Jamie Oliver has a new television series called Saving With Jamie, and it’s based around the idea of using up leftovers to create delicious and economical meals. We’ve only seen the first couple of episodes, but it was enough to convince me to pick up his accompanying cookbook at Costco (for $24).
Jamie’s new show had me thinking though – for most of us, whether or not we cook “from scratch” is less about money, and more about time. Years ago I wrote a post about how time IS money, and it’s particularly relevant when we’re trying to cobble together a quick meal to feed the prowling wolves.
For us, cooking at home is far easier and more rewarding than going out for dinner or ordering in takeaway, but we didn’t always feel that way – when we were younger and worked long hours, the last thing we wanted to do when we arrived home was to cook.
Even when we had a young family, mid-week meals still felt like hard work, and would often necessitate a last minute dash to the supermarket. Things only really changed a few years ago – it’s funny how life circumstances which seem hard at the time can sometimes push you down a path for the better.
These days, we shop in advance, keep a stocked freezer and pantry, grow a garden full of greens, and can almost always pull together a decent meal at short notice. Decent doesn’t mean fancy though, and most of the time our dinners are simple and (hopefully) reasonably healthy. Almost by default, this means that our food costs are much lower than they used to be, but more importantly, cooking has become a pleasant and stress-free process which we now enjoy.
Here are a few of our money-saving time-saving ideas. When the day has gone pear-shaped and it’s 5pm and we haven’t even thought about dinner, we usually end up eating one of the dishes below.
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Instant Meat Pies
Whenever I cook a stew or casserole, like the recent beef short ribs one, I shred any leftover meat and store it with the sauce in a container in the freezer. When I’m pressed for time, I simply defrost this (on the bench or in the microwave), add a few frozen peas and pour it into a pie dish, then top it with a pâte brisée pastry.
The pastry takes just minutes in the food processor and freezes well. The batch I make is sufficient to top at least two pies, so there’s usually some pastry lurking in the freezer for another day.
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Cheap and Easy Soups
These are a regular lunch for me, as I adore thick soups. At the moment, my freezer has single serves of tromboncino, chestnut and parsley soups, plus a couple of portions of pea and ham, from a batch I made recently.
My friend Johnny routinely keeps us in ham bones, but last week I had the large bone from our glazed leg to use up. I put it into a big stainless steel pot with a $1.50 packet of yellow split peas, and after a few hours of gentle simmering, I ended up with eight generous servings of luscious pea and ham soup, working out at just 19c per bowl. More importantly though, it’s absolutely delicious – on more than one occasion I’ve passed up a “better” lunch for a hot bowl of this soup…
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Stocking up on Beans
We cook with a lot of beans! The tinned versions are completely fine and very convenient, but we save even more by keeping a stash of frozen cooked beans in the freezer. We prepare a large batch every few months – the beans or chick peas are left to soak overnight on the bench, then boiled in a big pot of unsalted water until soft but not disintegrating. Apparently this process is much quicker in a pressure cooker, but I always end up with mush.
Once the beans are cooked and cooled, we pack them into meal sized portions and store them in the freezer…
Our standard “pantry dinner” is an easy (but not particularly authentic) chilli con carne – 500g mince and a large bag of beans, cooked with onion, garlic, tomato passata, garden veg, paprika and our homemade chilli paste. It makes Friday night dinners very easy!
Pete has asked me to add this tip: if you flatten out your mince as much as possible and freeze it in a vacuum sealed pack, it will defrost in minutes in a couple of inches of cold water in the sink…
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Survival Pasta
No matter how crowded our pantry gets, there is always room in there for pasta. There has to be – it’s a mainstay in our house, and an economical way to fill the stomachs of my perpetually starving sons. I can gauge how busy/frantic/stressed we are by the number of pasta dinners we have in a week, because these are the dishes we rely on when we’re really stuck for a meal idea.
We will often cook pasta instead of ordering takeaway, although when we were younger, that used to involve boiling it up and pouring over a purchased sauce. These days, we try harder – even our simplest dishes will now include a sauce made from scratch and fresh vegetables from the garden.
This easy soupy pasta has become a regular at our table – I fry together onion, an assortment of garden veg (leeks, carrots, parsley, tomatoes), add a bag of ham offcuts and either some stock or water and salt, and allow it all to simmer until the vegetables are cooked through. Small pasta and a little seasoning mix (I’m using Moroccan at the moment) is then added, along with leafy greens and a generous handful of frozen peas.
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Sandwich Pressed Simplicity
I’ve told my sons that when they move out of home, I’m setting them up with a small freezer, a set of Emile Henry cookware, and a sandwich press. We bought our café press, as it was known back then, in the early 90s and used it regularly for a while. It then languished in the cupboard for a decade or so until we “rediscovered” it a few years ago…
On many a weary evening, the press gets dragged out of the cupboard, and dinner follows shortly thereafter. If you’re looking to buy one, we’d recommend getting one with flat plates – the ridged ones leave nice marks on the food, but they’re much harder to clean. Here are a few of the dishes we make with this kitchen stalwart…
Toasted sandwiches – these are what the machine was made for, and it does a brilliant job on them. I particularly like ham, cheese and quince jelly, but both my sons adore toasted baked bean sandwiches – Big Boy has his with cheese, Small Man with Vegemite. If I’m organised, there will be homemade baked beans in the freezer, but most of the time, I just open a tin of Heinz.
Kebabs, hamburgers and rare steaks – I know it’s all sounding very George Foreman, but honestly, it works brilliantly, providing you don’t overcook the meat. And the cleaning up afterwards is a doddle.
Haloumi – no fat required to grill these to squeaky perfection.
Homemade Crackers – we turn stale pita bread into crackers by pressing them until they’re dry and crisp. The toasted rounds can then be used for fattoush salad, or served with cheese and dips. We haven’t bought water crackers since Carol taught us how to make these!
Grilled vegetables – our large 90cm oven uses a lot of energy to heat up, so it was a joy to discover how brilliantly the press could grill eggplants, capsicums, zucchinis and tromboncinos, all in a very short space of time.
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With just a little bit of planning, it’s possible to de-stress the mid-week dinner process. If you’ve got any tips or suggestions for economical and easy meals, please share them with us!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I just commented on another post about this one motivating me. Some great ideas here but I REALLY love the idea of flattening out packets of hamburg. Wait until I get my new refrigerator with the big deep bottom freezer!
Di, we mince our own, and they really do defrost in about 10 minutes in the sink – much easier than peeling off bits of mince from a frozen lump as it defrosts in the microwave! :)
I’m a huge fan of the YMCA (Yesterday’s Meal Cooked Again), and we had one of our favourites this week. Day #1 – char grilled vegies drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, served with a baked ricotta (all home made). Day #2 – homemade pizzas topped with the leftovers. Day #3 – puree everything together to use as a sauce over wholemeal pasta. Yum scrum!
It’s fun to save with the YMCA…. (sorry, couldn’t resist! :)) Great eats!
Lots of wonderful suggestions!
Thanks Deb! I’m sure you remember what it was like to feed growing teenagers – look how well you grew yours! :D
You know Celia – I really think you have a book of your own in you. You are quite inspiring!
Amanda, you are always so kind, thank you! :)
When are you going to be picked up for your own TV show Celia? You have so much wisdom to share and I’m just grateful to be on the receiving end sweetie.
My freezer is always chock full of bits and pieces and cooked leftover meals- I actually just found half a chicken and roast potatoes from last Christmas! Otherwise our busy/slack meals consist of eggs. So versatile, so perfect and so many delicious ways to enjoy them! Xox
Becca, you’re a sweetie, thank you! I never thought to freeze roast chicken and potatoes, what do you do with them when you defrost them? And yes, eggs, eggs, eggs, they’re so wonderful! I’m a bit disappointed our girls are no longer laying – can’t wait to get more chooks!
I reheat them gently in gravy, so they aren’t quite so crispy anymore, but still nice and moist and yummy. Perfect for a busy day, and it seems like you’ve put in a bit of effort :) I can hardly wait for you to get new chookies either, I enjoy them through your adventures!
Flattening – clever! My grandmother made mince, peas, and macaroni in a bowl. Good for hungry boys and girls, I guess…I have a few recipes for using up wilting greens and making soup (even out of lettuce). Eggs, beans, greens, and cheese are good protein-filled economic healthy meal…old bread becomes French toast (breakfast for dinner is a favorite with the kids). Soups, planning so roast chicken one day is chicken tacos the next, fish leftovers make fish chowder and so on…great post.
Emily, wonderful suggestions, thank you! We’ve taken a tip from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and we toss our old bread ends into the freezer. When we have enough, we put them into a slow oven to dry and then blitz them into sourdough breadcrumbs. They make the best crumbed fish fillets! :)
As Jamie Oliver is a great favourite of mine I watched his first ones of this series even from hospital bed :) ! Methinks it is horses for courses: using money wisely is very important to me, but living alone, it is not worth my while to cook the large pieces of meat [eg the shoulder of pork] he advises to get leftovers ~ most of it would be thus! You with four persons + are in a different situation. Yes, your darling husband shows how practical flattened mince packets are: JO did the same with tomato sauce, if you remember :) ! Like your lovely easy chilli con carne :D !
Eha, I hope you’re ok – mentions of hospital beds worry me! x And you’re right of course, we all have to work to our individual lifestyles – our main goal is usually just keeping the boys fed! I don’t remember the tomato sauce bit on Jamie – I’ll go back for another look! Thanks! :)
Methinks the last programme: helping the lady who would buy a full sheep, methinks, and not label it and not want to use the freezer! The last addendum on that!! [And ten days in hospital and that probably not the end of it: ‘Yes, I can’ BO said :) !]
I’m so sorry to hear about the hospital stay, Eha. Hope you’re feeling better soon. x
I flatten my mince like that when I pack it to save space in the freezer. It never occurred to me that I could defrost it so simply. Thanks for that tip. I too have lots of leftover stews in the freezer for instant pies. Sometimes I top them with pastry, sometimes with mash, depending on how I feel. Fantastic tips for the sandwich maker as well. I didn’t realise it had so many uses. A great post all round. Thanks.
Tania, we mince our own, so we vac seal it as well, which means it’s waterproof and can defrost in the sink without getting water-logged! Pies topped with mash, that’s a great idea and I’ve never tried it with leftovers, thank you! :)
Thank you, Celia, for the tips for extra uses of the sandwich press. I’ve got a big oven as well and heating it up for a few roasted veggies always annoys me. I’m always disappointed when I plan for leftovers and everything gets eaten.
Liz, it’s made a huge difference to us – we now make vegetarian lasagnes frequently – like you, it used to annoy me no end to have to turn on the oven to roast a few veggies!
I love when you do posts like this- they’re always so inspiring as I’m sure we could all use some good money & time saving meals. Wonderful, thorough & thoughtful post! Thank you Celia.
PS- sadly, we don’t get any of the new Jamie Oliver programs over here…we’re still watching old Christmas episodes from 5 years ago. Yikes! :(
Thanks Em, you’re lovely! I wish you could watch the show, but I’ve had a good look at the cookbook and it’s VERY good – worth picking up if you find it at a reasonable price!
These are such great ideas Celia – I never thought of using my sandwich press for anything other than toasting sandwiches! I’d be interested to see how you find the Jamie cookbook and especially if there’s any wizardry required, like the 15 min meals cookbook :)
Jas, I really like this cookbook – but then again, I like the 15 minute one too! Wasn’t so keen on the layout of the 30 minute one though. This one is great for using up leftovers and stuff we have in the pantry. I was surprised to see it at Costco already!
That’s good to know! I’d only heard not so great things about the others (but haven’t checked them out myself) but I usually love Jamie Oliver – for me his recipes always work and are super tasty! I think a trip to the library is in order…
Thanks much for sharing your time-saving dinner ideas :) Useful indeed.
Most welcome! Thanks for stopping by! :)
Celia my favourite “**** what’s for dinner?” meals are: Quiche – it is amazing how quickly one can come together and taste fantastic – and pasta with a tomato sauce – the base is always onion, garlic and tomato and then the sky (or rather the fridge) is the limit. I usually add olives, capers, parsley (if I have it) and dried sausage but I have another version with bacon and a vegetarian version when things are really grim.
Glenda, you’ve reminded me, we usually make zucchini slice – the boys don’t seem to like quiche or omelets as much, which is a great shame. Your version sounds fantastic though!
What a great idea on the mince. I’m going to start doing that. I wish John liked pasta because I love it. I have announced I’m making pasta this week so he’s had plenty of warning. :)
John doesn’t like pasta? That’s a bugger, maybe your fresh pasta will win him over, Maureen! :D
Pasta has always been my quick go to meal. Thanks for the tip about beans. I’m going to cook up a batch for the freezer :)
Tandy, we originally started freezing beans because black turtle beans were quite expensive in tins – they’re wonderful in anything Mexican inspired though!
You are amazing, Thank you, I always take notes… By the way photographs are so beautiful too. Love, nia
Nia, you’re very kind, thank you! xx
Celia, we are still in the working long(ish) hours and finding cooking hard on weeknights time of life. Thanks for this post, especially the flattened mince idea. Keeping a food blog has given me a lot of cooking/baking discipline, but I can always use more help. Thank you.
It’s hard when you’re working long days – I can remember that time well. The sandwich press saved us back then! :)
Hi Celia, long time stalker but first time I’ve posted a reply :-) hello!
I agree with previous posters! You should talk to Lorraine about doing a book yourself (or better still, coordinate one with time saving/cheats ideas from a group of bloggers! One chapter each and the book will write itself!) Anyway fab ideas, just wanted to add that with very limited freezer space, I put all my soups into ziplock bags and freeze them flat too. So easy to stack them! And I precook whole boiled chat potatoes and precut all my pumpkin and freeze it, so a roast dinner takes <5 mins to put on when guests are coming. Was so helpful with a newborn in the house :-) For ultra quick soups/pastas I also buy loads of onions, dice them up and freeze in ziplocks, so most of my mise en place is done before I start. Laziness breeds invention!
Kylie, hello! Thanks for popping in to leave a comment! That roast dinner tip is an absolute winner, thank you!
Thanks for some great ideas as usual Celia! I totally agree with Pete re mince, I do the same thing if I freeze a pasta sauce, defrosting is so quick! I caught Jamie the other night by chance, I’ll pop over and have a look at the book now. I loved his tip on Thursday about keeping curry leaves in the freezer.
Rose, I really like this book! If you hunt around, you should be able to pick it up for under $30 – the one I bought at Costco was $24. And I rang my mum after I saw the show, and she gave me a branch off her curry tree – it’s in the freezer right now! :)
PS I forgot to say that I liked to save on food for two reasons: one to prevent food waste and two so that I can buy better quality ingredients.
Yes, agree with you completely there! It’s all swings and roundabouts – every 19c bowl of soup I have contributes to my 10kg bag of fairtrade chocolate. :)
FREEZE the cooked beans…..Obvious now that you have written it. I always put off making stuff with dried beans as I am a chronic forgetter, but this makes so much sense. Well done Celia. You always come up with the goods.
Liisa, thank you – we’ve also tried freezing beans and chick peas after they’ve been soaked but not cooked, but we’ve found it works better to cook them first and then freeze them!
Great post, chock full of ideas! I do agree that cooking choices do depend on other time commitments as well as financial restrictions.
I was idly musing over just these things yesterday. Perhaps it’s the way we are all between seasons ~ you on the up spiral and we on the down ~ that makes us think. The menu is changing and so we have to rethink what we are doing.
I’m a big fan of YMCA as well. Last night’s supper often gets a new costume for lunch.
Pat, your meals always look fabulous – long live the YMCA! :)
I commented to the G.O. last weekend that I wish our apartment had more room for a fridge with a bigger freezer but we do the best we can… when we make mashed potato we never use less than 2 kg spuds, and freeze the left overs. Most times I cook I make extra to feed us for a few days or go in the freezer. Last week I was inspired to cook your beef and beans – we had dinner, the G.O. took a serve for lunch and there’s another dinner in the freezer. The grass fed mince we buy from Everleigh Markets is flat – so convenient. Our quick and easy meal is fritters – made with left over mash or a tin of creamed corn plus egg, flour and seasoning, served with smoked salmon or trout and or poached egg depending on the size packet of fish, and fine chopped salad/salsa. I have a few more ideas now already from reading this post – we love our sandwich press too.
ED, I love the idea of fritters, thank you – that would be very easy if you’ve already got mash in the freezer! I’m going to store that one up for later.. x
Fritters also go well with a rasher of free range bacon :)
Hi Celia
I also reuse leftovers with pasta/rice/pastry/mash potatoes. My favourite when I am really busy and have cold meat in the fridge is my grandmother’s Wash day Pikelets served with a couple of veg and tomato relish/sauce/chutney.
Meg, Wash Day Pikelets! I love the name – bet they’re delicious too. :) How nice to find you on Twitter! x
I’m very jealous of your vacuum-sealer. Look how neat that mince is! My freezer is a logistical disaster which I’ve been meaning (but failing) to sort out for months. Maybe today is the day! X
Rach, mine is a really cheap one – I think I picked it up from Deals Direct for $65 years ago. It’s certainly earned its keep, although I’m going to get a better one when it breaks – I now know I use it all the time! The bags are expensive though. I hope you get your freezer sorted! :)
Love your work Celia! I agree that all of this is easier with just a little forward planning. We freeze our mince flattened too. I am interested Jamie’s book after your recommendation. I always love visiting your kitchen, you share so much valuable information.
PS My Dad is visiting us tomorrow for the first time in years and I am baking your ciabatta for lunch. I am ‘squelching’ it tonight for an all night prove to bake in the morning. I still get excited about getting up early to cook bread x
Jane, thank you! I hope the ciabatta went down well with your dad! xx
Are you trying to steal my thunder? :D – Great post, Celia!
Never, you are the king! Although I did write my first Frugal Living post in 2010.. :D
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/frugal-living/
The flatten packages of mince stacks neater in the freezer and also takes up less freezer space.
Your sandwich press ideas are brilliant, I should look into getting one.
Norma, ours has been going for years – when we’ve finished cooking with it, the plates just wipe clean. It’s so much easier than washing up a sticky frypan after cooking meat!
Great post, Celia. We discovered flattening everything like that before freezing while doing monthly cooking, doing away with bulky containers that take up so much space. I agree with you about a full freezer and stocked pantry, makes a huge difference in pulling together a quick, but satisfying meal.
I have also come to realize that much of what hinders folks from cooking instead of takeout is lack of knowledge. There is a generation now that has been trained to go to the pre-packaged or premade meals at the grocery store, which is great sometimes, but it robs them/us of the practice and understanding of cooking for ourselves and what to do with leftovers. In an interview with Julia Child, she was asked for tips for saving money on food. Her response, “Learn to cook so you don’t waste.” Good advice. :)
Judy, that’s so true – I know even for Pete and I, sometimes we’ll see something being made and think, “oh, is THAT all there is to it”, and until that point, it will never have occurred to us to try making it at home. I’m sure there is a whole generation as you say who think stock comes in a box and bread in a bag! :)
I love making things from scratch and I think my parents taught me to never throw anything away. Couple that with the fact that I love leftovers too! Do you know that I met a girl who refused to have leftovers in her fridge? She would throw everything away if it wasn’t eaten. I still can’t believe it lol.
I have a friend with two freezers and things go into it and never come out, because they don’t like defrosted food. So yes, I really do believe it! :)
Great post Celia, I didn’t think of flattening out the mince. Actually, we bought a large pack of beef mince from Costco recently and I froze it in batches but didn’t think to flatten it out. Stir fries are my quick and easy go to dinners. A few mushrooms, baby spinach leaves, broccolini and you have a quick accompaniment to small morsels of meat.
Lizzy, stir fries, of course! Surprisingly, I do very few of them – funny, given I grew up on them! Thanks for adding it to the list here! x
I toss my kitchen sponge into the dish washer for a good clean and sterilise. I’m going to start flattening out minced for freezing. Great suggestion.
Misky, that’s a great idea – Pete puts ours in a bowl of water and microwaves it, but the dish washer is much easier! Thanks! x
This was a great post Celia, so many great ideas! What cut of meat do you use to make mince?
Thanks Kathy! We always use grass-fed rump…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/08/29/grass-fed-beef/
love your uses for the sandwich press Celia, I’ve never really used it for anything other than toasties so I think I’m going to be a bit more adventurous and try cooking a few things in it too!
Lisa, it makes fattoush salad SO easy, although maybe not authentic? We grow purslane for it though, as Barbara at Harkola told us to! :)
Turtle beans – I’ve bought them a few times over the years and they end up as green manure in the garden because I’m not sure what to do with them!! What do you make with yours Celia? My big campaign over several months has been to make sure that everything we put in the freezer is labelled – he who loves putting little leftover morsels in the freezer – unlabelled – gets a few sharp words. Dahl is my current cheapy favourite, using garden greens and frozen ginger and turmeric. Great post Miss Celie.
Jan, turtle beans are our favourite for anything Mexican-inspired – they keep their shape and add a lovely falvour to the dish. I adore dahl – need to make it more! And Sharpie pens and stick on labels are our methods of avoiding mystery freezer items, although we have had a few of them. One resulted in this mystery meat pie.. :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/10/30/mystery-meat-pie/
I taped a Jamie episode from a week or so ago & just watched it today. He’s always easy to watch & he never stops does he? He’s done wonders for school dinners, flying the flag for migrants and their influences in Britain and now he’s out to help everyday families. Laughed when I read about the trombocino soup in the freezer – it just keeps giving doesn’t it?!
Ha! I was hoping to sneak the trombie reference in there – I nearly got away with it! :D
We freeze our stuff flat too – it makes defrosting so much quicker. I make larger meals than necessary and freeze the leftovers flat in bags for quick meals on hockey nights for us – chilli, pulled pork, taco filling, soups, etc. It’s perfect for no-brainer dinners when you don’t have the time or energy to come up with a meal idea and don’t want to spend money on take-out (that, and we live 20 minutes from town, so take-out is really not a convenience for us).
Heidi, thanks for stopping by! Your hockey night meals are the perfect example of how a little planning can end up with quick and easy dinners! :)
very good idea to flatten the mince, and now i wish I had a tv, so I could watch jamie, but maybe will just buy the book. I am a great believer in leftovers, though Johns usually takes them to work in his lunch box. Like you when I cook I have an eye to making something for the freezer.. your frozen pastry sounds like a good idea, though it would be faster to make it from scratch as I always forget to take stuff out of the freezer in time.. love love.. c
Celi, I really like this book – I was always pretty good with leftovers, but there are many dishes in Saving with Jamie that made me think, “ooh hello, there’s an idea..” :) xx
I don’t know how it happened but when did leftovers become a bad thing? I’ve actually heard people say — with more than a fair amount of pride — that they do not eat leftovers. Well, I’m on the other end of the spectrum and proud to say that I eat leftovers. In fact, i sometimes prefer them over the original meal.I do enjoy a roast loin of pork, a baked ham, and a corned beef brisket, no doubt. But I enjoy the sandwiches after so much more. I’ve often used plastic bags when I freeze tomato sauce. Not only do their contents freeze quickly but they stack nice in a corner of the freezer, out of the way. I have a sandwich press, too, and really enjoy it. See my nte above about leftover roasts. :) Have a great week, Celia!
John, I couldn’t agree with you more – so often the leftovers are so much better than the original, particularly when it comes to slow cooked meats! I once read a blog where the lady referred to her flatpacked soups in the freezer as her “library” – she had them all standing upright and lined up neatly on the freezer shelf! :)
The mince idea is great – I freeze tomato sauces and soups that way too but more to maximise freezer space. It’s only good stuff which goes in there so I have no problem with using leftover to throw together a meal.
I wish I had a sandwich toaster though to save on washing up as well as time.
Nancy, the sandwich press is a great investment! It stands up on its end too (or at least ours does), which makes it far easier to store as well.. :)
I was just thinking the other day how much I thought Jamies latest idea was a really good one, and here I have my very own little Jamie Oliver here in Sydney town. You are very inspiring lovely Celia x
Hi love, thank you – Jamie’s new show is a ripper, isn’t it? I’m really enjoying it!
Lots of interesting ideas Celia. Any ideas for the best way to freeze stock? I sometimes freeze it in old plastic milk cartons and then just hack the top off and squeeze out the frozen block, but I’m sure you or Pete have a far more effective method.
My “no idea what to cook for supper” dish is baked potatoes with a variety of fillings or at the moment Half The Garden Soup/Stew. I can’t get on with Jamie’s books – I can make his dishes if I watch him do it on TV but his written recipes just don’t work for me.
Anne, we’ve tried all sorts of stock containers, but always end up back at the plastic takeaway containers. They hold the right amount for a dish (about 500 – 750ml), so they’re quite space efficient, and then they pop out easily after a few seconds under the warm water tap. They’re reusable too.
I love Hugh’s soup recipe and baked spuds are wonderful, although I rarely get them big enough to use one as the base for an entire wolf meal. Funny that you don’t like Jamie’s books, I find them very simple to work from, but I know all too well that some books suit some folks and not others – over here, every baker raves about the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook. I bought it on the recommendation of two friends, but just can’t stand its writing style – in the end I had to give it away!
Celia, thanks for the good info. Did you like Jamie’s 15 minute meals? I haven’t bought it yet but I might. I have most all of his other books.
For the hamburger if you press a tictactoe pattern in the bag with a chopstick or wooden spoon before you put it in the freezer then you can snap the frozen meat into pieces. (If that makes sense)
Hugs, Maz
Maz, now that’s a great suggestion, thank you! It might defrost even faster that way! And yes, I did like Jamie’s 15 minute meals, but not the 30 minute one – found the latter too confusing!
I agree. I found 30 minute meals to have some good recipes but the type was too small and it was hard to assemble some of the ingredients. I did like how he explains how to cook a meal all at once. While the meat is cooking you start the salad, etc.
Somehow I over looked this post! I’m loving the look of all that grilled haloumi. And that bowl of pasta. And the chilli con carne. I have seen Jamie’s cookbook but haven’t bought it yet – it’s so hard to keep up with him; there’s always a new TV show and another cookbook. He must never sleep. Great post, Celia xx
Thanks Charlie! This particular Jamie book is a good one, suits our lifestyle very well! xx
Love the tip about the mince thanks Celia (and Pete!), Jamie Oliver mentioned it also works with pasta sauce :)