The best part of anything baked is the edge, where the cheese browns against the side of the dish. In a big dish there are four of those and the rest is middle. Tonight every dinner gets its own little dish, so all of it is edge. Eight of them, nothing to serve out and nothing to split: a shipwreck dinner that goes in raw, baked beans and franks under brown sugar, chicken parmesan with no egg and no flour, and a little meatloaf with a gravy well in the top.

⏱️ DINNERS IN THIS VIDEO:
0:00 Intro
0:29 1. Shipwreck Dinner (nothing is stirred)
2:52 2. Baked Beans and Franks (one spoon of sugar on top)
5:32 3. Cracker Crumb Baked Cod (crushed in its sleeve)
7:53 4. Chicken Parmesan for One (no egg, no flour)
10:28 5. Pork Chop and Apple Bake (the chop stays on top)
13:14 6. Pizza Bake (cut with scissors)
15:36 ⭐ 7. Little Meatloaf with a Gravy Well (a thumb print)
18:22 8. Ham and Scalloped Corn (holiday food, any Tuesday)

🍽️ FULL RECIPES (amounts are for ONE in a small 6-inch square dish — one dish is one dinner, so for two, double it and make two dishes)

1. SHIPWRECK DINNER
½ lb ground beef • 2 medium potatoes sliced thin • ½ onion sliced • ½ can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained • ½ can (10¾ oz) condensed tomato soup. Potatoes in the bottom, onion over, RAW beef broken up with your fingers, beans, soup straight from the can — NOT A DROP of water. Foil on, 375°F for 1 hr, foil off, 20 min more.
👉 Secret: the can says add water, and that is for making soup. Here it is the sauce — the water is already in the potatoes.
2. BAKED BEANS AND FRANKS
½ can (28 oz) baked beans • 2 hot dogs • 1 TBSP brown sugar • 1 tsp yellow mustard • ½ small onion diced fine. Beans in, mustard and onion stirred through. Hot dogs cut in half the LONG way, three shallow cuts across each, pushed in cut side up so half of each is clear of the sauce. Sugar over, NOT stirred in. 400°F, 30-35 min.
👉 Secret: a frank buried in sauce only gets warm; one standing clear curls back along its cuts.
3. CRACKER CRUMB BAKED COD
1 cod fillet, about 6 oz • 15 buttery round crackers • 2 TBSP butter, melted • ½ lemon • salt, pepper, a pinch of paprika. Fish PATTED DRY, laid in the dish, lemon over. Crackers crushed in their own sleeve, butter stirred in until they look like wet sand, pressed over the fish only. 400°F, uncovered, 18-20 min.
👉 Secret: crush them in the sleeve they came in — no bag, no rolling pin. Dry the fillet, or it steams instead of baking.
4. CHICKEN PARMESAN FOR ONE
1 boneless chicken breast • ½ cup jarred pasta sauce • ⅓ cup Italian breadcrumbs • ½ cup shredded mozzarella • 2 TBSP grated parmesan. Breast cut sideways into two THIN pieces, brushed with sauce, pressed into the breadcrumbs. NO EGG, NO FLOUR. Rest of the sauce down the middle, breaded edges bare. 400°F, uncovered, 20 min, then cheese on until it browns.
👉 Secret: sauce down the MIDDLE, not over the edges, so the bare rim stays crisp.
5. PORK CHOP AND APPLE BAKE
1 BONE-IN pork chop, about ¾ inch thick • 1 apple in THICK wedges • 1 small sweet potato in rounds • 1 TBSP brown sugar • 1 TBSP butter. Sweet potato rounds flat with the apple among them, sugar over, butter dotted on, the seasoned chop over everything. Foil on, 375°F for 25 min, foil off, 15 more.
👉 Secret: the chop stays ON TOP — among the apples it poaches, not roasts. Thick wedges, not slices: thin apple turns to sauce.
6. PIZZA BAKE
4 refrigerated biscuits out of the tube • ½ cup pizza or pasta sauce • ½ cup shredded mozzarella • 10 slices of pepperoni • a pinch of dried Italian seasoning. Each raw biscuit cut into FOUR with scissors over the dish. Sauce, half the cheese and the seasoning in, turned two or three times, top pressed flat, pepperoni and the rest of the cheese over. 375°F, 22-25 min.
👉 Secret: quartering the biscuits IS the recipe — a whole one browns on top and stays raw inside.
7. LITTLE MEATLOAF WITH A GRAVY WELL
½ lb ground beef • 1 egg • ⅓ cup crushed crackers • 2 TBSP milk • ½ cup beef gravy, jar or packet. Beef, egg, crackers, milk, salt and pepper go STRAIGHT INTO THE DISH and are mixed by hand. Patted into one round loaf, higher in the centre, thumb pushed in for a well. 375°F, 40 min, then the warm gravy into the well and 5 more.
👉 Secret: gravy over a flat meatloaf runs off; in a well it soaks down and every slice has some.
8. HAM AND SCALLOPED CORN
½ can (15 oz) cream style corn • 1 egg • 10 buttery round crackers, crushed • ½ cup diced ham • ¼ cup milk. Egg and milk beaten in the dish with a fork, then the corn, the ham and HALF the crackers stirred in. Rest of the crackers over, a little butter on. 350°F, 40 min.
👉 Secret: the egg turns corn into a dinner — without it you have hot corn in milk. Test with a knife, not the clock.

Which of the eight are you making first? And have you got little dishes at the back of a cupboard doing nothing? Tell me below. ❤️

#bakingdish #cookingforone #easydinners #seniorcooking #comfortfood