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How to Feed Your Whole Family... - Gill Holcombe
by PlaysNicely
Ever frugal, I pounced on this book when the chance to buy it cheaply presented itself, and I rushed it home eager to add the book's promised wealth (of knowledge and ideas at least) to my already squeezed food budget! I was confident that I'd do pretty well from it, as I felt ahead of the game in that my kitchen's not all that tiny and ... that my husband moved in complete with his own set of saucepans (with lids, ta da), however I have to say I didn't get everything I had hoped from the book.
The idea behind the book is very simple: that you don't have to have a range of fancy gadgets or a chef's kitchen, nor lots of time and money to be able to feed your family a sensible and well-balanced diet and to that end the author seemed well placed and very knowledgeable, if the blurb on the back is anything to go by. The book also offers a wealth of endorsements from respected family magazines, such as Prima, Easy Living Magazine, Essentials and even the BBC good food magazine, so I really felt that I was in for a treat and lots of useful hints and tips.
General Presentation:
The book's a handy sized paperback, with a wipeable cover, perfect for worktop life when you are following recipes. There are no images to go with the recipes, although there are kitchen and foodie type illustrations at the start of some chapters, along with foodie quotes.
In all, this has the potential to make the book quite text-heavy, but it is set out well so that the recipes are clearly visible on the page, with plenty of white space around the ingredients etc for you to pencil your own notes in (if you're like me). Recipes stand out because their titles are printed in capital letters.
Content:
The book starts with a useful contents page listing the various sections of the book:
* Introduction
* Wake Up To Breakfast
* Little Gems and Tough Cookies
* Make Dinner, not Excuses
* Quick Fixes
* The Joy of Soup
* Join the Pudding Club
* Can't Cook? Don't Cook!
* Let Them Eat Cake
* Not Only But Also
* Weekly Menu Planning
* Recipe Index
Within each of the 'meal' sections there is a range of recipes to try and within the weekly menu plan section there is a menu plan which includes recipes for Monday to Friday. The recipe range is extensive, with plenty of choice, although as a vegetarian I found the recipe list to be a little heavily on the meat side, possibly due to the book's aim to cater for those with growing kids. However, in my family there are two vegetarians so with this and along with the 'balanced diet' claim of the book, I would have hoped for a little more vegetarian choice from the book. There are a couple of recipes that use 'Quorn' but, as with many veggies, our conscious choice to avoid meat includes anything that acts as a meat-substitute - we much prefer our pulses and veg, thanks very much!
My Opinion:
Although a bit disappointed about the lack of 'veggie' options, I was still happy to pursue the good that the book promised (because I'm used to adapting recipes): it was inspiration over meals in general and menu planning that I was seeking so, having investigated some of the recipes, I turned with high hopes to the weekly menu planning section.
This led to my second big disappointment really. Whilst the author has clearly worked hard to show how a balanced diet can be achieved for approximately £30 or under each week (the supermarket receipts are shown in the book), the menu planning section shows a the plan, shopping list and receipt for Monday to Friday only. Now, with our 'Brady Bunch' family of my own three boys and my husband's teenage girls, most of whom were around most weekends, the weekends were the prime time for which I was hoping to learn about how to plan menu options that would offer more but cost less!
Never mind, I still looked to the weekday menu with adaptation in mind, but found that midweek suggestions included items such as 'fish finger pie'. When you consider that part of the motivation for buying a book like this, which markets itself on moving away from pre-prepared food, I found the inclusion of fish fingers to be a significantly backwards step. Ok, maybe for some families whose children are younger, but I was seeking a different kind of inspiration, so by this time I was feeling a little cheated by the book and, to be honest, have remained so.
In truth, I have tried to take inspiration from this book, but largely it has stayed on the shelf: it hasn't revolutionalised our domestic lives or saved us money in any way, although I can see how it could do this if you are learning how to manage the demands of kitchen and food budgeting, but again it is within greater limits (such as Monday to Friday only) than the blurb and the endorsements on the cover would have you believe! Although I can see what the author was trying to do, I feel that this book is aimed at a much younger family than mine, yet families and lifestyles come in all shapes, sizes and ages and this book is going for a 'one size fits all' that actually missed the mark for myself and my family.
I would only recommend this book as a starting point if you really don't know anything about managing a family's diet and food budget and even then I would recommend that you quickly seek out alternatives to some of the recipes in the book, such as that fish finger pie! I'd also recommend that you get this book from the library first or give it a good once-over before buying it, to be sure that it does fit your needs!
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