by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 15, 2023 | Christmas, Meal Plans, 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
Crispy Topped Miso Vegetables 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 3, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Peanut Butter Noodles. Add chicken or fish, or keep it vegan 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 24, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 1
Bacon & Sweetcorn Pie 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 27, 2020 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Hazelnut Butter Vegetable Bake – GF, DF & Vegan 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 25, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
Mushroom Ragu Lasagna 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 8, 2018 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan – Vegan Walnut and Chestnut Crumble 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 20, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners
Something I’ve been making for decades – Sweet Bean Curry 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 26, 2016 | All Recipes, Dinners
Mixed vegetable dauphinoise for dinner, 47p 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 8, 2016 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
Lentil flour and the simplest bread I’ve ever made 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...