by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 15, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Christmas, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
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 a fortune. Re-Priced...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Stretch A Chicken
Spicy Chicken Pasta Bake – Stretch A Chicken (4) Got a little bit of chicken to use up? Try it in this spicy pasta bake- make it as hot and spicy as you like! How to make Spicy Chicken Pasta Chop the onion and sauté in a little oil until soft. Add garlic,...
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 | Oct 14, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
Barley, Mushroom & Spinach Risotto I had the cookery group round recently and we explored making risotti. We did a tomato and sausage risotto, a beetroot risotto, and this barley, mushroom and spinach risotto. Well actually, it was barley and mushroom risotto, I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 2, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 2
Cream Cheese Pizza With a little adjusting, I have made enough calories available to have an 8th day on Meal Plan 2 – which brings the cost down even further! Very pleased with that. How do I make Cream Cheese Pizza Mix the flour and yeast, salt and sugar, with...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
This super tasty dinner recipe came out of a need to use up various items in the fridge. How to make crispy topped miso vegetables For this version, I used a pepper, a third of a bag of bean sprouts, 2 broccoli stalks, a carrot, 3 separate onion halves and some soft...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 3, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
These peanut butter noodles don’t take too long and are really yummy, we’ve had them several times now. You can really stretch out a few shreds of chicken with this. I’ve done it with noodles and spaghetti, both worked well. Ingredients for Peanut Butter Noodles...
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 | Jan 27, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Just had lunch and made something different. I’ve got some lovely nut butters in the fridge that I got from SousChef.co.uk. I love that site, it’s got masses of lovely cheffy things! I got big 1kg tubs of almond, pistachio and hazelnut. It’s cheaper...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 25, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
I recently made a really good lentil ragu which I thought would work well as a lasagna. It did and it was very good indeed. This led me to think of other vegetable based mixes that I could substitute for the lentil ragu layer. The first one is a mushroom ragu,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 8, 2018 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
A savoury christmas crumble, chestnuts in the base and walnuts in the topping. One of the recipes from the Vegetarian Christmas meal plan. Savoury Vegan Walnut and Chestnut Crumble Base mixture Priced at Asda December 2018 100g red cabbage, chopped not in the shops...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 20, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners
This recipe is one I have been making for decades. I first came across it at the house of a close friend when we went for dinner, and he kindly gave me the recipe Sweet Bean Curry Ingredients 175g dried beans, £1.06/500g, 37p Tblsp vegetable oil, £1/litre, 1p an...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 26, 2016 | All Recipes, Dinners
I had this mixed vegetable dauphinoise for lunch yesterday and dinner today. I have only recently had dauphinoise at home for the first time, and I tried it because of the high fat diet I’m on – seemed to be a good fit The first time, I had just potatoes in the usual...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 8, 2016 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes
I was looking round the Internet last week, as you do, and came across lentil flour. What’s that, thought I, sounds intriguing. I started off with lentil flour and ended up with a loaf made with fizzy water! What I hear you say? That’s what I thought too....
