Instant Thin-Crust Pizza and Leche Flan

I had an enormous craving for pizza this afternoon. It was a pizza craving that was really hard to ignore (I think I might have been an Italian in a past life) that I immediately opened my netbook to search for the delivery numbers of pizza places.

Wow, P600 for a family-sized, stuffed crust meatlovers pizza???

I went on to look at the menus of other pizza places. I was willing to go for a thin crust pizza as long as it had all the toppings I wanted on it... and as long as it is paired with meatballs spaghetti and a glass of Sola rootbeer. OMG... P700++???

Back when I was working, P600 or P700 would not be an amount I would back off on -- in the name of pasta and pizza.

But I have set a new goal for myself -- I want to beef up our savings account. Since I don't have regular income (because sometimes my writing projects are far and in between) I need to think of creative ways to cut back on our expenses, hence have more money for savings.

Besides, if you know how little it costs to buy ingredients from the grocery and cook at home, you will definitely feel guilty throwing "that much" money on food delivery. Why, P700 could well be my budget for two days worth of meals -- brunch, dinner and my husband's "baon".

Still I wanted my pizza... All of the sudden I got a lightbulb moment -- I have bacon, tortillas and quickmelt cheese in my fridge! Things that would not cost me even half of P700.

In my pseudo-pantry (because it is really more of a spare cabinet than a kitchen pantry) I had button mushrooms, tomato sauce and dried oregano. VOILA, instant thin crust pizza!

The tortillas were actually intended for beef-tapa Shawarma and the bacon was supposed to be for my son's favorite carbonara. I'm never without tomato sauce, cheese and button mushrooms because I could either use it for a simple pasta dish or a quick omelette. So there.

I was so pleased with my instant thin-crust pizza that I was inspired to look for something I can make out of the other things I have in either my fridge or pantry. I thought of making leche flan!

I just bought a tray of eggs and again I am never without condensed and evaporated milk. Naturally, I had brown sugar for the caramel, so I am really all set to make leche flan.

My "instant" flan must have really tasted so good that my son ate half a llanera in a hearbeat. Hala sugar rush!Hehehe.

Note to self... buy spaghetti noodles for my pasta craving next time.

Actually, I could have settled for elbow macaroni or penne because I do have those in stock, but I got so full eating my homemade thin crust pizza that I forgot about the pasta that was supposed to go well with that pizza. :-)