by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 15, 2023 | Christmas, Meal Plans, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
Vegetarian Christmas 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...
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 | Mar 24, 2023 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
A mixed vegetable quiche is a classic British dish that comes out very cheap with a bit of frugalisation. If you think quiche or flan sounds like something your granny makes, you could always call it a tart and feel all contemporary. If you decide to use the oil...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 4, 2023 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Sides
Shredded Brussel Sprout Salad I had a little bit of beef left from a joint and wasn’t sure what to make with it. Decided on topping a couple of jacket potatoes with it, with caramelised onion and mushroom, seasoned with soy sauce. Which just left what to have...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 6, 2022 | All Recipes, Lunches, Round Up Post
School packed lunches – the dreaded chore! Can you feed a hulking teenager for 30p a head? Ideas for school packed lunches – many people with school aged children need them. Packing up a lunch box for children or an adult packed lunch is bad enough. It can...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 18, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners
I was watching a programme on cranberries and what to do with them and one of the chefs talked about a creamy base of leeks, topped with a crumble mix. I thought it sounded really nice, but they hadn’t put that recipe on the internet for that programme, so I...
by Thrifty Lesley | Sep 16, 2021 | All Recipes, Meal Plan 1, Puddings / Desserts
Baked Marmalade Sponge This post was first written in June 2013 and updated in June 2021. Are you following Meal Plan 1? If so, this baked sponge can be eaten at any time during the week when you need the calories. Would be lovely as a Sunday tea, or maybe after...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 4, 2021 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
Apple Bread I like a banana bread, but today, I was looking at my fruit bowl and wondered if other fruit could be used in place of the bananas. How about apple bread I thought? Ooh, or spiced apple bread? How can I make apple bread healthy? To make the apple bread...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 7, 2019 | All Recipes, Dinners, Lunches
Red Pepper & Walnut Tart with Winter Coleslaw I had the U3A cookery group round recently and we like to make canapes at the December meeting. Amongst other things, we made these Red Pepper, Goats Cheese and Walnut Palmiers, and they were delicious, although they...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 9, 2019 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Other
Home made honey smoked walnut butter. Easy, cheap, versatile and super delicious All nut butters are easy to make, and this walnut version is no exception. This particular variation is flavoured with honey and smoked paprika, although there are lots of other...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 17, 2019 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
Quick Banana Bread This is such a classic recipe, and we haven’t got one on Thrifty Lesley. Tass, a Facebook member, supplied this delicious sounding quick banana bread recipe way back in 2015. We do get through quite a lot of bananas, but in summer, they go brown and...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 3, 2019 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
Sugar Free Chocolate, Cranberry and Walnut Tea Bread This rather wonderful sugar free chocolate, cranberry and walnut tea bread started life as an extremely simple ordinary bread loaf. This sugar free chocolate variation has been on my HUGE list of things to try for a...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 8, 2018 | All Recipes, Christmas, Dinners, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan – Vegan Walnut and Chestnut Crumble A savoury christmas crumble, chestnuts in the base and walnuts in the topping. One of the recipes from the Vegetarian Christmas meal plan. Savoury Vegan Walnut and Chestnut Crumble Base mixture...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jul 24, 2017 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes
Walnut ‘Nutella’ and wheat bisks bites. These are so good they’re dangerous! 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...
