Spam Fritters For Tea from Iceland - in 2021! (@NLi10)

 We decided to have a quick look round the local Iceland shop as it was raining and picking up cool food is a good idea. And then I spotted these odd things.  We reviewed Spam a while back as they sent us vouchers - but it’d never had spam fritters!

So - along with veggie treats I picked them up

And look at that lovely branding and packaging.

Who could resist this British treat of really pink pork, but in batter?

Basically Pork Nuggets!

Today we’ve decided to eat like 10 year olds!

Pink bits!

And yeah - these were actually quite nice. The spam flavour is milder than I remember, but maybe that’s me getting old. And the batter made it more of a meal thing than just Spam with salad at every birthday party from my childhood at my dads parents.

Great nostalgia and a nice change to breaded chicken. Worth a punt! (Unless yr veggie…)

Speedfeast - Flame Grilled Chicken Sandwich (@NLi10)

Lunch takes too long, right? We want a SpeedFeast - 90 seconds - Microwave - Eat.

I mean - Rustlers take a similar amount of time, and the other burgers we got from Lidl at the same time do too.  But this one is a Speed Feast!

So far so normal.

The chicken itself is a little odd, more of a mock grilled thing than I was expecting.  The value is all in the luxury herby mayo of course which contains all the flavour.  And it's not bad.  Not the most filling of propositions (I guess a lot of people opt for two of these?) but it tasted of chicken, and contained chicken, so I can't complain too much.

I think that teasing me with salad on the actual box picture was a little mean - with those added in it might have been a full meal!

 

Wicked Kitchen - Late Night Noodles - Smokey Soy flavours & a surprise! (@NLi10)

I needed some lazy lunch pots so picked some up on a supermarket trip - including this intriguing new brand.

Wicked Kitchen has clear concise branding and was pretty affordable.  Sounds worth a try.

It's just simple noodles and dust - but that's all I need.

Smells great - lets look what's in it.

Wait - here's a surprise - it's just the Tesco own brand noodles - but with a fun new name!  That's a great idea (and copying the 'discount' supermarkets) and one that worked on me.  The noodles were tangy in flavour and very simple, but filling enough.

My picture of the noodles was terrible, but they looked a lot like the pack shot so just scroll up a bit.  

An nice change from the typical pot noodle or the deluxe priced instant noodles. A win from me!

 

Naked Japanese Style Katsu Curry Rice (@Nli10)

 What do you do for lunch when it's too hot to go out to the shop? Get Naked!

Luckily that's a capital N there and i'm just talking about the snack brand.  Here we have a Katsu 'style' pot of stuff.

The sneaky fluffy rice that is almost like rice crispies.  Interesting tech.

Soon looks normal with water

And 5 mins later looks (and smells) like food!  And granted - this isn't a luxury lunch - it's rather homogeneous but the Katsu flavour is good, and it did fill me up (but maybe less so than the Huel grains).

Not one to rush out and buy again, but a plesant enough option to have stashed away for a rainy (or heatwave) day.

ERIDANOUS - Greek Style Gyros at home (@NLi10)

Lidl by work have all kinds of odd theme weeks, and earlier in the year they did some awesome Greek stuff.  I bought this to fry up for home lunches - and promptly forgot about it.  It floated to the bottom of the freezer where it's  been for say 4 months.

It's essentially one of their bachelor chow things - a meal in a bag.  Add some water and heat and you have a mix of meat, veg and carbs. But do you have any flavour or authenticity.

Hmmm - frozen Greek bits in water doesn't look great.

When the rice sucks all that moisture up though it turns into a nice small dinner.  There are olives in here, decent quality pork, recognisable veggies with crunch, and of course the flavoured rice.

And it's a hit.  It really takes less than 10 mins from freezer to plate (oddly the microwave recipe is slower) and it has kept pretty well unopened.  I don't expect the other 2/3 of the bag to make it so long - a quick tasty lunch is always a pleasure.

Not authentic to Greek restaurant quality, but good enough for a TV meal.

Kicker & Pie-Nalty- Walkers Crisps, but for the lads #Football (@NLi10)

 GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL.  See - I know Football!  I didn't think the big football was happening this year, but Walker's apparently did so they released these.  Did it happen?  Did we win?

Great puns lads - that marketing degree really paying off!

Nice big bags are something I approve of though.

I put them in a girly bowl to counter the hyper masculinity so I could calm down enough to review them.

"Football fever is sweeping the nation" pretty sure that's the Covid.  Don't tell me I've got to get another two jabs? I double checked the date on these crisps to make sure Walkers didn't get the year wrong and send out crisps from the summer of 2019 by mistake.

They taste like the normal sweet chilli ones, maybe with a hint of dairy as an aftertaste.

Here's the main event bag though (mainly as I get to eat all of this one as they taste meaty). Cat matts in the background to earth the testosterone.

Same blurb - footage of me in the background watching The Game - not playing Resident Evil 8 or anything - honest.  Go Piggers!!

These taste like pub crisps - the McCoys & Roysters kind that are very beefy and very nice.  I enjoyed them a lot.  Hopefully my corner shop still has more of these to buy as they would be good with a pint. Oh no! What have I become!!

Basil & Pine Nut Ravioli (Morrisons UK) @NLi10

 Quick dinners are great.  Italian quick dinners are even greater!  Spotted this on my first actual supermarket visit in AGES and couldn't resist.

Box opened and then cardboard put back on so it's less shiny!

This is the classic filled pasta treat.  And as they are gradually getting more luxurious I'm buying even more.

And look - they sold me fresh bread to go alongside it.  Yum!

Boil lightly for 4 mins - done!  Enjoy the pesto and basil scents.

And look at this for a sophisticated (yet light) dinner.  I'd have had a little more chunky pine nuts in the ravioli purely for texture, but this was amazing and good enough to get me to go back to Morrisons.

Co-op Lightly Salted Veggie Tortilla Chips - for dinner! (NLi10)

We don't get out much these days - what with the plague and everything - so we are having to recreate some of the decadant treats we'd normally have at home.  One of these is the 'crisps for dinner' starter that you get/got at Chiquitos and similar.  Essentially the kitchen pour some sauce on some tacos and stick them in the oven for a bit - we can do that at home!

And yes - I know we've talked about this before - but now the co-op have presented us with options.  These aren't so much vegetarian (which they are) but vegetable flavoured corn chips.  If you've had the tricolour pasta then you know what to expect as it's the same Spinach & Beetroot dust that's used here.  Ace!

As a half a bag portion - with cheese, guac' and sour cream this works well for one person.

I was supposed to do my own portion with the quorn mince salsa mix that I prefer but I had something else that evening and we ate the rest of the bag while watching the film. 

A great fun alternative to plain chips & dip, and technically it might even contain some vitamins this way.

Great (until you run out of films on the streaming service anyway!)

Vemondo Vegan Chilli Sin Carne (@NLi10) via Lidl

One of my favourite things to tag reviews with is bachelor chow, a wonderful catch-all term from the TV show Futurama for meals that essentially come in a can/bag and can be eaten when it's just you at home.

Here's one now!

Except I shared this with my partner - adding some more rice to the side and a few veggies.

Put bag in pan - hit and heat until done!

The sauce is essentially giant ice-cubes - which as anyone who has tried the cook for the week style of meal preparation will tell you is an amazing way to make a load of sauce in one go and then spread that effort over the next few months.  It works best with curry so I was willing to give it a go.  I was surprised that this also had rice built in!

Fortunately it also has beans and minor veggies - the bag much to my surprise said it was a meal for one person so at this point I grabbed all the extras and turned it into something worth sharing - and forgot to take further pictures!

You'll have to take my word for the fact that it looks like a fairly standard bean chilli.

The spice wasn't all that exciting, I'd add a little of my own next time, but it was certainly a satisfying and easy way to make a big pot of vegan chilli with just a cheap frozen bag from Lidl!

Maple Bacon Bagels - but vegan as there is no Bacon - just @Deliciou ! (@NLi10)

 

Christmas is a magical time, where many things occur - including an increased susceptibility to the adverts that pop up in the Scrabble game my family play.  One of these things was from Australian Dragons Den and is a powder that makes anything taste like Bacon.  This is a perfect joke sister present - but the postage etc was much more reasonable if you got two.  So I got the Maple Bacon variety where as she got the original bacon.

In the video advert, people on the street tip the dust onto something - then eat it - and go - bacon!  I figured it wouldn't really be like that, but as I do like seasonings I figured it would at least compete with the Little Chef maple bacon pancakes breakfast I miss from our road trips.

At home I'd tend to use bagels instead

No MSG? Why not - it's proven that the colours in the food were the problem and MSG is great!  

It is suitable for vegans though which is fascinating.  I've long held that the best part of bacon is fried salt - which is vegan in theory - so I wonder what they use.

Sugar, salt & garlic?  Fine by me! As I suspected, this is not copying British bacon, but the more American style crispy streaky stuff. Not a problem for me!

It also said a serving size was 1g - much more than I'd used on my pre-review trials.  So here we have an approximate g.  The Gino D'Acampo scales are terrible for small measures like this - but it's close enough.

We toast the thin American-Style bagels.

We butter our control bagels (science) and conclude that they are decent.  Not as good as my usual brand, but we are in a pandemic afterall!

And on the other bagel we blend the bacon dust into the spread!

At this point its easy to get the maple syrup smell, and realise just how similar this stuff is to brick dust.  You really don't want to breath this in - and getting it on your hands means they will smell like maple for a good while.

It doesn't look like bacon, but with the increased amount from measuring out, and the realistic setting for the bacon this does work surprisingly well.  I'm not sure a blind taste test would lead English people to bacon as the first choice due to the sweetness of the maple - but on bagels & pancakes like bacon and syrup should be this works.  

I'm not sure it's cost effective, and I don't think it's something I'll finish without deliberate effort (at least 65 servings here!), but I'm certainly going to be using it as an ingredient in lunches and other things to see just how versatile this flavour powder is.

Part 2 is here! - and is Milkshakes?!

Part 3 is Here - and is Pancakes!

Huel Savoury - Thai Green Curry (@NLi10) @gethuel

 I've been putting this one off for a few weeks so have decided to split the two flavours into two reviews.  This is the 2nd - the first is here

Huel is basically science porridge - it's a lunch that you can make with just water and powder, and once you get over the fact that it's not that special, it's actually very filling and satisfying, and seems to be really good for me in terms of vitamins and minerals.  I actually miss it at the weekends (I leave it at work). 

People get twitchy when you include your referral link for this stuff in the reviews (due to the fact that most of the cost of it pays for the adverts) and so I'm not using them this time - and I'm also not submitting this to their creepy brand based influencer app that I signed up for.

All the 'cult of huel' stuff aside I actually like it, so while restocking on magic dust I decided to get the soupy savoury version.

This is the exciting flavour of the two.  As it also had the most potential to go wrong so I only got one bag of this, and two of the other.

Here is the exciting list of ingredients - including that well known Thai food - Sweetcorn?!  Apparently it is popular there, although I don't remember ever seeing it in curries.

And again - like in the first review - I'd shaken the bag to mix the ingredients which just resulted in all the light things floating to the top - sweetcorn disappointment city....

Here is a pic from the other review of what it looks like if you use a little more powder, stir the bag, and maybe a touch less water.  It's a lovely cereal mix.

Where as the tomato version is just tomato soup this one actually has tangyness and tastes like green curry should.  I don't add anything to this one to make it more exciting, but frankly if you had a few fresh greens floating around you could turn this into a real meal.  But it still goes cold too fast in the silly little pot.

I have three bags of this which means I have about 21 meals worth.  And since I popped these open I've not even touched the milkshakes.  This makes me think that I should make those warm somehow, as I have two bags of that to eat too (it'll keep to summer).  I'll likely buy more of this but they really could do with a third flavour, something more earthy, just to make the weeks a little more varied.

Huel Savoury - Tomato & Herb (@NLi10) @gethuel

I've been putting this one off for a few weeks so have decided to split the two flavours into two reviews.

Huel is basically science porridge - it's a lunch that you can make with just water and powder, and once you get over the fact that it's not that special, it's actually very filling and satisfying, and seems to be really good for me in terms of vitamins and minerals.  I actually miss it at the weekends (I leave it at work). 

People get twitchy when you include your referral link for this stuff in the reviews (due to the fact that most of the cost of it pays for the adverts) and so I'm not using them this time - and I'm also not submitting this to their creepy brand based influencer app that I signed up for.

All the 'cult of huel' stuff aside I actually like it, so while restocking on magic dust I decided to get the soupy savoury version.

Turns out it's basically a bag of grain - like a lunch time hot breakfast cereal - bachelor chow for the win!

It's a bit hard to read here but it's all on their website.  It's mostly seeds and grains but with the magic powder added to make you get all those missing extras.

Your first order comes with a stylish black cup.  I also ordered another for the normal shaker as I dropped mine pretty much immediately and it's had a crack in it ever since.  Expensive hobby as these pots are about £4 each, but as the meal powder itself is about £2.50 a day that's cheaper than walking out of my office and finding a sandwich, and it's nicer too.

Paying £50 for dust seems mad.

I thought I gave it a good stir, but this looks in hindsight like mostly the veg on the top of the bag AND it's not a full scoop.

I'm making the world's most expensive Pot Noodle aren't I...?

And goodness it looks wrong?!!  I ate it, but it was watery and the consistency was all weird.  It was mostly beans.  Like with the Huel cereal (which they still owe me for missing one out of my original order!) unless you physically mix the contents of the bag around then you are just going to separate it out more by shaking the bag.  This seems to be a massive flaw in the big bag design.

Give the bag a big old stir first and you end up with this - an appetising bowl of somewhere between cereal and paella - which is great indeed.  Not only is this a lot more satisfying to eat than the milkshake, the heat is also a welcome bonus in the cold days.  If only they sold some kind of insulated bowl that kept it warm while the phone rings and your colleagues interrupt you...

This was the tomato and herb flavour - it's still pretty basic stuff, but it happily takes a shot of balsamic to the top to liven it up (and that's basically fat and calorie free so doesn't ruin the healthiness of it all).

I'll write up the Thai version next.