Now that the weather is starting to cool down, my thoughts turn to soup! And bread!
This is a really hearty crockpot soup, with ham, ham stock, split peas, barley, and vegetables. It is yummy the next day, and freezes beautifully.
Accessibility notes: The vegie prep takes energy if you can't access pre-sliced vegies, but could be done in advance (e.g. the night before), or using a food processor. The frying-off of the vegies isn't essential; it does improve the flavour, but if you need to the raw vegies can just be thrown into the crockpot. Homemade stock or bought stock are both fine.
With full modifications (pre-sliced veg & bought stock), the only washing-up is your crockpot and spoon, and standing/stirring time is very minimal. If you do the whole lot yourself, you've also got your knife and cutting board, a frying-pan and stirring implement, your stock bowl, and the crock you cooked the stock in.
Substitutions: You can substitute pretty much anything. Leave out the vegies, use different ones, use a different meat or vegetarian stock. Soup is very forgiving.
( lots of pics behind the cut, includes meat pics )