by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 27, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
I bought a 200g packet of smoked mackerel fillets and wondered how I could stretch them into lovely meals for 2. The first one I tried was this recipe for mackerel pâté that is super simple and very delicious. What do I need to make mackerel pâté smoked mackerel...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 6, 2022 | All Recipes, Lunches, Round Up Post
School packed lunches – the dreaded chore! Can you feed a hulking teenager for 30p a head? Ideas for school packed lunches – many people with school aged children need them. Packing up a lunch box for children or an adult packed lunch is bad enough. It can...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 24, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 1
This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. This recipe is one of those extremely variable ones. You can bake this as a pie, leave the top of and bake as a bacon and sweetcorn tart, or steam it as a pudding and change the filling in a great many...
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 | 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 | 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 | Nov 1, 2016 | All Recipes, Dinners
I run a cooking group for the local U3A that meets once a month, and this months meeting was today. We made plain chow mein, a creamy leek cheese toast topper and this wonderful Pad Thai. It works out rather expensive for our budget here, although there are...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 5, 2016 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
The budget cookery group for the U3A were here Tuesday afternoon and one of the things we made was fish cakes. We did one version using a tin of sardines in tomato sauce, and another using a tin of tuna canned in oil. Sardines in Tomato Sauce Fish Cakes Tin of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 3, 2016 | All Recipes, Love Your Leftovers, Lunches, Other
This recipe was given to me by a friend, although, I must admit, she didn’t call it Dead Good Old Tarts. The name just popped into my head when I was wondering what to call them, so Dead Good Old Tarts it is 🙂 I have been looking at ways of using up bread for a...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 1, 2016 | All Recipes, Dinners
the budget cookery group Had the budget cookery group round this afternoon. We had our usual laugh, then made some Carrot and Tahini Hummus, a Mixed Nut and Seed Butter, then a glorious Goan Fish Curry. It was gorgeous! The recipe is adapted from the Indian book I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 28, 2016 | All Recipes
Went to Glyndebourne yesterday, with the friend I go to see the live transmissions with. No, not the posh, picnic in the garden type. Very expensive! We went to see the youth group do a modern opera called Nothing. It was distinctively modern. The singing was...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 7, 2015 | Lunches
Tried the first experiment with reviving dead bread stored as breadcrumbs today. Had a look in the fridge and found a few bits and pieces that I thought would work, got a bag of breadcrumbs out of the freezer and had a play. I have set out below what I used to give...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 1, 2015 | Christmas, Other
Had the U3A budget cooking group here, at the house, this afternoon. I was wondering what to do. Thought it needed to be seasonal, but most definitely not mince pies. I ended up deciding to do a few nibbly type entertaining bits. We started off with Nigella’s Union...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 19, 2015 | Bready Things, Dinners, Love Your Leftovers, Lunches, Round Up Post
Went to a U3A meeting this morning on Science. One of our number talked about Astronomy. We discussed the immense distances involved and moved on to the possibility of life elsewhere. The presenter is a chemist, so we had a very interesting discussion around why...
