Nayu's Product Review #13 Kikkerland Panda Zip Bags (Kitchen, food, 10/10)

 

This product was provided for free for the purpose of a review. It had no influence on the grade awarded. 

Several months ago I was asked if I was interested in reviewing these reusable zip lock bags by the company Kikkerland, a popular brand which supplies useful kitchen equipment. As a lover of everything cute my answer was yes please and I picked the Panda range. There are 2 other designs including a hippo and a tiger, but this was my favourite. 

Ever since they arrived I've constantly been using these. They've housed hummous

 

chopped salad, fruit, and for now prodominantly keep my reusable ice cubes that are also Kikkerland (I bought them myself and they are brilliant). As you can see anything, not just food can be kept in them, although they are meant for food. Here is what they look like inside:

 They hold 540ml which is 18.25oz. I haven't put a liquid in here, but you can and it shouldn't leak. The bags hold a decent amount, perfect for solo eaters. They are easy to clean, can be  wipe clean and can be washed with regular dishes in the sink.I have put them in both the dishwasher and the freezer, and the function of the bags were unaffected by both processes.

They are a bargain price of £5, less than £2 a bag, and with 3 in each packet are perfect for every budget. Affordable cute food storage is a win-win! Yes I do plan to buy some in the future as they are that good. There is nothing negative to say. They are environmentally friendly with their multi-use, they are free of some materials that some people can be allergic to. I'm really impressed and highly recommend these! They are widely available on Amazon and other kitchen related stores online and probably offline too. 

Thanks again to Kikkerland for the free sample of this fantastic ziplock bags!

Nayu's Product Review #12 White chocolate Kellogg's Coco Pops

I always have some frozen fruit after my cereal in my Eeyore bowl

I can't remember where I saw this delicious sounding cereal advertised, but I knew I had to have it. Coco pops is a longstanding personal joke with a friend who lived off them a lot during university deadlines, so I got her a packet too. Okay so my family picked it up because I forgot to add it to my Sainsbury's order, but my friend still has one. How are they? 

This isn't a sponsored post, sadly!

I had heard prior to eating them that they didn't make the milk go chocolatey, which was a little disappointing but didn't put me off trying them. My family tried them first, without milk and gave the verdict they are sweet (despite having less sugar in). Me, they are a tasty cereal. With the milk it is easier to taste the white chocolate flavour (they are NOT coated in white chocolate), and they are highly enjoyable. Would I buy them again? Yes but there are many cheaper cereals so this will probably be my only box, unless Sainsbury's does their own brand. 

I would give them a go, you can always use them in baking if you aren't that keen on them!  

Nayu's Product Review #11 Snowdrop Lantern from Glasspirations

For at least a year I have admired the beautiful work Tracy from Glasspirations has created on Twitter. The other week I saw this stunning lantern which gave me a magical fairytale vibe and I had to get it. At just £15 it is such a bargain! I am useless with imagining dimensions so thought it was smaller than it was (10cm by 6cm) but that didn't matter as it is a decent size. 

Just look at the snowdrops! Snowdrops are one of my favourite flowers, they seem full of hope and simplicity. 

Picture source unknown

I have always admired the tradition of glass work, creating masterpieces big and small with glass is talent that needs to be nurtured and preserved in the modern world. I hadn't realised it had a tea light in - yes I really did just see it and buy it straight away! I am not a massive candle fan so probably won't use it for that purpose. 

 Tracy is gentle to the environment by reusing boxes to package the lantern with packing stuff too. She makes it look like a gift despite the obvious recycling! 

. Do check out the rest of the Glasspirations products on the website and follow Tracy on Twitter.

Nayu's Product Review #10 Splatoon 2 keyring found in Aldi!

Please ignore the cat hairs!

Honestly this was the last thing I expected to see in Aldi. Aldi is known for having random items (some are branded, not that that matters to me) on the shelves, so I was shocked to find this Inkling in Squid form Splatoon 2 keyring. I'm enjoying the game a lot, more so now I'm finally doing the solo adventure portion instead of just Turf wars. That probably doesn't make sense to a lot of you: in a nutshell Splatoon 2 is an electronic version of paintball! Inklings have a human like form, 

This is the inkling girl amiibo (picture from online, I don't have any of the figurines)

and a squid form, exactly like the keyring. They are allegedly enemies of Octolings, who have a human form and who turn into an octopus.

This is the ocoling amiibo  I love the octoling girl so much! Their ink form is adorable (the pink octopus). Wish I could play as an Octoling permanently, but it's so far only available in the expansion pack (which I have).

  It is heaps of fun, I think it may be a Nintendo Switch exclusive, but don't quote me on that. 

I'm not going into detail about the game because that's a post more suited to my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner, but I do want to chat about this keyring. I unfortunately don't have the packaging any more, but it was a blind bag gift, meaning I had no clue what the colour would be.

I was surprised at how good quality this is. The plastic is sturdy, it has the cute freckles on the 'legs' and features the suckers that are on them too. It feels a bit odd having the keyring in plastic which isn't the sturdiest, considering the chain is metal, but apart from that this is a high quality product which I'm very happy to have found in my supermarket. 

I love Aldi for it's random items that change frequently! Not so much when a food I like can't be found - I'm speaking to you, pink himalayan salt for £1 which hasn't been seen since I bought 1 pot! I'd love to hear what random products you find in your supermarket. 

Nayu's Product Review #9 Abel and Cole's soup box

As always thank you for being patient during my non blogging phase. Colder weather = much crankier body. I know I made something the other week, possibly roasted veg. I also cooked up a load of fish for freezing. 

This is an Abel and Cole picture - I didn't buy from them.

I had a mix of my favourite fish salmon fillet; rainbow trout which I haven't had for years which my grandfather used to catch for us so it has a lot of nostalgia (he died a few years ago) whose skin does have a rainbow colour (& I'm one those weirdos who enjoy eating fish skin), then a fish pie mix which I didn't put in fish pie consisting of salmon, haddock or cod, and smoked pollock which is absolutely  delicious! Of course I had to give my darling cat some because she loves fish too. She does tend to be unbothered about salmon - I never give her smoked salmon - but she enjoyed what she had. 

I think this is a picture book, but it is certainly how my body feels about the current weather. Although we've barely had any orange leaves on the trees so technically it is still autumn.

Soup seems like an essential winter food, it is warming, filling, and delicious. I make carrot soup, and other plain flavours, but recently I tried out a soup from Abel and Cole as they did their first soup box of the year. I didn't try any last year, and sadly I'm not sponsored by them (I would love to be!), so I thought I'd give it a try. I'll do it whenever the soup takes my fancy (don't think this week or next week does), but the one I've made was relatively easy to make.It was beetroot and apple with horseradish yogurt! 

Not yet taken a picture with the yogurt sauce on top, will show that in another post.

It made a gorgeous coloured soup which has a beautiful flavour. Mine is different to theirs because I whizzed it up - I don't like lumpy soups which theirs was, it feels more like a stew if it isn't blitzed but that's my personal preference.

This fancy version of their logo was taken from here.

I got everything I needed bar some extra seasoning and olive oil. I like how I even got 1 vegetarian stock cube! I know  from the website some are unhappy because the soups are no longer vegan. I don't think it would be economical for A&C to produce both a vegan soup box in addition to the vegetarian soup box because while veganism is more popular it is still a minority diet preference. Offering a vegetarian soup box means they cater to most people. I also read in the reviews that a lot where unhappy about their being just 2 soup recipes, not 3. A&C responded on the website explaining it meant they could do fancier soups. I didn't have any of them last year, and in all honesty I'm glad they made that decision. I can make plain soup flavours on my own. I use Abel and Cole's recipe boxes occasionally (sadly weekly is a bit pricey for me) because I want to try new flavours, and it means I don't have to buy a lot of ingredients I then won't use, so I'm in favour of fancier soups. 

Example of a soup box taken from Abel and Cole's website.

On to the recipe! I can cook, I don't cook lots because it is immensely tiring on my body, but when I do I enjoy it. I know the basics, but I tend to follow recipes literally. This was a minor issue because it said stir a few times in several parts of the recipe, so I did that...but because I didn't keep stirring more frequently food stuck to the pan in the early stage of the soup. Thanks to the pan it was easy to remedy. I did keep putting in water to help it unstick - I took that into account and adjusted the amount of stock liquid that I made up. It didn't affect the cooking of the veg. 

It says it takes about 40 minutes which I believe includes preparation which is done between stages of cooking. I am not the best judge of this because due to a weak body I take longer than a healthy person to prepare food. It took me 40 minutes to prep everything: I did it in advance because I struggle doing more than 1 thing at a time and I hate feeling under pressure of keeping an eye on food while then prepping the next ingredient. Cooking time was definitely under 1 hour but I'm unsure of the actual time. It was a good 2 hours before I was finished. 

I'm super happy with the results. While I cook for myself, my family had a taste and like it so much they plan on making some. There was some amusement when I realised I'd eaten it without the yogurt dip (horseradish mustard, chives, Greek yogurt) so I quickly had a few more spoonfuls with the yogurt mix - it is divine! A brilliant combination. I'm trying to work out how to replicate it: I don't eat horseradish sauce that you buy in a jar because I no longer like sauces like that (at least in jar form. Home made might be ok). I'm fine with buying and using mustard, I need to investigate how else I can get horseradish. I have to stress how absolutely yummy the mix of the sauce and the beetroot soup is. It tastes of beetroot (obviously), I was a bit wary of having apple and celery in but they aren't instantly recognisable because they are mixed in the soup. 

I'm looking forward to making the second soup probably at the weekend, it's a roasted butternut squash which uses coconut milk (I think), coconut flakes for topping in a tiny pot, plus a tiny jar of harissa which I've never used before. I genuinely love the range of food Abel and Cole provides through their organic box schemes, I've tried their smoothie boxes which are a firm favourite: they helped me eat mango more. I only like it in small doses, but trying their smoothies means I eat it more often than I used to (which was virtually never). If there are problems with an order they fix it quickly with a replacement item in the next order. 

Best organic yogurt EVER!!!!! (& I love my yogurts)

 This happened to me for a watermelon this summer which I did mention on this blog, and more recently a yogurt that should have been in date was definitely out of date before being opened. This led to me trying the River Cottage Yogurt which is unbelievably tasty! Give them a go if you haven't already, they deliver to most places in the UK (I think. Definitely in England at least). Their website is here. 

I'm trying to schedule another post in a few days because I then won't be able to blog until the weekend because I'm seeing friends tomorrow and Friday so need Thursday and Saturday for resting up. 

Before I forget, in relation to the first picture of this post I'm planning on making pumpkin pie soon! More on that in a future post. 

Previous Nayu's Product Review posts includes Yeo Valley Baobab Yogurt. Search for the rest using the Nayu's Product Review keyword in the right hand menu!

Nayu's Product Review #8 Yeo Valley's Limited Edition Baobab Yogurt

This is an amusing looking tree - looks a bit like broccoli

Before you think this is a repeat post from the other day (although it kind of is + it's the post before this one which I can't yet link back to because it's not yet published (this is me writing in the past (well present) but being published in the future...confused yet?), I wanted to do this as a separate post because including it in the last post would have made it rather long. Using the title I'm sure you can probably guess what type of tree this picture is of. You've guessed, it's a baobab tree! I've heard of baobab quite a bit over the past few years but have never tried it, so when Yeo Valley produced a limited edition flavour incorporating baobab I simply had to try it. 

Oh my word, it is AMAZING! I seriously love this flavour, it's like nothing I've ever tasted (apart from the vanilla part), and yes when I had it I immediately bought several more tubs. I don't know if I'll like it in other foods, but I most definitely like it in yogurt. 

 Baobab trees are super tall, live mostly in Madagascar and also in Africa, Australia, and Arabia. They can retain a lot of water in their trunk to help them survive droughts. The fruit reminds me a bit of both a coconut and a cacao bean. It has a range of nutrients and is often used as a powder (I'm guessing to put in smoothies and other food).  

Coconut

cacao pod with cacao beans

You can find more info online, but that's the basics of baobab. I'd love to know if you've ever tried, or if you will try it now! 

You never know what you'll discover!

Nayu's Product Review #7 Yeo Valley Special Edition Yogurts

A favourite way of many to enjoy their yogurt

Regular readers know that I love all things dairy, especially yogurt, as seen in a previous post. Last week I bought 2 of Yeo Valley, an organic food company's limited edition yogurts because they were on sale. I only really buy this yogurt on sale because it's not the cheapest, but it is one of the most delicious of yogurts. Their normal range includes regular flavours like blackcurrant, strawberry, raspberry etc. I absolutely adore their banana and custard limited edition yogurt, which I buy whenever they sell it (not all the time, but more than once a year). 

The funny thing is I'm not overly fond of bananas...

Their limited edition yogurts seem to be more specialised flavours with not so regular ingredients. I saw Passion Fruit Curd, and picked up 2 because I felt I'd like it. 

Loving the pink packaging!

I did, even though I have no idea why they used curd in the title. I really liked it, and would happily buy it again. My family didn't think it was anything special. Then I tried the next one. 

I absolutely adore citrus fruit, I try to eat at least 1 piece a day. Sadly I'm not really supposed to have grapefruit much because of the medication that I'm on, so I stick with having it occasionally. I thought I'd love the St Clements because it has oranges and lemons in. I'm glad I only bought one tub because it tasted like marmelade. 

I can only have marmalade in small doses, I just don't like the flavour unless it's Roses' lime marmalade which I haven't had for years and absolutely adore. So I ate this yogurt less enthusiastically, only not throwing it away because I didn't hate it. 

Have you tried any of Yeo Valley's limited edition yogurts? I'd love to hear what you think of them! 

Frozen yogurt is as yummy as the non-frozen variety! Couldn't quite find a 'keep calm and yogurt on' slogan in my quick search for today's saying.

Nayu's Product Review #6 Cadbury's Oreo Hot Chocolate.

These in hot chocolate form? Count me in to try it!

I love hot chocolate in many flavours - even when it's a hot day I may drink it, or just have it cold (I use a tiny bit of boiled water from the kettle to mix up the powder, then add cold milk to make it a refreshing milkshake (the kind without ice cream). I've tried several of what I call big brand hot chocolate flavours with a range of success, so was a little dubious about this one. In general I actually am not keen on Cadbury's hot chocolate, I prefer Options brand, Whittards (special treat!), or simply make up my own with either actual chocolate or plain cocoa (so many ways to customise it this way). A lot of coffee shops use Cadbury's original hot chocolate so I tend to avoid having it outside of my house. (This is a personal opinion, I know many people like it. This isn't a sponsored post!)

Tada! Weirdly this was the only picture I could find without taking one myself - I don't have 3 jars!

As a lover of oreos of course I had to try Cadbury's new drink. It does say oreo flavour on the packaging, so it probably doesn't have actual oreos in (hmm, I wonder if blitzing the actual cookies with milk would work? I may have to try that soon in the name of science!) On the first taste I immediately sensed that familiar Cadbury's hot chocolate taste, so I was a bit disappointed. However, a few sips later it really did taste quite a bit like an oreo, if you were to mix both the cookie part and the scrummy middle together in one flavour mix. I like it enough that I would buy it again if it's on offer, but for in the mean time I'll enjoy every last bit of the mixture, and then use other hot chocolate versions. I have another I tried but I'll save that for another post. 

I'd love to know what type of hot chocolate you like! (This isn't my photo, sadly).

Nayu's Product Review #5 Limited Edition Morrisons Orange Donuts

This is the cutest halloween themed image I could find - hate it, but love Hello Kitty and actually love bats so her cute belt appeals to me!

Donuts can be doughnuts but somehow donuts looks better to me! I really hate halloween - I find it too scary, and belief wise I believe in supernatural things but they are best left alone and may God protect us from them all. It's frustrating because the celebrations even reach games that I play - you'd think that Disney would make super cute halloween decorations in The Magic Castle games for the 3DS (Japanese version) but no, they are scary and the worse thing it started in September and possibly won't end until the christmas season starts! Sigh. 

Not my pics, but this is what it looks like - scary!

The only good thing about it is that the game Love Live School Idol Festival which has a tendency to dominate my Twitter feed has lots of bonus log-ins because of Halloween. 

I got some of the bonuses, not all, sadly. These were on both the JP & WW server.

Wait, I almost forgot the main reason why I'm writing this post - the food! The other great thing about halloween is that there are some time limited food. Most of the treats I don't like because they look scary, but while at work the other day one of my family saw people eating Morrisons halloween donuts. 

Had not idea this supermarket has been going over 100 years!

It was a bit of a case of me misinterpretating what was said because I thought they were in the shape of a pumpkin and tasted of orange but may have pumpkin in too (I really like pumpkin! I totally live on the wrong continent for pumpkin flavoured food at this time of year (*waves at America*)). 

I Googled the donuts, didn't get a lot of info easily so I turned to Twitter, where the lovely Kirsty contacted the manager (or deputy manager) of my local store, and answered all my questions. There's nothing pumpkin-y about these donuts as you can see! 

Anyway, I was going to go out today and get some, but my family got me some instead, saving me a trip. They are super yummy! 

For Twitter purposes I took a picture of the donuts (slightly squashed from cutting it in half) to show the orange centre which reminds me a little of the Little Chef Restaurant lollies from my childhood which still exist as I discovered this year. It isn't too sickly or sweet for me, it makes a nice change from other jams, and I'm looking forward to what gets brought out next year! I highly recommend them except today will probably be the last day they are available. So go get yours fast! 

Nayu's Product Review #4 Oreo Thins

When I was shopping in Sainsbury's on Thursday I noticed a new type of oreo on the end of an aisle (the fateful place where the shop tempts us with offers). Oreo thins sounded intriguing, so since they were 50p per box I got 2 of them.

This is true, they are thinner.. Moving on to my opinion...

Opening them up they are contained in 2 packages, which is a good idea for freshness. They smelt and looked like an oreo, albeit with less filling. That should have sent warning bells to me but it didn't.Upon tasting it I realised a huge part of the fun of oreos was the large filling, seen below in an ordinary sized oreo. 

Proper oreo!!!

The oreo thins still taste like oreos, but with less filling they aren't something I'd buy again. I'll happy eat them, but they aren't proper oreos to me, which are totally delicious. I suppose if you like the taste and want less calories then the thins are the way to go, but if you like the full oreo experience stick with the original size. 

These oreos were bought by me and not endorse by whoever makes them.