Marks & Spencer Salads, Veggie Sweets and Beautiful Nougat

NEW Barley, Orzo Pasta, Cranberry and Almond Salad

A delicious and light, new seasonal salad.  Lovely texture to it, plenty of veg, fruit, nuts and herbs so it was packed with flavour.  Orzo pasta is tiny, rice like but softer.  This coupled well with the firmer barley.  Plump raisins and cranberries added sweetness, the latter tartness.  Enjoyed very much the accompanying dressing.  Not too oily, the dressing has a distinctive honey flavour, lemony and has a warmth due to the cinnamon and allspice added.  As ever with their salads, very well balanced.

NEW Black Barley, Roast Carrot, Raisin and Walnut Salad

 Another appearance for barley, this time black which I had not heard of before.  Looked very good and tasted so too, say that it had a nuttier flavour than standard barley.  This salad was jam packed, it had so much to it.  Much more filling than the above, certainly think the whole walnuts added to that.  Such varied textures, as well as the nuts, fruit and barley it contains wheat-berries.  The accompanying dressing was packed with flavour, zesty orange and hazelnut- tangy with vinegar and with an edge of spice including smoked paprika and cumin.

2x Salads for lunch with chilli sauce, dressing, peppers, iceberg and spirallized cucumber

Marks and Spencers Deli, La Petit Due

It was the beautiful tin that attracted my sister (pictured) to this product.  Inside are individually wrapped almond and honey nougatine bites.  They contain candied fruit, namely citrus fruits and melon as is the norm for nougat.  Mum is a big almond fan and she found them to be delicious, very almondy and surprisingly not too sweet.

 Colin the Caterpillar Birthday Balloons

As it is the anniversary year of the introduction of Colin the Caterpillar; Marks and Spencer have introduced a new sweet in his honour.  These vegetarian jellies are very fruity, they have a pleasant texture not too soft or hard.  Closest thing that my siblings and I likened them to was a chew bar but they are not at all sticky.  There are green and yellow, as well as pink and yellow caterpillars these have jellied balloons on them.  The balloons embossed with 25.  Found these very tasty and unique looking.

Colin the Caterpillar Fizzy Rainbows

Such fun to eat, these large caterpillar shaped sweets.  The flavours are apple and lemon the green, the pink are raspberry and lemon.  Pretty sour, these have a lovely firm yet soft texture.  They are the most delicious veggie sweets I have ever tried.  They have nothing of that peculiar wax-like texture that so many veggie sweets tend to.  A regular mix and match promotion runs whereby you can purchase two bags for £2.50.

Marks & Spencers Haul, Fruit and Treats Review

My lovely Mum handed me in a delicious selection of messages from Marks and Spencers.  The local M&S, has recently started selling more exotic fruits.  It is great to be able to sample such unusual items and was delighted to see kumquats and star fruit (which I've not seen sold in stores for a-few years).  A childish delight befell my sister and I as we dug into a fruit platter, trying out a fruit new to us in mangosteen.  It is a fantastic ending to a meal and also way to encourage children's curiousity trying out these unusual fruits. Morrisons supermarket is also very good for their exotic fruit options and that extends to veg too.

Lemon, Black Lentil and Quinoa Pecan Salad With Allspice Dressing 

Loved this salad, it is full of lots of little bits, herbs, nuts and is so full of flavour. Within the salad there are wheat berries, quinoa, black lentils, pecans and other grains.  It is ready dressed with a lemon and allspice dressing.  This has a citrus zing, freshness and an aromatic peppery flavour from the spicing. The combination of ingredients makes this salad so palate tingingly delicious!

Marks & Spencers Delicious Salads

Marks & Sparks must be the prepared salad kings of the British high street/supermarkets.  Such a range of foods they have on offer for lunchtime and very tempting meal deals.  Their prepared salads are always so fresh and full of flavour.  They sell boxed tubs of salads, many of which are on a 2 for £3 mix and match deal.  These come ready dressed or with an accompanying  pot of dressing.  In this post I will share some of my favourites in their range.  They add new ones all the time too, so am always on the look out for them!  They had a nice one called a shaker salad but haven't seen it for a while.

A light salad, especially considering it is a pasta one.  Orzo is more like a grain than pasta and is very nice.  The salad itself contains juicy sundried tomatoes and a basil dressing.  It is a bright and colourful salad, the yellow Orzo stained with turmeric has a lovely contrast with the bright red tomatoes.  It was a little oily for me but still very enjoyable and packed full of flavour.  Really must look out for Orzo would be great to have for a change and like the idea of it in a herby minestrone soup. 

Fabulous Fresh Soups

In supermarket chillers are an array of fresh soups flavours, brands and varieties to chose from.  Soup is one of my very favourite things and would rather have a mug of it than a chocolate bar as a snack more often than not!  Do make homemade soups often but store bought soups are so handy.  Thought I'd do a post to share some of my favourites.



Marks and Spencer Spicy Lentil Soup

A lovely thick soup, packed full of flavour, chunky veg and of course lentils.  Pleasantly spiced, it is very warming with a nice tomatoey base.  It is a very thick soup and found it needed to be watered down just a little.  It is spicy without being hot, the spices used are warming ones such as cumin and they come through well.  You always know that you will get quality from M&S and this certainly did not disappoint.

Product Review- Easter Themed

Easter Treats

The shops have outdone themselves, there is such a beautiful array and selection of food, craft and floral/plant items to celebrate Easter.  I have succeeded in managing to visit each of the major supermarkets available in my area over the past month (Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi and Morrison's- phew!).  Not purposefully, a couple of the times were on request of certain items by others.  I was disappointed and rather surprised to hear that M&S are not running a dine in roast.  Treated Mum to their deal for Mothers Day.  Family enjoyed it and as Dad is cooking, he was hoping to take advantage.  From what I have seen there are a number of offers running over the weekend on meat roasting joints.  It is very much the sweet tastes that arethe main focus at Easter time in terms of products available.  I have not seen but heard about a Hot Cross Bun flavoured beer being available, don't like the sound of that!

Chocolate Mini Egg Review

There is quite a range of mini eggs available and sold in the UK's shops.  They are a real favourite of mine.  The type of eggs I will be reviewing in this blog are chocolate ones in a crisp sugar shell.  I thought that I would share my thoughts on the eggs that I've tried over the years.  All of these are widely available.

  I would be interested to hear from anyone regarding their own favourites, special Easter plans or any varieties local to you or that you may have come across.  Happy Easter in advance and may it be sweet!



Cadbury Mini Eggs

The classic mini egg.  The Cadbury version are the original and for many the best.  I must admit that I am very partial.  These eggs are the perfect size with a perfect coating, not too thick or thin.  The interior is Cadbury chocolate and for some reason to me it is the taste of easter (that type of choc).  Perhaps it is due to it being the commonmost Easter egg choc.  The yellow eggs have a slightly different taste to the others, which is very nice.  You can buy them in a single serve packet in the form of a small cardboard box, the size pictured-100g in size and are available in a larger 360g pack.  I also remember them being sold in tubes but haven't seen any this year.  They are often on offer at £1 for a 100g bag which is very good, Morrisons have an offer of 2 for £2 at the moment.