Alpro Chocolate flavour Dessert - Dairy Free [@NLi10]

 Alpro are my go -to brand for almond based dairy replacements.  I use the normal milk daily, and the barista for coffee for special occasions. 

So I get tempted to try their desserts...

Looks great - no dairy, veggie friendly and lovely chocolate too

And oddly they seem to think you wouldn't want it chilled - I say the colder the better.

And the date on these is insane - save them for Christmas if you like!

But in the end - it's just brown goo.  It's not chocolaty enough, its not sweet enough, it's not thick enough and it just doesn't spark joy.  Maybe I'll donate the remaining two to my parents and see what they think.

Cauldron Veggie Bakes - Pumpkin & Onion [@NLi10]

 We love vegan food, although my partner loves to add cheese.  As part of the meals we share the core is usually pre-made things like these - so new options are fantastic.  They tend to only say veggie on some boxes so they don't scare people off.

This is 4 lovely little bakes - not quite burger sized, but a lot denser than I'd expected

And they are mostly the real deal - veggies first on the ingredients - feel the nutrients course into your veins

With some tricolour pasta, spinach pile and a little sun-dried tomatoes it's a decent meal.  I mean I could have eaten 3, but with 4 in a pack that's a bit mean.  I also livened this up with garlic & chilli mix on the pasta which was great.

The bakes are really nice, and it's good to have something a little fresher than the frozen bags I gravitate towards.  They crisped up nicely too so I reckon you could get kids to eat a few more unusual veggies with these too.

Dinky Dim Sum Veggie Selection [@NLi10]

 Happy left overs day! Before we got to the Christmas stuff we had a mini Christmas with my parents and had these cool snacks from Sainsbury’s

They look like vegetables

Yummy!

Pop them in a steaming pot and heat away!

Oh dear - too long - they stuck together!

2nd batch done for 30msec less and much better - and we still have a 2nd box to crack. But look at these lovely veggies.

I’m tempted to shallow fry the next lot as these were still a little squidgy but the flavours and textures inside were great and they added a bit of pizazz to the buffet. 

Planted - not chicken - Lemon & Herb vegan fry-up [@NLi10]

 I like having a back-up veggie protein option to chuck into meals when they look a little sparse.  I added these to the basket and kept them for a rainy day.

The Planted range appears to have a few options, but Lemon & Herb felt the most versatile

Decently nutritious, and seems to have all the eco credentials you'd expect

Comes all sealed up

And it looked far too realistic for my partner to want to eat so I get the whole tasty box!

Essentially its got a lovely light smell and taste which is perfect for Italian food so I mixed it up with some pasta and sun-dried tomatoes from the Lidl Spanish range and it was great.

No one is going to confuse this with cooked chicken - but it crisped up really well when lightly fried and still kept the texture and taste.  I think that it'd work really well in a sauce too so I'll be trying that another time too.

Great to have more quality options!

Proper Chips - Katsu Curry Chickpea Chips [@NLi10]

Proper chips isn't as classy a name as Proper Corn (best variety here) and the branding change confused me at first and I thought these were linked to Pop Chips - but once I'd figured it all out I had to try these.

The ideas here are twofold - the original plant bit is high quality, and the flavours are adult and interesting.

97 kCal per serve is a bit mean here as the bag supposedly contains 5 20g servings - which means most people will eat 2.5 servings and not really notice.

Approx. 4 servings is also funny as 20g gives the 97 Kcal on the front - no wonder we are all failing our maths GCSEs!

Good ingredients and positive mission though.

And they look the part, smell the part & taste great.

And while they aren't that filling so I easily had half the bag as an afternoon snack, they are really nice and a great alternative to potato crisps or pop-corn.

Bonus points too for a) deciding to do a Katsu Curry (or chip shop curry) version - and b) getting it to taste like it's supposed to.  

I'd happily take a bag of these to the cinema to share and be nicely set up for a meal afterwards to discuss the film.

Alpro - Vegan yogurt style snacks - Blueberry & Cherry [@NLi10]

 I've been cutting back on the old dairy recently, but I'm yet to find a truly satisfying yogurt - but as Alpro make decent breakfast milks (but not for tea) so lets see what's up here.

This vegan version has plant based blueberry and cherry versions - both of the flavours are plants so shouldn't be an issue

They look like classic childhood cheap yogurts

Turns out it's essentially soy and sugar - which is fine, but surely Alpro are the almond experts - why aren't they in here.

And why such low fruit percentages?!

And what's a vegetal anyway

Looks Ok though - the lovely clear plastic is a great touch - but the label makes these a pain to recycle so I bet most just get chucked.

The consistency is a little too smooth - but would be perfect in a blended drink.  The flavour just isn't strong enough - why isn't there lovely little specks of the fruit to explode throughout?  Maybe it makes the soya go weird, who knows.

Overall though a nice, small desert.  Surely designed for the diet conscious and not me who wants to gorge on fruity goodness.  I've got loads of fresh fruit to add to the remaining ones though so a good time will be had.

Fry's Katsu (Vegan) Chicken Fillets [@NLi10]

 We've been a big fan of Fry's Vegan stuff for a very long time here, so it's lovely when I spot a new kind like these in Iceland.  Yeah - it's essentially a flatter version of the chicken fillet, but the sauce immediately gives you recipe ideas and gets the taste-buds tingling.

And they seem like a nice bunch too!

And as ever - it's decent quality ingredients

Air Fryer instructions are now on everything!  But - in the normal oven it goes.

Not the sauce - that gets defrosted and pinged in the Microwave.

Cat plus katsu! Definitely vegan as she's not trying to hit it.

The sauce is good - just enough spice to elevate it from Chip-shop-curry to Katsu, and the not-chicken slices as easily as you'd expect.

This isn't going to fool anyone, but your average person isn't going to care past the first bite.  They might be upset I ran out of frozen Udon noodles and had to settle for waffles instead.  As I had it all to myself I didn't add leafy greens, but I did have a pudding too.

A hit with me and one I'll add to the usual order.

Zesty Bean Quinoa from Iceland - vitamins in 2 mins [@NL10]

 I'm home alone this week - and it's nice to add a few vitamins along the way.  And it's even nicer to just take 2 mins to make them. Iceland sell stiff to hide in the freezer and then just add to a meal.

Easy!

And unusually it's got interesting things in there -not just peas and sweetcorn (although they do feature).

They don't look like much going in.

And then they look suspiciously like the things you get served in chain pubs!

And if you add a few vegan peperami, sub blessed tomatoes then it makes a decent meal...

Especially if you have a decent pudding lined up too!

Plenish Berry Gut Health 5x Shots [@NLi10]

 Plenish make one of my favourite 'not milks' but it's a little more expensive than my regular.  That makes it a nice breakfast treat.  So - when I saw the brand on a gut health I decided to give it a shot (or 5).

AND - it's Pomegranate based which I absolutely love.  There were single shots for £2 - but this 5x shots was £3.50 due to Tesco deals which seems a much better deal and you can give it a proper go.

So - I dug out the old Teapigs shot glass for 5 consecutive morning breakfasts and gave it a whirl.

The tastes are interesting, the cider vinegar flavour is most definitely there and the fruits and berries make it a pleasurable experience overall.  And the health benefits were interesting too - I think I'd say it did improve my 'gut health' for the time I was taking it.

Like all of these transitory bacteria products though it really only lasts as long as you use it so it's probably better as a nice morning boost of vitamins!

Meatless Farm - No-Duja Ravioli [@NLi10]

 Veganuary comes to a close - but the vegan delights continue!

Hopefully the stores don't just cut off my supply of goodness from today.

Here we have meat free ravioli, lovely little saucy parcels of goodness - but what's inside?

Plant based filling of course!  Well - water & peas anyway.  And that's great for me as I do love this stuff.  Naturally they added in all the spices too which make it a lot closer to nduja than I'd expected - and it's pretty spicy!

I had to crack out some Ghost Ship just in case.

The pasta was great quality, and the filling had a satisfyingly meaty texture.  I want more of these please.

Juicy Marbles - Thick Cut Filet Steaks - but vegan [@NLi10]

I pick up a lot of odd food for vegans, that my resident vegetarian would not touch - and I think this is the most meaty appearing so far.  It's a box of 'cat burgers' - plant based pork steaks in a very cool box.

They were a little expensive (£6 I think) but they were fabulous.

This is why we started calling them cat burgers (to differentiate from the other vegan stuff we have), that's Mr Marbles the cat.

So far - so meaty.

Ingredients - water & soy. and lots of red beet juice for the colour & blood.

The ick factor is high - but the smell is fine - even if it does look like you've got a pig heart for dinner.

Season up

Pop it on the George Formby grill

And turn into a waffle burger with some spicy kombucha! Decent enough.

This is how I'd have beef style things - but it turned out this is more like pork so for part 2 (which was individually sealed and so still fresh 3 days later).

USe up some of the high quality pork rub that we got ages ago - on all the sides. Let it sit for a bit.

And pan fry it as on the directions - awesome stuff - restaurant quality taste although my presentation is a bit naff.

This was awesome - well worth the admission price and like a lovely thick flaky gammon steak burger.  So good you could feed it to main-land Europeans and they'd like it.

Requires a little more effort than just popping a burger in the oven, but if you want to be a bit more veggie and still feel like a carnivore then this is an easy recommend.  I'm going to get more of these from Waitrose when I'm next there.