So Jamie Oliver has a new book called "Meals in Minutes." Theoretically, each recipe will assist you to make an entire meal (including dessert) in half an hour or less. My Irish pal Darragh (a devoted foodie and recent contestant on Come Dine With Me) and I were discussing the book; he's been working his way through the recipes and is yet to find one under an hour. I decided I'd get the book too and see how quickly I could put together the meals.

Last night before my performance was my first attempt - this is roast salmon with asparagus, pancetta and tomatoes, with mint new potatoes, spinach salad, and salsa verde. There was also a Banoffee Pie, which is not pictured because it was an epic fail thanks to my substitution of Splenda for real sugar. Sometimes you just need to use the real thing.

It took me 32 minutes to make all the dishes, which I thought was fabulous. I'm really working on trying to regain my health after two years of neglecting myself completely in favour of work, and I like being able to cook clean, whole food efficiently at home. Notice I did not say "cheaply." Jamie says in the introduction that he's costed out all these meals and that ultimately it's cheaper than buying take-aways and ready made meals. I don't know if I agree with that. The ingredients for this roast salmon dinner clocked in at a whopping $50 - considering that I only made two servings (hooray for leftovers), that's still $25 a plate - so yes, takeaway is cheaper. It may be that some of the condiments and ingredients required can be re-used in separate recipes, but I still had to fork out for them. We'll see if the cost goes down as I go - I intend to race Darragh through the recipes in this book.

It will take me longer as most of the recipes are for an entire family, and my entire family is just me - which means I probably only need to make 1 or 2 dishes a week. The other problem is, because it's just me, I often decide not to cook and opt for something easy like soup and a sandwich instead. So this is going to take some discipline - but hopefully the fun and ease of it will keep me going!