The ham shank

Lesley - It sounds really good - two meals for four, with one ham shank costing £2.89.  I suspect that nutritionally it wasn't so good.

The first day I stripped the rind and fat off the ham shank as much as I could, then put it in the slow cooker with as many veggies as would fit in and some water (no salt!) and left it for quite a few hours.  I then took the ham shank out, blended what was left and as it was a bit thin I thickened it by adding dumplings - they cook fine in the crock pot on high.  The second day I chopped the meat, softened a couple of chopped onions, and when they were cooked added a big tablespoon of flour.  After that cooked I added veggie stock from a stock cube slowly so I had a thickened gravy and then I added the meat.  I let that warm through as I made a crumble - I made a bit of a mess of it, actually and the proportions were off.  I added a packet of sage and onion stuffing inspired by the beef crumble on MSE with a few tablespoons of water and then topped the ham in the gravy with the crumble.  That was served with mushy peas.

I have no idea of the rest of the meal costings.  The veggies were part of a veg box I had from the market, the mushy peas were value and the sage and onion stuffing were part of a bargain batch from Approved food, as were the dumplings.  If you take away the fuel costs I imagine that the total for both meals would be less than £5, so I am happy.  It was a very nice ham shank, quite meaty.  It was also a good distraction from the ironing.  

The men liked it.  I suspect it may have been all a bit high in salt and a bit low in protein.  It was very high in carbs which were the padding - I was generous with the crumble and the dumplings.  We did have custard afterwards though, and we all had protein at other parts of the day.  I shall definitely do it again, especially in the colder weather.

Also, I am sure you can do a lot more than me, but thank you for the 'well done'.  It made a big difference to me today.