Post furlough food: Dump and go pork and potato casserole in the crock pot/slowcooker.

 This weekend was a bank holiday for the UK.  We found ourselves at IKEA collecting a bed for our 17 year old having discovered that the metal bed frame had broken on his bed and his bum was halfway to the floor each night - he hadn't bothered to tell us for months!  Anyway this involved a 4 hour drive to to click and collect and then get back home during which time our two autistic sons were tasked with taking the old bed apart on their own- which they did much to their surprise.  They then got to put the new one together with only help when absolutely stuck (Dad was banned!).  Final comment was "It's just like a big Lego really"  so a very well done A and B- I told you you could do it!

This meant of course a very late day and whilst the boys love pizza or sausages and chips the grown ups in the house not so much so I put together this dump and go from some pork I had in the freezer before the road trip.

Pork and Potato Casserole - serves 4

500g pork - I used tenderloin as this was what I had in the freezer but you could use cubed meat or chops, even mince

1 tin of cider

2 courgettes, chopped

2 carrots chopped

500 g new potatoes, washed and halved

1 tsp garlic granules or 1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 chicken stock cube.

At this point you can put all the ingredients in a freezer bag and freeze if desired.

Place all the above ingredients in the slow cooker and leave to cook for bout 6-8 hours - or in our case 10, the longer you leave it the more the cider will soak into the potatoes.

To serve,

Fry a sliced onion until softened and brown.  Add the liquid from the slowcooker and 2 tsp of cornflour that have been mixed with water to make a paste.  Stir all the time and bring to the boil when it should be thick.  Mix back with all other ingredients and stir to make sure everything is coated.  Serve.

Variations:

-The reason I add the onions at the end is because I loath the taste of "boiled" onions which is what you get if you add them at the beginning - however feel free if you want a dump and go bag for the freezer and you don't mid the taste

-this works well with sausages instead of pork

- if you don't do alcohol then use apple juice instead

-Add some sage if you have it, pork loves sage

-Use other veg instead of courgettes and carrots - any root veg will work well as will squash, don't add mushrooms though they go slimey.