i find cooking the roast vegies in the pan drippings from the roast makes the gravy super tasty too. we always add garlic to our roast lamb (or onion and garlic rub with a bit of everything to beef), cook carrot onion, sweet potato, pumpkin and spud in the drippings, and then make gravy with what is left - divine!

i've never been able to stomach gravy from a packet - a little bit of gravox to add color yep, but not as the whole of the gravy! yukko!!