4 hours Ago By Emma Gill,Natalie King
When it comes to feeding the family, it can be a big challenge. Not only do you want to find something healthy and nutritious, but the food you cook also needs to fit into your household budget. And there's always the fear that after putting in the effort, the kids won't eat it.
This means that lots of busy parents often fall into the same trap of making the same dishes over and over. That's why shows such as Jamie's £1 Wonders And Money Saving Meals hosted by Jamie Oliver are so appealling. And reporter Emma Gill admits she was transfixed by his skills.
"Seeing him throw together the most delicious looking homemade kebabs and flatbreads in no time at all - I'm suddenly inspired to do something about it.", she wrote. The Essex-born chef soon encouraged Emma to get into the kitchen: "'Why buy flatbreads when they're so cheap and easy to make?' asks Oliver, and for some deluded reason I actually believe him.
", Emma admitted. "Inspired by the speed of his creation and the money-saving mantra, I decide to pull the ingredients together and give these a go. While not one of the £1 a head meals, this particular 'fakeaway' is described as a money-saver.
" But Emma soon discovered the meal would be pricier than she thought: "Now I'm not quite sure where Jamie is doing his weekly food shop, but to call this a money-saving meal, it seems he must have gone shopping in 1989. Certainly not in the current cost of living crisis. "I buy the ingredients from various stores, but even getting everything from Aldi, the bill comes to £35.
41. "Admittedly that's buying everything from scratch and leaving a lot leftover, using just a tablespoon of mustard and a couple of tablespoons of white wine vinegar for example. But they still need buying for the recipe and lot of the things aren't something that many families - especially those trying to cook on a budget - would have in the cupboard.
", complained Emma. She also criticised the show for being unrealistic about what the average person has in their home: "I can't say fresh mint and chilli oil are part of my regular shop for instance, yet the programme shows Jamie spinning round from his kitchen island with full access to a plethora of ingredients at his fingertips. "If I was already a little peeved by the cost of this lot and the fact that the fruit and nuts are jamming my blender, it's making those flatbreads that really brings me to boiling point.
" While Emma normally enjoys baking, she found the process of making the flatbreads frustrating, saying: "Now I make the odd cake and I'm not too bad a cook, but breadmaking is not my forte. "When I try to copy Jamie, who, with his flour directly on the worktop, makes a neat little well to pour the water into, my liquid quickly seeps from said well and begins dispersing all over the surface, under my air fryer and all over the ingredients I've found myself drowning in. This is really not the time to 'give it a little kiss of oil' as the chef suggests.
"Try as I might to 'bring it together', it's not happening. I get four balls of dough eventually, but once rolled out they're far from the large oval breads I envisioned. We'll be lucky if each one stretches around the meat.
"The end result is just about edible. Taking that long to make the flatbreads means the meat has dried out under the grill in the process, so it's a good job we have that yoghurt dip to give it a bit of moisture." Overall, Emma found the process stressful: "I start with such enthusiasm, but, left with a very messy flour-covered kitchen and kids virtually begging never to have the same meal again, I end up with a new-found frustration for the man who many have still not forgiven for getting Turkey Twizzlers banned from school dinners 20 years ago.
"He may know his stuff when it comes to healthy eating, but I think he needs a lesson on what truly is affordable - and won't push busy parents over the edge." Reaching out to Jamie Oliver's team, they said that the £1 Wonders and Money Saving Meals TV series is intended to showcase both £1 per portion dishes, as well as other cost-friendly recipes. They added that the kebab recipe that Emma tried is not intended to be £1 a portion, but is a 'fakeaway', a homemade alternative to a takeaway.
The team said they aimed to be "as useful to people as possible" and they "researched the costs of every ingredient used in every recipe in the series", using the UK's biggest supermarkets; Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco, with prices based on those found in October 2024. They also explained their method of costing each recipe : "Once we had the costs of the whole ingredients in all three supermarkets we also calculated the cost of the amount of each ingredient used in each recipe , rather than the whole ingredient cost i.e.
two tablespoons of flour instead of the whole bag / one teaspoon of spices instead of the whole pot. "When we had these proportionate costs from the three supermarkets we could calculate the average cost of that amount, as some of the supermarkets were more expensive than others. We added up the costs of the ingredients used in the recipe to form the total cost of ingredients used in each recipe and divided that by the number of people it served to get the price per portion.
"We didn't include olive oil, salt or pepper in the final costings, as we felt it was reasonable to think people might have these in their store cupboard and the amounts people use is based on personal preference." The full list of ingredients for Jamie Oliver's homemade kebabs and flatbreads Recipe / Aldi price per full product 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas / 49p 100g luxury fruit and nut mix / 59p for 200g 2 teaspoons garam masala, plus extra to serve / 75p for 85g 1 large free range egg / £1.75 for 6 250g lean beef mince / £2.
59 250g lean pork mince / £2.59 for 500g Olive oil / £6.29 for 1L 300g self-raising flour / 79p for 1.
5kg 1kg mixed crunchy veg, such as: Red onion / 95p for 3 Cabbage / 75p Onion / 95p for 3 Baby gem / 79p Radishes / 56p for 240g Broccoli stalks / 79p Cucumber / 89p 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard / 65p for 200g 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar / £1.65 for 500ml Extra virgin olive oil / £6.79 for 1L 4 tablespoons Greek yoghurt / £1.
89 for 500g 2 teaspoons chilli oil / £2.39 for 250ml 12 a bunch of fresh mint (15g) / 52p for 30g.
