SAVE WITH JAMIE (JAMIE OLIVER) - THE MEALS ON OUR PLATE THIS WEEK....

I was really excited to dig out this book "SAVE with JAMIE" and make my plans...I took the book to work and each time I had a chance... I read ...made myself notes... and of course jotted down recipes and page numbers. I have always been a huge Jamie fan.. for so many reasons... his food... his philosophy...his passion and just him...he cooks like I do... he wazzs.... sploshes...and whacks .. nothing is closely measured..but it all comes together perfectly...well his does...mine sometimes not so much.

My list for the week looked like this... it was very clear that it was going to take more than a week to make dent in this book!! Every chapter I was adding more and more to my list that I wanted to try.  Next hiccup... the week just didn't go to plan.. it was one of those weeks where we worked longer days than expected....and on another night we wasted two hours waiting for a salesperson to arrive as he'd scheduled (which he didn't) making dinner late and rushed. We also had guests midweek which meant an easy roast dinner for 13. Then more guests arrived for the weekend which was an opportunity to cook something different... we chose to cook a meal not from this book... although funnily enough it was a Jamie recipe too. 

So at the end of the week....I still had a rather long list of uncooked...but much anticipated recipes to try.

So what did I mange....and how did it fare? 

(Note: Once again all the photos are courtesy of Jamie's book or via a google image search of the recipe...I did trial a photo again this week...but lets just say it looks anything other than food..and caused me to laugh until I almost split my sides)

Snake in a hole - What a funny looking dish....I am sure it wont take too much imagination to get a picture of what my version was described as here. The upside was it was tasty...a version of meatloaf..yorkshire pudding and onion gravy....Ian loved it and quickly added it to his "make again:" list.

Chedder and Pea Omelette - I made this late one night after we waited and waited and waited for a tradesman to come and give us a quote as arranged. The dinner I had planned went out the window and I turned to this instead... easy ingredients everyone has on hand....and cooked from scratch in no time at all...probably less than 15 minutes. I added the cheddar to Ian's side...and very minimally to mine (as I am trying to avoid dairy) it was tasty...and filling...and quick.

Korean Stir-Fried Rice - This was a ripper for using up the left-over mid-week roast. I also loved that it was an easy 'take to work' meal ..easy to reheat (other than the egg) . I made mine with half brown rice and half quinoa instead of basmati ... swapped the mushrooms for sweet potato...and the cabbage for kale seeing as I had that on hand.... but all the flavours...spices and combinations are what makes the dish a winner.

Chicken in Milk (Not in the SAVE book) - This was our Saturday night meal with Andrew, Petrina and kids... funnily Petrina had also seen this recipe for "Chicken in Milk" online and was keen to give it a go...we put our skills together and made it for dinner. It was nice..it had a creamy garlic and lemon sauce once it cooked down and the chicken was tender. I think our decision to double the chickens and the milk was a mistake... we probably had too much milk / chicken ratio and it didn't reduce and thicken as much as it should. I would say its well worth another attempt but following the recipe closer.. it was a simple dish to put together and the smell coming from the oven was divine.

Also from the book this week was a real reminder about food wastage and storage.
I read each chapter from beginning to end...and vowed I would pay much more attention to the 'saving' of herbs..vegetables and other food stuffs. Although I try...I do waste too much food...herbs go bad...bread goes stale..you know the drill. With that in mind I followed Jamies advice and chopped up my left over chilli and herbs and added to olive oil....froze in icecube trays and then popped them into labelled jars in the freezer. Not happy with the herbs in oil...I found 'this' article with tips on freezing any number of things....as well as a lot of discussion on the Jamie Oliver forum about the pros and cons of freezing herbs. Obviously its not as delicious as fresh...but its far better than needless wastage and if nothing else will be a tasty addition to rice or stock.

My final little waste saver was turning the chicken carcass to stock for use this week... it was a simple as adding the carcass to a heavy based pot...breaking it up to crack the bones...and simmering for an hour or so...skim the top during the process and strain off the bones etc at the end. Bone broth is such a healthy addition to our diets and far better than the artificially enhanced stocks so often on our supermarket shelves.

I think this week might have to be "Jamie Oliver - SAVE with Jamie" week two....or maybe Ill skip it this week and come back to it again soon?