If you follow my blog you will be aware that I am a big fan of slow cookers. I got my slow cooker for Christmas last year and its been a godsend. There is nothing better than bunging the ingredients into the slow cooker in the morning and coming home after work tired and hungry to a meal thats ready to eat.  Needless to say I was intrigued to see the love people at Morphy Richards were running a competition to produce a meal for under £4 in your slow cooker. Information about the challenge can be found here. The meal has to feed a family of four.

I decided to try this challenge for myself. I wondered about doing my all time favourite meal, gammon slow cooked in coke. When I went to the supermarket I found a joint of gammon was £4.47.  This challenge was going to be harder than I thought. This is the recipe I came up with, its very tasty and I recommend trying it. If you don’t have a slow cooker (why not?) you can also cook it in the oven for an hour at 200C.

Pork Chops Supreme

Ingredients

4 pork chops
1 beaten egg
3/4 – 1 cup tomato juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp vinegar
Crushed cornflakes or breadcrumbs

Method

Dip pork chops which have been salted and peppered into beaten egg. Roll in crumbs. Brown quickly in hot fat and place in slow cooker.
Combine all other ingredients and boil for 3 minutes, stirring all the time. Pour over pork chops and cook on medium heat for about 8 hours, until pork chops are lovely and soft

Did it come in at under four pounds? Yes, if you bear in mind that I only costed the ingredients I used and that some will go in the store cupboard for use with later meals.

Total Cost

Pork chops  £3.27 for four
Eggs cost 98p for 6 so one egg is 16p
Tomato juice costs 87p , I used about a 1/5 so 17p
A bag of  brown sugar  is 73p but I used less than a 1/10 so 7p
Salt and pepper is free
Vinegar  is 13p for a bottle so 2p for a tablespoon
Crushed cornflakes or breadcrumbs. Bread costs  47p for a loaf, four slices is about a 1/10 so 4p

Total Cost £3.84

I encourage you to try this challenge, its really interesting and shows you how much things cost. Also you can enter the competition, you never know you might win.