About a month ago a good friend of mine, C, very kindly gave me a slow cooker!

I’ve wanted one for a while, but I have been unsure about them for various reasons, however C had told me of some of the amazing dishes she could make with just a little preparation beforehand. Say hello to melt in the mouth vegetables and meat! A dinner that technically only takes 10 minutes to throw together and cooks happily by itself while you go about doing your daily things!

Another hugely positive point I want to make about the slow cooker is, not only has it increased our vegetable consumption over the past month, it has also really helped us to reduce the amount of waste we have in the House of Kalamity! We used to throw away so much food, mainly vegetables and now, all I do is add any veg which we have floating around into the slow cooker and it becomes part of the meal!

Recently I have joined The Orchard, which is an initiative set up by Tesco for people to blog about foody things.


My first task is all about food waste. In the UK we waste a lot of food, and this has been highlighted in the media through various food programmes, articles and adverts. Tesco have launched a range of food to help combat waste called Perfectly Imperfect by which, fruit and vegetables which are a little bit wonky (which would usually be thrown away or replanted) are being sold as part of the range at a cheaper price than the ‘normal’ looking fruit and veg! I think this is great! They also have a second range of food called Eat Fresh, Keep Fresh which packages food into portion sizes which is very handy for when you are only cooking for a small amount of people.

So after signing up to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, Tesco very kindly sent me some vouchers for some Eat Fresh Keep Fresh Chicken and Perfectly Imperfect Pears. Unfortunately my local Tesco don’t currently stock the pears but I was able to find the chicken...



...and so I threw it in my slow cooker, with stock and some chopped up left over vegetables and it made a beautiful slow cooked chicken casserole.

You will need: (enough for 4 portions)

• 2 chicken breasts (chopped into cubes)


• 10 baby potatoes


• 400ml chicken stock


• 1 parsnip (chopped into chunky cubes)


• 1 onion (chopped)


• 1 leek (sliced)


• 1 courgette (cubed)


• 2 cloves of crushed garlic


• Salt and pepps


• Slow cooker

Method:

1. Add the all the vegetables to your slow cooker and give a good stir so that there is an even mix of each one.


2. Add the chicken cubes on top, then season with salt and pepper. Pour the chicken stock over the top and cover with the slow cooker lid.


3. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours, and then serve!

I like to make gluten free Yorkshire puddings to go with the stews for a little bit of naughty luxury! (I’ll share that recipe another day)

Don’t be scared to try other vegetables with the casserole the possibilities are endless.