by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 16, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Poaching A Whole Chicken
A quick and simple healthy chicken spaghetti recipe using Sicilian flavours. Juicy chicken, sweet pops of raisins, salty olives, crunchy almonds, luscious sun-dried tomatoes and zesty lemon – delicious! Good hot for dinner, with any leftovers for lunch the next...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 25, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Poaching A Whole Chicken
This tasty salad is made using brown rice for fibre, that’s been cooked in chicken stock, for extra flavour. Quick and easy to make, you don’t need to put the oven on when its baking hot and you just want some dinner. Filling from the brown rice and those...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 20, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners
This gorgeous crumble has a nutty, seedy, oaty topping and a creamy, chicken and mushroom base. It will freeze very well, either cooked or uncooked. Lovely to have a home made ready meal in the freezer that just needs to be defrosted. It’s super easy to make,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 6, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Sides
This is a very simple dish, cooked on the hob, in a single pan. Just aubergine (eggplant), tomatoes and olive oil, simmered slowly to an unctuous silkiness. Absolutely gorgeous just on its own, hot or room temperature. Stir through pasta, top a jacket potato or use as...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 31, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Sides
This easy swede mash can be used a side or a main course. Make it vegan by using a vegan cream. Swede mash is a common side dish, but this has fresh ginger, generous nutmeg and chilli to add extra flavour and a touch of creaminess. It tastes really good and may even...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 26, 2023 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Sides
Did you like the look of the avocado, tomato and orange salad yesterday? It’s one of my absolute favourites, and when we have it, it is often with this delicious no-knead focaccia. The focaccia is at its very best, straight from the oven, as many things are. It will...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 20, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Other
Wild garlic pesto This recipe is for pesto made from wild garlic, or ransoms, which is in season in the early Spring in the UK. The pesto is pungent, delicious and made from wild garlic foraged from the woods, or Allium triquetrum which is what I have growing in my...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 18, 2023 | All Recipes, Lunches
This is a very simple soup, made with just 4 ingredients, and saucepan to table in just 30 minutes. It contains a head of broccoli including all the stalk, red lentils, an onion and some seasoning. Change the broccoli to another vegetable and get a completely...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 5, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plans For 2
Meal plan 1 is a 7 day meal plan for 2 adults, based on red lentils, chick peas and bacon, providing a total of 4500 calories per day. All meals are included, it is assumed nothing is in the cupboard except salt and pepper. For meal plan 1, as at 25th September 2023...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 4, 2023 | 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 | May 3, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 3, Meal Plans For 2
Meal Plan 3 And here we have our Third Meal Plan. Based around chorizo/salami, chick peas and, of all things, dried mashed potato. Bear with me here, this idea is from Miss South on NorthSouthFood.com. Miss South is quite a potato connoisseur, so if she likes them,...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 3, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 4, Meal Plans For 2
Meal Plan 4 As at the time of writing (early October 2023) you will need £23.37 in your purse at the checkout, but the amount of food actually consumed (if you follow the plan fully) comes to £18.38, so £1.31 a day per person, and you still have some supplies to...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 2, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 7, Meal Plans For 2
Repriced at the end of April 2024. You will need £26.34 at the checkout, with £20.03 worth of food used during the week, or £1.43 pppd This is our Seventh Meal Plan. As for all the others, it shows 3 meals a day, plus some cakey extras to fill any gaps, for 7 days,...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 2, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 13, Meal Plans For 4
Meal Plan Thirteen from the Tonight programme on ITV This meal plan came about after ITV approached me and asked if I would like to be involved in making a programme helping a family to save money on their grocery bill. Consequently, the budget is quite a bit higher...
