Look what we found! Richard Walton's Beef & Basil Meatballs in Tomato Sauce [by @NLi10] (Sainsbury's)

Many times in life you want to eat something but you really don't want to make the effort. A lot of these times you don't care what it is that you consume, so instant foods that are low on flavour (such as canned meals) are acceptable - indeed the TV show Futurama coined the term Bachelor Chow for these. Other times you are still feeling lazy but wish to end up with something a little more refined. I spotted this range of "Look what we found!" foods while bumbling around Sainsbury's while recovering from the Flu and thought that I would risk trying one bag for the sake of the website.

Boil in the bag and microwave in the packet food isn't great at the best of times, and one that claims to be all natural and "As good as home made" can't be too close to the truth. I decided to give this one the maximum chance and heat it up on the hob instead of the alternate microwave instructions, and to pair it with some gnocchi I picked up while I was out. Gnocchi really is the ultimate lazy food as all you need to do is wait 2 mins and then scoop the little things out of the boiling water as they float up to the top, yet if you serve them with a little rocket and a nice dressing it all looks very refined. The meatballs had a stiff competition if they were to not become the weak link of the meal.

They heated nicely and I took a really bad photo under the living room lights instead of the nice white kitchen lights of the top picture. This makes the meatball part of the meal look like a horrible sludge, when really it was a nice tomato colour and smelt quite appetising.


While stirring & heating the package I'd thought that you didn't get much, but as with most of these things it turned out to be an ample portion for one with half a box of the little potato dumplings. Surprisingly the meatballs are quite packed with things and really have a good flavour too them. They didn't fall apart too easily, and were not rock hard like I'd expected packaged meats to be. They are a lot nicer in flavour than canned foods, and I'd say that you could easily serve this to someone and they would not know that it was not cooked fresh.

I will continue to explore this range as they make great meals for when I am just cooking for one. If you have a little gas camping stove, or go caravanning these would be perfect as they do not require refrigeration and are not bulky at all. I think that Richard Walton can be proud that his meatballs have made it on to supermarket shelves and in such an efficiently packed and prepared way.

by @NLi10

Hershey’s Chocolate Milk [By Spectre] (Amazon)

This brown carton from Hershey’s likes to point out that it’s good for you with text such as; “2% reduced fat” and “One third less fat than whole chocolate milk”. The front of the carton also states that this is made with milk from cows that are not treated with the RBST growth hormone, which makes them produce more milk. RBST is banned in the European Union and our friends across the great pond in the USA don’t trust it either. This drink is packed with Vitamins A + D and is Ultra Heat Treated for long life. All this healthy sounding stuff considered, I’ve never liked Hershey’s chocolate. I tried to point this out to Cinabar when she passed me this carton with an evil glint in her eyes, even though I knew that it wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference.

On ripping off the straw from the back of the carton and popping it into the small piece of silver foil on the top, I noticed some text that said “shake well”. I must admit, I did shake the carton a little before opening, but “shake well” makes me wonder if it should be shook to washing machine top speed or tied to the back of a galloping horse. First sip of this drink concluded that I’d shook it enough to burn my eyelashes off with the sheer sweetness of the drink. The chocolate milk itself tastes a little bit like the sweetened centre of a Smarty, only times by one hundred and a bit. After a few moments of uncomfortable face twisting I started to get used to the drink’s sweetness, but my eyebrows still hit the ceiling each time I chanced the straw. Once used to that painstaking syrupy sweet taste, this drink doesn’t taste half bad, until you get to the bottom of the carton and realise that as you didn’t tie it to the back of your car and do seventy laps on a race track all the remainder of the syrupy sweetness is languishing there. If shook well the sweetness of this drink could possibly kill the old and infirm or make infants run round in circles for forty-eight hours straight. Once I’d peeled myself off the ceiling I was quite happy I’d finished Hershey’s chocolate milk and went in search of a beer… After all, I deserved it!

By Spectre

Viennetta Selection [Special Edition] Choco Nut (Waitrose)

Viennetta is a classic ice cream dessert, it is a block of layered and rippled ice cream with crisp chocolate sheets, and it is designed for sharing. Viennetta is usually a creamy white vanilla ice cream with contrasting dark chocolate. Just occasionally they release a Limited Edition flavour, which is always something to get excited about and it really has been too long since the last one.
This wonderfully retro looking box contains the new Choco Nut variety, and it is adorned with stars for the upcoming Christmas market. The ice cream cake inside too is covered in chocolate stars, and it clearly designed as a celebration treat. Regular readers will know about my obsession with chocolate and nut, so can imagine just how much pleased I was to find this.
The creamy ice cream in the centre has a lovely rich hazelnut taste, and the chocolate ice cream works perfectly with it. There are layer of chocolate which crack as the spoon delves in, and add that extra chocolate dose. Finally there are layers of a substance similar to a solid hazelnut praline, it’s crunchy but its flavour is seriously nutty. Wow. If you like chocolate and nut, then you simply must try this. Indulge in its retro feel, and enjoy its wonderful tastes, I thought it was absolute heaven. It will be a sad day when this fantastic ice cream cake ceases production.

Aero Limited Edition Dark and Galaxy Smooth Truffle (Tesco Exclusives)

I live somewhere which is nowhere near a proper branch of Tesco. There aren’t many people in the UK that can say that, so for me a trip to Tesco is a very much pre-planned grocery shop, usually correlating with an offer on cheap beer for Spectre.
While we were there at the weekend I was very pleased to find two bars which appear to be Tesco exclusives, the Galaxy Smooth Truffle and the Aero Limited Edition Dark.




Aero Limited Edition Dark
When I saw this in Tesco my first thought was of the surprisingly good 70% Canadian Aero bar which I found at CyberCandy last year. This bar was of a milder 50% cocoa, and a very different chocolate. It was however nice, sweet and with a richer cocoa flavour than the regular version.
It was an easy to eat bar, reminiscent of Bournville chocolate. This sort of chocolate is the forgotten dark chocolate, it seems acceptable to have milk chocolate but dark chocolate with less than 65% cocoa seems frowned upon. It is a shame, the richer flavour and the sweetness does work well together and this made for a really nice afternoon treat with a coffee.




Galaxy Smooth Truffle
This new Galaxy bar caught my eye due the new hint of blue on the packaging and the light blue foil showing through at the edges of the bar. Galaxy is a seriously rich sweet and creamy experience in its usual form. This Tesco exclusive bar is filled with a smooth truffle filling, which adds nicely to the indulgence. The filling has the Galaxy chocolate flavour but its silky texture really adds to the experience. I thoroughly enjoyed its sweet creamy tones and soft centre but as it is a rich bar I felt that one strip of chocolate was plenty for a treat. A bar to be savoured and one for those moments when you want a little taste bud luxury.

Orange Spider-Web Cake [@rychuxtreme] (Morrisons)

The following is a mini review from my younger cousin, who is just as keen on snacks and sweets as the rest of us, but doesn't have our grown-up wages to squander on them. Expect to find lots of pocket-money priced treats appearing on the site over the coming weeks. ~ @NLi10



This spider web cake was very well set out including the spider ring on the top which I'm wearing :) . The icing was very good looking, it really looked like a spider made a web on an orange wall. This cake tasted very nice, and my favourite part was the icing because I love icing. I would recommend this cake to anyone having a Halloween party.

by Hi-Im-Ry (@rychuxtreme)