As someone who has watched their weight for more years than I care to remember I know takeaways can be a killer. While they often taste delicious looking at the empty containers, often still swimming in fat, it's clear they are not the healthiest.
But with just weeks to Christmas (yes I said the C word) our family, along with many others are trying to lose some of the summer holiday weight in time to get back into our party clothes for the festive season. But it isn't always easy.
In our house Saturday night has always been family night which usually includes a takeaway of some kind. When we are on a health kick this can get switched to a homemade curry of some kind.
But while the takeaway is costly on the wallet the home-cooked version is often costly on time. And with our busy lives clashing with the rising cost of living we wondered if it would work out better to try the ready meal route.
So on Saturday we found ourselves tucking into a feast made of Slimming World Iceland ready meals. But was it worth the switch?
We started by digging them out of the freezer. We had a variety of main meals - chicken tikka rogan josh, lamb biryani, rogan squash and king prawn bhuna - plus a pilau rice, aloo gobi and a rogan josh sauce.
With just four of us to feed it was a major feast. The main meals cost between £4.25 for the chicken tikka rogan josh through to £7 for the lamb biryani but to buy all was £27.75. Even adding on a few quid for the bread and dips we added it was a fraction of what it would have cost to get from our local takeaway.
We did hit a bit of a problem at first - not realising they were best cooked in the microwave it meant eating a number of them together was easiest done in the oven. They took around 50 minutes to cook.
Each came as a big portion which did impress us. And although oven cooking did take a while we felt it didn't compromise on the taste.
The lamb biryani was really tasty with large chunks of lamb. I'm not a fan of lamb at all but loved the rice while my husband said he found it delicious. It was packed with flavour that you would expect from a takeaway but you could see if had little in the way of fat.
I loved the chicken tikka rogan josh which had big pieces of chicken in a tomatoey sauce and the rogan squash was also lovely with huge amounts of butternut squash. We all commented on the flavour of the spices which came through in the dishes.
The pilau rice came with additional elements we wouldn't normally get in our takeaway as it had chickpeas and peas along with the heavily flavoured rice. However it was one of my favourite bits of the meal and taken with the rogan josh sauce would make a meal on their own.
We usually have a cauliflower bhaji as a side so the aloo gobi was a good alternative. Again it was tasty with big chunks of vegetables.
My son's favourite was the prawn bhuna which had massive prawns and plenty of them. It was also well spiced and a huge portion.
The best bit about the whole meal was the variety. Each dish had its own individual taste which can't always be said for ready meals.
There was no fat to be seen in any of them which was not a surprise as they are all free food on Slimming World. I have eaten Slimming World ready meals in the past and some of them can be a bit on the peppery side and we did find these were a little bit the same.
To be honest, it didn't really match getting a takeaway - I have a feeling the fat might have something to do with that. However when looking for something healthier, quicker and great value for money it is a good alternative.
It also did take quite a while to cook in the oven so next time we may well just have a couple of the main meals and do them in the microwave. There was so much it would easily feed us all and cost even less.
The Slimming World ready meals are only available in Iceland and we will definitely be going back for more. Maybe we'll try Chinese night this weekend!
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