TGI Fridays at home - BBQ Pork Burnt Ends & Tetris Waffles [@NLi10]

When I bought this the guy in Iceland asked me to let him know how it was as no one there had tried it yet.

Turns out it's likely because it takes 40 mins to oven cook, and would rather you defrosted it first .

That's a lot more mental planning and effort than I'd expected - and also it's for 4 and I'm only one person

Which means getting complicated and using half the sauce

And somehow chiselling off half this bag of horror.

Meanwhile in the frozen aisles these lovely mini waffles appeared.  Looking like Tetris blocks and infinitely divisible they are also much better for dipping.  How have these not been around for 40 years?!

All hail the air-fryer, I'm sticking them in the oven.

Wait ages for a long piece and get loads when you don't need one. 

Thankfully blurred shot of defrosted but not cooked burnt ends bag.  Looks like dogfood.

As I was home alone I decided to just go for it, make the whole bag of burnt ends and some waffle fingers on the side.  With a bit of cooking and the sauce added on it not only started to resemble human food but actually smelt really good.

And turned into a serviceable meal at home.  Had the meat portion not been so big I'd probably have added some other sides, but I could definitely imagine getting this at a TGI and being absolutely fine with it.  Better for two people, but possible for one with a movie and breaks.

The sauce was the star, but the meat was decent quality and while not particularly crispy that might have been me using the glass casserole bowl instead of the tin as recommended.

Bonus Content!

I did spot as well this full Sunday Roast chicken dinner for 4 for £25 (including veg and pigs in blankets) which I think I'd struggle to solo, but for 2/3 might be manageable.  Can't imagine how long this would take in the oven from frozen though.

 

Hash brown pizza base - Iceland [@NLi10]

 Iceland sell plate-sized hash browns

It’s a slab of potato

Pop them on the messy grill.  Not sure you’d fit these in the air fryer

Small plate sized then

So - let’s turn it into a real meal - a hash browns pizza!

I used a pesto base, and added some Tesco meat circles, and some roast veggies.

Fantastic idea and a nice variation on the usual pizza base, and I’ve been instructed to get more!

Seriously Spooky Ghosts - Kitkat Sweet Potato (Korean) [@NLi10]

 Happy Halloween leftovers!  Spotted these in the Korean grocery shop, but obviously left over from Trick-Or-Treat.  They'd not been discounted but need to be eaten pretty fast.

The theming and bag is top notch - it even folds out to make a pumpkin display (if you can be bothered to colour it in)

As usual these are made in the one special KitKat factory in Japan they opened for all the weird flavours - and is just a specific regional variation.

Super packaging - all the same flavour though.

And that flavour is white chocolate kitkat.  Seriously - If I gave this to someone and said 'what does it taste of' then the answer would be white chocolate. 

No wonder then that at £5 a bag they had quite a few left.  Not disappointing - as these are still crunchy and taste great, but I think I paid a lot more just to recycle some spooky packaging in April.  Ah well.

Percy Pigs Potato Shapes (Marks and Spencers) By @cinabar

As a grown adult, I often buy silly potato shapes to mix things up a bit instead of oven chips. I mean, I do buy chips too, but I can't help but buy potato smiles or alphabets sometimes. I am behind the times and don’t have an air fryer (I think I may be the only one), so I’m still going to oven cook potatoes like these and chips.

I spotted these Percy Pigs Potato Shapes and thought they would be the perfect accompaniment with dinner, something to make us smile before the weekend. Inside the bag were Percy Pig faces that were bigger and thicker than the potato smiles that I also bought. Once baked, they went a little golden. But were softer than expected with a light crust. The flavour was good though, it reminded me of mashed potatoes, which was nice. I did buy them as they are a little silly, but they made us smile and were tasty enough to buy again. I mean sure kids would like them too, but clearly that isn't the target market. :D 

Frozen Pickled Onion Space Raiders - Iceland (@NLi10)

 One of my recent Iceland pick-ups was these wonderful potato sides - themed around cool 80s Crisps Space Raiders.  They are potato with a little hint of pickled onion, unlike the massively overpowering crisps.

They come in lovely big bags, and look like alien faces.

Featured in the top right corner - the halloumi cubes from Iceland's Chiquitos range.

And Iceland also now sell Fry's range too - including some other space themed things for kids!

Super veggie friendly, and healthy too!

Well - it is a festival of beige - but in theory it's all easy to cook and better than a lot of the equivalents.

The space raider faces are like really light onion rings, and have the texture of the potato equivalents. All enjoyable, and simple to do.