Halloween Fizzy Pumpkin Mallows (Marks and Spencer) By @Cinabar

Marks and Spencer have excelled themselves with their Halloween goodies this year, and it’s hard to pick what to write about next after our good shop in their foodhall. I went for these Halloween Fizzy Pumpkin Mallows because they look so cute! They have little pumpkin faces on them, which look even better in real life than the camera managed to capture. They really are adorable.

The marshmallows are vanilla flavoured but coated in a sour fizz. I gave one a try and was impressed by the zing when I first bit into it. The sour coating delivers a proper sharp, tangy taste, but as it’s only on the outside, it quickly melts away to reveal the sweet vanilla mallow underneath. I liked the contrast between the sharp fizz and the soft, sweet marshmallow.

I’m looking forward to trying these on top of a hot chocolate in my new Halloween mug. They’ll look super cute floating on top, and I suspect they’ll make my hot chocolate even more of a treat!

RSPB Sandwell Meal Deal - Chicken Chorizo & Pesto, Crisps & Drink [@NLi10]

 We went for a decently long walk in Sandwell Park yesterday, from one end over to the RSPB reserve and discovered they had decent snacks.

And if you purchased a sandwich snack and drink you got a 20% discount - win!

I chose the biggest sandwich - chicken and chorizo, but mostly salad and good vitamins.

Pretty good fillings!

I think it needed to sit out of the fridge a bit to get all the flavours, but it was a very welcome boost.

I also got the lightly salted crisps to share because I couldn't see the salt and vinegar ones, and although there are certainly less in the bag these days they are good quality.

These sparkling drinks are always good too. A nice hit of lemon and refreshing water.  Perfect for a warm but overcast day.

Overall - decent value considering this helps keeping the RSPB reserve open - and worth it for a few hide visits and a good look at the forest & park and it's residents.

Soreen Scream Cookies & Cream (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

Halloween is creeping ever closer. Soreen have come up with these Scream Cookies & Cream flavoured Mini Loaves. I love Soreen of any flavour with my lunch. To me, these sound perfect for any scary lunchbox over Spooky Season.

On opening the first packet there was an aroma of cookies to the brown mini loaf inside. There were chocolate chips all throughout this Soreen Scream Cookies & Cream. There was also a creaminess at the end of every mouthful. Delicious.

Information on the packet: There are 5 mini loaves, each having 98 calories, with 1.6g of fat, 4.8g of sugar, and 0.15g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

McVitie’s Penguin Bar (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

This McVitie’s Penguin Bar is a penguin-shaped chocolate bar from Penguin, who usually make biscuit bars. I’d say that was confusing, but to be honest, after their sideways offering of Penguin salt and vinegar crisps, this feels a lot more on brand! Arguably, this is what everyone who has ever bought a pack of Penguin biscuit bars hoped they would look like. This, however, was sold as an individual chocolate bar rather than a whole new redesign.

I opened the wrapper and have to say this is a cute-looking bar. The smiling chocolate penguin made me smile too, as it’s a lovely design. Of course, I had to give it a try, and it was unmistakably Penguin biscuit bar flavoured. There’s the milk chocolate, which is nice and thick, with a decent layer of fondant-like filling. Mixed into this are biscuit balls, rather than a solid biscuit, but there are enough of them to add crunch and make the texture fun and interesting.

I really like this! It might not fit in my lunchbox in the same way as the regular bars, but it’s definitely something I’d pick up as an impulse buy for a little treat. I’d probably buy these more often than the regular biscuit bars, and certainly more often than the salt and vinegar crisps!

THIS 100% Plant Fillet Steak with pepper [@NLi10]

 I like vegan food, and I like trying new things so when I spotted this variation on the steaks-but-vegan idea I decided to give it a shot.  It was orphaned on the shelf so it's price was a mystery until I got to the till - £7! But fortunately £5.50 as a 'deal'.  This still seems a bit much, but everything does these days.

It looks luxury - and there are two!

So - what is it? Water! Mostly anyway, just like real meat. Then wheat & soya, unlike most meat. Although cows do eat a lot of grass.

Almost as off-putting as the real thing!

Just a block of red stuff - covered in pepper and sizzling away

It went a bit too crispy on the sides, I'm not sure exactly how they wanted me to ensure that it was cooked without burning it.

I think the idea that the middle looks red so you feel like a carnivore is fun, but my resident vegetarian wouldn't touch this so I get to eat both.

Texture was great, and the flavours were nice - if not mostly pepper and not really 'steak'.  Again - this kind of stuff needs to be less homogenous and have 'marbling' or at least gaps to really feel correct.

Overall - like a luxury soft cut of meat, but with lighter flavours and a slightly odd texture.  A win for me, but way too expensive to eat weekly.

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