Jamie's 30-minute Meals reviews

I pre-ordered my copy..got it, opened it and was dismayed by the ingrediants – I forgot how much he loves his fancy bits …he has excellent buying ethics but as always, some things can be hard to find.
If I was still living in the city it would be no problem at all.
HOWEVER!… Since then I have sat down and pored over it..
His flavours are superb, and once you translate the ingrediants into a family friendly budget in my case..its a lot of fun to cook from.
My primary school children love the meatball sandwich – which has whole grain mustard in it – shhh no one tell them!.
The meals are beautifully presented, with lots of photos and I found it easy to just pull one item out of a menu for a quick tasty dinner. True – I will have to shop specially for many of the recipes, but having tried a few, I think its worth a bit of extra effort.
Each menu is on a single page with picture beside it, you set up everything to start with, and its like a well choreographed dance.
You may start softening onions in a pan and then roll out your pastry so it has time to rest before your pie filling goes in..very clever and it means if you follow it , your beans aren't cold and your gravy boiled dry and your pie undercooked. Lol.
I am looking forward to relaxing with friends over summer and turning out these delicious meals.
If you like Jamie Oliver and you like to cook its definately worth tucking on your cookbook shelf!

Daughter used it straight away. Took bit longer than 30 minutes, more like 50 minutes (still not bad for a 3 course meal). You need to get used to preparing 3 things at once, and having lots on the go. Once you change your cooking style, you will get quicker. Food tasted very good and was well received.

Don't expect to make the meals in 30 minutes the first time, it takes practice. Jamie's book has given us lots of inspiration and can introduce some great variety into your cooking. Overall some great recipes, and although Jamie is known for using ingredients that are difficult to find in NZ, that's not the case with this book.

Jamie Oliver offers you techniques to cut down unnecessary prepping time in the kitchen, it is so simple that it makes you look like an idiot for not realising there is a simpler way. With the mix of flavours and additional condiments you prepare surely adds more value to your meals at night.

A book well worth purchasing and comes with high recommendations!!

The recipes look delicious, the ingredients healthy, the methods are easy and explained extremely well. Such a great book!

Way better than the 15 minute Meals.

Real food and simple to follow instructions. A must have for the busy household.

Great food, good instructions

Great book, initially the recipes look a bit all over the place but if you perserve very easy(and yummy too). I am not quite at the 30 minutes yet but gettting faster. Recommended

This book is excellent for anyone who is trying to master the skill of getting all parts of a meal to the table together. Timing is everything in this book and it is something I struggled with when I started cooking ‘meals’. I have tried a couple of the meals and whilst it took me a little bit longer than 30 minutes (my fault) I think once you have mastered a few of the recipes you would be able to whip up some pretty impressive meals quickly. As always Jamie is very practical using ingredients and tools most of us have in our kitchens. I can see that I will use this book a lot.

Love the book, will be trying lots of the recipes. Easy instructions and looks very yummy!!