Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast

I love this cookbook so much. I checked it out from the local library first to make sure I'd like it, and after eating the first meal from it, I knew I absolutely had to buy it. My copy arrives today!We're huge fans of his cooking style and love that he uses a lot of vegetables, a lot of bold flavors like herbs & chiles & spices, and manages to make food that tastes really delicious and is nutritionally balanced. But I also really loved the format of this book in particular, more so than other books of his that I have. When other books suggest sides, they're typically kind of boring and take a back seat to the main dish. But the way he constructs each meal makes you so excited about the meal as a whole. So there's none of that, "We're having this great fish dish for dinner! ...plus boring broccoli and boring sweet potatoes". I think it makes you cook outside of your typically flavor profiles, because you end up making recipes you probably wouldn't have made if they were just listed by themselves since they might not sound particularly exciting at first (like some of his salads, for example...I was like, "I don't think I *LIKE* radicchio, but then I found out I totally did...I had just never really made it). You pretty much end up cooking and eating stuff you typically wouldn't have, which is really fun to me. Also, I love that desserts are included with a lot of the meals, since it makes a weekday meal seem so much more special! And I love that they're pretty light (and often fruit-based), so you're getting to eat some great bites of sweets, but not eating, like, an entire piece of super rich cheesecake or anything.In the three weeks that we had this checked out from the library, we made:-Pregnant Jool's Pasta (LOVED the technique of chopping up the meat and veggies together, and LOVED the tarts)-Green Curry (the kimchee slaw was awesome on top of the noodles)-Chicken Pie (although we ended up not making the peas or carrots as we were really tired that day)-Mustard Chicken (loved the sauce, and loved the potatoes)-Killer Jerk Chicken (which was perfectly flavored, as was the rice & beans)-Chicken Skewers (loved the noodle salad, loved the fruit with mint sugar)I will say that the meals did seem to take us longer than 30 minutes--probably closer to 40-45. However, we were cooking pretty leisurely, so I would say that if we really tried, we probably could bang these out in 30 minutes. But even taking 45 minutes, you'll still be impressed that you made a full dinner and either drinks or a dessert in such a short period of time. Like he says in the book, it becomes pretty addicting.Oh, another thing...don't be worried if you don't have all the equipment. Just know that if you don't, it will take a little bit longer, but you can still make everything. For example, we actually don't have a microwave (which is kinda funny because in the intro for the book he's like, "90% of households have one, so I'm assuming you do"). But we can still make everything, we just have to do it "the old fashioned way" (which honestly, isn't even a problem in almost all of the recipes). Oh, and we don't have an electric kettle either, but we do have a "normal" one, so we just use that. I'm sure it takes a few extra minutes to come to a boil, but really, it's no big deal. And then if he calls for a food processor, we'll break it out if there's gonna be a lot of stuff chopped up, but if it's just for like slicing one onion, we'll just use a knife instead. Yeah, it slows it down a little, but I also like doing some stuff by hand. So you should know that if you're a person who wants no shortcuts, wants everything done by hand, you might be frustrated by his instructions. But really, I like the mix of doing some stuff by hand and some stuff by machine.So excited for my copy to arrive today! I can't wait to decide what to make next.

I'm not the biggest Jamie Oliver fan (even though I'm a Brit)...but respect where respect is due! I was introduced to this book over the Christmas holiday's while staying with family. We prepared and ate several of the dishes from this book and they were DELICIOUS! More importantly they were EASY and QUICK to make.The book starts with the basics - what equipment you need. Nothing too fancy but he does recommend a food processor and a microwave (believe it or not). Still, as he points out, you could buy ALL the equipment needed for only a few hundred bucks (on a budget) and end up with a well-equipped kitchen. I'm sure most people will already own the majority of the recommended items.The main section of the book describes the meals. And they are full meals not just a series of dishes. Often there is a starter, a main course AND a desert! Of course, you can simply cherry-pick the individual dishes if you wish.I was interested to see that the UK version of this book is called "Jamie's 30 minute meals". I'm not convinced you could truly get these meals on the table within 30 minutes of walking into the kitchen... Maybe if you had all the ingredients laid out and measured and you had prepared the meal several times that the recipe was committed to memory.... I wonder if the publisher changed the name in the US market for fear of litigation!! In all seriousness, the whole POINT of the book is SPEED and EFFICIENCY. The various steps for preparing the dishes are interwoven. You'll prepare one thing, get it in the oven, work on something else, come back to the dish in the oven. It makes you feel like a pro!!The other big difference between the US version and the UK version is that all of the weights and measures have been converted to the US system (pounds, ounces, cups) - the UK is now almost completely metric. Also, certain ingredients have been "translated" from the Queen's English (God Bless you Ma'am) into American English - the various types of cream is an example here.Anyway - to sum up, this book is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT (a famous Jamie declaration) - and comes highly recommended.

Great book

While the title "meals in minutes" is quite a stretch, I enjoy many of the recipes in this book.This cookbook is laid out in a meal format, where a recipe includes multiple courses such as starter - salad, main, dessert and sometimes a drink is included as well. This is something that I personally enjoy. Sometimes, choosing multiple recipes for one meal can be tedious (the choosing alone, much less than flipping thorough the book). I find that having the recipes set up this way helps me choose what to have as a complete meal. If I am cooking just one course from the recipe, the way the book is laid out doesn't make it too difficult to read selective headings belonging to that recipe.Some of the recipes that I have tried and recommend include:Cheat's pizza - be careful not to burn it! I didn't make the sides for this one.Chicken pie with french style peas sweet carrot smash and berries, shortbread and cream for dessert - loved everything about this recipe! My kids didn't enjoy the peas though. Be careful not too overcook the peas while waiting for the pie to bake. I added extra sugar to the berries.Mustard chicken with dauphinoise and black forest affogato - Didn't expect to enjoy mustard chicken this much, the leek adds a nice touch. The dauphinoise (we would call it scalloped potatoes) take a lot longer to bake that recommended, in my experience. I did not add the anchovies, I was worried the kids wouldn't like it. The affogate is a great quick dessert but my wife did not enjoy.Killer jerk chicken with rice and beans and char grilled corn- chicken has an amazing flavour. I didn't like frying the beans and would recommend maybe boiling or microwaving them instead. I didn't make the chopped salad.Swedish style fishcakes with baby roasted potatoes and zingy salsa - This recipe was a real winner with the whole family. Great way to use frozen fish. Tuna, even frozen, is rather expensive though. The salsa adds a great flavour to the fish and is great leftover in a tuna sandwich, or on a fish taco.Banoffee pie - basically a banana cream pie with some coffee in the whipped cream. Great recipe and pretty easy too. Bonus that this taught me how to make caramel! I prefer this other (dry pan) over the method used in others. I did not make there other dishes in this recipe.Just thinking about these recipes is making me want to cook from this book again soon!The tomato soup recipe was just ok

My wife loves this book and has cooked many of the recipes already.Just what the doctor ordered for a fast meal.

This is the usual Jamie Oliver approach: giving a twist to familiar dishes, with different spices, textures or combinations.The book presents 50 complete menus. Each menu has a full-page photo, a second page with ingredients and step-by-step instructions, plus another page with 7 or 8 small photos for each.We've cooked these two:--Spring lamb, vegetable platter, mint sauce, red wine gravy, chocolate fondue, and--Finnan haddie, corn chowder, spiced shrimp, rainbow salad, raspberry & elderberry slushie.They were tasty and simple to make.Some of the meals have a camera icon. indicating they are on video at [...]An unfortunate point is that many, many recipes have no cooking times or temperatures so I'm sure if this is the right book for inexperienced cooks.

I was watching Jamie Oliver and he mentioned this new book of his "Meals in Minutes". I don't cook so much anymore but my daughter loves to cook and she loves watching Jamie Oliver as well. I thought, here's a way I can earn brownie points by buying her a little gift that she will appreciate and enjoy, and the rest of the family will reap the rewards. I have to say, no one in the family has been disappointed.This book makes it so easy to plan the week's meals ahead of time. Grocery lists are much easier to make up, and the best part is, the food is wonderful. I can't wait to see what my daughter makes next. Who knows, I may even be inspired to put on an apron again. I'm so glad I bought this book.