Pokémon Krispy Kreme Doughnuts - Sainsbury's UK [@NLi10]

 Attention fellow trainers - Krispy Kreme's Pokemon range has now landed in the UK!  There are 6 flavours to choose from in America, but two of the colours are banned on the rest of the planet so we have one Starter, and two wild Pokemons and a regular ball.

And this is what they look like.

My store only had one of the boxes in stock - and I only got that because we happen to go to the store at the same time as the Krispy Kreme van every week to pick up Nanna's shopping.  I was tempted to take a picture of the guys stocking up - but I'm already struggling to beat the Team Rocket allegations by depriving kids of the lovely box...

Realistically though - the doughnuts themselves are available freely - for some reason the boxes are reselling on eBay already so it looks like people are swiping them. Madness. Mine is covered in grease and goo because we are humans so I think we shall keep it.

First up - Pikachu!  The most recognisable of all the Pokemans and only a starter in a few games after kids decided he was the best.

Lemon Sherbet Kreme is a good choice, sizzling electric flavours and lemony goodness to balance out the sheer sugar. 

Overall this is a hit.  They could keep this in the range and it'd sell. Not perfect, but pretty darn good.  Maybe a bit too gooey to cut open and share - just like a real Pikachu!

Next up - Jigglypuff! A pain of a wild Pokemon due to it's tendency to sing and put your team to sleep, but once caught great with Rollout & Pound

This is the Pink offering - and while it's just a basic glazed ring I thought that the pink bits were fun and I enjoyed them.  My partner detected an artificalness to them which she didn't like, but I was fine with it.

Solid but very much a special edition not a keeper.

The Pokeball is the same doughnut but with a white glaze and red sprinkles.

Oddly that little line of chocolate is the star, it just adds an extra dimension to it which would make me happy to have these as a change.

Next up we have my original 1998 starter - Charmander!  I had Pokemon Blue but chose this lad because I assumed you'd get them all eventually.  Oh how naive I was!

Inside it's the most interesting of all the flavours, both dolce de late and caramel, with the outside being a flavour of caramel and sparkle sugar - goodness!

A braver company would have put cinnamon on top and had this in first place, but as it stands it's a sophisticated little doughnut that doesn't earn it's fire-type and comes in 2nd to the Pikachu.

Over all - for £9 (with an odd 4p discount with the nectar card) it's not a bad offering - especially with the cute box that once cleaned and lined could hold pokemon cards or be sent to be graded.  A good treat and hopefully one that doesn't create too many family arguments over who gets the best one.

Cinnamon & Mixed Spiced Shortbread - Sainsbury's [@NLi10]

Finishing off all the winter snacks I spied a box of winter spice shortbread that had got forgotten about!  The Earl Grey shortbread was a little odd so I think this was also relegated to the 'try later' pile. 

These little luxury boxes are great, but the shortbread inside just was a little too crumbly and not 'short' enough for our liking.

Coriander Clove & Fennel have been added in trace amounts to add a little warmth to the proceedings

This makes them darker and crumblier than normal, and a more difficult to slot in snack.

With a cup of tea in the afternoon though it's quite nice, but like the Earl Grey one finger really is enough to get the idea.  I will make it through the box, but I'm not sure I'll be hunting these down again.

Sainsbury's Butter Chicken Curry Pie [@NLi10]

Britain loves curry, Britain loves pies - so we have curry pies! Balti pies were all the rage a while back, but other than the 'sauce' pie I'd not seen many other variations

Butter chicken is one of my go-to options.  It's not as spicy as many others, and is a lot harder to do badly than the Korma.  Also if you are in a good restaurant they will call it makhani instead and you know it's going to be a good one and not just "curry for people scared of curry"

Looks decent enough with a lovely puff top

And the insides certainly smell legit - Luna here is confused because if I have this from the takeaway I'd get naan which is one of her favourite things in the world.

The chicken is decent sized chunks, and the sauce is as thick and rich as you'd expect.  A perfect, milder option for the curry pie then - with potential to add some of my chilli salt from the grinder to take it to the next level.

I'll certainly aim to have this one again, but when we are surrounded by ace curry houses it seems rude not to pop out to those too.

 

Sainsbury's in-store Patisserie - Lemon Tart [@NLi10]

 Supermarkets in the UK have had in store bakeries for ages now - but some are upgrading and doing actual patisserie sections - inspired by the similar ones in euro-supermarkets.  So how do they stack up?

The range looks good - and there are more fragile ones over to the right - but I wanted something robust to share with nanna.

And I chose a little lemon tart - risking that she isn't one for acidy flavours.

Looks the part and is still crisp

And is a slim enough portion that nanna risked a quarter and enjoyed it!

While not quite France quality, this was a decently light snack with deep flavours and a lovely pastry case.  Nothing too exotic, but better than you'd get on the non-fresh shelves for sure.

So - a win - maybe I'll risk something flakier and creamier next time.

Taste The Difference Banoffee Pie Inspired Yoghurts (Sainsburys) By @Cinabar

I wanted a bit of a treat this lunchtime. I usually have a low-fat yoghurt, but today I picked up a fun-sounding Banoffee Pie Inspired Yoghurt, from the Taste The Difference range at Sainsburys. There are two in the pack, and they are a little more expensive than my usual six packs of fruit flavours, but they are a bit of a treat.

Inside the pack is quite a plain-looking dark cream yoghurt, with biscuit bits mixed in. I gave it a try, and it may not look exciting, but the flavour really was. It was a rich, sweet toffee-flavoured yoghurt with a creamy, sweet banana taste running through it, a complete delight. There is also a lovely creaminess too, and the yoghurt is thick and luxurious. The biscuit bits are soft as they have been in the yoghurt, but they do still add a little texture and a nice richness to the flavour. My conclusion is that yoghurts usually come in six packs, and there are seven days in the week, so every other week I might add a nice pack of treat yoghurts in twin pots to enjoy. These Taste The Difference Banoffee Pie Inspired Yoghurts are so nice, I can't wait to have them again and see what other interesting flavours are available. 

White Choc & Rasp Granola - Sainsbury's Free From Range [@NLi10]

 I had a look for a new exciting cereal, and unexpectedly found one in the 'free from' section.

My main issue with granola is that it tends to be a bit heavy for breakfast, but I wondered if this would work out as a slightly lighter alternative.

It's basically just normal granola which has been made in a gluten free environment.

Milk free white chocolate alternative is the only real concern - plus the fact that the choc looks like it's melted into huge lumps.

Quite pretty, but but has resulted in clumping - lets see what it's like.

Sticking to the dairy free theme I've gone with Oat Milk as my Alt Milk (I get whichever is cheapest usually) and it worked pretty well.  

The grain bits have crunch, there is a decent variety in them too. The choc stuff is actually a highlight - the not-milk helps it blend in with the rest.  There isn't much of the red fruit bits - but what is there is good quality and strong tasting.

With a handful of blueberries or something to balance the lack of fruit bits then this would be perfect.

I think I can eat this happily on relaxed weekend mornings but I do love a larger bowl of cereal on a week day so see how it goes.

Summer Session Ale (Sainsbury’s) By @SpectreUK

If you're craving sunshine after a dreary winter, this Summer Session Ale might be for you. Part of the Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range, this golden ale had natural peach flavouring added in the brewing.

At 4.2% in volume this is a traditional session ale with a fruity twist. Not so good for macho heavy machinery workers of the past, probably good for people who want a lightly refreshing fruity beer to have in the sunshine with a good book in the garden.

Goldings and WVG hops were added in the brewing for floral aroma, and citrus peachy notes. So this should be a refreshing brew to get me looking forward to some brighter weather. I certainly wouldn't mind a good sit down with a book or two in the garden on a sunny day.

On opening this Summer Session Ale, I was strangely surprised just how peachy this golden beer smelt. There were citrus aromas too, but the peachiness was definitely predominant, with some wheat and malted barley after it.

On taste this Summer Session Ale had plenty of peach in the initial flavour, with light citrus bitterness following the sweetness of the peaches, only to be replaced by more peaches. There was then added sweetness from the wheat and malted barley into the aftertaste. Lovely. This golden ale made me think of summer, even if it was a little dull outside.

Gü Plant - Spanish Lemon - and Vegan?! (@NLi10)

 We like the Gu (or Gü as I’ll type once for the records) puddings in this house. We have all the ramekins, and they are great for teabags, sauces and you can use Pringle lids to seal them to pop stuff in the fridge!

When a new one appears it’s a guilt free way to generate some reviews by trying a different, yet familiar thing. But this one - this one’s a bit odd.

Billed as Gü (oh it autocorrected!) Plant - Spanish Lemon this is part of a new vegan range - but has cheesecakes written on the box too - but no cheese here! This is great because I dislike cheese.

So far so normal!

Now that looks a little odd - the smell is new and it’s more similar to a milk jelly texture than the traditional cheese cake ones.

This would not be possible with the real cheese Gü product - Luna gave this a sniff before trying to hit it, instead of attempting to eat it.  And why is this - it’s because it’s got coconut in with the citrus fruits.

This means it’s more of a coconut mousse than a cheesecake (not a problem), and then the base is odd too.  This doesn’t hold together like a normal cheesecake and is pretty much like a sugary crumble.  To this end I think they should flip this - call it a lemon crumble or similar and put the fluff on the bottom and the crunch on the top!

So - nice then (very nice) and gluten free AND vegan which is a pretty powerful trifecta.  Would buy this again, but not when I’m in the mood for a thick creamy heavy cheese cake, but a light summery desert.

Will have to try the rest of the range now too!

Plant Pioneers - Vegan NO Steak Bake - by @NLi10 from Sainsburys

 Hey - it's lunch time again!  Well - not quite...

Front loading the nice picture for the Insta!

So while this is a quick lunch style steak bake we had it as part of a balanced evening meal.

Plant Pioneers are a neat little company that I've not seen before...

...just kidding - it's actually a Sainsbury's stealth own brand.  I have absolutely no problem with this however, in fact I'm confused that it's taken so long for this idea to make it to the high-street - the music industry has had fake Indy labels since the 90s.

They look good though, the left one is a cheeeese version that I didn't have.

They look decent 

And they polish up to a meal nicely.

The queen's official food taster approves (but did not detect any meat so left alone)

Mine however looks pretty meaty for a vegan slice.  More of a veggie mince than a steak bake really - I'd have preferred some chunkiness - but another really enjoyable product.  

Can't wait to explore more of this range and see how successful it becomes.

Vegetable Medley Futomaki (Sainsbury's) [by @NLi10]

I frequently have the bite-size sushi for lunch as bread tends to make me fall asleep.  When hinting for this in Sainsbury's and being disappointed that they didn't have a veggie sushi for me (not refrigerating fish sushi makes veggie safer) I spotted a few of these futomaki which were.  These did however have wasabi paste in them so I bought two large innocent fruit drinks just in case.

I know this is essentially just a larger sushi roll, but the experience and tastes were very different.  For one the wasabi wasn't too powerful but did come across as the main flavour and the smaller, pepper looking things added a crunchy touch.  The rice was good and cooled the spiciness and the leaves were not hard or dry like I worried they may be.

This is a perfectly good alternative to the little sushi box, and one that I'd happily buy again - maybe alongside the sushi box for a bigger meal or extravagant snack.