by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 25, 2024 | Dinners, Poaching A Whole Chicken
How to poach a whole chicken to use for multiple meals Why poach a chicken? Two main reasons. Poaching means that your chicken meat will be beautifully moist, much more so than a roasted one, and with little effort on your behalf. And secondly, much less fuel is used...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 1, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Stretch A Chicken
How to stretch a chicken to last the whole week Do I need to buy a whole chicken? Buying a whole chicken and jointing it yourself is cheaper than buying ready jointed chicken pieces. If you are going to roast a chicken, then a whole one is much nicer to present at the...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 15, 2023 | Christmas, Meal Plans, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
If you are on a tight budget, Christmas food can be very difficult, causing stress, and maybe even debt too. No need to get into debt, when with a bit of extra planning, you can enjoy a delicious vegetarian Christmas festive meal, without spending a fortune. Re-Priced...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 24, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
A mixed vegetable quiche is a classic British dish that comes out very cheap with a bit of frugalisation. If you think quiche or flan sounds like something your granny makes, you could always call it a tart and feel all contemporary. If you decide to use the oil...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Christmas, Christmas Meal Plan 4, Meal Plans
Christmas Week Food. Lots of festive flavours & not many £££’s Christmas Meal Plan If you are on a tight budget, Christmas food can be very difficult, causing stress, and maybe even debt too. Happily, you can enjoy a delicious festive meal, and eat well for...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Stretch A Chicken
Spicy Chicken Pasta Bake – Stretch A Chicken (4) Got a little bit of chicken to use up? Try it in this spicy pasta bake- make it as hot and spicy as you like! How to make Spicy Chicken Pasta Chop the onion and sauté in a little oil until soft. Add garlic,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 17, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Stretch A Chicken
Chicken & Sweetcorn Recipe for a tart – Stretch A Chicken (5) This recipe is part of a series on stretching a chicken to the max. I took one medium chicken of 1.5kg and made it feed a family of 4 for a week, with 7 different budget stretching chicken...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 2, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 10
Sweetcorn fritters, wedges & peas This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. Simple little vegan sweetcorn fritters, very quick and easy, and at 30p a serving, a very cheap meal Sweet corn appears to have originated in America, being grown...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 23, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 1
Chickpea Crumble This post was first published in June 2013 and updated and republished in June 2021 Chickpeas are incredibly nutritious, packed full of protein and complex carbohydrates. They have been grown for 1000’s of years and in 2019, the world grew 19...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 17, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 1
Potato, Sweetcorn & Onion Cakes This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. Delicious little lunchtime patties, if you aren’t at home, they could be eaten cold in a lunch box, or use the same ingredients to make a soup and take to...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 23, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
Cheese and Onion Tart Today’s recipe, by request, is for Onion Tart. Yet another recipe that I helped develop on the Cheap Family Recipes site. When I wrote this recipe, years ago, in 2013, CFR had disappeared and I made the savoury tart recipe using my notes....
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
Crispy Topped Miso Vegetables This super tasty dinner recipe came out of a need to use up various items in the fridge. How to make crispy topped miso vegetables For this version, I used a pepper, a third of a bag of bean sprouts, 2 broccoli stalks, a carrot, 3...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 28, 2020 | All Recipes, Christmas, Love Your Leftovers
Christmas Leftovers – part 1. Soup, a Turkey & Cranberry Toast Topper, a Cheesy Tart So there you are, a few days after Christmas Day. Don’t know about you, but I’m drawing breath right about now and sticking my head in the fridge wondering what I’m going...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 9, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Cheesy Jacket Potatoes Jacket potatoes filled with cheese are one of the most popular ways to eat a baked potato. When I was a child, we had cheesy jacket potatoes quite often, where the soft, fluffy inside had been scooped out, mashed with cheese, put back in the...
