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I have been at it again; taking old food and transforming it into something new and unusual. Of course, since hubby is home today I got a long lecture on food safety. While the bagels were clearly outside of the sell-by dates and way past their prime, they were no mould to be found. I forged ahead with my creative cooking endeavour.

It actually all began when Emily and I went with hubby to vote today. (It is local and European elections…so if you haven’t voted then get to it.) We passed the pizza shop and she started to demand some. First of all, I did not have any cash on me. But more importantly two quid for an individual pizza just galled me. Perhaps we could have turned and gone the other direction; Tesco has the same thing for about a pound (sometimes even Mickey Mouse shaped). But I had an appointment later, so we headed home.

As I entered the kitchen, it was once again a creative cooking challenge to make her pizza. If worse came to worse, I knew I could always mix together flour and water to make the dough; but that would take more time than I had before my meeting. I first saw the sandwich wraps (called tortillas in America…and Mexico of course). While that would work, I always think of those more in terms of a Mexican pizza with enchilada sauce, cheese, corn and peppers.

Then I spied the over ten day old bagels. As hubby’s complaints filled my ears, I carefully checked for mould before cutting them in two down the middle. The rest was as simple as opening a jar of spaghetti sauce and grating the cheese.

Of course, just as I was finishing up hubby came back into the kitchen. Noting that I had succeeded in making pizza just as I claimed I could; he had to point out…where’s the ham and stuff? So I opened the fridge and grabbed the sliced ham and the lone sausage. I tore the ham up and arranged it on top of the sauce as I grilled the sausage on the George Forman. Then I added the sausage and cheese to finish it off and baked them in the oven for about 15 minutes until the cheese was a light golden brown.

And the verdict? Well, Emily ate a whole one, which is probably more than she would have eaten of the greasy personal pizza that costs two quid down the road. Since she is a finicky eater, I am rather proud of the accomplishment. And it was in keeping with the Frugal Fam core values of saving money, environmentally friendly (since I did not throw the food away), and healthier (although it won’t win any healthy eating awards it was undoubtedly lower in fat than the store bought version).