Small-appetite ready meals and meal kits: what's out there
Photo: RDNE Stock project / Pexels
Not every meal needs to be a full plate. Shops and cafés are finally catching up, with smaller ready meals, two-item lunches and single-portion kits. Here's what we've spotted so far.
In the supermarket
- Fit Foods mini meals at Tesco. Five meals of 250g to 280g, each described as high in protein and fibre, in about 450 stores (The Grocer (opens in a new tab)).
- Rustlers chicken muffin. A 154g microwave muffin with about 18g of protein, in Sainsbury's and coming to Iceland (The Grocer (opens in a new tab)).
- Iceland and Myprotein frozen range. Look for the egg bites and snack-sized items rather than the 600g "Mega Protein" meals (Grocery Gazette (opens in a new tab)).
On the high street
- Pret "Pick Your Pair". Any two of half baguettes, small soups, side salads or protein pots (The Grocer (opens in a new tab)). Half a baguette plus a protein pot makes a tidy small lunch.
Meal kits
Meal kits let you cook a portion you choose, with no leftover ingredients.
- Gousto has quick recipe ranges and added "Heat & Eat" ready meals in August (The Grocer (opens in a new tab)). Gousto link coming soon
- SimplyCook sends recipe kits of flavour pots that you cook with your own fresh ingredients, so you choose the portion. It's a subscription that renews automatically until you cancel; check the terms before signing up. SimplyCook link coming soon
What to check on any ready meal
- Pack weight and whether it's one serving or two.
- Protein per pack, not just per 100g.
- Salt. Ready meals can be high, so the front-of-pack traffic lights help.
- Fibre. A meal with beans, lentils or wholegrains usually scores better.