by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 25, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
We are very fortunate in that a local church has started a community larder. Each morning, they pick up surplus groceries that would have gone to landfill from the Co-Op and lay it all out on There were a few limes there this morning, so I took 3 and made some lime...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 27, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
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 for masses of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
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 in the picture, and there is plenty there for two, so...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 26, 2021 | All Recipes, Meal Plan 2, Other
I was looking at the leftovers in meal plan 2 and thought, with a little adjusting, I could probably get another day out of it. And right enough, I did! Very satisfying! One of the things I experimented with was wondering if I could use the last of the carrots, and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 30, 2021 | All Recipes, Lunches
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 things, so today, I am disoriented It...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 24, 2021 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Breakfast, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2, Meal Plan 4
This post was first written in October 2013. Re-written and refreshedin September 2021. If you take 250g flour, some yeast and water, you can add many, many different things to it and get a lovely loaf, with 4 portions, to use for any meal, as an anytime snack or...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 1
This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. These falafel are pan fried and served with a super simple salad of carrot and peanuts. Add differing spices to ring the changes How to make pan fried falafel Soak the dried chick peas over night and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Love Your Leftovers
Is Citrus Peel Edible? It is indeed. Although lemon isn’t one of the dirty dozen, it is still a good idea to wash any peel or skins you are planning to eat, especially those, like lemon, that it may be more unusual to eat. Is Lemon Peel good for me? We could all...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 21, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 1
A lovely, slicing, easy to make fruit loaf. Use any dried fruit you have. Cuts into 12 slices at 8p a slice First published in June 2013, updated June 2021 How To Make an Easy Fruit Loaf Line a 2lb loaf tin and heat the oven Stir all the dry ingredients together. In a...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 9, 2021 | All Recipes, Other
Damn Fine Home Made Apricot Jam I first wrote this apricot jam recipe in July 2019, and updated it in June 2021 This wonderful apricot jam recipe makes six beautiful jars of jam. It has a delightful fresh flavour, I’m sure I can taste that lemon juice! Apricot is...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 4, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
I like a banana bread, but today, I was looking at my fruit bowl and wondered if other fruit could be used in place of the bananas. How about apple bread I thought? Ooh, or spiced apple bread? How can I make apple bread healthy? To make the apple bread healthy, I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 22, 2020 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Puddings / Desserts
I made these rather wonderful easy poached pears without wine today when we had guests for lunch. I thought I’d see if I could frugalise the recipe. I have described these as with no alcohol, although I realise that the process of simmering a wine based...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 10, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners
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, we could make some canapés. There are hundreds of canapé recipes, so after a bit of...
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...
