I had another go at one of Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals today, or at least took some ideas from one of them. He makes a pizza base simply by combining self-raising flour with water in a 2:1 ratio, shaping it to a circle and cooking it in a pre-heated frying pan with a little oil in the bottom. The self-raising part of the flour reacts to the combination of moisture and heat to give some lift to the base which, once it has started to cook, is topped with various ingredients and put under a hot grill to finish off.

I found that a couple of egg cups of flour and one of water was sufficient to make a pizza for one; doubling that up for two would probably be about as much as my frying pan could cope with.

I might see if I can pick out a few more simple ideas like that before I take the book back to the library. If I get a decent food processor at some point (and that will mean one that is not only durable but also straightforward to clean up) perhaps I might consider getting my own copy as that is the key tool that would make a the full scale menus feasible.