“Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!”

So anyone who knows me knows that I “follow”, and really enjoy anything to do with Jamie Oliver. I think he is inspiring in the way that he cooks, and socially he is really working to improve food awareness and reeducate people on the importance of eating healthy on an international scale. Add that to his smart and sexy venues that not only serve amazing food, but also include delicious cocktails you really do have a winning combination.

I am relatively new to cooking, there was a stage in my life (not that long ago) when I use to eat boiled eggs, smoked salmon and cereal every day. Sometimes when I wanted something “special” I would change it up and eat a hot spud with sour cream… I know tasty stuff!

So when the food craze started and  Masterchef, My Kitchen Rules, Jamie’s 15 minute meals and Kylie Kwong cooking programs where everywhere I looked on TV, I started to get really into trying out some of my own dishes. Once I got my head around “seasoning” I finally started cooking yummy food. Strangely enough I developed this habit of following it with a proud shout off “Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!” There’s not much more I can say about this, other than, yes I made it up, no I don’t know what the literal translation is, BUT it’s something that should be understood as, “check this out Jamie Oliver, and see how good my food is!”

His efforts in challenging society by campaigning on key issues are widely recognized, especially with his work on obesity issues in schools, and apprenticeship programs for unemployed youths. Not only does he work with young people he also runs a 10 week course through Jamie’s Ministry of Food in Australia focused on teaching adults basic cooking skills, how to grocery shop, and provides them with the knowledge and confidence to take their skills from the program and use them at home. 

I feel these are fantastic programs, and what an opportunity for these people to be involved in! How many other chefs and international faces are putting their heart and soul into aiding and helping with these issues? I can’t think of anyone, other than the guy who did supersize me – and that was a different ball game.

Food for thought.

So, as this is my blog I would like to say thank you Jamie Oliver. You inspire me to cook healthy food everyday, you make me want to challenge myself to learn new skills, try new things in and out of the kitchen and share them via social media.

I made my second lasagna on the weekend. My mum hands down makes the best damn lasagna I have every tasted, till I made this one.

I made the sauces from scratch, I completed the meat sauce the night before,  so it had a richer flavour (see pinterest for ingredients). I then boiled down the spinach, created my béchamel sauce, then worked on my layers.

I do admit I did get confused, and with Stu aiding me with a quick Google of my friend Jamie, I realised 3 important things

1 – don’t put a lasagna strip on top

2  - add basil and tomatoes to the top with LOTS of cheese

3 – cook with foil for the first half hour then remove afterwards.

I didn’t follow an exact recipe, my style of cooking is a bit loose, I have a sort of “mix a bit of this and a bit of that” style, working off what my Mother and my Nonna taught me growing up.

I let it sit to cool, and then served it up later on to my friends for dinner on Saturday.

Spinach Lasagna = bloody lovely, naturally I declared once the verdicts where in (and their was no more left)  “Jamie Oliver eat your heart out”

Thanks for the tips JO.

Check out Food 4 Stu & I and CCAD88 for more recipes and pictures of delicious discoveries!