Recipe: pork and veg layer bake.

Ingredients

For the tomato and veg sauce:
oil
half an onion, sliced
squeeze of garlic puree
a selection of veg:  I used frozen peas, frozen sliced leeks (from some YS leek that needed using up so I froze it months ago) and some shredded white cabbage, all of which I had around
some chopped tomato or passata (I use home made from last years tomato crop)
half a stock cube (I used chicken)
pinch of mixed herbs
some tomato puree

For the bechamel sauce:
120g milk
a bay leaf (from the garden) and some grated nutmeg
10 to 15g plain flour
10 to 15 g butter
salt/pepper

Also
some cooked potato, sliced.  I cooked one weighing around 250g in its jacket in the microwave
some sliced meat (I used pork, of course, hence the title, but you could use beef, chicken, whatever)
30g finely grated cheddar


Method:
Heat the milk with the bay leaf and grated nutmeg, then take off the heat and allow to infuse for half an hour or so.  Then remove the bay leaf.

Heat some veg oil and saute the sliced onions until they take on a bit of colour.  Add a bit of garlic puree and the veg, stir and continue frying for a while.  Then pour in the passata, the bit of stock cube and a splash of water.  Heat to boiling, add the tomato puree, the dried herbs and seasonings and simmer gently for about five minutes, adding a bit more water if it seems to be drying up.

Make the bechamel as you would make a cheese sauce.  Melt the butter, add the flour and cook it out, stirring, then pour in the warm milk, stirring as you do so.  Keep stirring and any lumps will go.  Add salt and pepper to own taste.

In an appropriately sized oven proof dish layer up the ingredients:  tomato veg mixture, sliced meat, tomato veg mixture, sliced potato, bechamel sauce, grated cheese.
Bake in an oven heated to 180C for about half an hour until the cheese topping is golden brown and the underneath is bubbling.

I made it frugal by limiting the amount of cheese by making a bechamel sauce, using freezer stored veg and using gifted meat.  This is very flexible and you could use a wide variety of different veg.  Great for leftovers, both veg and Sunday roast.

Tomorrow's lunch, probably with coleslaw or a side salad.

 Many thanks to Anne Brislen, a fellow admin on Pound a Day, for the initial recipe idea.