Simple Cauliflower Cheese with Bacon

My wife loves Cauliflower Cheese, and with bacon added it is a sure winner every time.

Serves 4
Cost - Approx £1.11p per portion *

*Note it is the bacon that drove up the cost of this simple dish otherwise it would have been approx £0.61p per portion

Ingredients:

1 Large Cauliflower
6 Rashers of bacon
1 pint of milk
50g of plain flour
50g of butter
126g of Cheddar cheese

Method:

• In a frying pan, add a little oil, and cook the bacon until well done but not to crispy, set aside to cool **
• Once cool, remove any rind still soft and discard and cut the bacon into small pieces, and set aside
• Next take you cauliflower and give it a wash then remove the leaves and cut the florets up into mouth size pieces, discarding the large hard stem in the middle
• Fill the pan with cold water and place on a high heat to bring it to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes then drain the cooked cauliflower
• Add the bacon to the cauliflower and mix well
• Place contents into a large oven proof dish
• For the sauce, add the butter to a pan and melt on a medium heat, once melted, add the flour and stir in well, and cook on a low heat for 1 minute
• Remove from the heat and gradually add the milk, one bit at a time, and stir into the butter and flour paste, once all the milk is added return to a medium heat and heat up stirring all the time until the sauce thickens
• Add half the cheese to the pan and stir until melted in, then pour over the cauliflower and bacon
• Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top
• Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220 Degree C for 50 minutes

** Whilst the world is all about healthy eating, I do have one pleasure, do not throw away the bacon fat  from the frying pan, use it for beautiful fried bread or try adding it to mashed potato

The cooked bacon

The chopped bacon

The cooked cauliflower and bacon mixed and in the dish

The butter and flour mixed and cooked through

Adding the mix gradually

The sauce after adding a bit more milk

The finished cheese sauce

The Cauliflower cheese and bacon ready for cooking

An Easy Saturday - even cooks take it easy

The household kitchen has been working hard this week, and so have I, so no major recipes today as the meals are fairly self-explanatory, as you can see from the photographs below.

The rules and regulations of our household state that weekends begin with a lovely breakfast. In fact the first words out my wife's mouth when she wakes up on Saturday, is "what's for breakfast?". I had a pack of lovely thick un-smoked bacon from a previous Tesco order, so we started the day with buttered toast, topped with bacon and a poached egg, all washed down with a lovely mug of stewed tea.

Breakfast cost approx £1.26p per person
Tea cost approx £1.50p per person

Saturday delight, buttered toast, bacon and poached egg

So for tea (it is tea where I come from), it does not come more simple than a jacket potato with cheese and a seasoned chicken breast quarter. Apart from the few minutes preparation, I can just bung it in the oven and relax. My wife will want cheese on her spud, me I just like it with loads of butter.

It does not get simpler - Seasoned Chicken Breast Quarter and a Lovely Jacket Potato

There is one member of the household, that hasn't been introduced, but who is never too far away, and that is my beloved cat Mr Gonk, who always gets something when I cook. I was a bit disappointed when we took him to the vets recently and they described him as a "COMMON black and white domestic cat", COMMON, there is nothing common about him.

Saturday Morning Breakfast - Simple is always best

Well it is Saturday morning, and what better way to start the day with a simple lovely breakfast to get us ready for the day ahead. We are not great breakfast eaters so Saturday is the only real day we have a hearty breakfast.

What you will find about the food on this blog is that it is not fancy or difficult, but good home cooking that anyone can do, with good, cheap ingredients.

Cost per person: approx 90p

Ingredients per person:

3 rashes of bacon
1 free range egg
Slice of bread - one slice of two day old homemade bread
Olive oil/butter for frying
Course ground black pepper

How?

Note - For simple recipes such as this I am not going to detail the in-depth instructions

Grill the bacon
Fry the bread in a frying pan with olive oil/butter
Fry the egg
assemble
sprinkle with black pepper