by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Christmas, Christmas Meal Plan 4, Meal Plans
Christmas Week Food. Lots of festive flavours & not many £££’s Christmas Meal Plan If you are on a tight budget, Christmas food can be very difficult, causing stress, and maybe even debt too. Happily, you can enjoy a delicious festive meal, and eat well for...
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 | Jul 11, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Stretch A Chicken
How to stretch a chicken to last the whole week I am in the process of rewriting this series, originally written in 2014. So while I am doing that, the quantities etc in the associated recipes may not all match up – please bear with me. There will be much better...
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 | Sep 8, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2
Vegan Broccoli Pesto First published in August 2013, revised and updated in September 2021. Have you ever made pesto using fresh vegetables? It was quite a revelation when I discovered it. I’ve found that I can make something that I like to call pesto (Italians...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 12, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Spiced lentil balls This recipe is inspired by one I found in a recipe book first published in 1994. Amazingly, it’s still in print, and extremely cheap too! There are loads of good recipes in the book, several of which I’ve made since buying it. ...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 7, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Other
Wild Garlic Pesto What does wild garlic look like? Since writing this post way back in 2013, I’ve discovered that what I have growing in my garden are Allium triquetrum and not wild garlic as I thought! It tastes the same! Wild garlic which you are likely to...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 28, 2020 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Christmas, Love Your Leftovers, Lunches
Christmas leftovers – part 4. Chestnut Soup; Fruit Crumble Toppings; Mixed Nut Butter; Turkey Zombie Burgers Part 4 of our attack on those Christmas leftovers. Chestnuts, and no stuffing Don’t know about you, but I always buy several packs of ready to eat...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 28, 2020 | All Recipes, Christmas, Love Your Leftovers
Christmas Leftovers – part 3. Turkey Burgers; Cheesy Pasta; Parsnip Dahl; Parsnip soup Part 3 of our attack on those Christmas leftovers. more turkey ideas Using stale, dead, bread, that’s been whizzed into breadcrumbs, use the zombie burgers basics, and...
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 | May 1, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
Green Pea Hummus Lasagna I have been exploring swapping out the ragu layer of a lasagna for many other different things. The first was made using a really good lentil ragu which I thought would work well as a lasagna. It was very successful and inspired me to think of...
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 | Feb 22, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners
Lentil Ragu Lasagna I recently made a really good lentil ragu. The flavour was strong enough that I thought it may well make a good lasagna. This is the result and it was very good indeed! It will freeze well, so is something you can batch make. Lentil Ragu Lasagna...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 23, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
Cabbage, sultana and nut pasta bake This recipe is inspired by one I found in a recipe book first published in 1994 – The Vegetarian Pasta Book. I’ve been making, and adapting, lots of recipes from it. Amazingly, it’s still in print, and, as a bonus, extremely...