It was with horror that I returned home on Monday to find that the Dazzler had been shopping and that hed been listening when I said I wanted to avoid sarnies at lunch. His solution – was to buy a batch of Batchelors SUPER pasta N sauce.

I’ll admit I haven’t had one of these since the 80s or 90s and even then they were disgusting – something you ate when there was nothing else left and you couldn’t remember buying in any case.

So to the back of the cupboard they went (with the sole intention of “losing” these a couple of weeks down the line) when SHOCK HORROR this morning I woke up and had forgotten to defrost any bread!! There wasnt time to make something from scratch that involved chopping or preparing in any real sense. What could I do?

and then I remembered the dreaded packs….

“How bad could they be?” I asked “They must have got better?” I hoped

There was nothing else for it. I measured my water, milk and knob of butter into a pan and bought it to the boil. I then ripped open a packet of cheese Leek and Ham “flavoured” PastaNsauce and stirred it in. The initial smell did nothing to remove any fears I had, although I was pleasantly surprised with the pasta shape so thought, what the hell its only for one day!!

I got ready then came back to the pan 10 minutes later. I gave it a smell, and a stir and had to admit it had thickened nicely and the pasta had cooked. But the SMELL of badly processed cheese and “ham” was off-putting. Now don’t get me wrong I never expected any real ham in this – its a bit like a chicken & Mushroom pot noodle isn’t it?

So I braced myself and had a taste, and let me tell you – they may call them “super” but there is nothing different about these pasta packets from the ones I remember- just bland processed food.

But then I had a thought. I was going to have ham sarnies so I sliced up some ham, whacked in a few frozen peas, added some freeze dried parsley & chives and stirred. Still OK but nothing to write home about – and then inspiration struck!! I had some Stilton in the fridge so crumbled some of this into the mix and allowed it to melt and WOW

What a difference this made!! I’ve just eaten it for lunch and I can tell you that with a little creativity what could have been a god awful lunch was actually delicious. Will it win any awards? No!! But did I finish every last bit – you betcha!!