by admin | Jul 17, 2014 | My Diary
Phew, what a scorcher! Went to Eastbourne today to see my grand daughter’s sports day. The race she was dreading the most was the balance a bean bag on the head one. But because she hated it, she had practised it a lot and only won it! Her mum was leaping up and...
by admin | Jul 6, 2014 | My Diary
Following on from yesterdays post about bread, I dug out some focaccia from the freezer, made on the course. It was the broad bean and blue cheese one. In a frying pan, I put some scraps of cooking bacon and rendered them down for a bit, then added the focaccia,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 27, 2014 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
Remember this semi-freddo? I was making a cup of coffee earlier and thought, ooh, I fancy some coffee frozen yogort. So I mixed together 250g value Greek yogurt, Aldi 85p/500g, 42p 5g instant coffee granules, value brand in Aldi is £1.79/200g, 5p 30g sugar, 79p/500g,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 21, 2014 | All Recipes, Lunches, My Diary
I had Smoked Salmon pasta for lunch today, with a slight variation in the sauce. I sauted the onion, boiled the pasta, adding a handful of green beans towards the end of the cooking time. Then I just mixed everything together, including the salmon trimmings,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 18, 2014 | Bready Things, My Diary
I have lots of lovely pictures to show you, but they simply won’t load today. The broadband speed is appalling this evening and everything is taking for ever. So I’ll post this and get the pictures in when I can. Shame about the piccies I’ve updated with the pictures...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 13, 2014 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
Remember this? Instant semi-freddo After dinner this evening, DP announced that he wanted a pudding. He was angling after a crumble, but I really didn’t want to make one. So I dug out a bag of mixed berries from the freezer, picked out all the strawberries and whizzed...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 10, 2014 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
Tried a variation of the Chickpea, Mango and Coconut Curry today. Made the sauce as usual, then added some green beans from the freezer. And then instead of rice, nan, or anything else like that, I stirred it through pasta. And popped some little bits of feta on top....
by Thrifty Lesley | May 15, 2014 | My Diary
Yet another pancake variation this morning. After the WI lunch yesterday, I had some raspberries left over. So this morning, I used self raising flour as usual, but instead of water, I used raspberries. They had been frozen, so were very juicy, and I had added a good...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 1, 2014 | All Recipes, Meal Plans
Week Five Meal Planner – Brie, Chicken and Eggs Something a bit different this time. This plan is an extended version (2 more days added) of a Live Below the Line 2014 plan I did for ActionAid. It looked quite nice, so I thought I would add it to our meal plan list....
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 22, 2014 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Sides
Peperonata is one of those things that we have pretty often. It is a pepper and onion stew that goes with many things, can be used as a main dish or as a side. We first started having it with cheesey gougere, which is choux pastry. Peperonata For two people you will...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 13, 2014 | All Recipes, Dinners
Did a lovely risotto yesterday using some asparagus Mike brought home. Used up the last of the Arborio rice, so next time I do one, I’ll try the value rice and form an opinion on using it. Also this time, I used 2 tblsps of lemon juice from a bottle rather than a...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 3, 2014 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
I have 3 under counter sized fridges, 2 of which are supposed to be overflow ones, and not turned on most of the time. Such is my lack of discipline, that until recently all 3 of them were packed to bursting. I have now managed to reduce the third one down to a third...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 5, 2014 | All Recipes, Dinners
Had one of those pricing surprises I talk about today. I made a Spaghetti Bolognese using a recipe, not one of those mince splodge things I do, when I add all kinds of things to stretch the mix. I used the recipe from a book called Silver Spoon, which is the...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 24, 2014 | All Recipes, Dinners, My Diary
Today, I did a demo of ThriftyLesley food at a local church, although I am atheist, to about 15 ladies. In one hour, we managed to produce 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2 dinners. Started off with a bacon and sweetcorn pie, to demonstrate the oil pastry, and put some...