Jamies 30 Minute meals

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Anyone got this ? Is it any good for families ? Fed up with cooking the same meals and looking for inspiration

I got it for Christmas. Did the spinach and fetta pie that's in it last night and I'm sad to say that it didn't deliver. Looked fantastic mind you! TBH I think it was the fetta I used, not a lot of salty punch to it. I didn't add salt as I normally would to a dish as I thought the fetta would be enough. So I will be trying it again with better fetta and more seasoning. And I do like JO - think his heart is in the right place (even if it makes him a mint at the same time). But if you only use cook books as a source of inspiration as I suspect a lot of us do, I reckon it's worth it.

I got it for Christmas and although I haven't tried to make all that food, ie all the sides and desserts and drinks and what have you that he seems to think are necessary, the recipes I have made have been excellent, and have come out not too far above 30 minutes (having read complaints about everything taking much longer than expected, I was quite pleased with this). I am slightly puzzled by the fact that he seems to think it is illegal to make anything that doesn't contain fennel seeds! I have made pork, pasta and two fish dishes, all of which have fennel in. Fortunately I like fennel...

I've been meaning to try that spinach and feta pie - especially as I have a glut of feta for reasons I don't fully understand.

Generally, getting decent feta in england is hard. I recently discovered this brand and buy the cubes which is, by far, the tastiest and creamiest I've found here. I have not yet tried cooking with it, only used for salad and scattering on pasta etc.

oh, and to answer OP's question - I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but fully plan to. They are often quite summery so I'm on hold for a little at the moment.

Bling the Jools pasta is not summery and is very delicious :)

I'm not a big fan of this book tbh. I don't think it's as good as the Ministry of Food book for family meals. It's ok, but I find it hard to flick through and pick something to cook. And I'm a proper Jamie fan.

is that the sausage and fennel seed one? Sounds delicious but I already HAVE a super delicious sausage and fennel pasta that DH and I have when we want to treat ourselves!

Maybe this could be a bog standard everyday sort of delicious sausage and fennel pasta?

Ours is easy. But about 5000 calories per person! Sausages being bad in themselves, then we add some creme fraice, pasta etc. Sigh, we both have weight issues.

DS has gone totally mad for the frozen fruit and yogurt sort of ice cream thing! We used mango and it is nice. We put what was left in the freezer and it is still fine but needs to soften up before use.

Jamies portions are rather big for us though!

I got the book for Christmas and made the jerk chicken for our NYE dinner and it was fantastic, but took rather longer than 30 minutes to make all the elements (but it was worth it!).

I made the rogan josh curry last night, again with all the elements - the curry itself took about half an hour, but with everything else, I reckon it's more like 50 minutes.

Thing is, Jamie Oliver can just cook for 30 minutes - I bet his children aren't bothering him for snacks, drinks, refereeing squabble-resolution, not to mention his huge kitchen, where he can get every pan and all the ingredients out of the cupboard ready to use and still have room to actually cook....

I do love his recipes though, and really like the sound of a lot of the recipes in the book so imagine I will be using it a lot.

I did the cod with a sort of paste of tomatoes/parmesan/balsamic, covered in breadcrumbs, with broccoli/pea/potato mash tonight. Plus fennel seeds, natch. Not a success - the fish was nice but can I cook it without the topping next time please mummy :) The baby liked the mash but nobody else did. (I should confess I fiddled the recipe a bit; it might be fantastic if you follow it properly but I have to miss chilli out else the kids won't touch it and I didn't have any basil).

Sorry Waswondering, only just come back to this.

Rogan josh, not really hot at all - it says adding a chilli is optional, and as the curry paste was medium hot, I didn't to start with, but then tasting it felt it could do with a bit more heat, so added a spoonful of lazy chilli. Even then, I'd only give it a $($$ at a push). The carrot salad was fab, but much spicier - $$$.

The jerk chicken was hot - I'd give it $$$$, but it worked really well with the yogurt dip and salad. But you could tone it down, if you wanted to, by using a standard chilli rather than a scotch bonnet one I suppose...

Second the jerk chicken - it's fantastic, and so is the chicken satay and the noodle salad that goes with it. Also the pork fillet with creamy mushroomy sauce.

I prefer the River Cafe slow-cooked sausage pasta to Jamie's one, tbh. I think if I do it again, I wouldn't use the food processor as he suggests as it makes the sausages a bit too hacked up.

i have it.
I got it for christmas but im not overly impressed tbh.

none of the recipes are what i would consider inspired. they just seem a bit meh

I don't really like the whole meal/sides etc layout. I have only cooked the mains from it, and find it annoying to have to pick out the bits of the recipe that are relevant. Would be better to do them as seperate things imvho.

However, the pregnant jool's pasta was easy, quick and yum, and the chicken pie was delicious and will become a favourite in this house I am sure. By only cooking the one course I have found 30 mins easily long enough. Goodness only knows the confusion I would get in if I tried to do all the different elements at once!

I received it for my birthday, and really like it. HOwever for inspiration, I'd rather have Jamie's Ministry of food, which I borrowed from the library last year and found incredibly useful for any level of competence and for its ideas for family meals.

But have had great success with 30MM ice cream recipes! Swedish fishcakes and salad were manageable in 30 mins, but I didn't particularly like them...

I got it for my birthday - but I don't usually cook that way - so I don't know where to start!

I made the cauli and mac cheese and my husband asked why it had got gravel on the top, took ages too and made gallons, not helped by builders arriving to discuss work halfway through--maybe they brought the gravel