Minty Muddle Chocolate Round (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

My niece regularly adds a chocolate pizza to her birthday or Christmas wish list. It isn’t something that needs to be baked (but how cool would that be) it is essentially a circular slab of chocolate that looks like a pizza. They must be good though, as it has been requested multiple times! This Waitrose Minty Muddle Chocolate Round is a similar concept, it is called a “round” but on the back has segments (slices) for easy sharing.

I love chocolate mint, it is one of my go-to flavours, up there with cinnamon spice which is my ultimate favourite, so this seemed the perfect place to start. Once out of the box this Minty Muddle Chocolate Round smells delicious, lots of minty tones and plenty of chocolate. I used the back as a guide and shared it out into portions. The pieces look quite cute with plenty of white chocolate drops and dark chocolate crumb sprinkled all over.

The chocolate is substantial and quite thick, I love the mix of textures as the dark chocolate sprinkles were crispy and the white’s chocolate drops were soft. The chocolate consists of both swirls of dark and white chocolate but because of the mix tasted mostly like milk chocolate, but does look pretty. The mint flavour is well balanced and there is plenty of peppermint and it works perfectly in conjunction with the chocolate.
I think this Waitrose Minty Muddle Chocolate Round would make a perfect stocking filler, a bit of a novelty for sure, but nicely designed and good quality chocolate with well balanced flavours.

Mighty Pea M.LK - vegan and nut free (@NLi10)

So. You don’t want to use dairy milk, but you also want to avoid nuts - what options are there? Well - soy milk exists but tastes like the water used to recycle paper. How about you pea on your cornflakes?

I’d not seen this before, and I figured it would be worth a few cheap pea jokes so gave it a shot - and actually it’s pretty decent.

It’s white not green, and it tastes like a really mild pea soup might. I’ve not poured that on my crunchy nuts yet though.  It’s an enjoyably different flavour too, and I need to try it in more drinks before I pass judgement on that angle.

It’s got things in that are good for you

And it’s got friendly messages about how it’s good for animals, and actually uses less water than almond milk - but I’d have to do research on that.

And it’s similar enough to skimmed milk in texture and looks that the pictures of the stuff itself were not very exciting.  We don’t go to Sainsbury’s very often so I’m not sure that I’ll become a regular (almond milk is my default now), but it’s certainly made a fan out of me.

If you are looking for a dairy alternative then give peas a chance. 

Bachelor’s Super Noodles BBQ Beef (Tesco) By @SpectreUK

Being a snack food and beer blogger and also keeping my weight down with exercise and watching my calories can sometimes be a bit of a bind. I've just looked at the calories in this Bachelor's Super Noodles BBQ Beef and they're pretty high. I used to not care and overeat all the time, but since this second knee operation, my surgeon badgering me about keeping my weight down, and the fact that even after a year of rehabilitation I still have marked limitations on a knee that's muscles now look pretty much exactly the same as the other knee… I have to keep my weight strictly down in the future. There isn't a heck of a lot of fat anywhere anymore either, apparently muscles are pretty heavy too!

With this BBQ Beef Supper Noodles I'm just going to fry up some mushrooms in sunflower oil and have a piece of toast on the side, and then have my usual apple and high protein yoghurt for afters. Been as though my stomach seems to have almost disappeared after months of constant exercise, I can't eat half of what I used to anyway, as I get comfortably full really easily now.

On opening the pot there was some seasoning, dried peas and diced carrots on top of the block of stringy noodles. After preparation with freshly boiled water, stirring and leaving to stand for a while, there was a good smoky sweet barbecue smell from the reddish noodles in the pot. On taste I was actually surprised how good this Bachelor's Super Noodles BBQ Beef is. I guess I'm still stuck in the generational thinking of noodle pots being wet and relatively tasteless. There was a good smoky barbecue flavour from the noodles and sauce, with an almost caramel sweetness into the aftertaste. These noodles went perfectly well with my fried Mediterranean seasoned mushrooms and piece of toast on the side. I'd certainly recommend this for a quick and tasty meal for someone on the go!

Information on the pot;
The 75g pot contains 354 calories, with 15g of fat, 3.8g of sugar, and 1.49g of salt. Please see photograph for ingredients.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange Snowman (Ocado) By @Cinabar

There are quite a few Christmas chocolate novelties out this year but most of them I have seen in passed years. Chocolate Santas, reindeers etc, even Cadbury Snow Balls have all made reappearances. I’m not complaining, just looking for something different in amongst the crowd. This will be the first time I’ve tried the Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange Snowman, although I think I have had the non fruit version before now.

So the Snowman is quite smart looking under the wrapper, not that well defined in features but modern looking with a smart scarf. The filing isn’t light and airy like I had hoped it would be, it is quite a thick mousse filling, firm and chunky. I was pleased with the flavour, the sweet Cadbury chocolate coated a rich and fruity orange filling that was sweet and tasty with lots of citrus zing. Chocolate and orange is a classic flavour combination and it seems to be more popular than ever this year with Orange Twirls and quite a few other goodies coming out for Christmas, I can’t argue with it as it works very well.
This Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange Snowman is sweet and fruity tasty treat, and would make a nice seasonal pick me up as an alternative to a full size chocolate bar. As the filling is quite thick it is filling too and it makes it a more satisfying treat.