by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 24, 2024 | Cakes and Bakes, Christmas, Love Your Leftovers
Panettone is a gorgeous seasonal Italian cake, often given as a gift. Sometimes we have more than we want to eat as it is, lovely as that is. If that is the case, this Panettone Tiramisu recipe might be the answer. It doesn’t take very long to make, but looks...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 15, 2024 | All Meal Plans, All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Celebration Meal Plans, Christmas, Christmas Meal Plan 4
Christmas Week Food If you are on a tight budget, Christmas food can be very difficult, causing stress, and maybe even debt too. No need to get into debt, when with a bit of extra planning, you can enjoy a delicious festive meal, without spending a fortune. If you...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 12, 2024 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 14, Meal Plans For 4
The Fourteenth Meal Plan – wow, that’s three and a half months worth! Plus all the celebration and 5 day ones! This one, as per usual shows 3 meals a day, plus some cakey extras to fill any gaps, for 7 days, for 2 adults, and this time, two 15 year old...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 24, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
A mixed vegetable quiche is a classic British dish that comes out very cheap with a bit of frugalisation. If you think quiche or flan sounds like something your granny makes, you could always call it a tart and feel all contemporary. If you decide to use the oil...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
You don’t need to make an egg custard and you don’t need an ice cream maker to make no churn chocolate ice cream. There isn’t a trace of an ice crystal crunch either. If you leave it to get fully frozen, take it out at least half an hour before you want to eat it and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 11, 2022 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories
Cabbage is a very nutritious vegetable and has been eaten by people for 1000’s of years, currently consumed worldwide. One day last month, I had far too much white cabbage to be able to use it up before it went manky. So I decided to try freezing it. I hadn’t...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 27, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
I really like the carrot cake from Cheap Family Recipes. Like most carrot cakes, it doesn’t actually taste of carrots and I fell to wondering what other vegetables could be used in a similar way. At Christmas, I got lots of the very cheap vegetables on promotion...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 22, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Less than 500 calories, Puddings / Desserts
I had surplus mincemeat from Christmas and decided to use some in a pudding. I have made chocolate roulades for some time and felt sure that swapping the cocoa for flour and using mincemeat and perhaps some apple too as the filling, as well as cream, would work very...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 18, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners
I was watching a programme on cranberries and what to do with them and one of the chefs talked about a creamy base of leeks, topped with a crumble mix. I thought it sounded really nice, but they hadn’t put that recipe on the internet for that programme, so I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 20, 2021 | Breakfast, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Sides
I went to a Cookalong recently where we all took a different soup. I tasted 10 soups that day, which was fabulous! All of them very different. One of the members also brought Mary Berry’s Wonderful Soufflé Croûtons, which truly were rather wonderful. I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 14, Puddings / Desserts
This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. Are you following Meal Plan 1? All the recipes in meal plan 1 If so, this baked sponge can be eaten at any time during the week when you need the calories. Would be lovely as a Sunday tea, or maybe...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 1, 2018 | All Recipes, Christmas, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
This spiced pot au chocolat, little chocolate pots, with a spiced biscuit or two, is from the Vegetarian Christmas meal plan. It’s even more lovely than I thought it would be! Pot au Chocolat Priced at Asda November 2018 100g bar of value plain chocolate, 30p 100ml...
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 | Feb 18, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners
I absolutely love the walnut butter I first tried making recently, either honey smoked, as in the original, or plain. Convinced it would make a lovely pasta sauce, I had a little play. Asda don’t sell sun dried tomatoes, so I’ve priced it at Tesco Creamy Walnut Pasta...
