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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think jack Monroes recipe book is pretty shit

240 replies

Itsgonnabeacoldone · 04/12/2017 19:58

Secret santa present and i was interested to have a quick look through, but after 10 mins I've decided it's a waste of space and will be going to the charity shop tomorrow.

She often speaks as if she's doing charity work and helping the poorest people with these. But really who would buy it if you were that poor.

She talks about it being inexpensive as you just need a small amount of this and that but you cant just buy half a teaspoon of a spice. It might be useful if you already have the spices and end up broke, but honestly if you already have a collection of spices you are going to know how to use them.

Lots of the ingredients she says you can't buy from the local corner shop and this is where many poor people have to shop.

Some of her sage advice is to just have one type of oil and vinegar. If you are poor that's exactly what you wouldn't do - your not going to be stocking up on half a dozen different types of vinegar if you are skint. If you are not skint then why on earth would you limit the number of oils or vinegars - they are all used for different things.

I can't see who this book would help, if you have access to cheap ingredients you can make cheap food. It just comes all of as very middle class faux help.

OP posts:
TovaGoldCoin · 04/12/2017 21:40

I quite like her receipts, they've helped me out when partner got made redundant, and money was very tight. I can do without the current vegan thing, though

SpringSnowdrop · 04/12/2017 21:41

I love her recipes and think she sounds really cool. Our children even enjoyed bean burgers, which they’d never had before. I love its principles and i should use her book more in fact , though have to ignore parts due to being gluten free

Raver84 · 04/12/2017 21:41

I like her she's trying her best to stop people eating crap food and empowering them with the skills and confidence to cook a bit more. Where is the harm in that.

SunshineTheMonkey · 04/12/2017 21:42

God I can't stand her. My toes are still curled from when she posted her "Here I am, ask me anything" thread and loads of us had no clue who she was.

picklemepopcorn · 04/12/2017 21:45

She's good. I like her stuff- it's interesting and nutritious while still cheap. I can do cheap. I can do interesting. Interesting, nutritious and cheap I need help with!

She also suggests substitutes, so tomato sauce instead of purée because it is more versatile.

Cupoteap · 04/12/2017 21:45

Originally her coatings included occasionally buying something like a spice/herb/oil/etc so that they could be built up. Everything she made had the amount it had actually cost her. It was very much a here's what I've tried this week with my last however much.

TheCrossKeys · 04/12/2017 21:47

you can't just buy a teaspoon of a spice.

You can if you have a weigh shop near to where you live. Our local indoor market has one and you can buy as much or as little of whatever you need from soap powder and spices to cake mix and cereals.

Original poster
Itsgonnabeacoldone · 04/12/2017 21:50

If you went and read her blog and her twitter feed you'd probably be more up to speed, but it seems like you just want to moan about someone who's genuinely looking out for people in poverty

Yes I'm sure her twatter would be full of her broadcasting all the charity work and help she does. Doesn't seem like the type to quiety help without letting the world knoq.

OP posts:
ItsNachoCheese · 04/12/2017 21:51

laud are you okay?

chiaseeddisapointmentagain · 04/12/2017 21:52

Can't stand her.

She gave up a full time well paid job in the fire service to plead poverty.
"I had a child."
So?

MadForlt · 04/12/2017 21:53

Which of her books are you speaking about? I love a girl called Jack and I'm looking forward to receiving cooking on a bootstrap when it comes out. I think the other one had a more mixed response, but I haven't read it.

The other 'budget' cookbook (as in the recipes are a bit more expensive than many of jack'd, but it's still on a budget) is one pound meals by miguel barclay. Thoroughly recommend it. Although I don't think the quantities for the katsu chicken curry sauce are correct, so I play with them a bit.

PumpkinSquash · 04/12/2017 21:54

God I can't stand her. My toes are still curled from when she posted her "Here I am, ask me anything" thread and loads of us had no clue who she was.

I don't know or care what she's like on here, the question asked AIBU to think the book is pretty shit?
So in that respect, OP is BU as there's some really good cheap recipes and spices cost hardly anything.

IceFall · 04/12/2017 21:56

Can’t stand her. She became oliktal campaigner/commentator of the month th and radio 4 practically come all over themselves to get her on. She is one dimensional and not hugely articulate.

Some of the food is quite nice but nothing special.

The costs are a total lie since most of them don’t have anywhere near enough calories to sustain an adult.

Also the whole situation was crazy. The child has a father. She has parents who she is not estranged with. You seriously telling
Me they wouldn’t have BH fed you £20 a week for food if you really were so hard uo?

BarbaraofSevillle · 04/12/2017 21:59

She had to give up her job due to the very real impossibility of juggling shift work and childcare on her own.

If she could have sourced the childcare that fits in with the 2 days 2 nights 4 days off so you never work the same days each week shift pattern that the fire service operates on, she would probably never ended up in the position she was in. She tried to get regular daytime shifts and wasn't allowed to.

What else could she have done? Left her (very young at the time) son home alone? I believe that she also tried to share childcare with his father, but he was one of the very many men who couldn't be arsed parenting his own child.

Original poster
Itsgonnabeacoldone · 04/12/2017 22:03

*She is one dimensional and not hugely articulate.

Some of the food is quite nice but nothing special.*

I think that sums it all up, just seems like the self inflicted "poverty" is a million miles away from actual poverty that people have in this country and just her hook to become kinda famous.

As a previous poster said, it's all very common people.

But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watching 'roaches climb the wall
If you called your dad he could stop it all

OP posts:
picklemepopcorn · 04/12/2017 22:04

She is up front about having mental health issues and feeling unable to tell her family what a difficult time she was having. I'd rather eat floor sweepings than risk telling my mother that I couldn't manage to keep my job and my baby. The I told you so would be deafening...

MadForlt · 04/12/2017 22:06

I'm not sure how special you want a meal for 50p to be Confused

megletthesecond · 04/12/2017 22:08

Yabu. Her first book is really good. It gives me a kick up the bum when I'm trying to eeek out ingredients and save a few quid.

The chestnut and red wine casserole is the mutts nutts. Freezes well too.

endehors · 04/12/2017 22:08

I bought my book years ago and have only really just used it this year.The brioche recipe is nice (made with white chocolate) as are a couple of other things. I don't know much about her as a person, she seems to attract, rightly or wrongly I don't know, a lot of criticism on here, but the recipe book is ok.

Itscurtainsforyou · 04/12/2017 22:11

I like her. I think she's very honest and sometimes reacts to things publicly that she might have been better maintaining a dignified silence about (which makes her more real to me).

I also like her books, I'm not a great cook so like the way things are spelt out and don't cost a fortune to try. I don't like everything I try but I like a lot of it.

So OP YADBU

tiredbutFINE · 04/12/2017 22:14

I like her recipes. Having limited energy, they are simple and don’t involve loads of ingredients, so more than cost I like the simplicity.
They have also been realistic inspiration at times when there was too much month left at the end of my pay.
I know a bit about Jack but not loads, having been brought up by a non-binary single Mum whose family varied between supportive and unhelpful, at times with almost nothing to eat and at other times with a bag of shopping passed to us by Nan, I find Jack really relatable.

Elllicam · 04/12/2017 22:19

I like her recipes too, the beanburgers are great and the penny pizzas.

RidingWindhorses · 04/12/2017 22:22

She gave up a full time well paid job in the fire service to plead poverty.
"I had a child."
So?

I don't know much about her but afaik she didn't want to give up her job - had a problem with inflexible shift work and childcare issues familiar to many women.

LineysRunner · 04/12/2017 22:23

Penny pizzas sound interesting.

Hulder · 04/12/2017 22:23

I've made some of her recipes and they are surprisingly good for things that cost v v little.

I follow her on twitter and she is infuriating but I like her. She has a tendancy to share too much of her mental health problems when she is ill and to tweet first and think later. However she is also v open about this and owns up to it. She's currently getting a whole lot of stick from the trans activists for not going the whole hog on trans and having gone back to being a woman. Her essential issue is autism and it shows in the way she goes very overboard into something eg veganism - but she also shows all the positives such as being very serious about making her book genuinely accessible in libraries.