by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 25, 2025 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 2, Meal Plans For 2
Meal planning and using a shopping list are a standard way of saving money on groceries. It’s simply astonishing how much we spend on impulse purchases without a list – the supermarkets are super skilled at making that happen! It’s estimated that the...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 24, 2025 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 7
This recipe uses a one third portion of an easy beef ragu made for use in Meal Plan 7. The picture shows my portion, which is a quarter of the finished dish, not a half, so this dish could feed 4, and not the 2 originally thought. What do I need to make beef ragu...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 24, 2025 | All Meal Plans, Dinners, Meal Plan 7
In meal plan 7 we have a cottage pie, a lasagna and spaghetti bolognese. All three recipes use the same easy ragu as a base. What do I need to make Beef Ragu – used 3 ways 500g beef mince. The 20% fat beef mince is usually cheapest, but 20% of it is fat –...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 8, 2025 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Recipes Using No Power
Do you love those little deli pots of cheese and onion sandwich filling sold in the supermarkets? If you do, then this post is for you – you can make an even more delicious sandwich filling at two thirds of the price! What do I need to make a cheese and onion...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 17, 2025 | Dinners, Lunches
This is a delicious salad that takes just a few minutes to make. It is creamy from the dressing and has a wonderful balance of flavours, with little pops of sweetness from the currants and savouriness from the sunflower seeds. It doesn’t taste particularly...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 14, 2025 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Three Bean Salad – an absolute classic dish. It’s super easy to make, is absolutely delicious, can be used as a main or a side and is very adaptable. What do I need to make this three bean salad recipe? Salad a tin of red kidney beans a tin of butter beans...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 10, 2025 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Recipes Using No Power
Chicken and sweetcorn, with a generous spoon of mayonnaise, a very popular sandwich filling in the UK, and we know why don’t we – it’s gorgeous! Those little pots of deli filling from a supermarket are tasty, easy and convenient, but if you mix just...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 7, 2025 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Recipes Using No Power
I love a bit of smoked mackerel and often have a pack in the fridge. This week, I made this simply gorgeous sandwich with some of it, a hard boiled and egg and a slick of mayonnaise. I’d got some hotdog rolls on yellow sticker, so stuffed the mix into there. Oh...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 2, 2025 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Most people, including veggie-phobes of all ages, seem to like tomato pasta. If you cook and whizz in a mix of other vegetables, it’s a good way to get more of a variety into people. This hidden vegetable pasta sauce is very tasty and is pretty easy to make....
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 28, 2025 | All Recipes, How To Cook, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Recipes Using No Power
A boiled egg, chopped, with a generous spoon of mayonnaise, classic deli filling, found in all the supermarkets. Absolutely delicious, and very quick to make yourself at home, with just 2 ingredients! What do I need to make an egg mayonnaise sandwich? some delicious...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 6, 2025 | All Recipes, How To Cook, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Recipes Using No Power
Tuna and sweetcorn, with a generous spoon of mayonnaise, one of the most popular sandwich fillings in the UK, and with good reason – it’s delicious! If you buy those little pots of deli filling from a supermarket, you might be surprised to know that you...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 11, 2025 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
This banana bread comes together very quickly and isn’t complicated to make. It’s super delicious still warm from the oven so the chocolate pieces are still melted, ooh, yum!. Add pecans to it too if you like! It will keep for 7-10 days, so is great for...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 2, 2025 | My Diary
Life Update Apologies to all that I have been missing in action. Life has delivered yet another resounding slap round the chops. If we’ve known each other for a while, you’ll know that I lost my daughter to cancer on 21st December 2023. On January 29th, we...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 19, 2025 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Christmas, Less than 500 calories
Adding oats to muffins These muffins are tender and delicious, especially still warm, straight from the oven. They are not overly sweet as I have reduced the sugar right down, mincemeat is very sweet, so we don’t need to add much more. This recipe was originally...
