Let me show you just how far you can stretch a gammon joint….

Gammon was pretty much the first meat that Master Fussy-Eater Frugal would eat and even now, it’s still one of his favourite meals.  It’s also really versatile so we tend to buy a small gammon joint every week and although we love a good old mid-week roast dinner, I do try and mix it up a little bit – especially with the leftovers that we always have.  I thought you might like to see how far you can stretch a gammon joint by showing what I’ve made with ours.

Before I go on to what we do with our gammon joint, I should really recommend that you always buy the next joint of meat you can afford. I absolutely do recommend this but equally, I know that we have to cut our coat to according to our cloth (did anyone else’s Nana always say that?).  All of the major supermarkets to a small gammon or ham join for between £3 and £4 which we’ve bought in the past and loved just as much as the more expensive versions that you can buy.

For the purposes of this post, I used a small joint that cost me £3.97 from Morrisons and cooked it in the slow cooker for about 4 hours on medium heat.  I usually add enough water to cover the base of the slow cooker but because I was planning to make soup with the stock, I added more than I usually would – probably about an inch and a half high.

Firstly, we had a roast dinner with it last night with a couple of slices of meat each, lots of roasted veg, some mashed potato and a little gravy.

Next I made some leek and potato soup by pouring the liquid from the slow cooker into the soup maker and adding a couple of sliced leeks and chopped potatoes.  I also added a little garlic and a lot of pepper before I topped it up with some boiling water. I had a bowl of the soup last night and the rest of it is now in the fridge in microwavable containers to be used in the next day or so.  If it’s not used by tomorrow teatime then I’ll pop it in the freezer in the container it’s in ready for when we will use it.

I then finely chopped a thick slice of the gammon to add to a Slimming world style quiche which was more or less the same as the one I made last week except I added the leftover veg from tea last night – broccoli and a handful of peas.

I’d share a photo of last night’s quiche with you but half of it has been delivered to my friend’s house and the other half has been eaten for my lunch before I started thinking about writing this post!

Mr Frugal has had a ham sandwich for his lunch with another couple of slices – it’s gorgeous on a warm brioche bun (which makes us sound posh but I bought the buns in Tesco ages ago reduced to 5p for 6 so I just get one out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave to defrost/warm it).

Now I’m down to just a couple of slices so for tea tonight I’ll either add it to egg fried rice or make a risotto with the last little bits although Miss Frugal might prefer to use it to make homemade pizzas.  I’ll let the kids decide.

So that’s one small-ish joint that I’ve used to make a main meal for all of us, one lunch for two people, four servings of soup, a lovely sandwich and another meal for tea tonight.  Not bad for under £4!