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 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 | 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 | Apr 4, 2019 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
Following on from the last post about a savoury loaf cake, I experimented today and came up with this vegan version. My silicone mini loaf tins arrived today. I said yesterday that I wouldn’t use all 12, but that’s exactly what I did do today! I’m really pleased with...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 3, 2019 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Dinners, Lunches
The U3A cookery group came round today. We have such fun, exploring recipes, stirring, tasting, baking and talking about flavours, options and possibilities. Not to mention the large amount of laughter and gossiping that goes on! This month, we made Peanut Butter...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 30, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
I have been making these rather wonderful nut balls for decades and can’t now remember where I got the original recipe from, I suspect it is a Cranks one. They are very simple to make, not requiring any complicated method, equipment or skills, although you’ll need to...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 29, 2017 | All Recipes, Lunches
I posted a little while ago about the recipes we cooked at the last U3A cooking group, including a gorgeous Pad Thai, and this creamy leek and cheese toasty. I was sure I had also posted the recipe for the toasty, but apparently not! So here it is. Creamy Leek And...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 16, 2016 | Breakfast, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 12
I have been fancying for a while having a go at making sausages, and this week, I did just that. I was in Sainsburys and thought I’d get some pork to make some. I picked up a shoulder joint that had been reduced and looked at the back of the pack and it said that...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 27, 2015 | Dinners, Meal Plan 10
This is for Meal Plan 10 and is a version of the Cheesy Bean Lasagna. I can’t use the same ingredients as they aren’t all available on this plan. So it’s a tweak of a tweaked recipe. The bean sauce layer 2 onions, chopped, Asda 2kg/£1.07, 10p 2...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 6, 2015 | Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 10
We had these lovely herby scones at lunchtime with a bowl of tomato soup made with our tomatoes. I’ve had to wait a very long time for that soup this year, our tomatoes are scarce and only just ripening. It really is a special treat. As I have 4 x 16kg bags of malted...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 13, 2015 | All Recipes, Dinners
I was sure I had blogged this recipe before, but I can’t find it, so I can’t have done. It is yet another recipe from this months Slimming World – a good haul of recipes I like this time. Their recipe is called Cheesy Lentil Lasagna. They use cottage cheese, just on...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 11, 2015 | All Meal Plans, All Recipes, Dinners, Meal Plan 9
This is dinner on day 2 and 5 of Meal Plan 9 Pasta & Tomato Sauce serves 2 60g cheddar, grated,Asda 350g/£1.55, 27p 100g onion, Asda 1kg/59p, 6p 300g tinned tomatoes – NB, not a whole tin, 23p 150g value pasta, 500g/29p, 9p 20g veg oil, Asda litre/89p, 2p...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 6, 2015 | All Recipes, Lunches, Meal Plan 9
This is dinner on day 3 of Meal Plan 9. It is a naturally vegan recipe if that is of interest to you (natural in that no substitution of anything is needed) Serves 2 150g carrots, Asda 49p/kg, 7p 200g potatoes, Asda 59p/kg, 12p 200g tomatoes (half a tin), 31p a tin,...
