by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 4, 2022 | Easter Meal Plan 1
This meal plan is a celebration one. I wouldn’t usually suggest this much sugar. The plan is based around a leg of lamb, and so costs more than our usual plans, but at just £1.60 each per day, it’s still flipping cheap! You can cut the cost even further...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 25, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
We are very fortunate in that a local church has started a community larder. Each morning, they pick up surplus groceries that would have gone to landfill from the Co-Op and lay it all out on There were a few limes there this morning, so I took 3 and made some lime...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 27, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
I really like the carrot cake from Cheap Family Recipes. Like most carrot cakes, it doesn’t actually taste of carrots and I fell to wondering what other vegetables could be used in a similar way. At Christmas, I got lots of the very cheap vegetables on promotion...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 22, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Less than 500 calories, Puddings / Desserts
I had surplus mincemeat from Christmas and decided to use some in a pudding. I have made chocolate roulades for some time and felt sure that swapping the cocoa for flour and using mincemeat and perhaps some apple too as the filling, as well as cream, would work very...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 18, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners
I was watching a programme on cranberries and what to do with them and one of the chefs talked about a creamy base of leeks, topped with a crumble mix. I thought it sounded really nice, but they hadn’t put that recipe on the internet for that programme, so I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 30, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 2
First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated December 2021 For quite a few years now, once a month, I have coffee with a friend in The Baytree, one of the independent little coffee shops in Heathfield. We were talking about food, as we often do, and one of us...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 29, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
Post first written in September 2013. Refreshed and updated November 2021. This recipe makes a generous portion of pasta, dressed with olives, tomato puree and soft cheese. Very quick to make, just taking as long as the pasta does to cook through. How To Make This...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 27, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 12, Meal Plan 14, Meal Plan 2, Meal Plan 9
Post originally published October 2013, refreshed and updated November 2021 These little biscuits are fun to make, especially if you make tiny hearts or teeny squares. Spice them up with cinnamon or mixed spice at Christmas time. Or see the variations for masses of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners
Post first written in July 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021. Tomatoes, red lentils and a few spices made into dhal and served with brown rice. Quick, very cheap, and easy – what’s not to like? I like the dahl just on its own, but it would go well with a...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021. I wanted to try a couscous salad that I have been doing for a while and see if I could get it sub 50p. Well, it worked out at 71p for the dish in the picture, and there is plenty there for two, so...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 9, 2021 | Charity, Christmas
It’s that time of year again when everyone’s thoughts start turning to the end of December, and Christmas. And at this time of year, for the last few years, the UK Money Bloggers start talking about a Reverse Advent. A Reverse Advent – what’s...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 26, 2021 | All Recipes, Meal Plan 2, Other
I was looking at the leftovers in meal plan 2 and thought, with a little adjusting, I could probably get another day out of it. And right enough, I did! Very satisfying! One of the things I experimented with was wondering if I could use the last of the carrots, and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 20, 2021 | Breakfast, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Sides
I went to a Cookalong recently where we all took a different soup. I tasted 10 soups that day, which was fabulous! All of them very different. One of the members also brought Mary Berry’s Wonderful Soufflé Croûtons, which truly were rather wonderful. I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 14, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
Barley, Mushroom & Spinach Risotto I had the cookery group round recently and we explored making risotti. We did a tomato and sausage risotto, a beetroot risotto, and this barley, mushroom and spinach risotto. Well actually, it was barley and mushroom risotto, I...
