Tasty Bite - Tikka Masala Chunky Vegetable Curry - in 60 seconds! (@NLi10)

It's another lock-down dinner - what could possibly liven up this Quorn and home-grown courgette?

Why, this lunch sized curry pouch of course!

Tasty Bite Tikka Masala Chunky Vegetable Curry is essentially a whole lunch in itself, but with the super absorbent Quorn I figured I'd try mixing it all together for variety.

Originally I'd saved this to do their wrap suggestion with left over meal kit wraps, but I kept finishing them all - Quorn it is!

Bag curry has a very distinctive look...

Cooks up OK though

And serves well too - the little potato squares went really well, and although it's not as spicy as I'd usually go it worked really well as a nice summer evening dish.  Using lunch pouches as a chunky sauce with most of the ingredients already in was a success.  Shall have to try this again!

Loyd Grossman’s Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil (Morrison’s) By @SpectreUK

I usually have a pot noodle once a week or so when Cinabar and her mom have a pizza night. I'm not fussed with pizza. I used to like it, but went off it some years back after Pizza Hut stopped making my favourite, Carne Amanti… sad times. Pizza to me is very filling and often a bit too greasy for my diet. Tonight I fancy pasta, so this Loyd Grossman Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil seems like a quick low calorie and low fat healthy pot. It also saves time spent on lengthy preparation or messing with a TV dinner in our new fangled microwave oven.

The pot has a photograph with Loyd Grossman looking strangely younger than I remember him on TV. He states that this Pasta Italia is a "quick and easy way to enjoy great tasting Italian inspired pasta and sauce". I'll hold him to that, as it's supposed to be ready in 5 minutes after adding the freshly boiled water and replacing the lid for a while before stirring. This pot contains penne pasta in a tomato and basil sauce mix. I do like tomato and basil soup, so I'm expecting to like this Pasta Italia.

While the kettle boiled I popped a piece of bread into the toaster, and prepared myself a simple diced tomato, apple and baby beetroot salad (beetroot… "bluurgh" said Cinabar)… As you can see from the photograph on opening the pot there was some dried pasta and powdered sauce mixed together at the bottom of the pot. The mark to add the freshly boiled water was on the outside of the pot, which I haven't seen before, and that confused me a little as there was also an indent at the top of the inside of the pot.

Even adding in the correct amount of water and leaving the pot to stand before stirring, this Pasta Italia seemed to be missing something… oh, yes… flavour! Even with the correct amount of water in the pot it felt like the flavour was watered down considerably. It tasted like pasta in tomato and basil sauce in a bucket, so excuse me if I felt a little robbed. I reckon it needed a whole lot more powdered sauce to make this Pasta Italia Sundried Tomato & Basil a proper flavoursome meal.

Information on the cardboard pot;
each 283g pot contains 218 calories, with 0.8g of fat, 14.4g of sugar, and 1.64g of salt. With no artificial colours or preservatives, the ingredients included; penne pasta (51%)(durum, wheat, semolina), tomato powder, sugar, garlic powder (5%), sundried tomatoes (3%), sea salt, yeast extract powder, dried basil (0.5%), and (more) salt.

Mini Cheddars – Chipotle Chicken Wings (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

When I first saw this new flavour from Mini Cheddars I was a little confused, is the first flavour of product with a cheese in the title not to include cheese? I looked closer and these Mini Cheddars Chipotle Chicken Wings are both cheese and hot chicken, strange but true. The bag is bright red too and there is warning on the front about heat level, I was quite excited to give them a try.
The bags are small but there is still a decent portion of these Mini Cheddars with Chipotle Chicken Wings flavour biscuits in the pack. They have a darker than usual seasoning and a spicy smell that was appealing. My favourite flavour of crisps are chicken ones, be them roast or spicy, I was looking forward to trying this on a Mini Cheddar. Th texture is the usual soft biscuit but the flavour is remarkably impressive, it is a complex mix for the taste buds. There is a lot of smoky flavour, cheese and chicken and quite a hit of chilli. These are strong on the heat front than I’d ben expecting, I let one melt on the tongue and got quite a tingle, but they aren’t scary hot. (Personal preferences do apply here). This is very different seasoning for a Mini Cheddar but the Chipotle Chicken Wings do work, they are a bit different and rather nice as an afternoon snack.

Ben and Jerry’s Netflix and Chill’d Ice Cream (Ocado) By @Cinabar

Lockdown hit the UK and I was still quite late to the party in getting Netflix. I really didn’t watch that much TV before all this, but being in the house so much more and not having a commute meant I had a little time on my hands. I am also reading more, just saying.
I am loving Netflix though. I have watched multiple series of programs, and finally understood the hype about The Stranger. I just started Safe and we decided to have some ice cream while watching. I bought this on an online order and it is a ‘Netflix Original Flavour’ which made me smile. The ice cream is from Ben and Jerry’s and it is called Netflix and Chill’d, it contains peanut butter, chocolate brownie and salted pretzel. I love peanut butter so was keen to give this a try. Ben and Jerry’s ice creams are quite pricey but they are the place to go for creative flavours.
I took it out the freezer and left it a few minutes to warm up, just to make it easier to serve. There is plenty of interesting contents and I could immediately see the brownie pieces in the ice cream. The first flavour is peanut butter, this is a wonderful creamy nutty taste. There are bits of salted sections from the pretzel which makes a wonderful contrast, think sweet and salty popcorn. The chocolate brownie adds lovely firm gooey bits to the texture and a pleasing burst of chocolate. The ice cream was a delight to eat, sweet, salty, nutty, chocolatey, all boxes ticked. Ben and Jerry’s Netflix and Chill’d Ice Cream is pricey but worth it, so what does everyone recommended I watch next?