by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 10, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Other, Sides
Puchka tart. What’s that? Complete deliciousness on a plate, that’s what Puchka tart. What’s that? Complete deliciousness on a plate, that’s what The U3A cooking group met at my house this week. When wondering what to make, I thought, like last December,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 25, 2020 | Budgeting, Saving Money
How Supermarkets Get Us To Buy What We Don’t Really Need First published in 2017, still as relevant today. I find grocery shopping online is a good way to keep to a budget. I can happily fill my basket and if the total is what I deem to be too much, I can go...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 8, 2020 | Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Cheapy Bread Rolls. An hour from bag to table style="display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5491882204699170" data-ad-slot="6565539645" Made Broccoli and Lentil Soup for lunch today and had no bread left at all, so made some of these...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 11, 2020 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Chicken liver parfait I first came across a recipe for chicken liver pate when I was working with Weezl on what is now Cheap Family Recipes. I recently made a BBC Good Food version of chicken liver pate that had lots of ingredients. Wondering how I could frugalise it,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 26, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
What are Faggots? Faggots are a traditional British meatball made from offal, especially pork, with herbs and onions for flavouring and breadcrumbs to stretch them out. The offal is minced and is usually a combination of heart, liver and fatty pork belly or bacon,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 13, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Love Your Leftovers, Lunches
I went to Canterbury Christmas Market with the U3A last December. One of the things I did there was to browse in the Oxfam book shop. Lots I wanted, of course, and I bought 3, couldn’t carry any more! One of the books I bought was a very sweary one called Thug...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 26, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
I had a butternut squash that needed using recently and decided to make soup with it. I thought I’d flavour it with ginger and lime. But in the end I went with some fresh ginger from a jar, the kind that you get in Asian shops. A big jar for less than £3 Then,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 7, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
I had the U3A cookery group round recently and we like to make canapes at the December meeting. Amongst other things, we made these Red Pepper, Goats Cheese and Walnut Palmiers, and they were delicious, although they could have done with a little more goats cheese...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 22, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Valentines Day Ideas
There was recently a competition exclusively on the Facebook Group. The competition was to create a 3 course celebration meal for 2 people at 80p a head. This proved to be even more challenging than I anticipated, even for our very talented membership, as only 3...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 23, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
I was musing about the lovely summer dish that is a tomato panzanella and wondered if anything could be made in another season. Then lo & behold, I was reading the completely glorious book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and there was a recipe for just that. This...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 29, 2019 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Do you have cheese sandwiches for lunch? Are you a little tired of them, or maybe wanting to ring the changes a little? How about making a potted cheese. I have lots of little bits and pieces of cheese stashed away in the freezer, things left over from various events,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 22, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
I’ve rewritten this post a bit, and taken some new pictures. Panzanella is gorgeous with very ripe, full flavoured summer tomatoes. In 2013, I tried Panzanella for the first time. I was looking through one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s books for inspiration for...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 25, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
First published in February 2014, rewritten and re-priced in November 2023. This is a gorgeous, easy to make curry. On the table within 20 minutes, bursting with fruity goodness and stuffed with veggies too. As is usual, there are many options, so you can use what you...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 1, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
I have been exploring swapping out the ragu layer of a lasagna for many other different things. The first was made using a really good lentil ragu which I thought would work well as a lasagna. It was very successful and inspired me to think of lots of other...
