This month's selection - like always - is picked by the experts from Degustabox and happens to be varied and interesting.
Each Degustabox costs £12.99 per month including delivery, a very reasonable price. There is no fixed contract, and you may cancel at any time.
If you haven't tried it before, now I'm offering you a whopping £6.00 discount, if you use a code
BLDEG15
With the discount code above, your box will cost £6.99 (including delivery). Now this is an offer you can't refuse.
What did we find in the October food box?
Most of the time when the Degustabox is delivered, we start by testing all snacks, and this time we picked Liberation nuts as the first product to try. I have seen Liberation nuts in Waitrose before, but haven't tried until Degustabox arrived. And what a discovery! We all loved the spicy snacks, and I have already bought a good dozen or so since we sampled them. This is a Fair Trade company.
The nuts are a perfect mix of flavours and textures. The seasoning is spicy and gives a lovely kick to the product.
We have tried Oven Baked Chilli and Lime cashews with peanuts & roasted corn and Oven Baked Peppercorn peanuts with Habas Fritas crunchy beans. Both are tasty. The corn kernels give the best crunch.
The Snack Organisation Presents offered two products. The first one was a savoury snack of Sweet Chilli Rice Crackers. There are three different flavours in the range including Slightly Salted and Teriyaki. They are baked, gluten free and suitable for vegetarians. These crunchy morsels had just the right amount of heat. My younger son liked them a lot.
And then there was a sweet snack - Freeze Dried Apricots. My younger one has polished the whole lot, as he loves freeze-dried fruit and yogurt snacks, and this one was very nice (I managed to try one of the apricot pieces, it was sweet and slightly tart). There are four tasty varieties in the range - strawberry, apricot, apple and pineapple. Thanks to the process of freeze drying, all the flavours are concentrated and all the nutrition is preserved. It also counts as 1 of your 5 a day. A great snack for a lunch box, or when you're feeling peckish. The serving is 69kcal, so totally suitable even for people who are on a diet.
Moving to Chip Strips. These are fine and crispy potato snacks. They reminded me a bit of Pringles, only shaped as long strips and slightly thinner. Good for sharing. They are lovely with dips like salsa or guacamole.
9Bar Original Carob Hit is a great source of energy and is perfect for people who lead active lives. There are five bars in a box. Each bar is 221kcal. They are high in fibre and can be a part of a varied, balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. Carob is usually a substitute for chocolate, and as a self-proclaimed chocoholic, I do prefer good old chocolate. Carob is just too healthy for me (give me chocolate any time!).
Kabuto Noodles Chicken Ramen promises to be a fresh tasting noodle dish with chicken, ginger, chilli, coriander & spring onion.
I'm not a big fan of pot noodles. But I had a go. Top it up with boiling water, let sit covered for several minutes and eat. Verdict: good for fire eaters. The noodles were still a bit dry, and whatever was floating in the noodle soup was still pretty much dehydrated. I've eaten it, but it's not for me. Not because it's too spicy, as I loved the spicy nuts and crackers. It must be the texture of the added pieces of meat and herbs.
It is also quite high in calories - 320kcal per pot.
On the plus side, I liked the design of the pot, and the funny instructions which suggests you should go and meditate or practise your karate while waiting for the noodles to get ready. It also advises to pour the noodles into an upside down helmet. So, top marks for the sense of humour, but try a bit harder on the flavour.
There was a little card from Kabuto Noodles inside the Degustabox which invited to sign-up to their newsletter for a chance to win a year's supply of Kabuto noodles. If you fancy to have a go, visit kabutonoodles.com/degustabox (and good luck!)
The Provena Gluten Free breakfast and baking range has been selected as Degustabox's Discovery of the month. Provena products support the digestive system and release energy gradually. Provena Gluten Free Instant Oat Meal (Apricot) is rich in fibre and could be ready in 1 minute. I enjoyed my bowl of hot porridge, and the apricot flavour was lovely (sorry no photo of the porridge as I was in a hurry in the morning and had no time to take photos. Mornings are very hectic in our house during the week). One sachet gives you a portion of porridge at 140kcal. This is a product of Finland, and a new range for me, I haven't seen it yet around.
The only drink this month was Lorina Coconut & Lime. This is a premium French lemonade, which has been handcrafted since 1895. It is made with 100% natural ingredients. Free from any artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. It's a very pleasant drink, refreshing and mildly sweet.
There were a few cooking ingredients.
I have already mentioned Food Thoughts Cocoa in one of my posts, as I cooked a delicious Chocolate Mayo Cake with this product. It's a Fairtrade product made with the finest cocoa beans which are dried naturally in the sun. This is a pure cocoa, not spoilt by added dried milk or sugar. An excellent product.
President voucher allowed me to try a block of President Unsalted Butter, which is made in Normandy.
It is a wonderfully creamy butter, smooth with nutty flavours. I used it in baking, see my Best Banana Bread.
At last there were two Italian products. Cirio is a well known Italian brand, and I buy their products.
La Classica Passata is ready to use. It's made of ripe tomatoes. Very handy to have for easy meals, like pasta or soup. I cooked a chicken tray bake with fennel, sweet peppers and onion, and used a whole bottle of passata in the dish.
Cirio Chopped Tomatoes added an authentic flavour to a Sicilian dish called Pasta 'ncasiata. This is another tomato product which is a must for the kitchen cupboard, as it could be used in a variety of recipes.
Disclosure: I received the food box for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.
Looks a lovely selection and your banana bread looks fab
ReplyDeleteThank you Alison! It was lovely.
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