Peggy's Slow Cooker Cookbook for One

Peggy's Kitchen

Old British dinners for one, the way my generation learned to cook them.

Right then, love. Kettle's on. I cook the dinners we grew up on: cheap, filling and made from what's in the cupboard. A lot of us are cooking for one now, so every recipe makes two portions. One for tonight, one for the freezer.

Peggy is an AI-made character. The recipes, prices and history are real.

Thirty old British dinners and puddings, from Lancashire hotpot to jam roly-poly. Three ingredients each, and two portions every time.

£4.99 launch price

Goes up to £7.99 after Sunday 1 November. That's about 17p a recipe.

Offer ends Sunday 1 November

£7.99

About 27p a recipe.

30 recipes, each on its own page with a colour photo

Every one under £2.50 a plate, and sixteen under £1

Prices in pounds and dollars, plus US kitchen words and weights

Peggy's safety rules, a freezer guide and a printable freezer log

A4 and US Letter PDFs, 44 pages, ready to print at home

Instant PDF downloadSecure card checkout by Payhip30-day money-back guarantee

Before you buy

Is it a printed book?

No, it's a PDF you download straight away. Print the whole thing at home, or just the recipes you want. You get both A4 and US Letter sizes.

How do I get it after I pay?

Payhip shows you the download link as soon as you've paid, and emails it to you as well, so you can download it again later.

What size slow cooker do I need?

A 2.5 to 3.5 litre pot is right for one person. Fill it between half and two-thirds full.

I'm in America. Will it work for me?

Yes. There's a US Letter version, every price is in dollars as well as pounds, and there's a page that turns our kitchen words and weights into yours.

What if I don't like it?

Email [email protected] within 30 days and you'll get your money back in full.

How do I pay?

By card, through Payhip's secure checkout. Your card details go to the payment company, never to us.

Who is Peggy?

Peggy is an AI-made character. The recipes, prices and history are real.

Ten cheap 3-ingredient slow cooker dinners for one

Every dinner needs three ingredients and makes two portions. Salt, pepper, water and a stock cube don't count. Prices are rough 2026 UK supermarket costs per plate, with US dollars in brackets.

Sausage and Bean Hotpot

You need

6 sausages
1 tin baked beans (415g)
1 onion

Slow cooker: Low · 6 hoursMakes 2 · freeze 1About £1 a plate ($1.30)

Method

Slice the onion into the pot.
Lay the sausages on top (brown them first if you like).
Tip the beans over the lot.

Even better the next day.

Ham and Pea Soup

You need

1 ham hock
1 mug dried yellow split peas (about 250g)
1 onion

Slow cooker: Low · 8 hoursMakes 4 bowls · freeze 3About 80p a bowl ($1)

Method

Rinse the split peas (no soaking needed).
Peas and chopped onion in, hock on top, cover with water.
Lift out the hock, shred the meat, stir it back in.

Don't add salt. The ham is salty enough.

Chicken, Leek and Potato

You need

4 chicken thighs
2 leeks
3 or 4 potatoes

Slow cooker: Low · 6 hoursMakes 2 · freeze 1About £1.30 a plate ($1.70)

Method

Potato chunks in the bottom.
Slice the leeks, rinse them in a sieve, add them.
Chicken on top; pour over a stock cube in a mug of hot water.

Cook until the chicken falls off the bone.

Beef in Onion Gravy

You need

300g braising steak
3 large onions
2 tbsp gravy granules

Slow cooker: Low · 8 hoursMakes 2 · freeze 1About £1.80 a plate ($2.40)

Method

Thick-sliced onions in first.
Beef on top, then the gravy granules.
Add one mug of water, no more.

Lovely over a slice of toast.

Baked Apples

You need

2 Bramley apples
A handful of sultanas
2 tbsp golden syrup

Slow cooker: Low · 3 hoursMakes 2About 40p each (50¢)

Method

Core the apples.
Stuff the middles with sultanas; drizzle with syrup.
A few spoons of water in the bottom of the pot.

Any big, firm apple will do.

Liver and Onions

You need

250g lamb's liver
2 onions
2 tbsp gravy granules

Slow cooker: Low · 4 hours (no longer)Makes 2 · freeze 1About 90p a plate ($1.20)

Method

Sliced onions into the pot.
Liver on top; sprinkle over the gravy granules.
Add one mug of water.

Crumble crispy bacon on top as a treat.

Gammon in Cider

You need

1 small unsmoked gammon joint (about 750g)
500ml cider (or apple juice)
1 onion

Slow cooker: Low · 7 hoursMakes 4 portionsAbout £1.50 a portion ($2)

Method

Onion in the bottom, joint on top.
Pour the cider round it.
For a glaze: lift it out, cut off the skin, rub a little sugar on the fat and grill it for 5 minutes.

Hot tonight, sandwiches tomorrow, with eggs on Friday.

Scouse

You need

300g stewing beef
4 potatoes
2 carrots

Slow cooker: Low · 8 hoursMakes 2 or 3About £1.60 a plate ($2.10)

Method

Cut half the potatoes in chunks, half in thin slices.
Everything in the pot with a stock cube.
Cover with water.

Serve with pickled red cabbage.

Rice Pudding

You need

4 or 5 heaped tbsp pudding rice (about 75g)
1 pint whole milk (568ml)
2 tbsp sugar

Slow cooker: Low · 3 hours, stir halfwayMakes 2 bowlsAbout 30p a bowl (40¢)

Method

Rub a little butter round the pot.
Rice, milk and sugar in; stir once.
Grate nutmeg on top if you have some.

Skin or no skin? Tell Peggy in the comments on YouTube.

Corned Beef Hotpot

You need

1 tin corned beef (340g)
4 or 5 potatoes, thinly sliced
2 onions

Slow cooker: Low · 7 hoursMakes 2 or 3About £1 a plate ($1.30)

Method

Layer thin onions, potatoes and chunks of corned beef.
Pour over a stock cube in a mug of hot water.
Finish with a potato roof. If your pot is grill-safe, grill it at the end to crisp the top.

Serve with pickled beetroot or red cabbage.

Want twenty more? The cookbook has all ten of these, plus twenty new ones.

See the cookbook

Peggy's four rules

Never cook meat from frozenThaw it in the fridge overnight first.
Fill the pot half to two-thirds fullA small pot suits one person better than a big one sitting half empty.
Don't keep lifting the lidEvery peek lets the heat out and adds about twenty minutes.
Freeze within two hoursCool your spare portion and put it away within a couple of hours, then reheat it until it's piping hot all the way through.

A Lancashire nan and her slow cooker

My generation learned to cook standing on a chair at our mum's elbow, when money was tight and nothing went to waste. These are the dinners that fed a houseful for forty years, scaled down for one. Wherever you grew up, I'd bet your grandma made half of these too. She just called them something different.

Waste not, want not. Ta-ra, love.