I've been sneezing since about 3pm yesterday, and I slept really badly. I kept waking up with my tongue feeling like sandpaper because I couldn't breathe through my nose. At least Zebby let me sleep in a bit. Anyway, all this is to say that today I'm just gonna review some products that I've had recently.
First up are Redwood's beef-style and turkey-style roasts, which I really like, but they're usually a bit more costly than I like to spend on what is essentially a big seitan sausage that I could make myself. But when they're on sale (like during one of Holland & Barrett's sales or marked down at Real Foods), I kinda can't help myself. They're not meant to be cooked in anything other than an oven, so I bought some months before I could actually cook them because they were on sale.
It turns out you can cook these in a slow cooker (there are ways of doing so that I found at the time, but I'm too lazy to google them now), which is what I did with these when I didn't have an oven. In the oven or the slow cooker, they come out moist and tender and taste remarkably similar to what they're mocking (though the texture isn't the same, but that's probably a good thing, especially for the beef). The only issue I have is that the turkey-style roast really stinks when it's cooking. I made one a couple nights ago and I thought I was smelling the cat's room (which is at the other end of the flat).
Both varieties work well as an actual roast, i.e. with potatoes, carrots and onions, or with mash and veg on the side, or with vegetable rice (which is how I ate the turkey-style the other night). However, my favourite way to eat either of them is to slice into strips and put in a wrap with boiled potatoes and carrots and a bit of gravy. So good!
Next up is Prewett's chocolate creams - gluten free chocolate biscuits with a chocolate cream filling.
From Amazon - which doesn't actually sell them.
I bought these at Real Foods today when shopping for nice things to take to people in the States who are letting me stay with them (and trying to figure out what happened to my tea, which they seem to have discontinued). The photo is a little misleading (they don't have nearly that much cream filling), but they were really good - a bit crumbly, but good flavour and nicely crisp without being hard. I also like that they don't have a gluten-free feel to them - they just have a regular old biscuit texture (and taste).
Finally, Tesco has a range of juices called Juice Bar. They look to be mostly vegan - they're juices, but I've found fish oil in juice before, so I'm not gonna issue a blanket all-clear on them. Mike used to get them often from the Tesco near his office, but he thinks they may have stopped carrying them (or that they moved to another part of the store and he can't be bothered looking for them). I had my first try of them tonight with the Virgin Sangria - grape, apple, and orange juices. I really liked it - it obviously didn't taste like real sangria, but the flavours worked surprisingly well together (I was wary of the combo initially). Mike had the Rootin' Fruitin', which was a combo of pineapple, mango and carrot. I wasn't impressed with this one, and he didn't love it either.
They usually have them on offer - 3 for £3 or 5 for £4 (I think) for 250ml bottles. They're not massively great value for drinking from home (I usually have oj and get it on offer for 2/£3 for 750ml of Copella, the best oj I've ever had), but they'd do in a pinch if you didn't want to buy an entire 750ml bottle of juice for drinking on the go.
Here's a bonus picture of my cat being super adorable:
FYI - That is not an invitation. He will cut you.
