by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 24, 2025 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 7
This recipe uses a one third portion of an easy beef ragu made for use in Meal Plan 7. The picture shows my portion, which is a quarter of the finished dish, not a half, so this dish could feed 4, and not the 2 originally thought. What do I need to make beef ragu...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 18, 2024 | All Meal Plans, Celebration 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 | Nov 9, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
I tried these several years ago as my brother is coeliac and these, if you use the gram flour option, are gluten free. They are easy to make, freeze well and taste delicious. This recipe serves 4 adults. Great for kids as it’s easy to portion, they can just have...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 5, 2024 | Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Having recently been on holiday, and enjoying the local food, I was keen to explore some traditional Greek food recipes when I got back. A reader, Vera George, who is Greek, offered some of her recipes, and this is one of hers. Kounoupithi Yiahni by the way is...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 5, 2024 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 2
This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. I love this soup, it is my go to for a soup for lunch. I usually add a tsp of ginger paste from a jar, a tsp of garlic paste, and a tsp of turmeric to give it a lovely spicy kick, and at it’s...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 3, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners
This is recipe I made when looking to use the vegetables in the vegetable box one week. I had a couple of aubergines and a huge lovely firm winter squash and used one aubergine and a wedge of pumpkin. This recipe, for 2-3, uses an aubergine / eggplant and a wedge of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 30, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
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. I’ve come up with a long list of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 18, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories
I made this salad with chicken and mango in one of the Cooking Up A Storm groups that I do with my local u3a. It was very simple, quick to make too, and very delicious! This is one of the more expensive recipes on Thrifty Lesley, so if funds are short, maybe something...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 12, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 4
This recipe for sweet corn fritters is made with very basic ingredients, is very quick and easy, and a very cheap meal. The sweetcorn can be swapped out for many other vegetables and changed around in many different ways. This particular sweet corn fritter recipe is...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 5, 2024 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Post originally written in January 2014, refreshed and updated October 2024. When I did a demo a while ago, I did a soup that we have often. The original recipe came from Feasts From The Place Below, Amazon currently (October 2024) selling 2nd hand copies for £2.90,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 4, 2024 | 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 | Sep 22, 2024 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 2, Sides
Post first written in January 2015, refreshed and updated November 2021 Onions are a flavour powerhouse. They are sweet, savoury and pungent all at once. Caramelised onions have all that umami flavour concentrated and are very useful In Meal Plan 2, there are 750g of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 19, 2024 | Dinners, Lunches, Meal Plan 14, Sides
Peperonata is one of those things that we have pretty often. It is a pepper and onion stew that goes with many things, can be used as a main dish or as a side. We first started having it with cheesey gougere, which is choux pastry – I must blog that recipe one...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 25, 2024 | Dinners, Poaching A Whole Chicken
How to poach a whole chicken to use for multiple meals Why poach a chicken? Two main reasons. Poaching means that your chicken meat will be beautifully moist, much more so than a roasted one, and with little effort on your behalf. And secondly, much less fuel is used...
