by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 12, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
This recipe was one that the U3A made when the group came to my house for our monthly meeting. I had been looking through Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty More for inspiration and found this lovely salad. This is my version of it Bean and Quinoa, Lemon and Herb Salad...
by Thrifty Lesley | Oct 3, 2017 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 12, Sides
The U3A cookery group came round today. We did 3 recipes this time, including this one, stuffed potato cake. 2 potato cakes is the recommended portion size. It isn’t many calories, but 2 really is enough The recipe uses a potato dough and it has spiced...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 14, 2017 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Sides
Mike went to the Co-Op this week and came back with one of those little magazines that supermarkets do. One of the recipes caught my eye. It used pears, but we eat our pears unripe, straight from the tree, still crispy. I thought it would work well with the apples...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 5, 2017 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Sides
Cipolline is pronounced chip-oh-LEE-nay and is a flat type of onion used in Italy for this dish. How to make Cipolline in Agrodolce (Onions in Sweet and Sour Sauce) Peel some onions, without removing the roots, or the onions will fall apart while cooking. Place in a...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 27, 2017 | All Recipes, Budgeting, Lunches, Saving Money
Diet The diet started again yesterday and the 3 pounds I’d gained have gone again as of this morning. Went to help our eldest do some unpacking yesterday as they moved whilst we were away – good planning on our part I thought! Left theirs needing a shower...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 6, 2017 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Other
If you grow runner beans, you may well have times, like me, when you are a bit overwhelmed with them and don’t know what else to do with them. Personally, I think home frozen runners are vile. I’ve tried numerous different ways of preserving them and haven’t liked...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 24, 2017 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
Having tried faux Nutella with hazelnuts and butter, I wanted to try another version with oil. Having run out of hazelnuts, I used walnuts. So I nipped into the kitchen and this was rustled up in just a few minutes. Home Made Walnut Nutella Priced at Asda, July 2017...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 11, 2017 | All Recipes, Lunches, Other, Round Up Post
Whilst gardening on Saturday, I was musing about baked bean paté / hummus and what different flavours could be achieved. I came up with over 30 without trying very hard at all! And as I was writing this post, I kept thinking of more! So this has turned into an...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 4, 2017 | All Recipes, Other
Sometimes, I get a bit of this and a bit of that fruit wise. There are lots of things it can be used for. I’ll use it for smoothies, or fruity, oaty crumbles, or a pie, or clafoutis, or a sweet omelette, or baked oats, or even just as it is, maybe with a splash of...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 25, 2017 | Bready Things, Other
A couple of very quick things for you today. Super simple. Do you remember I bought some big bags of wonderful sun dried tomatoes from Healthy Supplies. They taste wonderfully fresh and tangy, the best I’ve had. If you can afford the initial outlay, they are a great...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 21, 2017 | Puddings / Desserts
It was the U3A AGM yesterday. We offer tea and biscuits usually, but because it was the AGM we upgraded to cakes. I decided to take some cheesecakes in ramekins. I did a strawberry topped one and this salted caramel using a recipe I’ve used before. The strawberry ones...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jun 19, 2017 | All Recipes, Bready Things, Cakes and Bakes, Round Up Post, Sides
I often keep a bowl of bread dough in the fridge. I got the idea from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. He calls it Magic Dough because you can make so many things with it. If I think I might make a loaf sometime soon, I make a larger batch, otherwise, I just keep the bowl...
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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 16, 2017 | Other, Sides
Crispy Lemon Skin I read recently about crisping up lemon skins by frying them. I can’t remember now where it was. I’ve just googled and there are a few places that talk about it, but can’t find the one where I saw it. Anyway, I thought it sounded...