by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 27, 2025 | All Meal Plans, Meal Plan 4, Meal Plans For 2
Meal Plan 4 As at the time of writing, August 2025 you will need £23.73 in your purse at the checkout, but the amount of food actually consumed (if you follow the plan fully) comes to £18.74, so £1.34 a day per person, and you still have some supplies to start you off...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 10, 2025 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Chicken and sweetcorn, with a generous spoon of mayonnaise, a very popular sandwich filling in the UK, and we know why don’t we – it’s gorgeous! Those little pots of deli filling from a supermarket are tasty, easy and convenient, but if you mix just...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 7, 2025 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
I love a bit of smoked mackerel and often have a pack in the fridge. This week, I made this simply gorgeous sandwich with some of it, a hard boiled and egg and a slick of mayonnaise. I’d got some hotdog rolls on yellow sticker, so stuffed the mix into there. Oh...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 6, 2025 | All Recipes, How To Cook, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Tuna and sweetcorn, with a generous spoon of mayonnaise, one of the most popular sandwich fillings in the UK, and with good reason – it’s delicious! If you buy those little pots of deli filling from a supermarket, you might be surprised to know that you...
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 | Jan 11, 2024 | Less than 500 calories, Lunches
This easy sweetcorn soup only needs 5 ingredients, is ready in under 15 minutes and costs around £1 for four servings. Ideal for lunches at home, or in a flask at work, this super easy sweetcorn soup recipe is nutritious, warming, filling and inexpensive. Good for...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Stretch A Chicken
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! What do I need to make Spicy Chicken Pasta To make 4 servings Pasta Bake ▢ 120 g cooked chicken around 150g if using raw chicken ▢ 150 g onion ▢ 2 tsp oil ▢ 1...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 17, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Stretch A Chicken
This recipe is part of a series on stretching a chicken to the max. I took one medium chicken of 1.5kg and made it feed a family of 4 for a week, with 7 different budget stretching chicken recipes. I roasted the chicken, had a roast lunch with my husband, then...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 2, 2021 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 2
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 enough water to...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 17, 2021 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 1
This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. Delicious little lunchtime patties, if you aren’t at home, they could be eaten cold in a lunch box, or use the same ingredients to make a soup and take to work in a flask. How To Make Potato,...
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 22, 2019 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 11
A Trio of Vegetable Hummus The U3A cookery group met at my place on Tuesday this week. One of the many things we did was a vegetable hummus made from green peas from Izy Hossacks book, The Savvy Cook. It was utterly delicious and has inspired me to make many different...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 26, 2016 | All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 14
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...
