Cooking's sometimes hard enough, but do I have to wash up also?

The short answer is yes... unless we use banana leaves to serve and eat with our fingers and stir with sticks (not really a bad idea...)

but we can keep the cookware down, which often includes the grottiest implements to wash.

ONE POT WONDERS

Roast Chicken and Char-Grilled Vegetables. 

Bake the whole thing in one pot!!  

This is also a good pantry dinner (not much from the fridge)

Turn the oven on to about 180/350.

Throw together 6 slices of bread (cut off crusts and cut into little squares); a jar of roasted char-grilled vegies (drained), one shredded BBQ chicken and some spinach leaves.  Stir it together IN the dish you're going to cook it in, you don't have to go overboard, just so the chicken isn't all on one side and the spinach wont turn into a black mess in the corner.

Whisk up 6 eggs with about 1 and a bit cups of milk and pour it over the chicken/vegie mix.  Leave it to swoon a bit while you tidy up the little tiny mess in the kitchen.

Grate some cheese over the top of the goodies in the dish and place it in the oven in order for it to consider how it can warm the cockles of your heart.  You should give it at least 35 minutes thinking time.

The bread becomes golden when it comes up with an idea and miraculously the eggs set at about the same time.

Eat it!!  Sometimes it looks like this - but the bottom of the dish couldn't possibly be this clean if you've just taken out a slice.  If it is, all power to you - your washing up is going to be even more minimal.  If it's not, it's because you just BAKED in it, which is how things should be.

Clean out the bottom of the Fridge Pasta

You can use ANY vegetable and ANY pasta:  Trial and error will tell you whether it's a good combination or not.  Besides, you're cleaning out your fridge, you must be hungry.
The essentials are:  Pasta, Bacon & Cream

I started with these:

I pulled out my trusty camping cookware, just because I love it - and it's great for bacon and sloooow cooking.  I used the billy because it fits all the Fettuccine into it.  By the end of the cooking process proper, the frypan wont be big enough, but that wont stop the end result of the meal!

Let's Cook:

Fill the saucepan with water and a pinch of salt.  While you wait for the water to boil (for the Fettuccine or other pasta) chop up the vegies and strips of bacon (you could use pastrami, salami, chicken or ham...)

 Because I used bacon - complete with fatty bits and all, I did not use butter or oil, I just added it to the pan, stirred it round and round and when it started to sizzle, turned the flame right down and talked to my daughter for a while....

If you want your bacon dead and buried, cook it till it's just under charcoal before adding the vegies.  I like it to still have a bit of form for this dish so as the fat on the bacon became translucent and the edges of the bacon looked a bit redder than the rest of it, I added the vegies

this is a tricky timing thing now.  By this time the water should be boiling for your pasta and you've thrown the pasta in and cooked it according to the directions (normally 10 minutes on rolling boil).

Keep the vegies and bacon sizzling and slapping each other at a temperature you'd normally fry an egg at:  Low heat and watch the goings on,

In the meantime, grab at least 3 eggs and say half/three quarters a cup of cream (sour cream, fresh cream... all the same in this pot) NO SALT IF YOU'RE USING PIGGY PRODUCTS!!.  As we are cleaning out the fridge, your eggs may not be the happiest of foods.  Perhaps you've lured them out of a dark corner where they have been forgotten for a while.  If your eggs are looking a bit sad, make them happy before you beat them, cook them and eat them.

mix them up with cream, till it's a sloppy, thicker than scrambled eggs mix

.

add it to the bacon and vegie mix

Stir, stir, stir..  you don't want an omelette.  Just as the mixture thickens around the edges TURN THE HEAT OFF

give it a few moments to itself so it can think about things .  It may not look exactly appetizing, but believe me it will taste superb.  There's always an interesting twist to a 'clean out the fridge pasta'.

Meanwhile, your pasta should be ready... drain...leave it draining for a moment (only a moment - any longer, you best put some butter or oil on it because pasta, like most things that are not at their best on their own, tends to get clingy...)

Clingy, co-ey, pasta remnants:  has one good time with a saucepan and wont let go!

I did mention that the frypan was going to be a tad undersized

And there you have it.  No matter how un-sensational this looks, I know from experience and thirty years of el-cheapo cooking, that this particular dish rarely makes it to the table before it gets shoveled into hungry mouths.  the smell is amazing, the taste is delicious and though it has a poor reputation for glamour, it's a great 'night before shopping' meal and 'slap together at the last minute.  Goes great wit broccoli, peas, zucchinis (courgettes) snow peas, asparagus, chicken... ah heck, just empty your fridge into the pan!