Whistling/Singing Swede - dinner for 25p (ish) by @NLi10

The 'junk food' (as in left over) place near me had a massive box of swedes a while back so I thought I'd take their recommendations and have one for dinner! 

The idea is that you take off the cellophane and pop it in the microwave for 2x8 mins (flipping half way).  I put a cross on the top but thats mostly for my own amusement.

It's just a big bit of plant! It does feel a bit Baldrick having this for dinner - but it's a good honest root veg - and at 25p it's a bargain.

The 'Junk food' place is donations not prices so I got it in a bundle with the mash and a few other bits and bobs and gave them a little more than the orange sticker prices as it's a great cause.

Luna got up to see what the noise in the microwave was, and to distract from the ipad gaming.

And eventually it looks like this!

Cooked all the way through with practically no effort - and in theory quite cheap.

Here are two scooped out quarters - doesn't look like much - but it's an exciting carbohydrate to have as a balanced meal.

Sam went veggie - pine nuts, cheese & then swede and mash.

I went for the swede and mash base, but then added tomatoes and lots of left over deli meats. Yum!

I've been recommended horse radish for the next one and I've already got it on the worktop ready.

A definite win if you like the earthy taste of swedes.

Broccoli Crisps (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

I must admit that I have mixed feelings about the three flavours of Broccoli Crisps that Degusta very kindly sent to me to try from the Growers Garden, of The Farmers Collective. I know I often strive to find alternative snacks to crisps and nuts, mainly because for dietary reasons I can't eat nuts anymore, and there's always something to try that isn't just crisps. However, Broccoli Crisps?

After the excess of Christmas this is supposed to be the healthy time of the year, where many people join gyms and try to lose a little fat, well at least for a while until they break their New Year's Resolutions. Broccoli is high in protein and fibre, and has lots of vitamins and minerals. I noticed on the three packets that almost 30% of these crisps are broccoli so they are not completely alternative but are healthy(ish) crisps!

The three flavours I have been sent are Broccoli Crisps, which are a plain flavour, I guess; Broccoli Crisps with Cheese; I'm not going to explain that one; and also Broccoli Crisps with Chilli, likewise. I'm mainly interested in the Chilli flavoured Broccoli Crisps, but I'll eat the plain flavour and cheese flavour first and let you know how they taste before I move onto the possibly hotter version.

On opening the plain flavoured Broccoli Crisps there was a rounded popadom look about the part broccoli part potato crisps inside. These are very crunchy crisps and have a very definite broccoli flavour to them. They were certainly flavoursome, but you really have to like broccoli to eat them. Trouble is that I thought I like broccoli more than I actually do!

The cheese flavour Broccoli Crisps had a strong cheesy smell on opening and were actually very tasty. The cheese didn't overpower the broccoli, but seemed to work well with the flavour instead.

So, the last but not least flavour was Broccoli Crisps with Chilli. On opening the packet I could smell a mixture of chilli and broccoli from the red tinted rounded crisps inside. On taste the vegetable flavour of the chilli seemed to work well with the vegetable flavour of the broccoli, bizarrely well in fact. The chilli had quite a burn to it and left my mouth tingling after a few crisps. Out of the three flavours I'd probably buy the chilli flavour the most, with the plain flavour the least. Plus the chilli flavour was the only crisps that didn't leave me with 'Broccoli Breath" breath by the end of the packet!

Information on the Chilli flavour's packet;
The 22g bag had 96 calories, with 3.25g of fat, 0.35g of sugar, and 0.4g of salt. Ingredients included; Fresh broccoli (27%), potato flakes, rapeseed oil, potato starch, flavouring (6%), salt, spinach powder, vegetable oil, and pea fibre.

Clearspring Seaveg Crispies (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

I'm trying a little bit of a health kick. Don't worry it probably won't last, but during this prolonged period of rehabilitating my knee after it's second surgery, I find I need to lose more weight. I've been exercising like crazy and have toned up a bit and lost some weight, but still I look in the mirror and things wobble that probably shouldn't.

Produced in Korea these Seaveg Crispies are a Toasted Nori Snack. 'Nori' is the Japanese word for edible sea vegetables. These Seaveg Crispies are Turmeric flavoured. Although not scientifically proven to have the long… long… long list of benefits Turmeric is vaunted to have, such as being good for the heart and it lessons swelling (around my knee), it does taste pretty sweet and is a member of the ginger family, so should be good for my tummy if nothing else. I have recently got used to drinking a Turmeric tea first thing in the morning, much to Cinabar's 'scientific chagrin'!

Trying not to think of where fish pee, I decided to open the packet of Seaveg Crispies. There are three 4g packets each having 18 calories, which is just shy of two minutes on the exercise bike the physiotherapist insists I slave on at least three times a week. I'm now going to the gym six times a week, so I'm sure she'll be proud of me in a few week's time during our next appointment. Okay… on typing this I realise I'm filling space and actually avoiding opening the packet…

There was a bizarre smell on opening the packet I haven't quite smelt before. It made me want to go and smell a Victoria Sponge Cake to get over it! Even more bizarrely the more I sniffed these vegetable(ish) smelling, mixed with grass, mixed with salt, mixed with turmeric Seaveg Crispies the more I started to get used it.

As you can see from the photograph, they are quite long and very thin pieces of very dark green seaweed. They look a little like Kermit the Frog had an argument with a steamroller, only to be chopped into rectangles. Be careful how you put them in your mouth as they shatter. And they shatter everywhere! There's a strange almost grass-like taste to begin with, then sea salty with a touch of sweetness to finish from the turmeric. They actually don't taste that bad. They smell a bit weird. They look even weirder, but they don't taste that awful. I could get used to these… if only I could get the image of a fish peeing out of my head! ;-D

Information on the packet;
3 x 4g packets, each having 18 calories, with 1.2g of fat, 0g of sugar, and 0.1g of salt. They are organically grown, gluten free, have no additives or preservatives, are high in fibre (at 1.2g) and Vegan. Ingredients included; toasted nori sea vegetable (62%), sunflower oil, sea salt, and turmeric (2%).

Emily Veg Crisps: Sweet Potato, Carrot and Beetroot (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

Always on the lookout for alternative snacks to regular potato crisps and nuts, these Crunchy Sweet Potato, Carrot and Beetroot Veg Crisps seem to fit the bill. They certainly have simple healthy sounding ingredients with just the vegetables chopped and baked in palm oil and a little salt. I’ve tried a few vegetable crisps in the past, some just using the vegetables and salt as their flavour, with a few veggie crisps having stronger spicier flavours added, which often distract from the vegetables themselves. So I’m expecting full flavour from the sweet potatoes, carrot and beetroot crisps here.
On opening the packet there was a mixture of aromas, mainly from the sweet potato and the carrot crisps, which confused me a little as beetroot is usually such a strong peppery flavour that I thought it would dominate the packet’s smell. I tried the sweet potato crisps first and found they were crunchy and very lightly salted, so they mainly tasted of baked sweet potato. I must admit I was missing a little spice here, and wouldn’t have minded some black pepper to spruce them up a bit. The carrot crisps were next with a far more flavoursome and sweet carrot flavour. Baking the carrot crisps in palm oil had really brought out their sweetness mixed with the salt certainly didn’t need any spice added. Strangely I found the beetroot crisps a little muted in flavour to begin with, but their natural pepperiness built up the more beetroot crisps I ate. My preference in this packet were the carrot crisps, as I liked their sweetness, and wouldn’t have minded a packet full just of those, rather than the other less flavoursome Veg Crisps.
Information on the packet;
The 23g bag had 11 calories, with 5.1g of fat, 5.4g of sugar, and 0.1g of salt. These crisps are Vegan friendly and gluten free. Ingredients included; beetroots, carrots, sweet potatoes, RSPO- sustainable palm oil, salt.

Unicorn Carrots [Oaklands - @Lidluk] (by @NLi10)

 While looking for green veggies to halt my cravings (settled on sprouts - even though it's not Christmas) I came upon this wonderful little package for £1.

 

This is just essentially a box of smaller carrots of a variety of varieties but where they are all pointy ones.  As baby carrots go we tend to just get the orange ones.

 

Here we have a lot of orange, a few white (parsnips really) and some dark and light purple ones - like carrots originally were in the wild!

 

They look very aesthetically pleasing, especially on the trendy green chopping board.

 

And inside they look particularly cool.  I didn't really need carrots, but I've been enjoying this little bit of variety in the veg. 

Branding healthy, whole food in a way that appeals to children and makes the adults job a little easier is a great idea.  'Eat your veg' isn't really appealing, but 'do you want unicorn carrots tonight?' is a much more tempting proposition.  Can we think of other ones? Can we find a way to rescue the broccoli princess? Would boys want to eat Goblin Sprouts?  More creative ideas in the comments please!

At £1 these are reasonably priced too, from the UK and something I've not seen outside of Lidl so a reason to pop in to pick up the fresh stuff (the blueberries were amazing this week - yum!).

Kettle Chips Golden Parsnip, Sweet Potato & Beetroot (Waitrose) By @SpectreUK

Always on the lookout for alternative snacks to crisps and nuts, I may have overstepped the mark here. These Golden Parsnip, Sweet Potato & Beetroot crisps from Kettle Vegetable Chips range encompass three vegetables I’m unsure of. I like parsnips in stew and looking outside at the howling wind and freezing rain this is definitely stew weather. Cinabar would attest to how much I like dumplings, but that’s another story! I’m not keen on sweet potato, although at the hotel we stayed at recently in Bath I was surprised at how nice their sweet potato chips were with my blue cheese and bacon burger, been as though I’d tentatively tried sweet potato chips elsewhere and disliked them. I like beetroot on salad, but in fairly small quantities and definitely not in juice format! So here we go; Golden Parsnip, Sweet Potato & Beetroot crisps…

The curled up Beetroot crisps taste of beetroot without the juice, slightly salty, pepperish and strangely really moreish. The Sweet Potato crisps were slightly less curled up, having a slight sweetness that balanced the strong flavour from the Beetroot crisps. I could easily see why Kettle had mixed them both together. The Golden Parsnip crisps were long thin strips, which tasted of salty dried parsnip, which further mixed that bag of flavours. These Golden Parsnip, Sweet Potato & Beetroot crisps felt like a healthy taste combination of root vegetable flavours, which all complemented each other in different salty, sweet, or slightly pepperesque ways. These assorted vegetable crisps are really nice (no, really). Don’t be put off by the title and give them a try. I’ll definitely have these again!

Information on the packet;

The 40g packet has 206 calories, with 13.2g of fat, 8.5g of sugar, and 0.4g of salt. Having “absolutely nothing artificial” the ingredients can be seen in the photograph.

NU ME Carrot Crisps (Morrisons) By @SpectreUK

I’m always on the lookout for healthy alternative snacks to crisps and nuts. These Carrot Crisps are from the Morrison’s NU ME range. At 65 calories a packet, they are definitely the healthiest crisps I’ve ever eaten. They are air-dried carrot crisps and the packet stated that they are “ridiculously moreish”, which I confess made me more than a little curious. I’m hoping that curiosity doesn’t kill the cat, so to speak. Whatever happens I should at least be able to see better in the dark!
On opening the packet there was a light lemon and strong carroty smell to the bright orange crisps inside. The crisps are thinly sliced carrots dried out after a liberal soaking from lemon juice. I could even see the inside of the carrot on each crisp. These crisps have a strong taste of carrots, which is unsurprising as they are dried carrots. Have no delusions though as they really do just state of carrot with a dash of lemon seasoning. If you don’t like carrots, don’t buy these crisps. Fortunately I like carrots, but my old greedy side would have preferred a bigger packet! So much for the NU ME…
Information on the packet;
20g bag contains 65 calories, 0.2g of fat, 9.4g of sugar and 1% of salt. Ingredients included; dried carrot, lemon juice from concentrate.

WeSqueeze the Green/Orange/Purple One (by @NLi10)

It seems to have been green drinks week here on FoodStuffFinds, but here I have the full set of traffic lights.

A buddy of mine brought these in to work on successive days and let me have a small cup of each for review purposes. First day was the green one.

Make no mistake, green drinks turn heads - and as this one smelt of bin juice some stomachs too! So what is this?

Well it's clearly good for me as it's got good things in it.

Specifically it's 84% apple juice and purée - but it's the cucumber and kale that give it the haunting smell. Thing is, it just tastes like particularly sweet apple juice! Really quite pleasant and drinkable and one I could have again if I wanted something that looked scary but was basically apples.

Next up we have the orange one which is mostly...

...oh - apples again. This time we have 70% Apple and 20% carrot but it's the mango that shines here even though that's the remaining 10%! It thickens the whole thing and tastes like a Rubicon juice mixed with yesterday's sweet Apple. Probably less drinkable than yesterday, but more refreshing.

Finally we have the red one

Which is called the purple one and is mostly...

...apples! 92% in fact - they weren't even trying here. The strength of beetroot means that like the mango it's been blended to just peak out ahead. Maybe the vitamin c added was to help calm it flavour wise, maybe because the contents here aren't the most nutritious of things compadre to carrots and kale.  A nice sipping drink that isn't as insane as the pure beetroot drinks but can be enjoyed.

So - if you want Apple juice that is pretending to be other things, where all the nutritious pulpy bits of the fruit and veg has been reduced to a more drinkable consistancy then this is for you. I'd rather blend my own and have all the pulp, but then that really is more hassle and not possible when out.

Given a free choice I'd pick them in the order reviewed and take the green first, but the mango is maybe the most interesting of the three and more of a stand out in the flavour category than I'd expected.