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October/November is a favorite time in our offices. These are the months when scads of cookbooks are released, a deluge of cookbooks, a tornado of cookbooks. To judge by my desk, it's a perfect (or, rather, imperfect) storm of cookbooks. I have over 50 newly released books piled up, with another pile of yet-to-be-released titles [...]

Photo Credit: Martha Payne

Thanks to new fan and friend John Evans, I just learned about NeverSeconds, a blog written by a nine-year-old Scottish schoolgirl named Martha Payne (a.k.a. “VEG”) who was tired of her awful school dinners. So Martha decided to photograph her meals, rate them (she counts the number of hairs included at no extra cost), and share them with the world.

A clever kid! But this story gets even better.

Once VEG’s school council got word of the blog, they banned her from taking photographs of her meals. But Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef who has been campaigning for healthier school meals worldwide, launched a social media support crusade via Twitter. After millions of blog hits and public outcry, Roddy McCuish, the leader of the Argyll and Bute Council in West Scotland, lifted the blog ban. McCuish claimed preventing the photos from being posted was a form of censorship. So VEG is online once again.

But not only is she still posting her meals, she’s receiving photos from children and educators around the world. Plus, Martha is raising money for Mary’s Meals, headquartered in Scotland and right here in New Jersey! This non-profit organization’s mission is to feed children in the most impoverished nations.

I have a passion for healthy eating, so I just had to blog about this young girl’s chutzpah! I hope you’ll support her over at NeverSeconds and maybe submit your own school lunch! If she posts your picture, VEG will even tell you how long she took to find your location on the globe. It’s a good food and geography lesson all at once!

So…just for fun…I wrote a song parody for Martha/VEG. Sung to the tune of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”, this is “You Give LUNCH a Bad Name”. Enjoy and mangia!

You Give Lunch a Bad Name

Your meal’s a la carte
But it’s still lame.
Martha,
You give lunch a bad name. (Bad name.)

A “balanced” meal is what they sell
They promise you chicken but give you some spelt.
A plain white tray with no mashies,
And globs of brown stuff that stink like bad cheese.

Oh, it’s a load of yuck!
Oh, they told you don’t blog
But Jamie told Twitter,
“You’re righteous, photog!”

Your meal’s a la carte
But it’s still lame.
Martha,
You give lunch a bad name. (Bad name.)
We read your grade; it’s a four you claim.
Martha,
You give lunch a bad name. (Bad name.)
You give lunch, oh!

Bring the fork to your lips,
Pull out hair with your fingertips.
Your school cooks bad, we don’t know why.
It’s not too hard to make fresh veggie stir-fry.

Oh, it’s a load of yuck!
Oh, they told you don’t blog
But Jamie told Twitter,
“You’re righteous, photog!”

Your meal’s a la carte
But it’s still lame.
Martha,
You give lunch a bad name. (Bad name.)
We read your grade; it’s a four you claim.
Martha,
You give lunch a bad name. (Bad name.)
You give lunch, oh!

written by Theresa Collier, Publicity Nigel Slater, prolific cookbook author, food writer, cook, and film muse, has been hailed in the U.K. as a “national treasure” and is indeed a proper Brit himself, yet I’m convinced that he wrote his book Real Fast Food while living in a tiny NYC apartment, complete with galley kitchen, shallow cupboards, and approximately two square feet of counter

My soup kick continues, though our weather is a little better and Hallelujah! the days are getting longer. This is my less-meat answer to chicken noodle soup. It’s a go-to easy recipe, and the best part is most of the ingredients are usually in my kitchen anyway.

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that I’ve made minor changes to. Basically you’re cooking onion, celery, and garlic together first. I added carrot into the mix, and if I don’t have the celery on hand, I just skip it. Then you’re pureeing the veggies with broth and a can of chick peas. You add a second can of chick peas whole (drained), then add pasta.

You get a rich, creamy soup with lots of hidden vegetable power. The stick blender is your friend here, a master of vegetable disguise. Make it as thick or thin as you like.

The carrots + chickpeas give it a lovely golden color, and I like using spaghetti noodles—somehow they seem more fun. I’ve been leaving out the rosemary, though it’s nice with it as well. You can always make it vegan/ vegetarian if you use vegetable broth. For grown ups: the red pepper flakes, freshly ground black pepper, and chopped parsley add a nice zing. Without the garnishes, it’s a plain-looking soup my kids like. Enjoy!

Bookmakers William Hill have made Jamie Oliver the hot favourite to be the bestselling Christmas title.

Given the runaway success of last year's 30-Minute Meals, it is no surprise that the bookmaker has given Oliver short odds of 1/2 for Jamie's Great Britain to be the biggest seller.

The next favourite is Guinness World Records 2012 at 11/2. The celebrity with the shortest odds is former Manchester United footballer Paul Scholes, whose My Story sits at 10/1.

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Marian Keyes is writing a cookery title for Michael Joseph, as the imprint ramps up its spring food publishing list next year by releasing one title every month during the first half of 2012.

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