by Thrifty Lesley | May 22, 2021 | Dinners, Less than 500 calories
I made these lovely honey soy chicken drumsticks recently, using Aldi chicken thighs instead of drumsticks. I prefer thighs really, I think they are the best cut on a chicken, much more succulent than a breast, and a lot of flavour. Thighs do have more fat than the...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 17, 2021 | My Diary
I haven’t done a catch up post for such a long time, so thought I’d do one today. Book Group The book group I’m in has been meeting over Zoom. We usually have a good few months books chosen in advance, but with the current situation when everything...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 12, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
This recipe is inspired by one I found in a recipe book first published in 1994. Amazingly, it’s still in print, and extremely cheap too! There are loads of good recipes in the book, several of which I’ve made since buying it. Spaghetti with Lentil Balls...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 7, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
My husband was desperate for some chocolate, but we were in Covid19 lockdown, so didn’t want to go to the shops for something so frivolous. So I thought I’d bake him something chocolatey as I still had some flour. Hmm, how about some chocolate scones?...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 3, 2021 | Less than 500 calories, Love Your Leftovers, Sides
My husband’s favourite vegetable is cauliflower and he often brings one home from a shopping expedition. It’s not unusual to have 2 a week. I have many ways of using cauliflower, but invariably have the cauliflower leaves left as husband won’t eat...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 19, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
Are you looking for a savoury vegetable muffins recipe? I recently made some with some friends. We all made the same recipe, then met up on Zoom to compare results. Great fun! The use of the term to describe what are essentially cupcakes or buns did not become common...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 8, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Poaching A Whole Chicken
I really fancied a BBQ pizza one day and wondered what I would need to use for toppings. Having made some vegan BBQ sauce that was really successful a while previously, I wanted to use that and decided to use it as the base sauce instead of a tomato one. Well, wow, it...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 23, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
Having made a delicious tart using soft cheese and peas, I wanted to try one using carrots and a bit of spice. What do I need to make an Indian Carrot Recipe So, to the carrot tart. I thought I’d start with turmeric as I wanted it bright yellow, then a bit of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
This curry base recipe is a very useful one to have in your repertoire. Endlessly versatile, you can add pretty much any protein to it. Curry Base Recipe To make the curry base, start by frying off a finely chopped onion. You can use any fat to do it. Ghee is...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 23, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Meal Plan 14
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. Consequently, it is different...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
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 separate onion halves and some soft...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 13, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners
I found the base of this recipe in one of my many cook books – The National Trusts Great British Vegetable Cookbook by Sybil Kapoor. It has loads of recipes that I have marked to try ; stir fried cabbage with pork balls; stuffed parathas; mushroom flan and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 25, 2021 | Round Up Post
If you’re looking for cheap Valentine’s Day ideas for your special dinner, or something special for your special person, you might find something you like right here Valentine’s Day on a Budget Lots of cheap Valentine’s Day ideas ...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 14, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
I saw something like this pea tart recipe somewhere. I thought I knew where, but when I came to make it, I couldn’t find it, so had to start from first principles. You could just as easily call this a pea quiche as a pea tart What is in a pea tart There...
