by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 4, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
This couscous salad is filling and sustaining, keeping me going until dinner (I usually have it at lunchtime). Very versatile, you can add all kinds of bits and pieces to it from those little dishes in the fridge What do I need to make vegan couscous salad This recipe...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 4, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners
I recently made a really good lentil ragu which I thought would work well as a lasagna. It did and it was very good indeed. This led me to think of other vegetable based mixes that I could substitute for the lentil ragu layer. The first one is a mushroom ragu,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 1, 2024 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 12, Meal Plans For 4
Weekly Meal Plan Twelve For this, our twelfth weekly meal plan for 2 adults and 2 children (up to around 10 needing 1700 calories each), we base it around a whole chicken, bacon, sausage and lots of vegetables. As at 11th October 2024, you will need £55.68 in your...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 22, 2024 | All Recipes, Other
Brazil nut butter is incredibly easy to make, very delicious, and ones like this Brazil nut butter are a third of the price of those in the shops. Many things can be added – pumpkin seeds, raisins, hot or sweet paprika What do I need to make Smoking Hot Brazil...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 22, 2024 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2, Sides
Post first written in January 2015, refreshed and updated November 2021 Onions are a flavour powerhouse. They are sweet, savoury and pungent all at once. Caramelised onions have all that umami flavour concentrated and are very useful In Meal Plan 2, there are 750g of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 22, 2024 | Breakfast, Cakes and Bakes, Meal Plan 14
I have lots of home made jam in the larder, but we don’t use much any more as we’ve stopped having jammy toast. This jam cake is a fabulous way to use it up, especially those half used jars that have gone a bit winey. Damson and walnut jam cake I tried...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 12, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
If you are like me and grow tomatoes in your garden, you are likely to have large amount of them at this time of year. I was looking for ways to use a lot in one go and came up with tomato risotto which used 400g for me and my husband. Oh my goodness, was it good! The...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 1, 2024 | Dinners, Less than 500 calories
If you grow tomatoes, it’s odds on that you will have green ones to do something with at some point. This year (2024) had prolonged periods of rain which combined with warmth, when we had it, is perfect conditions for the blight virus. And sure enough, my large...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 23, 2024 | Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Uncategorized
Red lentils are packed full of protein, quick and easy to cook and very cheap to buy. So when I made this recipe, I couldn’t wait to try them. The red lentil nuggets are tasty just as they are, but you can dip them in good old tomato ketchup, mayonnaise or brown...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 23, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Meal Plan 12, Meal Plan 14, Stretch A Chicken
What do I need to make a chicken and onion pie For a 20cm pie, serving 4, you will need Pastry 200g flour, I always use self raising, but it doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference 100ml vegetable oil about 100ml water Filling 100g cooked chicken 3 stuffing...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 12, 2024 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 11
After yesterdays flavoured and potted cheeses, todays sandwich filler is a chicken and sun dried tomato paste. Simple and delicious. What do I need to make chicken and sun dried tomato paste This quantity makes a full jam jar full – 250g. It will keep in the...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 8, 2024 | Lunches, Other
Having made cranberry curd and experimented with other fruit pulps, I decided to have a go at savoury ones and started with tomato and basil and my good ness it’s good. A great way to get some vegetables into veggie phobes. Great on toast or in a sandwich with...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 25, 2024 | Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Poaching A Whole Chicken
This Coronation chicken jacket potato recipe is part of a plan, starting the week with a whole poached chicken, to stretch a medium chicken to last a family of four all week. Twenty eight portions! What do I need to make Coronation chicken baked potato For 4 portions,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 24, 2024 | Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Poaching A Whole Chicken
This red cabbage and chicken Waldorf salad is part of a plan, starting the week with a whole poached chicken, to stretch a medium chicken to last a family of four all week. Twenty eight portions! What do I need to make red cabbage and chicken Waldorf For 4 portions,...