OceanSea Seafood Sticks

 

65p for 10:
"Individually wrapped crab flavour surimi fish protein sticks with water and starch"

Produced in Lithuania.

Contains 35% surimi.
Surimi originated in Japan and translates as "ground meat".  It is minced up fish that is then washed to get rid of any undesirable odours.  It is then beaten and pulverised to form a gelatinous paste.  Then it is mixed with flavourings and additives and formed into shapes.
It was made to use up lesser fish to mimic higher end fish like crabs and lobsters.

Now that we got the lesson out of the way.  How does it taste?

These sticks have a texture I would not associate with anything seafood.  They have a nice flavour.
If you can get over the fact you're eating a highly processed food, they aren't so bad.  I don't eat these very often (I think these are the first ones I've eaten this year!)
You can snack on them as they are (remove plastic first!), chop them up into cubes or treat them like "cheese strings" and peel them.

I like to peel them into strings, mix with either salad cream or mayonnaise (if mayo, add some lemon).
Serve with crusty bread and something green.

Meadowfresh Coronation Chicken Deli Filler

79p normal price. 69p offer price.

200g of chicken, mango chutney, dried apricots and sultanas.
Bought on 25th June with an expiry of 3rd July which is a good unopened fridge life (once opened, eat in 2 days) Produced in the UK using Thai chicken.
No dairy listed in allergens.

 

I don't normally buy sandwich fillers but thought I'd give this a try.  I was surprised how many sultanas were in this!  I found it rather sweet for my liking but still not bad.  I would probably buy this again but not too often.  I am however, inspired to make my own Coronation chicken filling to my taste!

 

Served in a rustic baguette with green salad and tomato slices.

 

 

Eridanous Butter Beans in Tomato Sauce

I first tried butter beans in a tomato and olive oil dressing at a Farmers Market at the olive stand.  I thought I would try these in Lidl and bought and ate them last year.  They were really good!

It is Greek week again and I bought a tin with the intention of stocking up if they were good.
I am so glad I tried before I bought anymore...

The butter beans are massive and have a lovely soft texture. The sauce this time was so disappointing. I don't have the ingredients from last year to compare to so I don't know if the recipe has changed or my taste buds. The recent one has soya oil if that's any help.

Here is a tin from last year:

Rivercote: Sesame Wholegrain Rye Crispbread

 

Wholegrain rye crispbread with sesame seeds.
They were part of Lidl's HalfPriceWeekend offer 25th/26th April 2015
Normal price 69p offer price 34p
26 pieces = < 2p a crispbread
Just under 35 calories per crispbread

Produced in Germany

Ingredients:
Wholegrain rye flour (84%)
Sesame seeds (10%)
Salt
Is the missing 6% meant to include salt and water (which is not listed)
Very strange!

Suitable for vegetarians but may contain traces of milk
The other flavour (Wholegrain) contained skimmed milk so I chose sesame flavour.

They look like corrugated cardboard!
Tastes like Weetabix. Crunchy with a sesame and salt flavour.
Not bad.

You're meant to put stuff on them so here is what I did:

Smoked salmon with soft cheese and herb (NOT from Lidl)

Vitasia Instant Noodles: Chicken Flavour V2

I used to be black

This is a review based on a product I have already reviewed here.


Still 18p!  Still suitable for vegetarians and vegans and still pretty good!

Vegetarians and Vegans.

The most noticeable difference is that it has had a revamp and now has a bright yellow packet!  This is yellow and not Roast Chicken Crisp Packet orange.  I thought I would do a pimped up version of this convenience food to celebrate the revamp!

Use all the soup powder.  Add some garlic granules and some Maggi Liquid Seasoning to taste.  I served mine with a poached egg, peas and sweetcorn.

Same stuff, different colour.  I personally preferred the black packet; it looked a bit classier to me ;)

Meadowfresh Houmous

This 300g tub was 95p.  I usually get Tesco or Waitrose brand once in a blue moon.  When I tried Lidl's Meadowfresh brand, I thought it was a bit sour.  I jazzed it up with plenty of freshly ground black pepper (imo, the best thing to complement your dip) and that magic ingredient; garlic granules!
It was much better.  I had half a tub one day with celery sticks and the next day with some breadsticks.

It was okay.  Nothing special.

Vitasia Instant Noodles: Chicken Flavour

18p for a 108g packet.  I bought one packet to try.  It doesn't matter how cheap it is, if it's horrible, it's a waste of money.  "Authentic Oriental Noodles" I looked for information to back up this claim and on the back of the packet after the cooking instructions were "Produced in China".  I'm not too keen on their nutritional information.  It says per 100g cooked weight, why can't they just tell us how many calories per packet cooked?


Niggles aside this item needs some simple preparation.  I chose the lazy method of kettle and microwave.  This also makes it an ideal snack/lunch for work.

Before

After

The soup smelt nice.  There wasn't the usual sesame oil sachet that I had grown accustomed to from other instant noodles brands but no biggie, this is a cheap product after all and if I really wanted some, I have some in my kitchen.  This was chicken flavour and had no chicken in it whatsoever!  Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

The noodles were nice and soft.  It's good food to warm you up.  I was slightly disappointed with the flavour.  It seemed to lack some savouriness.  I then thought, well,  that is what you get for trying to create chicken flavour without any chicken!  I sprinkled some garlic granules that I had in my cupboard.  To me, this was the missing flavour and it improved it immensely!  I didn't resort to the dabs of sesame oil in the end because there was no need.

So, I would definitely buy this product again.  I would happily buy this flavour and try the other ones.  My tip would be to keep some garlic granules handy.

Knights Mini Poppadums: Balti Flavour

Part of their weekly leaflet deal.  59p for a 60g packet.  These mini poppadums were very well spiced and a bit on the salty side.  I would class this as medium spiced, it makes your mouth very tingly and thirsty but not quite eye watering.  I would happily try one or two but that is enough.  Because I bought this, I ended up eating the whole packet.  I wouldn't buy this flavour again but would be willing to try the other ones.