by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 16, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Poaching A Whole Chicken
A quick and simple healthy chicken spaghetti recipe using Sicilian flavours. Juicy chicken, sweet pops of raisins, salty olives, crunchy almonds, luscious sun-dried tomatoes and zesty lemon – delicious! Good hot for dinner, with any leftovers for lunch the next...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 3, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 4, Meal Plans For 2
Meal Plan 4 As at the time of writing (early October 2023) you will need £23.37 in your purse at the checkout, but the amount of food actually consumed (if you follow the plan fully) comes to £18.38, so £1.31 a day per person, and you still have some supplies to...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 29, 2023 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 3, Meal Plans For 2
The Ninth Meal Plan. Last priced at Aldi.com, on 28th April 2024. You will need £22.17 at the checkout, but the food eaten comes to £19.19, which is £1.37 per person, per day As I say every time, it shows 3 meals a day, plus some cakey extras to fill any gaps, for 7...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 22, 2023 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 2, Meal Plan 7
This is an idea I first came across on Cheap Family Recipes, I absolutely love them, especially with a strawberry compote with full flavoured summer strawberries The raisins contribute towards your need for a portion of purple each day. I think this is the hardest...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
You don’t need to make an egg custard and you don’t need an ice cream maker to make no churn chocolate ice cream. There isn’t a trace of an ice crystal crunch either. If you leave it to get fully frozen, take it out at least half an hour before you want to eat it and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 6, 2022 | All Recipes, Lunches, Round Up Post
Ideas for school packed lunches – many people with school aged children need them. Packing up a lunch box for children or an adult packed lunch is bad enough. It can be boring, tiresome and a real chore to do. You might be lucky and not mind it too much, but...
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 | 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 | Jun 24, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 1
When building Meal Plan 1, there were enough leftovers for a friend to issue a challenge to make an 8th day. The challenge was accepted and this delectable morsel is part of that 8th day. It was quite fun trying to use up the odd bits and pieces of this and that and...
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 | Aug 29, 2019 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Do you have cheese sandwiches for lunch? Are you a little tired of them, or maybe wanting to ring the changes a little? How about making a potted cheese. I have lots of little bits and pieces of cheese stashed away in the freezer, things left over from various events,...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 7, 2018 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
Two very yummy meals today. First up was breakfast after Fitstep class, so I was pretty hungry. Crisped up some focaccia from the freezer in a frying pan, with a couple of chorizo slices and had that with scrambled egg and tomato. Yum Then at lunchtime I tried one of...
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 | Apr 21, 2017 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
This is the recipe for the three ingredient cake I talked about recently on Facebook. It’s quite a thing around the internet although I’ve only just come across it. There are different versions here, here and here. Google ‘three ingredient cake’ to find more. I was...