As anyone who follows the Slimming World diet plan will know, its range of Iceland ready meals can come in handy when you can't be bothered to make a syn-free dinner from scratch. The frozen food range includes many meal-time favourites like lasagne, shepherd's pie, burgers and curries.
Indeed its curry range has proven so popular that they've just expanded it with even more dishes - enough to fill an entire week would you believe. With them handily arriving in stores just in time for National Curry Week this October, it seemed like as good a time as ever to give them all a whirl.
As a long-time Slimming World devotee myself, I always keep a few of the ready meal curries in my freezer, while Iceland also sent me the newer ones in the range to try for the week. As I'm desperately trying to lose a few pounds before the festive onslaught, I thought this could be quite a handy way to stay on plan for the week while reviewing the range.
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The reality for shoppers is these are not exactly the cheapest of ready meals on the market - you're looking at paying between £4 and £7 for some of the dinner dishes.
But the big selling point is that they're all "free food" on the Slimming World plan - which means you can eat as much as you like, in theory, and still lose weight if you're sticking to plan across the rest of your week.
So which dishes were better than a takeaway? And did I actually lose any weight eating them all week? Here's how I got on and you can see the full range online at Iceland here.
King prawn bhuna
On the packet it looked like a hearty dish of prawns, but once microwaved it looked more like an onion-heavy sauce with a few prawns swiming inside. In fairness, when I counted them up there were 13 prawns in there but compared to the sauce it did look a little imbalanced.
The flavour was nice and punchy, billed as a one pepper rating but definitely at the higher end of that spiciness I'd say. I know onions are the base of many curries and sauces (especially Slimming World friendly ones!) but I felt a bit overwhelmed with them here.
There were huge chunks of it, and if your constitution isn't that keen on a whole onion (I confess that's me) it's not ideal. I served it with plain boiled rice (pictured at the top of the article).
If you're a prawn fan this is definitely a tasty curry option, and it's also got lots and lots of sauce if you wanted to mop it up with a wholemeal pitta bread (if you're sticking to your Slimming World plan folks). But I don't think it's one I'd be investing in again personally.
Taste verdict: 3/5
Lamb biryani
Billed as a "feast of lamb and sweet potato with turmeric rice, in a warmly spiced curry sauce" this one would work well if you can't be bothered making a separate side of rice, as it's a one-pot wonder. It is descirbed on the packet as a two pepper level of spice and it was indeed nice and warming.
This dish was a triumph. It was packed with big lean cubes of lamb and large tasty chunks of sweet potato.
It was just so filling and delicious and to me tasted better than a takeaway - particularly as I could smugly feel it was keeping me bang on plan.
But there had to be a downside didn't there? And it's the price - at £7 that's practically what you'd pay for a takeaway main.
Like all of these Iceland meals, it comes with the recipe card inside, but I'm not sure you'd be able to make this particular dish much more cheaply yourself due to how much lamb was in it (and how expensive lamb is to buy these days). I'd love to eat this one again and again, but at this price it would have to be an occasional treat I think.
Price: £7 - available online but only in Food Warehouse in store
Taste verdict: 5/5
Chicken tikka lasagne
This is a fairly new arrival, but strangely the Iceland PR team didn't send me this one to try. But I was keen to give it a go being a big fan of the regular Iceland Slimming World lasagne so I purchased it for the week's curry trial.
However I'm afraid I found it a bit of grim combo. And it's not even that convenient given it took AN HOUR to cook in the oven although on the upside it was a hefty, filling portion.
It's safe to say I will be sticking to either chicken tikka OR lasagne in future. Never the twain shall meet again.
Taste verdict: 2/5
Rogan Squash
Not being a veggie, I was worried I wouldn't like this but it was delicious, like really delicious. A rich and spicy curry sauce over large chunks of squash and an assortment of green lentils and chickpeas.
I thought I would miss the meat but this was actually massively filling - particularly as I ate it with a portion of the Slimming World Pilau Rice (£2.50) alongside which was packed with soya beans and chick peas.
Taste verdict: 5/5
Chicken tikka Rogan Josh
Now here was the big surprise, I thought I'd prefer the meaty rogan josh to the Rogan Squash, but the veggie version just pipped it for me.
Don't get me wrong it's still a brilliant, tasty curry, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the squash josh. Who would have thought?
Taste verdict: 4/5
Chicken tikka rice bowl
This is one of the "lunch bowl" range of frozen foods, which I like to keep in the freezer for when I need a more filling lunchtime snack.
I really like this one - there's a good amount of moist chicken cubes and a tasty mix of veg and rice in there too. It's just a handy one to have in the freezer and could work as a lunch or dinner really as the portion size is decent.
Price: £3.75 (or on offer in store 2 for £6)
Taste verdict: 4/5
Aloo Gobi
It's the same size as the "lunch bowl" range - if you're a veggie - or it's also suggested as a side dish on the label. For me I did not find this all that appetising on its own, perhaps as I'm not that big a fan of cauliflower.
I have to admit I added some cooked chicken to this one and enjoyed it a lot more. But it's not one I'd be looking to buy again as for that price it's just not worth it for me.
Taste verdict: 2/5
Did I actually lose any weight?
Well, here's the million dollar question. So I ate the Slimming World curries all week and they're all syn-free so I was certainly hoping I would lose some weight.
And yes, hurrah, I lost two pounds after my week of ready meal curries. I'd have been a bit annoyed if I hadn't - as the whole point of these meals is to be entirely "free food" so they should help to keep you firmly "on plan" during your week.
Naturally, I was only eating so many in one week as part of the National Curry Week celebrations - and I don't suppose many people would want to, nor could afford, to eat these ready meals every night of the week.
But the good thing is they all come with a recipe card inside, so you can make the same dishes at home if you're so inclined. And some - like the rogan josh - would be good ones to make in bulk and then freeze for yourself.
The key thing with adding the ready meals to your Slimming World plan is to remember to add that all important "speed" vegetables to your plate. For those unfamiliar with the plan, you're encouraged to add lots of vegetable with any meal to fire up your weight loss by filling yourself up with the right types of nutrient-dense foods.
All of the dishes are on the expensive side for ready meals - and it's not really clear from the packaging if they're meant as an individual portion or to share between two as some do come out as quite hefty portion sizes.
But I find them a good way to keep myself on track when I run out of time to make an entire, syn-free, meal from scratch if I know I've got one in the freezer.
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