by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 19, 2017 | Christmas, My Diary
Do you remember me talking about a reverse advent? I have been getting inexpensive shower gel, some toothpaste, a box of biscuits, mince pies, some tubs of Quality Street and Roses, which I split up and packaged prettily, and a few other treats. On Friday I went off...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 10, 2017 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts, Things You May Never Need To Buy Again
Gourmet ice cream A while ago, I experimented with a tin of condensed milk and discovered that condensed milk, double cream and thick greek yogurt make easy peasy gelato. That post explains in detail how to make it, and gives many different flavour options. No...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 9, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Things You May Never Need To Buy Again
Fish cakes Fish cakes are basically a bit of fish and some mashed potato, so are easily reproduced at home. They can be plain and simple, or have many different flavour additions. Make them yourself, and you can control exactly what goes into them, and the size....
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 8, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Things You May Never Need To Buy Again
Pesto Pesto is one of the most favourite things for a rapid and tasty tea. And although it isn’t wildly expensive to buy a pot of pesto, make it at home and a whole world of inexpensive pesto’s opens up to you. I have found that a delicious pesto can be made by adding...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 7, 2017 | All Recipes, Lunches, Things You May Never Need To Buy Again
Here is the 2nd in the series of Things You May Never Need To Make Again. The increasingly popular – hummus Hummus Once you’ve made hummus at home, will you ever want the bought version again? For the smoothest version, you’ll need a food processor, stick blender or...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 6, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Things You May Never Need To Buy Again
I started this series of Things You May Never Need To Buy Again ages ago, here, here and here, but I’ve decided that no one will be able to find them. So I’m redoing them as separate posts and will do lots more of the topics I found for the series too. I’m also going...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 5, 2017 | Christmas, My Diary
Chocolate or no chocolate Last year I took part in a reverse advent where instead of having a chocolate every day, I gave away items on freecycle or to local charity shops for each day of advent. Well, to be strictly truthful, I try and avoid chocolate as it gives me...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 28, 2017 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Round Up Post
I have made lots of different sandwich pastes and toast toppers. This round up post gathers together 8 of them. I’ve really liked each of them. They are quick and cheap to make, freeze well and can be used as sandwich fillers, toast toppers, jacket potato fillings and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 27, 2017 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes
Twenty years ago, I was, and still am, a great admirer of the chef Lesley Waters. She used to make a lot of vegetarian recipes, using ordinary ingredients to make lovely tasty things. I bought two of her books way back when, including Broader Than Beans, from which...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 22, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Sides
Many, many years after getting the recipe for the Sweet Bean Curry from my lovely friend, I got this recipe from much the same place. His partner was making this recipe using a book I soon bought, The Food Of India. I use lots of recipes from this book, including...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 21, 2017 | My Diary, Saving Money
The Loft For the last 18 months, we have been trying to get planning permission to convert our loft space. We don’t want anything complicated or too expensive, just a bedroom each end and a bathroom, and the stairs, in the middle. For all the fuss that’s being made,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 20, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners
This recipe is one I have been making for decades. I first came across it at the house of a close friend when we went for dinner, and he kindly gave me the recipe Sweet Bean Curry Ingredients 175g dried beans, £1.06/500g, 37p Tblsp vegetable oil, £1/litre, 1p an...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 16, 2017 | My Diary
We’ve had a few recipes, so maybe time for a catch up. As you know, I went to a bloggers event recently. I belong to the UK Money Bloggers and what an inspiring bunch of people they are. I have a long list of things to do now! I am currently learning how to do...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 12, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
This recipe was one that the U3A made when the group came to my house for our monthly meeting. I had been looking through Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty More for inspiration and found this lovely salad. This is my version of it Bean and Quinoa, Lemon and Herb Salad...
