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 | 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 | Nov 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Christmas, Meal Plans, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
Vegetarian Christmas 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 vegetarian Christmas festive meal, without spending...
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 | Jul 21, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Stretch A Chicken
Spicy red lentil soup- Stretch A Chicken (7) This spicy carrot and lentil soup uses chicken stock made when processing a roast chicken carcass. The stock brings a great deal of flavour to the soup. If you don’t have any home made stock, use a good quality stock...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 17, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Stretch A Chicken
Chicken Pizza with onions and peppers – Stretch A Chicken (3) Pizza is one off the worlds favourite foods for at least 1000 years, loved, and made, by millions. Pizza toppings can make a meal from little things leftover in the fridge, or as here, from chicken...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 17, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Stretch A Chicken
Chicken & Sweetcorn Recipe for a tart – Stretch A Chicken (5) This recipe is part of a series on stretching a chicken to the max. I took one medium chicken of 1.5kg and made it feed a family of 4 for a week, with 7 different budget stretching chicken...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 30, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 2
Olive, Soft Cheese and Cucumber Sandwich First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated December 2021 For quite a few years now, once a month, I have coffee with a friend in The Baytree, one of the independent little coffee shops in Heathfield. We were talking...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 29, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
Pasta with Olives, Tomato & Soft Cheese Post first written in September 2013. Refreshed and updated November 2021. This recipe makes a generous portion of pasta, dressed with olives, tomato puree and soft cheese. Very quick to make, just taking as long as the...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 27, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
Raisin Biscuits Post originally published October 2013, refreshed and updated November 2021 These little biscuits are fun to make, especially if you make tiny hearts or teeny squares. Spice them up with cinnamon or mixed spice at Christmas time. Or see the variations...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 27, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2, Sides
Caramelised Onions Post first written in January 2015, refreshed and updated November 2021 In Meal Plan 2, there are 750g of onions left after all the recipes have been made, so I thought I’d use them to make this very useful condiment to use as you wish...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners
Simple Vegan Red Lentil Tomato Dahl Post first written in July 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021. Tomatoes, red lentils and a few spices made into dhal and served with brown rice. Quick, very cheap, and easy – what’s not to like? I like the dahl just on its...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
Salted Cashew Vegan Couscous Salad – warm or cold First written in August 2013, refreshed and updated in November 2021. I wanted to try a couscous salad that I have been doing for a while and see if I could get it sub 50p. Well, it worked out at 71p for the dish...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 30, 2021 | All Recipes, Lunches
Curried Pumpkin and Coconut Soup This post was originally written in October 2014 and refreshed and updated in October 2021. I am a little confused today. I went to a WI garden group meeting yesterday, on Thursday. It’s usually on a Wednesday, like most other WI...