Hi we always shop at Coles and usually intend buying a few things but always end up with more
How have you find buying Lite n Easy or cooking at home measure up price wise
We are interested because of the variety that we would not even try and each can chose their preference
Regards
Peter
Choice has reviewed Lite nā Easy meals a few times
They also reviewed other prepared meals and food boxes.
My mother has been on Lite n Easy for several years, but has a pantry full of breakfasts and a freezer full of meals she didnāt like as you have to take the full menu. As she is a single pensioner, the small packaged serves of eg carrot avoided her having to buy a packet and possibly waste most (carrot probably not the best example hereā¦) After a while she began to dislike the sameness of the menus and changed to another local provider. I believe she gets some sort of discount/assistance with these.
The downside of LnāE was the excessive packaging. But it appeared to be good value, but that is against a regional area without Big Supermarkets. A lot of variables to consider.
We live regionally and use meal deliveries for convenience, not for weight loss, so Iāve never had to order anything other than dinners from Lite n Easy. I just select Dinners Only, and the larger the order, the cheaper per meal. Occasionally we try a mini-meal or snack when they have a special.
I can pick my own meals. I choose what I want. You just have to keep scrolling through the options and skip everything else.
I usually add some extra veggies or salad, since the standard Lite n Easy and supermarket meals are generally only about 380 grams. Some may go up to 450 grams now. (We donāt have desserts.)
Iāve shopped online for groceries for years now, so Iāve got a good idea of what weāre likely to enjoy. Most things are for the microwave, not the oven, so anything that should be crispy (schnitzel, chips) can be a bit soggy. But if you like roasts and pastas and curries, etc, these meals can be very handy to have in the freezer.
Weāve enjoyed some Lite n Easy fresh meals, but they have to be eaten within a couple of days, so they wonāt send more than a few in a large order.
I order them all for āmeā so thereās only one delivery fee, but that makes it look as if 14 meals are going to last for two weeks, not one.
The supermarkets are certainly giving the meal services and businesses a run for their money now, and itās been great since Covid kicked in.
Good luck to your mum.
You donāt, actuallyā¦ I have often bought just dinners for 7 days or 14 days depending on mood. I found them adequate until they started using more pepper in the meals. I donāt like pepper except ground black and only on scrambled eggs. I stopped buying then. You also donāt have to take the suggested menu, you can choose your own.
Probably a misunderstanding with an elderly customer who isnāt tech savvy. I donāt know how she ordered, or if someone set up a recurring menu. Now in her 90ās with fading eyesight she is getting 2 meals prepared by the local cafe (around the corner) and they drop off & pick up 5 days a week. She likes the variety (and I guess social interaction). She tried the supermarket frozen dinners and hated them. Pays to look around at other options.
Life in retirement can go at a pace and we found ourselves being quite time poor. Wider family introduced us to Lite nāEasy and we havenāt look back. We still cook, and so we opted for Lite nāEasy āmeals of convenienceā. Favourites included Chicken Fettuccini, and Slow Cooked Beef with Red Wine and Mustard Glaze. More recently we have moved to the My Choice range of meals. We love the fact that someone else has dealt with meal size, calories, and nutritional balance. While not our goal, we have both lost some weight. Telephone support couldnāt be better, delivery is early morning, and the budget impact has some offsets at the supermarket plus fewer trips to buy food. For us, Lite nāEasy has been a lifestyle change.
CHOICE has a positive write-up on LānāE see ā zackarii, 26 March 2022. Itās had a 5-star rating from Canstar Blue in successive years. You can opt in at any level you desire, and variety is extensive. Even in my best cooking days I didnāt come anywhere near to the array offered by LānāE. Oh, and did I mention washing up?
If you like over-cooked soggy TV dinners then go for them, but they are very expensive. Personally, Iād advise you to learn a few basic dishes that take under 30 minutes to make and cook for yourself.
L&E is also poor on catering for different diets. e,g, if you say vegetarian then you are likely to be faced with a choice of pasta or pasta with an occasional rice option. God help you if it is something more complex such as gluten-free! And these are mainstream ways of eating these days.
If you want convenience and money is not an issue then give it a try. Itās just not for me though, home cooked all the way here.
I find Lite nā Easy quite expense but it is very convenient so comes in handy if youāre time poor. I also find the excess packaging quite annoying as well and think they could do more to reduce this without impacting the quality and presentation of the food.I also find myself getting a bit sick of it after a while. There is a lot of variety but find processed food starts to taste the same after a while, even when itās good quality like Lite nā Easy. I hope this helps.
Hi everybody and thanks for your opinions - we tried for seven days and really appreciate the products of Lite n Easy we tried - we ordered some meals that we would never attempt to cook at home and we both found them wonderful
So far cannot see how people can honestly complain about the foods but we realise that some would find it expensive - we are very fortunate and understand that packaging is essential and it is very expensive as well so we are confident that - for the present - the manufacturer is now using the minimum necessary but thatās just our opinion
Kind regards to all
Peter
Iāve started Lite n Easy about a week ago (it wasnāt available in my area until recently) and was reading some of the past information on Choice. One thing that came up is the education side of things. In other words it doesnāt teach people what they should eat, how much and even preparation.
One of the links offered by Choice was the Eat for Health calculators and I checked it out. And this is where a lot of people fall down.
Calculate how many kilojoules you need for the day. Awesome, so what does that look like in real life? No idea.
You should eat these things (list of things to eat), but whereās the guides on how much of those things, the best way to prepare, so on and so forth.
See a lot of the government stuff offers āa few recipesā and from that minimal information, youāre meant to become an expert in gathering these food groups, knowing the exact measurements you need to cover your kilojoules and how to prepare those things in a meal.
Now I should point out that Iāve done a few āProgramsā in the past. One I stuck to and did the maintenance mode for quite a number of years, including a yearās worth of menu plans with matching grocery lists. I had barely any waste and my spouse and I were quite healthy and eating well. However a change in circumstances threw everything out of kilter and have been trying to get back to that ever since.
My reason for opting for Lite ānā Easy (and yes, supermarket options are probably cheaper, but they also look far less appetising and many donāt taste anywhere near as good.)
My other reason (besides some small weight loss) is simplicity. In previous programs the amount of time spent in the kitchen prepping 3 meals a day was starting to overwhelm me. Iām past doing all that. I want to enjoy my spare time, not spend it bare-foot and pissed off in the kitchen for hours at a time: Getting up early to cook a protein rich breakfast; Slicing, dicing and grating for nutricious salads or wraps; doing it all over again for dinner plus pre-prepping what I could for next morningās breakfasts or lunches. Iād rather be out walking my dogs or crafting or doing a bit of gardening.
So yes, itās become about convenience for me. I can do all the other (menu planning, healthy cooking etc), Iām not a big eater (believe me, I struggle to finish some of the Lite n Easy meals and sometimes Iāll leave the breakfast snacks for morning tea and lunch snacks for afternoon tea).
So while I understand the notion that pre-prepared meals donāt teach people how to feed themselves, for some of us, we know how to do it, but not all of us enjoy spending hours in the kitchen or at the supermarket. I loathe the supermarket, even my pet food is delivered, but thatās because I canāt get large breed dog food locally.
Iām just writing this as I think there are benefits to pre-prepped meal deliveries that sometimes are overlooked or not given much thought because theyāre considered āconvenienceā foods. (Iām not talking about takeaway, thatās always been a last resort thing)
Welcome @Andi It appears you would like the convenience of ready prepared meals, but also want to know that these align with healthy eating.
The CSIRO developed a healthy eating plan which informed the National Health Guidelines, which became the Total Well-Being Diet. CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet It is designed for weight loss (which often happens when people move on to it from a less healthy diet), but is the food types and proportions that are the most informative. It is also a cheap option as the 12 week plan offers a full refund on completion (T&Cs apply).
They now have some āSimpleā menus, but you still have to buy ingredients and prepare your meals. They wonāt be offering ready prepared meals, as part of the program is teaching participants how to choose, portion and cook food. However, there are communities and groups that follow the TWD diet and do help each other.
Choice has reviewed Ready-Prepared Delivered meals (eg Youfoodz) as part of this article. For healthy meals you should be looking at low salt, sugar, fat, no processed foods, all food groups present and in proportions recommended by Govt Health guidelines, variety and, if important to you, presentation.
My mother uses home delivered prepared meals and finds she gets bored with the menu, so it might be best to choose a service that offers an ever changing selection. Let us know if you find a good solution.
Iāve got ALL the Total Wellbeing program books, including the recipe books. Iāve done the TWD program. I have a bookshelf full of recipe books (and some have prided me with excellent tasty meals), I know how to cook, I know what to eat, I know what to shop for. Iāve been cooking meals for nearly 40 years in my marriage and working around my spouseās shift work for 36 of those years.
I also live rural so we donāt have all the options city people have. As I said, until recently Lite n Easy wasnāt available here at all. Hello, Fresh is available and has been for quite awhile but Iāve read an awful lot of product reviews about people who received poor quality fresh vegetables. And I couldnāt see the point of ordering a meal kit when I can just as easily buy the same stuff at the supermarket and make it myself (and avoid fresh coriander because it tastes like soap to me.)
Iāve also read the Choice reviews, but when you donāt have multiple options and itās a choice between A or B, or in many cases, only A, the reviews become more about take it or leave it, as comparisons to other options are meaningless.
I donāt plan to stay on a 7-day option for too long, itāll be reduced in the near future.
What I was saying in my OP was more about having a lifestyle that didnāt require spending endless hours in the kitchen to ensure that all the nutrition requirements are met. Government guidelines give plenty of information on what you should do but little about how to do it. None of the info or programs ever really consider the lifestyles of people and I think thatās why people so often fail when losing weight. Itās not just about the sugar cravings and avoiding processed foods. Itās bloody hard work to stick to a proper diet and exercise regime. Regime is a good word for it.
What Iām saying is sometimes consider that everyone is different, not all options are conveniently available to all people, and sometimes the options that are can be onerous. Stop saying āyouāre better off doingā¦ā
My preference would be not to use LnE at all, but Iāve spent the past 2 years trying to lose 9kg (I have health reasons). Thatās not a lot to lose compared to some people. I managed to lose 4kg but it was slow going and my weight hasnāt budged for a year. Telling me to spend more time in the kitchen (CSIRO TWD and other programs and cooking kits) is not helpful. So Iāve chosen convenience because spending excessive time in the kitchen was doing my head in.
Finally, since starting LnE Iām actually back to eating 3 meals a day (like I was 10 years ago when I was 8kg lighter), instead of just dinner at night and vita weats with Vegemite or nothing at all for lunch but copious cups of tea or coffee (no sugar).
While some people are great at prioritising their food intake and exercise (sometimes to excess,) most of us are just trying. Just trying!
This isnāt about buying the best choice of equipment for the job, or the most suitable insurance or internet plan. Itās about people trying to do what the government wants them to do, take control of their health. And when life stresses constantly pile up, sometimes the best option is the convenient one.
Sometimes things have to give. For me, it was constantly being in the kitchen for breakfast lunch and dinner.
I hope that all makes sense.
I am also rural & remote, beyond the reach of home delivered meal kits (despite them sending advertising material) and Iāve been on TWD since 2017. My main criticism of TWD/CSIRO (and their books) is the complicated recipes, non-seasonal & unusual ingredients that arenāt available in my nearest town.
I learned the principles of TWD and use their database, but do my own meals. I make things in bulk and freeze portions, keep boxes in the fridge to lay out for āhelp yourselfā lunch. Dessert is fresh or tinned fruit. Little prep, little cooking, wide variety of seasonal (cheap) food.
I was a bit disappointed with the Govt āPlateā which seems a bit sparse in the vegetable section. Iāve done some courses like Melb.Uni āFood As Medicineā free on Future Learn as there are no resources here (like dieticians) and our only GP was shut for 21 weeks last year and now shut for 2 months. With a āOne Question Only per Appointmentā policy, we have more pressing things to ask him when we finally get in.
So, unfortunately the good health messages are lost in the noise of Social Media with extreme diets, miracle weight loss products etc.
A solution for rural & remote - my mother who is nearly blind & in her 90ās gets her meals made up for her by the local cafe. She gets a wide variety, foods she likes, and things she can handle with low vision. They set it up for her and bring it around about 3 times a week. She handles breakfast & plates. A lot less waste than Lite & Easy.
