My two-pound-plus beef pot roast was a cheap cut of meat I'd never heard of before, called "boxheater." I browned it and cooked it for four hours very gently on the hob in my smaller Le Creuset casserole. The pot also had onion, garlic (squashed, no garlic crusher in sight), celery, red wine (quite a lot),chopped bacon and seasoning. I cooked the bacon in olive oil for a few minutes, browned the meat in the pot then took it out, cooked the veg for a few minutes then put the meat back in along with some big glugs of red wine and some salt and pepper. The juices were a bit too rich by the end so I watered them down a bit and added half a can of plum tomatoes. Lovely stuff. Next time I'll do that again and drink half of the red wine. We had it sliced with mashed potato and greens. It was gorgeous.

There was enough for cold tonight so we had that with bubble and squeak using the leftover cabbage and mash and some mushrooms and grilled cherry toms. Two days of cheap food fit for the gods!