lot fewer ingredients ... well it would if I made it.
Anyway it was quite tasty, a little bland, but definitely better than some of the ready meals that I used to eat 'back in the day'. Would I buy it again, possibly if I needed a ready meal for a specific reason and there was nothing else available. It was very edible and gets a 7/10. 😊
I saved the foil tray to use again as it was nice and sturdy.
Homemade ready meals are so much better. Vegetable curry with Basmati rice, cook once eat twice.
Sue xx
I'm a great fan of cook once eat twice!
ReplyDeleteSo am I, and I'm an even greater fan of less washing up of pots. :-)
DeleteBoth meals sound good. I think a homemade vegetable pie will be great, though.
ReplyDeleteYes, homemade is so much tastier and more satisfying isn't it.
DeleteHome made usually better (unless you have an off day!), and certainly fewer ingredients. I usually find the ready made meals rather disappointing and flavourless. I "treated" myself to a Tesco Chinese fried rice the other day -only because it was half price in the reduced section. The bits of meat were nice - the rest just boiled rice and a couple of peas.
ReplyDeleteThe convenience pulls us in, and then the results make us realise why we normally make things ourselves at home.
DeleteI realised that some bean burgers I had bought said that they couldn’t be cooked from frozen so defrosted them and they fell apart. Needless to say, I ate them anyway but probably won’t buy again if they can’t be cooked from frozen. One thing that was cooked from frozen was an M and S sticky toffee pudding for four which I bought as a frozen product. We cooked it yesterday as a treat for my birthday and it was delicious with Greek yoghurt. The other half will be eaten cold today with some custard ( husband’s request) Catriona
ReplyDeleteThat M&S sticky toffee pudding sounds delicious, and just the right sort of pudding for this time of year. :-)
DeleteI spent a couple of days in November doing a batch cook and putting things in the freezer. I love being able to pull out a meal and just warm it up.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Yes, I need to do that again as soon as I have some space in there, homemade is so much more satisfying isn't it. xx
DeleteYour curries always start me off on a curry craving 😀 Recently I bought frozen chickpea and squash curry from Tesco to keep in the freezer for a quick
ReplyDelete‘emergency’ meal. We tried them the other day, I made small flatbreads as a side and the curries were very tasty, surprisingly good for the price.
Alison in Wales x
I find that once I have one curry I fancy it again over and over. It's just a tasty and very satisfying meal isn't it ... and I LOVE rice. :-)
DeleteYour curry looks so delicious. With ready made meals we always add different spices/herbs as they can be very bland in flavour. Another fan of batch cooking👍
ReplyDeleteIt was very tasty, I was glad that I had enough for the next night too. Ready made meals are getting very bland aren't they, I find myself adding lots of pepper in a bid not to have to add lots of salt. :-)
DeleteI have spent the last few days eating leftovers so will batch cook at the weekend. I find ready meals here too high in price for what you get.
ReplyDeleteI have just about used up all my leftovers from the fridge now. I like the challenge of making something completely different with leftovers, but in this case I had another whole meal to look forward to the next night, perhaps even better. :-)
DeleteIts always good to have something like that on standby in the freezer just in case - mine's the Lidl vegetarian Xmas thingy Jon bought as a yellow stickered thing last January, I nearly had it on Xmas day but the lure of homemade Spanish butterbean stew was too great but it's there just in case! xxx
ReplyDeleteYes, it's nice to know something tasty is in the freezer isn't it, especially something a bit special. I've still got a vegan Christmas roast thing from last year in my freezer I need to eat it soon!!
DeleteI love to cook once eat twice too. I'm making quorn cottage pie with veg on the side for lunch today and it will mean an easy lunch for tomorrow too. I want to do some crafting in the afternoon as it's too cold to do much else. AND the kitchen will be lovely and warm to craft in!
ReplyDeleteYour veg pie and curry look rather tasty :)
Angie x
I love being sat at my desk when the oven is on as the radiator is under the desk area, and the oven is behind me ... so I'm toasty on both sides. :-)
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