Save with Jamie

I've been absent from the blogging world for a while now, but hopefully I'm back now. There have been a variety of reasons I've not been blogging, and in the past few weeks, it's been because I cannot, no matter what I do, upload my own pictures to my draft posts. I'm thinking to do my pictures through my blog's Facebook page, so if you'd like to se them, do please 'like' on FB, see bar at the right hand side of the page.

I’m starting off with Save with Jamie by Jamie Oliver first published by Michael Joseph an imprint of Penguin Books in 2013.

The by-line of this book is ‘Shop Smart, Cook Clever, Waste Less’, and that pretty much sums it up. It’s important to say, I think, that this is a book for people who already spend money on food and cook themselves. It’s not a book about breadline cooking, it’s a book about good kitchen husbandry, well in my opinion anyhow.

Over the years I have wasted a lot of bits and pieces, and I’m not proud of that. It has taken me a number of years to stop stuffing my fridge with vegetables after the weekly shop, then see a number of them go rotten. I now buy my veg a couple of times a week and have less in the fridge at one time, which means I can really see what is there, and use it well. I’ve focused on vegetables here, as that is what I tended to waste.

Jamie’s book will help me too, he does a number of ‘Mothership’ recipes such as the roast beef below, then gives clever recipes to use up those leftovers, now or later if you freeze them. I say clever, because the leftover recipes are actually recipes that excite the palate, and food I’d want to eat. It’s not just me that’s fussy with leftovers is it?!

The book is nicely styled, laid back, but easy to follow recipes, bit of chat from Jamie, and fabulous photographs of the food from David Loftus. This book has a healthy nod too, and each recipe is calorie counted per portion, and at the back there are also lists in the Nutrition chapter for each dish including fat, saturates, carbs and sugar. There is a Shop Smart chapter followed by recipe chapters of Veg, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Lamb, Fish, and finally Bonus Recipes. There are a few sweet things to do with fruit at the back, but no other desserts.

Next on my to make list is Sicilian Squash & Chickpea Stew, Mothership Sunday Roast Chicken, Quick Chinese Wrap, Snake in the Hole (like toad in the hole), Pulled Pork Peppers, Easy Baked Risotto, Happy and Hearty Scotch Broth and Crispy Moroccan Lamb Pastilla. To name but a few. =)

I’ve made a few of the recipes so far, they have all been lovely and here they are:

Chicken and Chorizo Paella
Loved this one, it was my first make, and it makes a little go a long way, a low effort high delivery week night supper.

Jool’s Sweet Pea and Prawn Pasta Shells
Another quick good supper, I’m going to add a bit of half fat crème fraiche next time to have a bit more sauce.

Hit and Run Chicken
Not a looker this one, but again a really delicious supper

Smokin’ Turkey Chowder
Bit of smoked bacon, turkey (recipe said chicken, but I had turkey) sweetcorn. Happy days as the man himself would say.

Frenchie Salad
Leftover meat, French Puy lentils, French beans and a Dijon dressing. I added extra eggs here are I wasn’t sure how we’d like le lentils. Just as well I did as the miss flatly refused to eat them, she likes eggs though, so that was ok. I’d have liked the toppings over new potatoes better I think, but we are not big on lentils apparently.

Sweet and Sour Fish Balls
I did these with all prawns, as I can’t go squid. I also used plain scone crumbs for the balls the recipe withstood my changes no problem. Add a bit of sugar if you like it sweeter. First sweet and sour recipe where my miss ate the lot! Though the prawn balls were the star, fab little recipe! I did do rice as well, it’s just out of the picture here.

Roast Beef and the Trimmings
Mmmmmmmmmmm!! Need I say more?! Though of course I will. Will definitely do this one again, I used silverside, and it was lovely. We have rib of beef once a year, because it’s so expensive. This is a tender beef recipe that will let you have roast beef more often, but at less than a quarter of the price*. Hubby was very happy and I now have beef leftovers in the freezer, yay! *That is me comparing the price I paid for our last rib joint and this most recent silverside joint.

Looking forward to lots more tasty dinners from this one.

Next Up: Fay Makes It Easy