Posted by Steve in Recipes | 18 Comments
Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food
I’ve been watching a lot of TV lately. Being on the DL has given me the time to do that, which is not what I want to be doing. I’d rather be running and for me that is a huge statement.
Something positive that has come out of all the shows I’ve seen lately is one on the Food Network called Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of food. The show is basically a spin off of his other show Jamie’s School Dinners where he attempts to over haul a school’s cafeteria lunch program in Rotherham, England.
This time Jamie is attempting to change the eating habits of the entire town of Rotherham. The idea is fairly simple. Jamie will teach some “students” which are made up of regular people from the town and show them how to cook for themselves. He shows them the proper way to prepare great tasting food that everyone will want to eat, as well as giving them recipes.
The key to the success of the program is something called pass it on. Where once you have learned the recipe you share it with someone and show them how to make it. They could be your family, friend, co-workers etc.. it doesn’t matter who just pass the recipe and joy of cooking on so that everyone can eventually cook for themselves.
Making the Recipes
I have watched a lot of cooking shows before on the food network and made ZERO recipes, that is pretty sad. But there is something about Jamie’s honesty and passion for cooking that made me want to make his PARMESAN CHICKEN BREASTS WITH CRISPY POSH HAM recipe tonight.
My wife had picked up the ingredients this afternoon while shopping and we made it together for dinner.
The Verdict
Fantastic!! I honestly mean that, the chicken tasted so good and went perfectly with the salad and Asparagus as sides. Now the chicken wasn’t the healthiest with the bacon and parmesan but 10 times better than the pizza I would have most likely ordered coming home from a very busy day at work (seriously you don’t even know).
I’m actually excited about trying the Mini Shell Pasta recipe next. My kids loved it too. My 4 year that hates chicken, I mean hates it and never eats her chicken was stealing it off of my plate. That says it all.
Pass It On
Jamie’s idea of pass it on is great, I’m going to be showing my sister how to make the Chicken dish that I just made as well as a few friends.
You can get both the Chicken and Mini shell recipes plus a ton of other great recipes for free on itunes and on Jamie’s Ministry of Food recipe page.
Once you’ve enjoyed them please remember to pass it on!
Yummy! Thanks for sharing this great find. The Parmesan Chicken Breasts sound really tasty. I usually just watch a cooking show every now and then, with no real intentions to actually cook the food. This post is definitely motivating me.
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Steve Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
My wife does the same thing (watches the shows with no intention of cooking any of them, usually).
She really has been on board with the Jamie Olivers show though.
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That’s what we all need to strive to achieve in our towns and obesity will decrease tremendously. It takes just a few people with a goal and great things can happen.
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I’ve got such mixed feelings about anything Jamie touches… I mean, yes, caged hens are bad, and yes, some of his recipes are simple and delicious.
BUT, if ever you find a recipe of his that doesn’t have olive oil in it, please notify the press – it will be a monumental day. I mean really, we watched him for 30 minutes and he must have used one liter of olive oil, and that was just making stone baked pizza!
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Steve Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Well his last name is OLIVEr if that counts for anything. I know what you are saying though he does use a ton of the stuff.
But keep in mind that he is about cooking for yourself and not necessarily low fat, low calorie recipes.
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Cooking, “real cooking” takes up a lot of time. What it takes the folks on tv to make in a half hour will take me atleast 2 hours bare minimum. But that chicken parmesian does sound very good.
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Steve Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 pm
That Parmesan Chicken meal took about 15 minutes to make. It really couldn’t have been easier. I think one of the things that makes cooking such a long and involved process has to do with the number of ingredients in the recipe.
I’ve literally seen some recipes with more than 20 ingredients in them. Now those take 2 hours to make, (1 hour just to organize them all)
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Cooking delicious food is real fun & Jamie’s Ministry of Food is really a great website for Food lovers.
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Well i love Olive Oil and despite living in Asia where we cook with healthy Soya oil. i know which one i prefer…
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Steve Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Olive Oil is the best although there are just somethings that need vegetable oil. I’ve tried switching it out for healthier oils such as Soya and Olive but it never tastes as good.
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I know how to cook but I still appreciate new recipes that I could try out.
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Nice blog thanks for sharing… When I red on your post I feel hungry.. lol. and its yummy!
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Very nice post here mate. I just love Jamie Oliver recipes. I have few books of him at house and sometimes we are cooking something exotic with my husband. Because sometimes casual meal is so boring and non interesting..
Oh and i full agree with you that pizza’s are very bad thing for your health.. Chicken is twenty times better! Good luck and i will be waiting for your another posts!
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Steve Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I don’t actually own any of his books, I borrow them from the library. Which I do for a lot of recipe books. I can’t justify spending $30-$40 on a book.
I may actually have to buy this one though. There is a waiting list of 35 people or more at each of the 3 libraries I have cards at.
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Thanks for sharing, Jamie Oliver recipes is best, follow his recipes will definitely taste good, really good.
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I also have watched a lot of cooking shows before on the food network ,thanks for sharing it
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..this one is awesome! very informative! looking forward to see the book. =)
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Hmm.. nice article. Now I got a new idea to make new recipe. Thanks for sharing.
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