Jamie's one pound meals

HannahLoisLuke

I quite like some of Jamie’s recipes, his £1 a meal recipes are usually for four people so a tin of tuna would cost more but it’s the individual serving that he’s referring to.
Years ago, in the 70s I had a little paperback cookbook called The Paupers Cookbook by Jocasta Innes. No lovely colour photos, just good cheap recipes. Wish I still had it although I’d give some of the recipes a miss! Tripe and heart for instance.

You can buy it on Amazon UK £7 used edition

When I was young I ate just about everything that was on offer, not because I was forced to eat it but because I just wasn't particularly fussy and didn't have many dislikes. (I even thoroughly enjoyed school dinners).

One of the few things I wouldn't eat was curry. Although I had never eaten it, I decided, from the smell, that I wouldn't like it. Mum didn't push the subject. I eventually did try it and loved it (an example of Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham syndrome, which always makes me chuckle).

I can remember going with Mum to see a relative who served a roast dinner with Oxo gravy - and for some reason Oxo makes me feel sick so I wouldn't eat it. For pudding it was sweet macaroni milk pudding, which, again, makes me feel nauseous so I wouldn't eat that either. It was most embarrassing for Mum and most unfortunate because it made me seem like a very very fussy and spoilt child - and I really wasn't.

I don't think children should be forced to eat something that really turns their stomach, but some children seem to have so many dislikes. I think if this went on too much I would just say go without then..

Mollygo

When we were first married I had £6 per week ‘housekeeping’ and the 2 of us ate very healthily. Then we had children.

What puzzles me is feeding a family with children.
Did/do all your children/grandchildren eat with no complaints or did you/do you cater for their likes and dislikes?
Do you allow any
“Please don’t give me” when you say what’s on the menu?
Did you/do you say, “You stay there till you finish,” or “No pudding till you’ve eaten that,” the way I remember from school dinners?
Did/Do you find your hungry children/grandchildren will eat anything?
Starving children probably would.

I went the route of "I'll just put a teaspoonful on your plate, then, so you try a tiny smear" if it was something new to them that they were suspicious of, and "Sometimes you like things better the second time round, when you are more used to it" and a teaspoonful again, if it was a repeat of something fairly new. Quite often subsequent servings of it were eaten without comment, when it was no longer seem as weird and dangerous.

Some things were never liked, in any form, and I accepted that. One daughter couldn't stand mushrooms, and if a dish contained any, her plate at the end of a meal would have a ring of the detested things round the edge. She now loves them!!!

Forcing children to "Eat it all" and clear the plate before getting pudding are doomed to put them off for life. I solved the "empty your plate" problem by letting them help themselves to as much as they thought they would eat, and then expecting at least an effort to finish it. Often someone who thought they only wanted a small helping would return for seconds. I didn't produce the pudding or even mention it until everyone had stopped eating the main course. The mere sight of, say, an apple pie, was enough for knives and forks to be laid down and spoons taken up! Sometimes (randomly) there wasn't any pudding, so it was a big risk for them to declare that they had no more room for shepherds' pie, but they might just manage a plate of pud.

Riverwalk

Indeed cheap as chips Norah but the portions are tiny - one tin of chickpeas between 4 people gives about 4g of protein each.

I make a similar curry and it's very tasty but hardly filling.

Surely it depends on the size of the cauliflower?
One large cauli will do Cauliflower cheese for 3 or even 4 in my experience.
@Rainnsnow - JO’s recipes are also available free online.

Norah

*Jamie's Curried cauliflower, potato, chickpeas & spinach* (less than £1 a portion, 4 portions, vegan /vegetarian)

Cheap as chips and quite good. I marked out the ingredients one could easily omit - leaving a still delicious dish.

Jamie is attempting to help with a problem. Well done him.

1 cauliflower
800 g potatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 long green chilli
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon curry powder or garam masala
1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas
250 g baby spinach
natural yoghurt
1 lime

Separate the cauliflower into florets, then cook in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, then drain, reserving about 150ml cooking water.
Roughly chop the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, then drain.
Peel and thinly slice the garlic and onion, then finely slice the chilli. Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan over a low heat and sauté the garlic, onion and chilli till softened.
Stir in all the spices, season, and cook for a few minutes. Add the cooked cauliflower, potatoes and reserved cooking water, then simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.
Drain and add the chickpeas, then the spinach. Cook, stirring, until the spinach wilts. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a squeeze of lime juice.

In the spirit of ‘waste not, want not,’ the drained liquid from the chickpeas should be saved and frozen.

It’s aqua fava and an excellent substitute for egg in vegan recipes.

JaneJudge

I'm pleased he was inspired by my boyfriend Callistemon x

I think a couple of mine were inspired by Big Cook, Little Cook back in the day and bodger and badger

Everyone knows Badger loves-Mashed Potato!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Mollygo

When we were first married I had £6 per week ‘housekeeping’ and the 2 of us ate very healthily. Then we had children.

What puzzles me is feeding a family with children.
Did/do all your children/grandchildren eat with no complaints or did you/do you cater for their likes and dislikes?
Do you allow any
“Please don’t give me” when you say what’s on the menu?
Did you/do you say, “You stay there till you finish,” or “No pudding till you’ve eaten that,” the way I remember from school dinners?
Did/Do you find your hungry children/grandchildren will eat anything?
Starving children probably would.

Having had a mother who tried to force me to eat foods I simply couldn't abide (liver being one!), I vowed I'd never force my own children to do the same. I always encouraged them to try different foods (and now do the same with my GS, but if they really didn't want something, I'd leave it and maybe encourage them to try another time. You can leave a child with lifelong issues regarding food by trying to force them to eat everything on their plate. Some children have sensory issues around certain foods too. It's not always black and white.

Poor diet does indeed have long term consequences but it's not the kind of food that is cooked from scratch we should be worrying about. The biggest threat to everyone's health is all the ultra highly processed food that fills the supermarket shelves and lulls us into thinking its real food. Even though the price is low and many will choose it because it fills tummies, ultimately it is hugely expensive because it has such poor nutritional value.

The themes from this thread are that the portions are tiny and Jamie Oliver doesn’t live it so can’t understand. We watched him and read his books but it is formulatic . As a family we have lived and learned how to cope and frugally cook . Jack munroe has lived and learned from scratch. Jamie was brought up in a pub with plenty of food around him. Both approaches are available butJack monroe gives free recipes online and fully understands how fearing not being able to give a basic need such as food to your family is soul destroying. When you have experienced that it never leaves you. I hope this period in time isn’t a time bomb if vitamin deficiency. Food is so much more than eating, poor diet has long term consequences.

JaneJudge

I'm pleased he was inspired by my boyfriend Callistemon x

I think a couple of mine were inspired by Big Cook, Little Cook back in the day and bodger and badger

My brother often gets mistaken for Jamie Oliver, they could be twins (he is a good cook also)

When we were first married I had £6 per week ‘housekeeping’ and the 2 of us ate very healthily. Then we had children.

What puzzles me is feeding a family with children.
Did/do all your children/grandchildren eat with no complaints or did you/do you cater for their likes and dislikes?
Do you allow any
“Please don’t give me” when you say what’s on the menu?
Did you/do you say, “You stay there till you finish,” or “No pudding till you’ve eaten that,” the way I remember from school dinners?
Did/Do you find your hungry children/grandchildren will eat anything?
Starving children probably would.

Norah

Riverwalk

Indeed cheap as chips Norah but the portions are tiny - one tin of chickpeas between 4 people gives about 4g of protein each.

I make a similar curry and it's very tasty but hardly filling.

Two tins would be my preference for a 4 person recipe, £0.49 each tin. Potatoes, Spinach and Cauli are also source to protein.

I serve on basmatti. Filling or not depends on the person, IMO.

But the Jamie recipe doesn't have two tins, nor basmati rice - that's my point, such meagre portions wouldn't fill an average person or growing child.

It's perpetuating the myth that you can feed people healthily, for any length of time, on a tiny budget.

My leaders are your leaders too. I don’t have a hotline to Number 10 by virtue of my vote.

Germanshepherdsmum

You would probably call me a rich Tory Glorianny. Thanks a bunch.

Well, are you a rich Tory? So you have enough money to eat any food you want? That's great! Maybe ask your leaders to make sure nobody has to go hungry?

Riverwalk

Indeed cheap as chips Norah but the portions are tiny - one tin of chickpeas between 4 people gives about 4g of protein each.

I make a similar curry and it's very tasty but hardly filling.

Two tins would be my preference for a 4 person recipe, £0.49 each tin. Potatoes, Spinach and Cauli are also source to protein.

I serve on basmatti. Filling or not depends on the person, IMO.

Eloethan

It is, in my opinion, wrong that there is such a disparity in the wealth of this country - and indeed in the world.

I don't think Jamie Oliver should be criticised for being wealthy. He has always tried to campaign for "ordinary" people - he tried to raise the standards in schools and make parents aware of the dangers of junk food. A few parents were outraged that their children should be deprived of chicken nuggets and chips. He opened restaurants where he employed young offenders. Admittedly those restaurants eventually failed, but at least those young people would have acquired the rudiments of cooking and perhaps been better equipped to get further employment.

He has done more than people who are many times wealthier than he is.

He has done more than people who are many times wealthier than he is

Some seem to take offence that an ordinary, working-class individual has - by his own effort - become rich. Perhaps only the privileged elite should enjoy wealth! They're certainly often respected because of it...

Indeed cheap as chips Norah but the portions are tiny - one tin of chickpeas between 4 people gives about 4g of protein each.

I make a similar curry and it's very tasty but hardly filling.

Jamie's Curried cauliflower, potato, chickpeas & spinach (less than £1 a portion, 4 portions, vegan /vegetarian)

Cheap as chips and quite good. I marked out the ingredients one could easily omit - leaving a still delicious dish.

Jamie is attempting to help with a problem. Well done him.

1 cauliflower
800 g potatoes
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1 long green chilli
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon curry powder or garam masala
1 x 400 g tin of chickpeas
250 g baby spinach
natural yoghurt
1 lime

Separate the cauliflower into florets, then cook in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, then drain, reserving about 150ml cooking water.
Roughly chop the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, then drain.
Peel and thinly slice the garlic and onion, then finely slice the chilli. Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan over a low heat and sauté the garlic, onion and chilli till softened.
Stir in all the spices, season, and cook for a few minutes. Add the cooked cauliflower, potatoes and reserved cooking water, then simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.
Drain and add the chickpeas, then the spinach. Cook, stirring, until the spinach wilts. Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a squeeze of lime juice.

GrannyLondon

To finish this thread I’ll say 2 words
Nigel Slater.

But I love Nigel Slater, he so calming

To finish this thread I’ll say 2 words
Nigel Slater.

JaneJudge

I'm pleased he was inspired by my boyfriend Callistemon x

I think a couple of mine were inspired by Big Cook, Little Cook back in the day and bodger and badger

Who - Gordon? 😲

It is, in my opinion, wrong that there is such a disparity in the wealth of this country - and indeed in the world.

I don't think Jamie Oliver should be criticised for being wealthy. He has always tried to campaign for "ordinary" people - he tried to raise the standards in schools and make parents aware of the dangers of junk food. A few parents were outraged that their children should be deprived of chicken nuggets and chips. He opened restaurants where he employed young offenders. Admittedly those restaurants eventually failed, but at least those young people would have acquired the rudiments of cooking and perhaps been better equipped to get further employment.

He has done more than people who are many times wealthier than he is.

And teach a few skills even to old hands into the bargain….

Hoo boy… take out the food snobs, the condescending, braggers and fluff heads - I’d say you have a pretty good representation of what the original post was meant to be.

I applaud any chef, tv star, politician, grandma, neighbor, fireman or person on the street who can help with food prep, tips, recipes to help us eat healthy and economically. Don’t waste! Make with love!
Cheers!
USA Gundy

I'm pleased he was inspired by my boyfriend Callistemon x

I think a couple of mine were inspired by Big Cook, Little Cook back in the day and bodger and badger