Quick, Easy, Cheap Meals - Cookbook

[BigChiefOrganiser]

A friend is due a baby in May, she is a self confessed non cook, and they have a limited budget.

I want to get her a cookbook as part of her baby shower gift. Can anyone recommend something, along the lines of Nigella Express, Jamie 30 minutes - but not necessarily from a "known" cook/chef. She has NO cookbooks, so starting from scratch.

Or are the ones I mentioned above recommended?

TIA

I have got about 200 cook books and the ones I use again and again are:

The Dairy Diary Book of Home Cooking

and all my books by Mary Berry - her recipes just never fail to work

Nigella Express is good but she uses very expensive ingredients.

'BBC Good Food' little books are ok as are any books by 'Good Housekeeping'.

Avoid Delia, Jamie and Gordon!

You could try the Get Stuffed cookery book, if she has got a sense of humour.

I think it was aimed at students originally, so most of the recipes are quick, cheap and easy - but big on taste and do work well.

I recommend jamies ministry of food, was made for prople who have little budget and experience and imo is a fab book!

Rachel Allen does fabulous easy to follow books.

Jamie's 30 minute meals take 50mins and some are yuk!

I love Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. It's not only blissfully simple and very kid friendly but it's enchanting to read with lovely illustrations. Nice bedtime reading as well as a good beginners cookbook.

Ainsley Harriott's Meals In Minutes and Fay's Family Food are both good.

You could copy out a few of your favourite recipes and give examples of substitutions for if they don't have the correct ingredients. I did this for some boys (well, young men technically, but really still boys) in my office who were intimidated by the choice in recipe books.

then you can put in any short cuts as well, or other tips that the recipe doesn't include.

Probably Jamie's Ministry of Food would fit the bill best - it's aimed for absolute beginners. I'm not a Jamie fan but I might pick it for your friend.

I love Nigella Express and How to Eat and keep referring back to them, but both of them use crabmeat, squid, quail, escarole, morello cherries, dried porcini with abandon - she's married to a billionaire after all.

Tessa Kiros does lovely, exquisite books but IMO they are more food porn than an entry level guide to cooking.

I would pick something that both looks gorgeous and is simple and detailed enough to actually teach her new skills.

Ministry of Food all the way. Simple fare but tasty, cheap and easy.

I am not a good or adventurous cook, but I really like Jamie's Ministry of Food.

Wow, thanks so much for the replies. I'll go through the list . When they got married last year, the SIL did a recipe card collection with a recipe from everyone to get her started. I did submit quite a fiddly one though mmm.

Sounds like JO MoF is the one to go for,

Thanks again!

has anyone got an email for the Get Stuffed one? I click on contacts and it goes straight to Outlook, but I can't get it to set up my email account in there, so can't see their email address. Thanks

The Get Stuffed email address is
[email protected]

It even comes with the following pre-filled message:
"Hi Guys, Please email me details about how to get a copy of the GET STUFFED cookbook. Thanks!"