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 | Aug 8, 2024 | Lunches, Other
Having made cranberry curd and experimented with other fruit pulps, I decided to have a go at savoury ones and started with tomato and basil and my good ness it’s good. A great way to get some vegetables into veggie phobes. Great on toast or in a sandwich with...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 22, 2024 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
I fancied a little chocolate pudding yesterday, one of those ones that makes it own sauce. I found a recipe and set too. I’ve changed it a bit, cutting the sugar by half as it seemed too much, and it was. What do I need to make an old fashioned self saucing chocolate...
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 | Jun 25, 2024 | All Meal Plans, All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 3, Meal Plan 7, Puddings / Desserts
Sunday Lunch DP and I often have a Sunday lunch at, erm, lunchtime, then in the evening we have a pudding, often a fruit crumble with custard or evaporated milk. I always used to make custard using dried powder and UHT milk. Then one day, having spotted value custard,...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 2, 2024 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches
This is a Northern Indian cabbage recipe, packed full of vegetables, pulses and spices. Make it hot if you like things that way. Personally, I like a lot of spice and hardly any heat When I first made this, we had it with Matar Paneer (cheesey peas) and a home made...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 26, 2024 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
Chocolate Muffins Recipe Mike was ‘needing some chocolate’ yesterday, so I decided to make some chocolate muffins. Haven’t made any kind of muffins for yonks. They are super easy in that it is just a bit of stirring, and not too much of that either...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 20, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches, Other
Wild garlic pesto This recipe is for pesto made from wild garlic, or ransoms, which is in season in the early Spring in the UK. The pesto is pungent, delicious and made from wild garlic foraged from the woods, or Allium triquetrum which is what I have growing in my...
by Thrifty Lesley | May 18, 2023 | All Recipes, Lunches
This is a very simple soup, made with just 4 ingredients, and saucepan to table in just 30 minutes. It contains a head of broccoli including all the stalk, red lentils, an onion and some seasoning. Change the broccoli to another vegetable and get a completely...
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 | Mar 13, 2023 | All Recipes, Other
Do you like Nutella? It’s gorgeous stuff, kids can be addicted to it, it seems to go with everything and can be eaten straight out of the jar with a spoon. And probably often is! But… and there’s always a but isn’t there, the nutritional content is pretty poor. Palm...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 22, 2023 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 11, Meal Plan 14, Meal Plan 2, Meal Plan 7, Meal Plan 9
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 | Nov 21, 2022 | Christmas, Saving Money
At this time of year, thoughts begin to turn to gifts for friends and family. Many people like to make a hamper, personally, I love to receive a hamper containing anything food related. Want to do a homemade Christmas hamper? What a smashing gift to receive Many...
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...
