by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 15, 2023 | Christmas, Meal Plans, Vegetarian Christmas Meal Plan
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 a fortune. Re-Priced...
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 | Mar 13, 2023 | All Recipes, Other
Healthier Nutella Alternative 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Feb 22, 2023 | All Recipes, Breakfast, Less than 500 calories, Meal Plan 1, Meal Plan 10, Meal Plan 2, Meal Plan 7
Raisin Pancakes 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Nov 21, 2022 | Christmas, Saving Money
Home Made Christmas Hampers 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Aug 20, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
No Churn Chocolate Ice Cream 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...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 11, 2022 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories
Cream of Cabbage Soup Cabbage is a very nutritious vegetable and has been eaten by people for 1000’s of years, currently consumed worldwide. One day last month, I had far too much white cabbage to be able to use it up before it went manky. So I decided to try...
by Thrifty Lesley | Apr 6, 2022 | All Recipes, Less than 500 calories, Other
Fresh Ginger Tea How To Make Hot Ginger Tea I use a small glass tea pot of 450ml to make fresh ginger tea. By far the easiest way to store it is freezing fresh ginger whole. I pop it in just as it is – not wrapped, not peeled, and grate it on a fine grater...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 25, 2022 | All Recipes, Puddings / Desserts
Homemade, fresh lime simple syrup We are very fortunate in that a local church has started a community larder. Each morning, they pick up surplus groceries that would have gone to landfill from the Co-Op and lay it all out onThere were a few limes there this morning,...
by Thrifty Lesley | Mar 22, 2022 | All Recipes, Dinners, Less than 500 calories, Lunches, Meal Plan 2
Vegan Couscous Salad How to make vegan couscous salad This is pretty simple and doesn’t take long. Put couscous in a bowl with oil and water. Add grated carrot. Cook some green peas (1 min in the microwave from frozen will do it) and add to the couscous If you have...
by Thrifty Lesley | Jan 27, 2022 | All Recipes, Cakes and Bakes, Less than 500 calories
I really like the carrot cake from Cheap Family Recipes. Like most carrot cakes, it doesn’t actually taste of carrots and I fell to wondering what other vegetables could be used in a similar way. At Christmas, I got lots of the very cheap vegetables on promotion...
by Thrifty Lesley | Dec 22, 2021 | All Recipes, Christmas, Less than 500 calories, Puddings / Desserts
I had surplus mincemeat from Christmas and decided to use some in a pudding. I have made chocolate roulades for some time and felt sure that swapping the cocoa for flour and using mincemeat and perhaps some apple too as the filling, as well as cream, would work very...
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...
