Rustic Baguette

75p

I was on the lookout for a crusty baguette but they had sold out by 5.40pm and it didn't look like they were baking any more.  No worries, time to try something else!
They had plenty of sweet bakery products and enough bread to warrant no more baking.

This rustic baguette had a more rectangular shape.  It was nice.
They were already individually wrapped so a good "pick up and go" factor.  It made a great sleeve for putting my filled baguette in.

Compared to the standard baguette, this is good if you prefer less soft white bread inside and more crust.  This stops the soggy bread factor so ideal for transporting places and eating later.

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)

Crownfield Mini Wheats

Mini shredded wholegrain wheat biscuits.
£1.29 for 500g (approx. 12 servings x 40g)
Just over 10p per serving

My Mum bought these to nibble on now and again.  When it had been in our kitchen for months unopened, I decided to open them.  One of my favourite cereals is Kellogg's Raisin Wheats and I was worried these would be too plain.

These are lovely and crunchy and have a mild savoury and sweet flavour.  It is 100% wholegrain wheat with no added ingredients therefore it is not fortified with vitamins and minerals like Kellogg's which adds value to their product.  I was pleasantly surprised with how good these little morsels tasted. I add some sultanas to give it the Raisin Wheat flavour.

Good buy!

Vitasia Thai Noodles: Pad Thai

 

Thai takeout

£1.49 for 330g (200g noodles, 130g sauce)
(Gave me 100g prepared as per instructions so multiplied by 3.3 for 330g)
528 calories
17.8 Protein
80.5 Carbs
13.5 Fat
Contains Seafood.

The container is also the serving dish!  What a novelty!  Reminds me of American takeout.
I did rinse the inside of the box as there was debris (probably paper crumbs).

Wheat noodles from plastic vacuum pack

Hot & Sour sauce from foil pouch

Voila!

When I opened the sauce pouch, posh dog food crossed my mind.  I didn't mean it in a malicious way, just thought it was funny.  It tasted disappointing.  It had spicy sweet and sour sauce really. It stops the hunger but you're not satisfied taste-wise. I was surprised as this product is made in Thailand and contains peanuts, tamarind, dried shrimps, chilli and fish sauce.  When I say spicy, it was actually mild despite the chilli sign depicting 1 chilli "medium".
I didn't notice the tofu or straw mushrooms, only the big slices of baby corn.

I'm sorry but this product is ugly for me as it is not Pad Thai! Maybe if you like sweet and spicy noodles it is not bad but I will NOT buy again!

Tower Gate Oaties

49p for 300g 80calories per biscuit
Contains gluten, oats and wheat. Ingredients do look Vegan but it may contain traces of milk and sesame. No artificial flavourings, preservatives or colours.

I'm a bit of a prolific biscuit muncher as of late.  I'm embarrassed to say, these went in 3 days.  What would make them better would be to half coat, or half dip? in chocolate; milk or dark. I digress...
Good taste and texture.  I recommend them but I can't promise you will only eat one so best not to buy at all if you can't control yourself.

I would class this product as leading brand equivalent rather than own brand.

Acropolis Wholemeal Pitta Breads

39p for 6 pittas.  Lidl's own pitta breads, made in UK.  They have a long unopened shelf life (3-4 months).  It says to consume within 24 hours of opening, I just put them in a plastic bag and they're fine.  My preferred way of eating them is to halve widthways and toast.  Release the steam and toast again.  You should end up with 2 or 4 pieces of crispy tasty bread.  So far, I've eaten it with cheese and pickle, peanut butter and with soup.  I'll try with houmous another time.

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 ;)

McVitie's Digestives

On offer price of 69p for a 500g packet.  It's even one of those promotional packs.  A good long life so you know Lidl genuinely have good offers and are not peddling stuff about to go out of date

Try dunking in your tea or hot chocolate.  It's hard to eat just one ey?

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.

Crusti Croc Peanut Puffs

I think this was left over from the previous weeks' promotion.  Nevertheless I bought it anyway.  I wouldn't normally buy these.  There is something wrong with buying an XXL food item.  A huge 250g was only 99p.
The only corn puffy things I've had are cheesey Wotsits.  My Polish colleague offered me a peanut flavour corn snack (not Crusti Croc, it had light blue packaging) and I enjoyed how crispy and peanutty it tasted.

The texture is lovely and the flavour very pleasing.  These would make a great party snack to share.  A bit worrying that it doesn't have any nutritional information.  I would definitely eat them again but would probably buy them when I know I will share them (they're a bit moreish).  Saying that, I hope they do small individual packs.

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.